I attached two images to this page -- the show what I believe is the Clyde variation, according to Secor's description, but I haven't actually done it this way (I've attempted twice to find a nice route when downclimbing, but never found anything very nice).
We recently summited via this route. If you have read this page and Secor and are wondering if the variation begins 40 feet or 120 feet below the U-notch, the answer is “yes.”
Following the description on this page, we passed a big cairn on a ledge thinking it was too low. Further up (high enough that we could chat with someone who had just rappelled the U-notch), we turned around and found a crack/slot leading to a route very consistent with the beta in this page. It was very fun climbing on solid rock! But thinking we’d rather not downclimb it, we dropped further down the West Bowl and hooked around the arete, coming out where that first cairn was. We would describe these as the "upper" and "lower" Clyde variations.
This “lower” variation is certainly easier - never exceeding Class 3 until the summit blocks - but in my opinion not as fun.
lavaka - Feb 24, 2009 11:23 am - Hasn't voted
imagesI attached two images to this page -- the show what I believe is the Clyde variation, according to Secor's description, but I haven't actually done it this way (I've attempted twice to find a nice route when downclimbing, but never found anything very nice).
If the annotations don't look right, let me know.
ljwoodw - Sep 17, 2023 6:44 pm - Hasn't voted
Where the Clyde Variation beginsWe recently summited via this route. If you have read this page and Secor and are wondering if the variation begins 40 feet or 120 feet below the U-notch, the answer is “yes.”
Following the description on this page, we passed a big cairn on a ledge thinking it was too low. Further up (high enough that we could chat with someone who had just rappelled the U-notch), we turned around and found a crack/slot leading to a route very consistent with the beta in this page. It was very fun climbing on solid rock! But thinking we’d rather not downclimb it, we dropped further down the West Bowl and hooked around the arete, coming out where that first cairn was. We would describe these as the "upper" and "lower" Clyde variations.
This “lower” variation is certainly easier - never exceeding Class 3 until the summit blocks - but in my opinion not as fun.