I'm looking at Reid's Yosemite Free Climbs book, at the Swan Slab area in particular. People always say that most of the routes in this area can be top roped. Does anyone have experience to share as to which routes are good, what kind of TR anchor is provided (or required), and most importantly, how to get to these anchors? For example, can Lena's Lieback be top roped?

We'll be going to Yosemite next week, so any response is greatly appreciated.

-- Lester Gee (ga-architecture@worldnet.att.net), May 30, 1998

Answers

The descent of Lena's layback requires only scrambling and no rappels. Looking up the cliff, you go around the right, not very far from the climb.

-- Quang-Tuan Luong (luong@ai.sri.com), June 01, 1998.

You can TR Lena's. It's a 2 or 3 pitch climb, but the 1st pitch is the good (classic) one. You can walk around to the right and do a short rap from a tree to access the bolt anchors on the top of the first pitch. One rope reaches the ground.

This excellent climb is often wet in spring, but currently (as of Sunday) has only 1 wet spot on it.

-- John Black (blackj@cs.ucdavis.edu), June 01, 1998.