After staring at the obscure shady buttress on the left side of the Glacier Point Apron for three years while new-routing on Liberty Cap, Steve Bosque and I decided to hike up in Summer 2013 and check out the options for a new route.

We chose a direct line up the 1,200’ face, piecing together what would become a very moderate and fun route, almost devoid of the brutal Valley sun.We fixed ropes to the fifth pitch, where there was a very large sloping ledge to accommodate our gear. We could see signs of previous attempts by the left side of this ledge; they seemed to terminate where some tattered ropes were anchored.

We committed to a summit push during the onset of the massive Rim Fire. This proved to be a bad decision. Horrible, smoky conditions made it so we could barely see each other. For three days we awoke to our bivy covered in a thick blanket of ash. Finally, we decided to fix all of our ropes down to the ledge and come back to finish the route a few weeks later in October. During that time the government shutdown occurred, further delaying our summit bid. We aptly named our high-point anchor the Government Shutdown Bivy.

Upon returning, we finished the remaining pitches and summited this independent buttress (which we’ve nicknamed Jericho Wall), in awe of what a cool route we had stumbled upon. The climbing is mostly clean, and 95 percent of the limited nailing is beaks, which are always fun. Rappelling the route is smooth and quick, as we equipped belays with stainless-steel hardware all the way down. We called the climb Jericho (V 5.8 A2+).

Kevin Deweese and Ryan Riggings completed the second ascent of Jericho two months later, and in January2014, Kevin established a harder, three-pitch direct start to the route, which he called Horns of Jericho (A2/3). This route deserves future visits due to its moderate climbing in a part of Yosemite Valley that is very overlooked.

– Josh Mucci