In early June, Jeremy Ross, Sean Sullivan, and I climbed the highly recommended Michael Strassman Memorial Route (700’, III 5.10d) on the south face of Lone Pine Peak. We were planning to check out the south face of nearby Peak 3,986m on the following day, and our evening talk was all about beautiful dikes (as that’s what the MSMR ascends).

While looking at my photos of the following day’s objective, I spotted a prominent and continuous dike that seemed to go from the bottom all the way to the top. Even though we were not prepared for the extensive bolting required to climb routes like MSMR, we got up early, did some bushwhacking and scary scrambling over snow-covered third- and fourth-class terrain without crampons, and arrived at the base.

We located the start of the Zig Zag Dihedral, and began to the left on a half-roof, half-dike feature, which looked very wild and a logical place to start. After piecing together the first pitch (5.10), we climbed a shorter but more difficult pitch of 5.10d/5.11a in order to reach what turned out to be the crux—thin and sustained 5.11 face climbing past three bolts to start the third pitch. This took us to a less sustained pitch with a 5.10 crux; the dike here featured large jugs and spots where you could layback. A wild overhang pitch was followed by another pitch with a 5.11a overhang, and then a pitch of 5.10a took us to the top of the tower where the Zig Zag Dihedral joins. It was late in the day and we did not continue to the summit, as it is reported to be a long walk. Instead, we used our two ropes and established a rap line more or less down the route we ascended. Raiders of the Lost Dike (1,800’ of climbing, IV 5.11a) is a highly recommended climb!

I don’t know many people as excited about dike climbing as my friend Chris Koppl, so a few weeks later, at the end of June, we hiked back out to Lone Pine Peak to check out a potential new route I noticed a few years ago, while making the first free ascent of Streets of the Mountains (IV 5.11a). These beautiful dikes and cracks looked harder than Streets and begged to be tried. 

After hiking in and setting up camp on a beautiful perch below the wall, that afternoon we managed to climb two long and sustained pitches, the first of which was a desperate 5.11b, and the second of which began with a 5.11a boulder problem off the belay. We fixed our two ropes and enjoyed a calm night.

The next day we kept on stacking fun, difficult leads. In all, we climbed eight long new pitches till we linked into the upper corner of Streets of the Mountains. Three more pitches led to a huge balcony with a bivy site. From there, another 300–400’ of loose fourth class guarded the slog to the scenic summit. The Surfboard (1,500’, IV 5.11c) is a great addition to the south face.

­– Vitaliy Musiyenko