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September 12, 2026
Located on the east face of The Sorcerer, the Don Juan Wall is my favorite non-alpine multipitch trad climb of all time. Featuring extremely high quality granite and movement on a variety of thin cracks and corners, this route climbs up the right side of a prominent flake for a short pitch before following a corner system for four additional pitches to the summit of The Sorcerer. Each pitch is completely unique in style.
Peaks/Towers climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sorcerer | 7,880 ft | 100 ft | 36.10792, -118.48105 |
| Djin Needle | 8,169 ft | 225 ft | 36.10889, -118.48189 |
| The Magician | 8,248 ft | 413 ft | 36.10952, -118.48473 |
Gear
- 70m rope (70m required for rappels)
- cams: triples 0.1-0.4, doubles 0.5, singles 0.75, 1
- cams: triples 0.1-0.4, doubles 0.5, singles 0.75, 1
- small-medium nuts
- 10 alpine draws
- 10 alpine draws
Total Stats
6 miles
2,000 ft gain/loss
Approach
This was the standard Needles approach. A 2-mile trail hike from Needle Spring brought us to a small notch below the old fire lookout. From there we descended north for a few hundred feet and then traversed along the north side of the needles on climber trails and easy cross country, making our way over to the Witch-Charlatan notch. From the notch, we descended south down a gully to reach a platform on the east face of The Charlatan.
Pitch 1 (5.9+, 60 ft)
Rob led up the right side of a large flake with good gear. This was the same start as for Thin Ice. Upon reaching a large ledge at the top of the flake, he walked left to a bolted anchor.
Pitch 2 (5.11, 70 ft)
I racked up and started up the corner system above, which started out thin and gradually opened up to some thin hands for a few moves before closing up again. There were a few sneaky crimps and ledges which could be used here and there. As the corner became flared above a small roof, I reached left and grabbed the top of a greasy rounded arete, then heaved my body left onto a small ledge on top of this arete and a left-facing flake system which I laybacked up for about 10 ft before stepping back right to a bolted anchor. This pitch was decently pumpy.
looking down pitch 2 from the anchors
David ascending pitch 2 (photos taken in September 24, 2022)
Pitch 3 (5.11, 70 ft)
This contained the technique/funk crux. From the belay, I started up a few easy crack moves which pretty quickly became more difficult as the crack closed up. Some funky chimney-style moves were required higher up, with some creativity required to get to and around a mini roof about 50 ft up. I won't spoil the beta here, but it was very memorable and bonkers to figure out. Above the mini roof, easier moves brought me to yet another bolted anchor.
Pitch 4 (5.10d, 110 ft)
Some moderate climbing above the initial corner brought me to some slabby moves where the corner crack continued. My right foot was constantly smearing in the flared corner while my left foot was smeared on slabs. The gear was fiddly but good. This pitch ended with a step left to a bolted anchor on a slab.
Pitch 5 (5.11, 100 ft)
From the bolted anchor, I traversed back right into the main corner, then reached the obvious right-facing overhung corner. I triple-placed cams here, then busted up and right on the overall crux move of the route. This was a short and very powerful sequence which felt very committing. Once past the crux corner, I continued up the crack for 10 ft before traversing right around a second easier corner. Once around that, I followed about 30 ft of left-facing finger crack (10a-ish) to a giant ledge next to a large pine tree. I took my leftover finger cams and built a gear belay here. It would've also been possible to loop the tree for an anchor with a long sling or the rope itself.
Descent
After scrambling up about 20 ft and tagging the summit of The Sorcerer, we came back down to a bolted anchor with beefy chains and made a 30m rap to a tree with slings. We made a second 35m rap from there into a gully between Charlatan and Sorcerer, and tried to look for a third rap anchor but couldn't find it. Since the gully looked easy, we unroped and downclimbed to the base. Later we saw that we had missed the third anchor which was 40 ft skier's right of where we had rapped directly into the gully.
summit of The Sorcerer
There were still quite a few hours of daylight left. We retraced our steps to Witch-Charlatan Notch and then hiked up to a large summit platform on top of The Charlatan where we met up with our other two friends. I scrambled up to the nearby summit of Djin Needle to the west and took some photos while Rob climbed up the Charlatan summit block (aka. Our Lady of the Needles). My ascent of Djin's northwest side involved some low 5th class flakes to Djin's airy west arete. I did not see an easier way up.
Rob on Charlatan, viewed from Djin
We made an obligatory stop to summit The Magician on the way back, walking up the old and creaky steps of an old fire lookout tower.
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