North America, United States, California, Yosemite, Commissioner Buttress

Publication Year: 1970.

Commissioner Buttress. Ranger Rock, or Manure Pile Buttress as it is more commonly known, is frequented for its fine low-angle face climbs such as After Six and Nutcracker Sweet. In March, Joe Faint and I climbed a steep buttress about 500 feet to the right of Nutcracker Sweet, almost entirely in jam-cracks and chimneys. The first pitch follows an easy chimney to the bottom of a short but difficult overhang (F9). Above, a longer but easier section (F8) leads to the base of a series of flakes which are followed (F6) to the base of twin cracks in the back of a wide chimney. This exhilarating pitch is continuous F7 on clean rock broken only by the two cracks. From the top of the buttress, two pitches of easier climbing lead to the top of the rock. NCCS III, F9.

Galen Rowell