This is a modern-era free route with many bolts protecting cruxes mainly consisting of techy face climbing on off-vertical immaculate granite. There are some beautiful cracks thrown in for good measure.  It is roughly 55% independent and 45% shared with Call of the Yeti.

I would like to dedicate this route to the memories of Dean Potter, Niels Tietze, and Richie Copeland.  Lost Brother is where Dean Potter perished, Niels Tietze's accident was shortly before I began work on this project and he was often on my mind, and Richie established Call of the Yeti just before his accident on Liberty Cap.

The climbing goes at 5.12c, 5.11 A0, or 5.10 C1.  All hardware is stainless 3/8 and bomber.  It makes an incredible free climb, but would also be a phenomenal mixed free and easy aid wall.  Great portaledge bivies exist atop pitches 4, 6, and 9.  There is also a great place to camp at the base of the route proper.  A spring with glorious water flows on the traverse to the route proper atop the approach pitch.  It has high flow in spring, moderate flow in most summers, and nothing can be guaranteed in the fall.

Also a good thing to note: this climb faces NW and is shaded roughly until 2 PM, with seasonal deviations. The FA was done the morning of a day that would be 94 degrees in the valley.

Approach pitch 5.9, 180': Dirty but reasonably fun climbing up crack systems and corners past some old bolts and an old pin.  A rope is often fixed on this pitch.  The rope simplifies access to the cliff in the spring when this pitch is sopping wet (but still climbable)

Traverse 300 feet to the left on a large ledge past a spring to the base of the route.  Call of the Yeti and Blood and Coin start immediately to the right of this route.

P1: 5.11c, 90' Follow bolts traversing over a roof on edges, pretty rock.  Crux sequence transferring into the lieback crack from the slab. Reach a good stance then fire up the crack and arete to an anchor on a stance. Great pitch, and it keeps getting better up higher.

P2: 5.10d, 90' Climb the flake/arete/block feature past a bolt to a good stance.  Chalk up, launch into the crack, and surmount the bulge. Climb up then traverse right into the corner. Hand crack to ledge and anchor.

(Tip: nice to link pitches 1 and 2, if you extend enough on the first pitch and are feeling like a boss)

P3: 5.10a, 80' Take the rail/hand crack that traverses right off the anchor, do not head straight up the corner.  Climb the arete face protected by bolts to some good cracks that lead to another great stance and an anchor.

(Tip: The BD #3 is not needed any more after this pitch, leave it here)

P4: 5.10b, 90' Climb the corner system utilizing mantles and stemming.  Ends at a good ledge system.

(Tip: nice to link pitches 3 and 4, again, extend)

P5: 5.11a, 100' Climb the bolted corner system to an easy ledge traverse.  Good featured rock in a right facing corner leads you to another anchor.  Keep an eye out for the jugs.

P6: 5.12b, 90' The boulder problem pitch.  Pull into the corner then transfer out and left using nubbin feet, cool holds, and positive thinking.  The jug is up there, I promise.  Continue up through increasingly moderate terrain to another great stance and anchor. Gear beta: 6 draws and singles small to BD .5, nice to be light for the initial climbing

P7: 5.12b, 50' The sport pitch. Climb to the rail above with some techy moves past a bolt. Traverse right to the bolt line, possible to sling a horn here. Ignore the aid ladder to the left. Pull crux moves onto the face and up a rail to a slabby step with a stance and belay anchor.

P8: 5.12c, 50' The techy pitch. My favorite pitch on the climb. Follow the bolts up the groove, look for edges, stemming opportunities, and trust those feet. Three crux sections on this pitch. Beautiful. Awesome.

Possible to link pitches 7 and 8 into one MEGA pitch without too much problem.

P9: 5.11b, 120' Follow the bolt line up through scoops, look for the jugs. After the second bolt, do not go left to the call of the yeti anchor, follow the bolts right then up. After the sporty fun, gain access to the pretty ramp to the left and climb up to the awesome belay ledge (or badass portaledge bivy).

P10: 5.11b, 90' High first bolt (stand on the anchor to reach it if you have to) protects tricky bouldery moves out left to gain access to the stance and ramp above. Climb the ramp to the tips to hands corner crack above. Perhaps the best real crack climbing on the route.

P11: 5.12a, 120' The stem corner pitch. First off, do not go up the corner to the right, choss. Another high bolt protects opening moves to the left, access the triple cracks that turn from fingers to hands. Then either lieback or get inside a brief wide flake. Bolts guide you up the face to a stem corner surmounted with standard Yosemite trickery. A couple more sporty sections bring you to a stance and anchor.

The big ledge system right of the top third of this pitch is the Yeti Mating Ledge on the route Call of the Yeti.

P12: 5.11d, 90' The arete pitch. Get ready for some fun exposure! Slab climbing and arete slapping with some fun finger crack sections thrown in. Avoid the dirty corner and follow the bolts on the face.  There is a heartbreaker slabby section in the last part of this pitch over beautiful granite with cool green lichen.

P13: 5.10c, 50' Traverse right off the anchor, clip the high bolt, then climb down and finesse into the corner. Climb over the rim and traverse left on a flake to an anchor.

OR! P13 var. Attempt the direct finish above the anchor. Tough mantle boulder problem. V4 or V5?

