Top Tier

SPORT

TRADITIONAL

MAP

There have been brief, sporadic periods when The Top Tier was popular. There is one chunk of high-quality orange rock and a couple of pleasant gear routes but the real appeal comes from the sun in spring and fall, a potential breeze in summer, and the great vistas if you wander out along the ridge.
Approaches. Follow the FSL, beyond Fern Gully, until the trail ascends a short way up the west side of the valley then drops back down. The trail you want continues on up the hillside but has become obliterated by fallen trees and erosion. Look for a fallen tree with a section cut out of it. Scramble up the bank wherever seems easiest and you will encounter the old trail leading on upward through the cut log. Where the trail steepens it splits. Either branch takes you to The Top Tier. Route descriptions are in four sectors.
1. The West Face is long and broken with a large boulder-fi eld below it.
2. Slack’s Area, which is the left end of the South Face, ends at two wide cracks.
3. The Peaches Area is a compact orange wall at the right end of the South Face.
4. There is a rather scruffy East Face.