Yosemite- South by Southwest

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October 9, 2026

South by Southwest is a decent but less popular route situated on Lower Cathedral Spire's Southwest Face. Although 3 of its 4 pitches were dirty and forgettable, the money pitch was extremely fun and recommended for anyone climbing at the 5.10 grade in Yosemite. It was also a great way to summit one of Yosemite coolest formations. 

Routes climbed

Name	Grade (YDS)	# Pitches	Quality (1-5)	Type
South by Southwest	5.10d	4	pitch 3: 5, all other pitches: 2	trad

Peaks/Towers climbed

Peak	Elevation	Topographic Prominence	Summit Coordinates (lat/lon)
Lower Cathedral Spire	5,911 ft	447 ft	37.71443, -119.63129

Gear

- 70m rope
- cams: doubles 0.3-3, triple 1

- 10 alpine draws

Total Stats

1.7 miles

1,740 ft gain/loss

Approach

Andrew, Coco, Mason, and I started casually around 9am, planning to climb the route in 2 teams of 2. This would make the descent a breeze by tying our ropes together for the raps. We started from a paved pullout on the south side of Southside Dr right before it intersected with El Capitan Dr further east. We found a good side trail which headed south, crossing the Valley Loop Trail then continuing south uphill. After passing by a few bouldering spots, the trail instantly deteriorated as we ascended further south. It was followable, but barely, and we would've lost it several times if it wasn't for the numerous carins. 

After a few hundred feet of elevation gain, we intersected a gully which turned southwest, eventually bringing us to the south side of Lower Cathedral Spire. Some rock hopping ensued. Eventually we reached the notch directly between Upper and Lower Cathedral Spires, which was reached with about 30 ft of class 3 scrambling at the end. I realized that this was not the correct start, and reversed the class 3 moves, descended back south for another 100 ft, and located the correct start: a low angle right-facing wide crack. 

view of El Capitan

typical rock hopping gully

Pitch 1 (5.6, 120 ft)

I started up the low angle wide crack, not placing any gear. It was very easy. At the end of the crack, I continued along a flat ledge to a tree, climbing over it before turning left around a corner onto another large ledge. I headed straight up from there on an easy short corner crack to to a ledge with a large slung boulder. I continued up to second slightly smaller ledge where I built an anchor in a horizontal. 

view after turning the corner

looking up at Higher Cathedral Spire

Pitch 2 (5.4, 200 ft)

Looking up, I could see a large scrub oak tree about 150 ft up. There were many ways to get there. I stepped left into a gully, clipped a piton, and followed the gully up to the scrub oak, staying left when necessary. I passed the oak (with numerous slings around it) on its right and continued up another zigzag ledge to a large ledge to the left just before the terrain abruptly steepened. I built an anchor here with hand sized pieces. 

Pitch 3 (5.10d, 130 ft)

This was the money pitch and every bit of it. A cool stemming corner started off the bat, then a transition left onto a ledge to the crux, some bouldery moves utilizing a variety of crack and face holds. This brought me to a small ledge and a quick shake-out before I continued up a wide hands crack to a series of cool right-facing laybacks. These deposited me onto yet another short sloping ledge. A final section of easier laybacks and hand cracks brought me to a bolted anchor below a tree. 

Andrew on pitch 3

Pitch 4 (5.8, 120 ft)

Easy but fun decompression pitch. I climbed an easy hand crack above the anchor, past the tree, and up scrambly terrain to a notch with highline bolts. It was easy to belay off these or build an anchor further up and left. 

I belayed Mason up and we scrambled 30 ft of easy rock to the summit. 

summit views

Descent

After everyone had summited, we began the raps. With two 70m ropes, it was possible to rap the entire formation in 3 raps. With a single 70 it was still possible to rap using intermediate stations with suspect webbing. 

Rap 1 started at a bolted anchor just below the summit, facing south, ending at the pitch 3 bolted anchors. A single 70m rope was enough for this. Rap 2 could be done by tying together two 70s and rapping to the large scrub oak on pitch 2. Rap 3 was a full 70m from slings on the tree to the ground. It was suprisingly easy to pull the full length of two tied ropes from the ground afterwards. 

From the base of pitch 1, we reversed our hiking approach back down. 

looking towards Sentinel Rock at sunset