johngo - Jun 22, 2014 1:23 pm - Hasn't voted
not W RidgeUmm . . . That is a nice line you took, but it's not really considered the West Ridge.
ExcitableBoy - Jun 28, 2014 9:01 am - Hasn't voted
Neither is the true West RidgeThis route is called the West Ridge Couloir and it terminates at the West Ridge Notch, where the Stuart Glacier Couloir tops out on the North side. The typical West Ridge route climbs a major gulley system to the looker's left of this line.
Using either gulley system is trivial in terms of technical difficulty, however fraught with route finding challenges. The 5th class climbing doesn't really start until the West Ridge Notch, although I recall a few bouldery moves here and there on both approaches.
As neither route actually climbs any of the West Ridge until the West Ridge notch is reached, in my mind approaching via the West Ridge Couloir is just as much the West Ridge as approaching via the typical couloir a bit to looker's left as is Stuart Glacier Couloir.
A true climb of the full West Ridge would require climbing the West Face from Goat Pass (steep, hard) and then traversing the crest to the West Ridge Notch, and then finishing by the classic West Ridge.
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