Patterson Bluffs, The Money Shot

California, Western Sierra
Author: Brandon Thau. Climb Year: 2018. Publication Year: 2019.

In October, Brian Prince and I completed the Money Shot (9 pitches, 5.11 C1), a spectacularly steep route that climbs the left side of the prominent Sunset Buttress, the first route up the face. [This Nose-like buttress was climbed by Richard Leversee and Paul Martzen in 1985 (see AAJ 1986) and then freed and renamed the Sun Also Rises (10 pitches, 5.12c, see AAJ 1995) by Leversee, Scott Cosgrove, and Jim Zellers in 1994.]

Brian Prince and I made the second known free ascent of the Sun Also Rises in May 2018. After traversing (C1) to a steep chimney in an overhanging face, Money Shot crescendos with a full pitch of splitter hand crack with big exposure. Another C1 pitch traverses to the right and joins the Sun Also Rises at its seventh pitch anchor, and joins that route for the final three pitches. Scott Thelen and I had originally started this route in 2000 and climbed the first two pitches.

– Brandon Thau