5 Fun at Crystal Crag

I recently moved to Mammoth Lakes and one Saturday afternoon, we climbed Crystal Crag (North Arete).

The approach is a couple miles hike. We started by Lake George, took the ridge line, landed at Crystal Lake and then hiked up a small hill covered in crystal chunks.

At the bottom of the first pitch — continuous section of climbing — snow covered the ground, a reminder of how much summer was yet to come.

We had three in our party and I was last to bring up the pack.

The first pitch was beautiful classic trad climbing. The pitch zigzags a bit and so you have to be careful about rope drag.

The second pitch started with a tree belay station — a place to anchor in the rope — and ended on a ledge with a fixed nut that we used as an anchor. Unfortunately, my friend leading the climb forgot to tell us it was fixed — not removable from the wall — so we spent a bit of time trying to get it out — luckily after 5 minutes we got the message from above and were able to attest that nut was fixed.

The third pitch was full of loose rock that I was trying to avoid so as not to dislodge the person above me. The fourth pitch, the last one for us, had a huge crystal slab that you danced over like a glossy ballroom floor.

When we got to the top, it wasn’t clear which way to get off. We found a path going down on the right off the ridge.

The climb is rated 5.6/5.7 a.k.a 5 fun. The round trip was around 6 hours with lots of time to chat and hang out.

We ended the day at Mammoth Brewery and drank/ate away our lost calories.