Interesting climbing on Tuolomne-style crystals. Pull an awkward bulge, then move into a sustained crux from bolts 3-5 on small edges and knobs. Pull another bulge that's harder than it looks, then finish up the slab.

Kids With Guns

Black Magic

After School Special

Break It Out

Childhood's Beginning

Look Ma No Hands

Childhood's End

Rhinestone Desperado

Ice Pirates

The Good Life

Free And Easy

This beautiful dihedral is one of the few 5.8 splinter finger cracks at Donner Summit and follows a thin splinter finger crack on the arete and then traverses into the dihedral. Sustained and a bit tricky for the grade, but holds solid pro.

Another Summit obscurity. Stemming dihedral to a slightly less-vertical section. The right-facing corner acts as a water funnel in early-season, and can get dirty. However, when it cleans up, it's quite good.

Start up an unprotected but well-featured face, then layback left out the arching crack/seam.  Clip the last bolt on "Kids With Guns", over the small bulge, and finish at that route's anchors.

The gear is small and a bit fiddly - probably only recommended for the confident 5.10 leader.  Easy to toprope with a directional after climbing "Kids With Guns".

Break it Out is a somewhat discontinuous, mostly dihedral crack system that keeps throwing liebacks, some thin crack and even a bit of the offwidth at you to keep you honest. Honestly, it is a pretty awkward lead and a bit of a head sketch at times because the knobby rock here seems a bit brittle and placements therefore can seem slightly suspect.

Nonetheless, it is fairly good climbing that'll get you nice and warmed up.

Far right dark slab on the wall (Past Childhood's Beginning). Old bolts and anchor.  Thin slab climbing.

This is one of the best 5.10+ trad routes at Donner and is very similar to the routes on Devil's Tower in Wyoming except much shorter. The crux is continuous through the first dihedral on thin lyebacks and small finger locks. Scramble up 5th class to the base of the dihedral and belay on a flat ledge about 1/3 of the way up the cliff. This route looks impossible to protect from the base, but holds solid pro.

Decent route that climbs a little better than it looks.  The route stays fairly sustained for most of its length, aside from an easy ramp at about 2/3 height.  Finish up a steep headwall with a left-trending crack.  The crux is probably between the last bolt and the anchors.

High first bolt - you can stick clip, come in from the right (easier but more circuitous), or come in from the left (harder but direct and dirty).

This extremely unique route is one of the most interesting routes in Donner. Start off the route with a brutal mantel on a large roof which is followed by thin face climbing. From here attack an overhanging pocketed face with brutally thin moves on slopers and pockets to the top.

Good friction slab climbing with a few big holds thrown in.  If you don't bring any gear (.75 or 1" cam), expect a run-out to the anchors.

This holds one of the most cleanest and spectacular dihedrals in Donner Summit. Beautiful hand jams solid feet make this 5.10 looking dihedral 5.6. The downside is that the dihedral section is only about 15ft high and the rest of the route only gets one star.

If only the dihedral section was a hundred foot route, this would probally be one of the best climbs.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in North Star Wall