In late May 2024, Neal Harder, Josef Maier, Brandon Thau, and I established the first free route on the south face of Homers Nose (a.k.a. Homers Brow). This was our second attempt. We started on the first two pitches of Dance of Topo-Usha (5.10 A3), the original route on the formation, climbed by Richard Leversee, Dave Ohst, and John Tuttle in 1980. We freed their second pitch, originally rated A3, at 5.12a, adding a couple of bolts with Richard’s blessing.

Dance of Topo-Usha then veers left into the huge gash that splits the south face. We were able to climb cracks straight up, which eventually led to incredible steep climbing on chicken heads. These pitches required some bolts, though a traditionnal rack is still needed. We named our route Home Run (650’, 6 pitches, 5.12a).

Although relatively short for the effort involved in reaching it (15 miles and 7,500’ of gain, mostly off-trail through dense brush), the continuously steep climbing and remoteness of the area make for a remarkable route. Having gotten to know Richard Leversee before he passed away in 2022, I believe he would have been overjoyed to hear we were able to put up such a great free route and that his original vision played a significant role.

On the same trip, we also established a route on the hiker’s summit of Homers Nose, across the drainage to the west from the main climbing formation. This route, Mr. Burns (5.11b), connects excellent splitter cracks up the most continuous buttress on the south face for 600’, followed by 500’ of low fifth class to the summit.

                  —Brian Prince