Begin up blocky rock to gain a clean, right-angling fingers/lieback ramp (.10a).  Follow this ramp until a sequence of face moves up and left of the crack comes into view, near the top of the ramp.  Move up through these crux face moves past a bolt (if it's there; rumor of it being chopped as of late '06/early '07?) and around a series of minor roofs.  Either belay at pin with additional gear, or continue up easier terrain to the upper pitches of The Surprise (gear anchor).

Combining this pitch with the last two pitches of the Surprise makes for an excellent 3-pitch, 5.10 affair, and is sooo recommended.

Werner's Ant Trees

The Surprise provides 2 excellent pitches of climbing. Here it is broken into 5 pitches but can be done in 3 pitches.

P1: Climb a 5.6 corner up to tree anchor.

P2: Traverse 5.5 right and down to a flake/stem below the splitter. Can link P1 and P2 but committing for the follower.

P3: Climb 5.8 face/stem and hand crack to a single bolt. Can link P2 and P3 since this is a better spot to belay and less committing for the follower on the traverse.

P4: Excellent 5.10a tight hands/fingers splitter to a bouldery face move to a ledge and tree anchor. Can link P3 and P4.

P5: Left of the tree, climb 5.7 stem to 4th class.

You can also link pitches 4 and 5. After the crux, move up and left to a fun corner after some easy climbing. Keeps from away from the tree and having to crouch and belay in the branches.

The Surprise

Hanging Teeth... the right most of the 5 open books. This route includes fun moderate liebacking, some chimney climbing, and a variety of crack sizes. The route is a bit dirty and can be wet, but overall a very fun climb!

The first pitch follows the big and mostly clean corner. Cruise on up the 5.7 lieback to the rooflet. There is a crack right at the lip of the roof, you can reach around and place gear before you commit to the move. A few more feet of climbing leads to the belay tree.

The second pitch follows a well protected low angle chimney, then wide crack, and finally fingers to another belay tree. The final pitch involves some more excellent corner liebacking (through potential seepage and slime). Finally climb through some rotten and loose rock and pull onto a small ledge where the route merges with the caverns. Through the trees to the right, or top out to the left.

Top out into the typical 5 Open Books scree funnel and try not to send anything onto anyone below. Enjoy!

Hanging Teeth

This very popular route lies in the farthest left book.

The Reid guide shows it as three pitches, but it's great to do it in two with a 60 meter rope. There are three trees on the route. Climb to the third tree, make a hard left, 10' to the corner. There's a nice little ledge there where you can sit and belay. Another long pitch goes to the top.

Munginella

P1: Take your choice of two cracks off the ground, both of which lead to a tricky traverse right under a roof (a #3 or #4 Camalot comes in handy here).  Continue up to belay at a tree.  See ??.

P2: Continue up right-facing corner to another belay tree.

P3: Climb crack and face above tree and traverse right along the path of least resistance to the base of the "Caverns".  Belay at a tree.

P4: Several options.  Either delve into the depths and chimney up with no pro, climb the face just right of the chimney (also no pro), or climb a somewhat grungy right-facing crack above the belay tree (best option).  All options are 5.7.  Continue on easier ground to belay at a pine tree.

P5: Scramble right on dirty ground, skirting through the trees.  Finish with a short 5.6 crack.

Descend by hiking to climber's left on reasonably well-defined trail.

The Caverns

Runout face climb on the left end of the 5 Open Books. Scramble to the rope-up spot for Munginella, then traverse a narrow ledge to the left for about 80 ft to the base of a short corner. Climb up this 30 ft corner (Start Me Up, 5.4) to reach a big grassy ledge. Walk along this ledge to access a variety of routes including

Jughead

. On the right end of the ledge is a prominent arching flake/roof. This is Left Wing (10b). Antique climbs the face under the far left end of this roof and then joins Left Wing for the second half of the climb.

Start by underclinging a small flake and then step up at the left end of it (hard 5.7). Climb unprotected up the face to a super old 1/4" bolt at around 40ft (maybe 5.5 - 5.6, R/X climbing). From the left of the bolt go up a few feet and then work up and right to reach hummocks. Place gear on the underside of a flake and then move right some more and climb up and over. Easy terrain with lots of hummocks will lead to the top. Belay off manzanita trees while sitting in the middle of the descent trail.

Antique

A good little line that can be climbed while walking off any of the Five Open Book routes.  The base of the climb is on a large grassy ledge about 50 ft. down from the granite scramble with the rap rings on it.

The crux is a ten foot section just past the first bolt.  After that the route cuts right and pleasantly climbs up easy face holds, passing over a grassy terrace before gaining the anchor.  Bolts are about every 20 ft. or so.

Sunny in the Winter and scorching in the Summer.

Fire Fly

Heads up crux off the ground leadsa into exciting climbing throughout the first pitch.  Belay at the tree below the gapping low angle chimney.

Try Again Ledge

This is a good line with some high quality sections and also some crumbly sections.  The climb begins up a great looking face with beautifully colored, high quality knobs for approx. 20ft.  As the knobs end, the quality of the rock deteriorates and unprotected slab climbing begins.  About 40 ft. above the ground, a shallow crux water groove with crusty friction must be mantled (.8) over ground fall potential.  This section of the climb is short and continued unprotected slab climbing continues until the top third of the climb is reached.  Follow a solid crack up and left with good pro over easy to moderately easy fifth class rock.  When the crack ends, make a fun move up and to the right (.6) to gain the low angle slab and grassy terraces to the top of the pitch.  Cross the trail that serves as the walk off for the Five Open Books and belay from a small tree.

There is a large range of risk involved in the R rated climbs in Yosemite.  Some are soft R's (low risk) and some are hard R's (high risk).  This climb is a hard R.  It is just a tad shy of being X rated.

Jughead

This is the nicely featured arete just to the right of Commitment. Well protected, and all of the bolts are good. The route offers fun climbing on good edges and is exposed right from the start. It shares the same bolted anchor as P1 of Commitment. Rappel with one 70m rope.

Work Around the Skirt

This climb is in the next book right of "Munginella".

P1: Start by climbing a great splitter handcrack (thin at the bottom, may be cruxy) up for a ways to an obvious short face traverse right on nice positive flakes which gets you to a bolted anchor. This is a very nice pitch.

P2: A short section of delicate face climbing (easy, but not well protected) leads up to a corner at the right edge of a roof. Get some gear in the roof and continue up the moderate but sustained layback corner up to the bigger roof above. Gear belay anywhere you want, ideally right underneath the massive roof.

P3: Climb up to the roof and traverse out right to get established in the corner above it (crux). Continue up the nice corner, which presents another 5.9 crux layback/undercling right as you top out. It is possible to avoid this part by topping out to the left as the corner gets blocky, but this second crux is great fun, protects well, and is no harder than the previous 5.9 roof pull. Get after it and do the proud finish!

The top is full of loose rocks and debris; take special care not to knock any of it down on anyone below. Continue up to climbs on the upper tier, or descend as for Munginella.

Commitment

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Description

Location

Protection

Routes in First Tier