Hoffman mountain has been on my tick list for a while. I had originally planned to head out there and climb in in the late summer or the Fall, but the Rough Fire put a smoky damper on those plans. This past weekend I was supposed to be in my office writing a grant proposal, but...... I really wanted to go climbing!
I called up Garrett, who is usually excited to climb anything, and we headed out to Wishon reservoir. We arrived at the trailhead and things were a bit snowy.
We headed out on the 3-4 mile approach, with about a 1-1.5 feet of snow on the trail in some places.
The main face of Hoffman mountain faces south, and it was a sunny but cold day, the face itself looked nice and dry!
We decided to climb Golden Tower direct, which goes straight up an obvious crack/flake in the centre of the tower
The climbing was fun, and very easy!
On pitch 3 things go slabby, there are a couple of bolts, and fun easy mantel though a rough. Very nice!
The technical climbing ends at pitch 3. We then headed up a few hundred feet of easy 3rd class slabs to the summit.
We walked off, and got to the base just as the sun was setting. A cold slog out, and back to Fresno. I'll have to go back in the Spring, and sample some of the other routes on the face. Excellent quality granite, without another soul around for miles..