Yosemite Peak (Peak 9980), East Face. This little-climbed peak between the forks of Cascade Canyon has an impressive east face resembling some of the giant formations in Yosemite Valley. A route was climbed up the extreme left side (Weeks’ Chimney) in 1959 by Fred Beckey and Ken Weeks. On September 5 Charles Ostin and I arrived at the base of the wall at 11 a.m., prepared to attempt a direct route. We picked the left of two obvious starts, a vertical dihedral. The first pitch was easy, but the second turned out to be a 5.9 lead up jam cracks and small holds. After another short, easy pitch, we made a wonderful traverse to the right on very small holds. Two more difficult pitches, which included one 5.9 off-balance move, took us to the first artificial pitch, a straight-forward angle crack which turned into a strenuous overhanging three-inch crack. A short pitch up and to the left took us to a ledge big enough for a bivouac for Ostin. In oncoming darkness, I nailed up an easy crack and over a roof to a block where I spent a miserably cold night without food or water. The next morning, considerably weakened from the bivouac, we were anxious to get off the wall to food and water. I nailed a crack diagonally to the right and climbed the difficult face for about 200 feet to a pine tree on a large sloping ledge. Finding water, we felt instantly better. Ostin led up directly behind the pine to a prominent terrace which bisects the wall. We scrambled to the base of the upper wall and went up its only obvious break, a 30-foot chimney leading to some moderate face climbing. Ostin then led for 150 feet, weaving in and out of overhangs, including one 5.8 or 5.9 bulge. Another rope pitch plus much third- class climbing before a final rope summit pitch took us to the top. We used 15 pitons for aid in three pitches only. It is the most difficult climb that I have done in the Tetons and is an extreme problem in route finding.

Yvon Chouinard