North America, United States, California—Sierra Nevada, Coyote Cliffs

Publication Year: 1975.

Coyote Cliffs. These cliffs are in Coyote Creek canyon about three miles above its junction with Bishop Creek, near Route #168. The cliffs have long been avoided by climbers because a group of locals, minds psychochemically dimmed, reported that they walked to the tops of the cliffs and found them hopelessly rotten for climbing. In September 1974 I walked to the base of the cliffs, intending to merely check them out. Four separate buttresses rise an average of 800 feet each, constructed of desert granite of questionable quality. I began scrambling to make further checks of the rock’s quality, which varied considerably. Two hours later I arrived at the top of the left-hand buttress, probably the easiest. About half the climbing was easy but exposed scrambling. The other half included excellent crack climbing on the firm rock with two F7 sections. NCCS II, F7.

Galen A. Rowell