Wayward Son

Blood & Coin

Prowd

Call of the Yeti

New 10 pitch aid route with amazing thin beak pitches and thin flake nailing that will go free eventually. Goes up the right side of the obvious white flake on the face of Lost Brother. Most looseness has been avoided. A nice escape from the normal choss horror show that is the average obscure new route.

Pitch by pitch description tba..

Possible to bivy without a ledge at top of pitch 1, 3, 5 or 6 (both uncomfortable), and pitch 7. ATC Bivy and Yeti Mating Ledge are both stellar bivy ledges.

Full res topo here:

https://bit.ly/2AFi9ge

Amazing climbing done by Bryan Law on his Solo FA. Many heads that were strenuous and tricky to clip, I can't even imagine having to place them myself. Unfortunately, the FAist was a master at placing heads and so there's a lot of head clipping for future parties. The rivets are placed further apart than any other rivet ladder I've been on. If you're short, bring your bag of tricks.

This is a pretty good route up the center of the main face of Lost Brother. Not much in the way of loose rock, and the middle pitches are really clean. The summit is cool and affords you an uncommon vantage point to look at Taft Point and the surrounding area. The Yeti Mating Ledge is a sweet bivy. There are two plush spots and a third marginal spot. Maybe bring a ledge if you have more than two in your party. The route gets morning shade and goes into the sun in the early afternoon. The main detraction is that there are lots of big ledges on the lower portion of the route, so it takes a while before you start to feel like you're off-the-deck.

Approach: Park at a turnout around 0.8 miles after the El Cap Bridge road meets S Side Dr. Hike up through the forest toward Lost Brother. It's not really that long of a hike, just annoying because there isn't a trail. Once you reach the base, skirt to the right and find the approach pitch (look for a bolt down low). There may be a fixed line, otherwise climb a 5.7 crack on the left, or 5.9 crack on the right. Once on the terrace, hike to the left passing a spring (you can fill up water here). After passing both large pines and reaching a clearing, head up to the base. The first pitch is the double crack system with an oak tree near the top.

Pitch 1 - Climb the cracks, starting in the right and then moving to the left. Free climb through a tree (ants!) and through a little bulge then follow the trough to an anchor on a ledge. This is the only pitch I placed the #4 on, so you could maybe leave it at the anchor if you are rapping the route. C1 with lots of free climbing.

Pitch 2: Climb the corner through some large and annoying bushes. Keep to the left until you reach a big ledge system with the anchor. This pitch would be a nightmare to haul. C1 with lots of free.

Pitch 3: Easy face climbing leads up to a right-facing corner. Aid the corner to an anchor. I only nailed once. This is a short pitch and you should link it with the next one. C2/A1.

Pitch 4: Another short pitch up the right-facing corner system. There are two rivets. The second one is in a weird location and I didn't use it. Instead I did some free climbing further left. Only nailed once on this pitch. Belay at an anchor on top of a little pillar. C2/A1.

Pitch 5: Follow the line of rivets up the face. Bring some sort of a wrench so you can adjust the nuts on the bolts. Some of the nuts were tightened all the way down to the wall and I couldn't unscrew them with my fingers, so I ended up putting the wire hanger directly onto the nut itself. Sometimes I'd have to do this for three rivets in a row. Kind of scary. There is also a bathook move in there somewhere. After the last rivet, tension traverse left, free climb up to a stance and then reach back right to start nailing a beak seam. You could probably skip this cruxy nailing and just free climb to the bolt at 5.10+/5.11 R. After the bolt, one more beak placement gets you to a short bit of free climbing and the anchor. Most of the route went pretty smooth, but this pitch took me well over 2 hours to lead. A2+.

Pitch 6: Climb a flake w/ a 1.5" crack to a sloping ledge. Scramble up to the left corner and aid a low-angle slot. At the top, mantle onto a little shelf and traverse right to the anchor. C2.

Pitch 7: Two aid bolts above the anchor lead to a left-facing corner/ramp. Make a couple beak placements to gain a small shelf and then aid the C1 crack out the little bulge. The rest of the pitch is free climbing on shattered rock, with hands, fists, OW, and liebacking. There are several protection bolts. This pitch ends at the Yeti Mating Ledge. A2- and lots of free.

Pitch 8: From the left end of the ledge, clip a bolt and tension around the corner to a short section of free climbing. Then a bit of heads-up nailing gets you to a huge detached flake. Aid the right side of this feature with cams and then do a mix of aid and free up the dirty crack system. Aid out a dirty overhang at the end, then free a low angle trough to the anchor. A2.

Pitch 9: A super long pitch up the dirty left-facing corner and slab. Very low-angle with the exception of a step/overhang in the middle of the pitch. To pass this, simply free climb though the overhanging slot. Not C1 like the topo shows, I don't think you can aid it, but it's easy. Just above this overhang, avoid the bushwhacking by traversing left and climbing an easy white flake to the top. My 70m rope didn't make it to the bolted anchor, but I was able to create a natural anchor at a huge boulder. All free at 5.7.

Scramble up a short gully to reach the summit. To descend, reverse the route. Pitch 9 I did in two rappels, using the bolted anchor at the top and a small tree just above the step. When rapping pitch 5, you will need to do a tension traverse to reach the anchors on top of 4. Pitches 3 & 4 can be linked on the way down as well.

Description

Protection

Routes in O. Lost Brother