This enjoyable route starts 15 feet to the right of the NW corner of the rock.

P1: Start in a finger crack (gear) and follow 4-5 bolts through a bulge (5.10). Angle right to a 3" crack, which leads to a two bolt anchor.

P2: Head up the finger crack to the right. Jams and face moves (5.10) lead to a small ledge with a bolt.  Continue up steep 5.8 climbing to a ledge on the left with a 2 bolt anchor.

P3: Head up moderate cracks to the summit.

Blood in the Water

Sharkstone

Religious Zealot

Hammerhead

Unknown/P6 of Golden Staircase

Walking with the Pope

Loan Shark

The Megalodon

Big Tears

Sleeping with the Fish

Shark Sandwich

Yellow Butterfly

North Face

The Megalodon climbs the stunning NW arete of the Sharksfin.

Begin on the

North Face

route, following broken cracks for about 80 feet to the top of a pedestal where you will find an old, shallow-driven Northcutt/Kor piton. Clip the pin with a double-length runner (excellent microcam placements nearby), and begin a spectacular hand-traverse out right to the first bolt on the arete.

Fire up the arete/left face, clipping 5 bolts along the way. After the crux moves near the 5th bolt, moderate but runout climbing takes you past two more bolts

en route

to a new two-bolt anchor near the summit of the Sharksfin.

A tag-line or Beal Escaper is recommended to descend the long pitch in one rappel. It is also possible to climb 20 feet to the true summit, and follow the rappels to the West using a single 60m rope.

This is a decent 2-pitch line on the E face of Sharksfin past a large chockstone in a crack system.  From near the NE corner of Sharksfin, find an obvious, polished, L-angling ramp.

P1. Use one of at least 2 starts to gain this ramp.  Near the top of the ramp, move out right onto the face past an airy move, 5.7, to gain a cramped belay below the crack system.

P2. Jam a steep bit through the crux.  Find a good stance.  Decipher your next moves around a bit of suspect rock to get another stance below the large chockstone.  Pick your exit (I believe I took the easiest one-under the chockstone) and gain the ridge.  Cams protect this pitch.

From the top, you can peer down interesting lines up the W face.

To descend, we used a short traverse of the top ridge to the S end of Sharksfin and rapped the SW corner to a ledge which leads to downscrambling under a large boulder and walking terrain.

Hand/fist crack with lots of other features around it.  A huge ledge halfway (just after pulling the crux?) for a rest.  Come out and left on to the face to finish, toward the rap station.

Some detached blocks on this thing; some that seem chocked pretty well, others that are very loose...be careful.

This route starts up the dihedral formed by the SW corner of Sharksfin abutting the N face of Pinpoint.  You can approach this by worming your way up a chimney-like system under a large boulder to a large ledge just off the SW corner of Sharksfin/NW corner of Pinpoint.  Alternatively, we found this route by rappelling past it as we descended from the anchors off the SW corner of Sharksfin to a ledge a short half-rope down.

From this ledge, stem up the obvious dihedral on the right.  From a notch move left onto the pretty face past a couple bolts.  Find a interesting bulge crux above.  Finish on big holds to the right.  Rap off the 2 bolt anchor.

Locate the base of the route between

Hammerhead

and

Shark Sandwich

.

Make thin, technical moves to gain the first bolt. Continue to make technical and thin moves to gain the second bolt. Bolts 3 and 4 require thin finger crack and small feet to gain a ledge. Surmount the ledge, and climb easier ground on the left side or even in the left-facing corner for several more bolts to chains. If continuing on to pitch 7 of

Golden Staircase

, pass the chains, taking care to run your rope around not through the crack below, and look for new anchors on the opposite side of the fin. From there, rap to the gully at the base of P7 of

Golden Staircase

.

This is the first bolted climb at the Crags. It follows a beautiful panel of rock on the SE corner of the formation. If you follow the bolts directly, it is 11+/12-. By heading to the arete, you can keep the grade at 5.10+.

Loan Shark climbs the steep south face of Sharksfin on big knobs and is a ton of fun. My old Kimball Lumpy guide calls this 5.8, but it was much easier than the North Face route. Kimball says you can climb the right-facing corner at the right edge of the face. That looked inviting from below (and you could continue with no gear on big knobs up the southeast arête), but from above, looking down, it looked pretty difficult.

This is a strong one-star, a good route to do if you are in the area, perhaps having ticked the classic North Face, and want to get in another short route on Sharksfin.  The crux is brief, well-protected stemming, and probably a tad easy for the grade unless you are short.

Identify a large, left-facing corner (currently with a fixed pin) in the middle of the east face, and climb it.  Finish up steep, fun, but easier rock and then traverse left to the bolted anchor (the bolted route just left also has at least two bolts that are very easily clippable from this route!), or continue to the top.

Sleeping with the Fish is a somewhat forced line to the left of the left-facing dihedral on

Big Tears

.  The climbing is quite pumpy and devious for the orginal grade of 10+.  There is a large, detached block above the 4th bolt (crux) that should keep you thinking.

Gillett mentions the route called "Shark Sandwich" in passing while describing the descent route in his book. I am not certain this is it, but it seems close to the location, grade, and star rating he described.

Scramble up to a good ledge, and then fire up the obvious crack with good face holds. As you near the top, the crack goes to fingers and becomes steeper. The last few moves are fantastic with steep moves on good holds over solid gear.

The only bummer is that the rock is somewhat questionable for the last 25 feet or so. Be especially careful of the hollow jug at the beginning of the steep section. I very gently used it as a foot hold.

At the top, move about 8 feet to the right to a ledge with chains.

This is a combination of 2 entries consolidated to avoid duplication within the database.

This route is located on the southwest corner of Sharksfin (previously mistakenly noted as the west face of Pinpoint). Per

Greg Sievers

: the bright yellow lichen on this plate next to a small cave on the bottom left of this rock will identify it. Start off the southwest corner of Sharksfin (previously mistakenly noted as the NW corner of Pinpoint). There is/was a loose section at the start that was cleared of a decent-sized block in 2001. Per

Greg Sievers

: step up to clip the first bolt and then reposition yourself. throw a right heel hook to hinge onto the start. Find moderate and enjoyable, pretty, face climbing past 5 bolts trending right to the top. The rating might be generous for the moves but might feel close given the alpine feel. The rock and lichen are photogenic here. Rap.

Per

Greg Sievers

: this is a nice little addition to the day, when you're adding mileage.

Per

Doug Haller

: this appears to be pitch 5 of Golden Staircase.

This 2 pitch area-classic ascends the narrow North face of Sharksfin.  Gillett writes that this is likely the most frequented route in the area.

Find the right crack system just a few feet from the NW arête of Sharksfin.  There are harder climbs just to the right on the West face.

P1. Connect cracks on easy terrain to start.  As it steepens as you approach the belay, you find a short bit of in-your-face old-school-5.8 terrain as you angle slight left towards the belay ledge.

P2. The second pitch eases in difficulty on jugs up steep rock to the top, 5.6.

Descent: A short jaunt to the South end of the rock leads you to a few anchors (apparently difficult to find for some).  A half-rope rap off the SW corner to a large ledge leads to downscrambling under a large boulder and walking terrain.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Sharksfin