In early August 2024, Jack Schlinkert and I set out from Mineral King to hike in to Spring Lake Wall, intending to climb one of the established routes. As we set up camp, our attention shifted to the leftmost and—as far as we knew—only unclimbed face of the three walls that together make up Spring Lake Wall. (The three walls or buttresses are all part of Peak 11,480’, and all with the same northern aspect.) We quickly abandoned our original plan.

The next morning, we started at the toe of the left buttress and found an enjoyable path on clean rock, complete with spacious belay ledges, that led us to a headwall roughly 330’ up. We continued up steeper cracks through the headwall until the angle eased, though the climbing remained engaging for two more long pitches (5.9 and 5.6).

The climbing had been amazingly clean, well-protected, and fun. We named our new route Spring Roll (1,000’, 6 pitches, III/IV 5.10).

            —Thomas Sicilian