North Face of Rostrum IV 5.11c
Area: Yosemite, Lower Merced Canyon
Topo: Mateusz Ha³adaj
FA: Warren Harding, Glen Denny (V 5.9 A2), July 1962
FFA: Ron Kauk and Dale Bard (to base of roof)
FFA: Kim Carrigan et al., 1985 (entire line)
Free solo: Peter Croft, 1985
Alien 5.12b variation: Tony Yaniro, 1980
Excellent Adventure 5.13c variation: Peter Croft, 1987
Equipment: nuts and cams to 3 ½ inches
Description: "Rostrum is a textbook crack climb, clean fissures of all sizes test every jamming technique, and cheaters will find few face holds. An insecure layback on the second pitch is the crux of the lower half of the route, but the long, perfect hand crack of the third pitch is what makes a full ascent worth the trouble. The crux of the upper route – a 5.11c splitter finger crack – slaps you as soon as you leave the traverse ledge. Above, solid 5.10 hand and off-size cracks continue decisively toward the overhanging summit block, a three-pitch stretch of stone so relentlessly ledgeless and steep that Dan Osman saw no reason not to take a 250-foot screamer off the summit pitch for a [Masters of Stone] video. The Rostrum is one of the best and most respected Valley crack climbs, a perfect shakedown for the longer Astroman". (Climbing, No. 170)
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