The Classic Climb

The South Face of Moro Rock follows the, well, south face of Moro Rock. It starts on the buttress in the lower right of the picture and kind of follows the sun/shade line all the way up. It's a good ol' fashioned long, fun, clean route with great views! It goes at 5.7 in theory, but there are interesting runouts and it has a history of mini-epics, so beware.

The Classic Climbers

Dan Dillinges
If you've heard of the new crag getting developed in Sequoia National Park called Danland, meet Dan. He didn't choose the name, but it stuck. He's former YOSAR, a retired ranger, and spends more time on the rock than anyone I know. Really nice guy, loves to get out and climb, and has done a lot of work for the climbing community up at Danland.

Larry Zulim
Larry is one of the most stoked climbers ever. It doesn't matter if you've just top-roped your first 5.6 or are topping out on a grade VI first ascent, he will be cheering you on and the first one to congratulate your accomplishment. Not to mention he was climbing before I was born and is still climbing super hard. I don't mean hard for a guy in his sixties, I mean I watched him work on the FFA of a 5.12a finger crack at Danland just a few days ago. He made it, but took a fall, and by his high standards it doesn't count. I'm glad I don't have those standards or it would mean I've hardly climbed anything!

Rene' Ardesch
Rene' is like the historian, bookkeeper and info source for all things Sequoia Kings Canyon. If you're interested in the climbing history around here, or just want some good pictures and stories, he periodically updates a blog at: http://southernsierraclimber.blogspot.com/ Rene' is mellow, really nice, and you can tell he loves to be in the mountains no matter what he's doing.


Daniel Jeffcoach (me)
I was born so beautiful that I never learned social skills.

The Day In Photographs

The approach is a descent around the East face of Moro and along the bottom. Once you see this yellow wall, you're close and it's time to climb some manzanita.

Great morning, great views, great way to start the day!

Dan leads up the cracks on p1. The crux according to some. There's an awkward transfer from one crack to the next.

The rock is warm, the skies are blue, and the jams are solid on pitch one, this is what climbing is all about!

Bad picture, but there are the cursed castle rocks. Soon...

The top of pitch two is easy, but a fall would be a little uncomfortable for the follower

Rene' cruising pitch two. 5.6 is probably a lot harder with a pack full of extra gear from four people! I love that pitch, a cool 5.6 open book with a little finger crack in the corner.

Here comes the fog on jungle ledge!

Dan spotting Larry for the unroped boulder problem, but it's worth it to avoid some bushes and yucca.

Larry gets ready for the crux. "where do I go?" "up into the fog, then make a left." Climbing giant chicken heads (more like dog heads) to an airy crack traverse above a roof make this pitch a classic.

[Click to View YouTube Video]
Here's a short clip Rene' shot to show the conditions. That's the rough thing about California, about once a year you might actually have to climb when it's not sunny!

Beautiful views at the top of pitch five on Torre Central del Paine, I mean Moro Rock. Pitch five follows two crack systems in a sort of gully and is just plain fun.

It got a little wet and a little chilly at the only bolted belay.

Wait a second! All these guys have been climbing longer than I've been alive and I end up leading the wet 60ft slab runout!?

Visibility is low and stoke is high on pitch 6! After the runout slab and a tiny piece of bad pro there's an exposed step across into this odd corner feature.

Rene' about to take us the last 70m to the top

The group ready to third class our way out of here

Is it still third class if it's exposed and kinda freaky?

Unique views of giant sequoias and the great western divide are the reward for putting up with some nasty weather.

Great day with great guys! I think I ruined this picture though



The descent is about 5 minutes of stairs, which makes topping out on Moro one of my favorite summits! I had an awesome day climbing, and I got the chance to learn a lot from guys that started climbing before I could wipe myself. 7 hours for 7 pitches was pretty decent for a party of 4 in the fog.

I don't think these pics do the South Face of Moro justice, it's a really good, committing route for its grade. Go check it out if you get a chance, you won't regret it. Well, unless you're like the group last week that got stuck overnight, left all their gear bailing, and had to walk back up the approach gully. As long as you don't do that, you won't regret it!