Spring Lake Wall is a beautiful formation located about a four-hour hike out of Mineral King. The best approach is over the old Glacier Pass trail. All of the previously reported activity (see AAJ 1976, 2016, 2020) has focused on the main wall, however the two lesser buttresses to the left/east offer an impressive amount of climbing potential. In June 2020, Clayton Helzer and I climbed the first known routes on the central buttress. 

Spring Fling (7 pitches, 5.10) takes a line of least resistance starting just left of the prominent overhangs at the base of the wall and aiming just right of the huge, obvious “great roof” feature.  

Angels and Demons (10 pitches, 5.10+ C1 or 5.11), named after the whiskey Clayton brought along, takes a steep line through the right side of the base overhangs via a wild, splitter hand-to-fist crack, that you can wrestle with a la Indian Creek’s King Cat, or make a single French free move on a large cam over the lip of the roof. The climbing is varied with a mix of face, cracks and corners, and each pitch has a comfortable two-bolt belay.

Both routes can be descended by hiking up and around the south side of the Main Wall and joining the faint Glacier Pass trail, or by rappelling Angels and Demons with a single 70m rope.

— Dave Nettle

Basil Hayden’s on the Central Buttress: In August, on a tip from Hezler and Nettle, Townsend Brown and Reuben Shelton and added a third route to the central buttress. They set off to the right of Angels and Demons, finding mostly high quality crack and corner climbing with a mid-route crux section through some small roofs, climbing an incredible face crack and joining Angels and Demons at the top. Basil Hayden's (6 pitches, 5.10+) features no fixed gear, and is named with the whiskey theme “to highlight the smooth and sweet notes of a fine day in the backcountry.”