Anyone remember the chimney with a piton on the final headwall ~3 pitches above the final notch? Is there a way to skip it? I'm not relishing the thought of squirming up that this weekend

Hamik,

I think we had good options to the right and left of that Chimney. I don't think the chimney was the "right" way to go, although it certainly worked! I think the straight up route that you initially wanted to do after the two easy pitches (after the rap) when we got to that large ledge is probably the way to do it. I'm also interested to hear whether other have gone that way and seen that old piton, I should have snapped a photo!

Are you repeating? Or doing DSF?

Ah, now I remember! OK, I'll try not to get sucked in again this time...

We were thinking about DSF or Winter Route... whichever looks more interesting from the Ashram given the last storm, I guess. Did you and Aaron still want to do something?

Yeah, the reason I say to the right of the way that we went is because neither the topo nor the description indicate moving left on that second bench where you started the chimney pitch. However, there are lots of possibilities there. It looked like there was very moderate terrain to the left of your chimney pitch, and I know that up higher (towards the end of my pitch after your chimney pitch) you could easily cross back over to where we finished up the route.

Aaron and I were thinking that a rapid approach, climb, and descent this weekend was unlikely given the recent snowfall. We would have to drive on saturday morning and I think he has to be at work on Monday. We were leaning towards going to Tahquitz. Did you go to Whitney last weekend? Do you have any insight? I really wanted to go to the Sierra. Who is in your group now?

Hamik and all, what pin are you guys talking about? I don't recall any fixed pro on the Winter Route. I have an old drawing of the exits for the DSF, Winter Route and The Land of Little Rain above the Notch. Could you tell me where the pin is? Would it be somewhere above the Eye of the Needle on DSF?

Alois, I don't know where the Eye of the Needle (haven't done DSF yet); the pin we're talking about was on the third pitch above the last notch on Winter Route. After the second pitch you reach a large ledge; we went up a series of chimneys and the last one felt difficult and had a pin towards the top--it was a squeeze chimney at the top with an awkward exit. The piton looked fairly old.

Kellen, it's a party of three for now. We're starting from the Ashram Thursday morning I think. I was on Whitney last weekend; it snowed 2-3 ft around 10K, but it was very, very light (20:1 air:water I hear). Even with snowshoes on we bottomed out and basically dug a trench at a rate of 1 mi per 6 hrs =/. For that reason we might dig the approach trench on Thursday, retreat to the Ashram for Thanksgiving dinner, and actually start climbing Friday. We'll see I guess...

Alois,

On that topo it appears that it could be the "offwidth chimney" labeled in the upper left corner. We rapped from the notch, walked left a ways toward the large tree, climbed two easy pitches, gained another large bench and walked left (the left arrow in your topo at pitch 14).

However, Hamik gained the chimney on the first pitch (with a 60 m rope) off of the bench, so maybe it isn't the chimney in your topo, as that one appears to be another pitch up. The chimney was an offwidth, wider at the bottom and narrowing towards the top. The piton was in a flake on the right side of the chimney, about half-way up it. It was old. It was kind of worthless really, if my memory serves. If you were to fall from the exit of the chimney, which is the spookiest part, you would deck anyways.

Hope this helps,

Kellen

Kellen,thanks for the explanation. I'm just trying to keep up with the info. If you go way left on the ledge from the Winter Route Notch (my topo), all the way past the tree (drawn in the topo) you end up on the original (and lately less popular) Beckey/Bjornstad DSF route. That original line climbs the extreme left edge on a easy 4th and 5th class terrain. What you seem to be describing is another chimney, most likely even further left of my drawing. But that would not be the original DSF finish.The DSF crosses right after about couple pitches of this terrain and meets the Tension Traverse (the original 5.9 or tension move right) on the DSF and in my drawing. There are really four different exits on the upper buttress. 1. The Tension Traverse of DSF into an ugly 5.4 gully. 2. The Chimney Offwidth, 5.8, very smooth, even sided, somewhat unprotected lead about 80-100 feet. 3. Just ABOVE the Tension traverse arrow (in my topo) is a 100 foot long, finger crack (5.8, not drawn on my topo) IMO the best way to go. 4. Your description of yet another chimney, most likely way to the left. The original TT was done in 1970 during the FA of DSF, the chimney offwidth was done in 1996 by the Land of Little Rain group, the finger crack above the TT was done during the FWA of the DSF in 93. The (drawn) approach to the upper buttress starting with the walk on the ledge, the 4th class gully/ramp slanting right, the 5.7 face and the walk left to the upper buttress was done in the early 80s by Miguel Carmona and me while looking for a better(?) ending to the Winter Route. We finished by the original TT which by then could be done free (5.9) and the horrible chimney (with packs) above.

Uhhh, I went to get the link for you from the LPP page, and it's gone! Hmmm that sucks. I'm pretty sure the route had a page when Hamik and I did the route in August. Bummer.

There was a Winter Route page on SP some years ago. Steve Larson has the route included on the main LPP page. Whoever had the route page, must have removed it. Vitaliy, the Winter Route is propably the best first winter technical mixed outing to try in the Sierra. It is long (2600') has some good rockclimbing on it, as well as ice in some years. The approach in early season is very difficult. The more snow covering the slabs, the better. Don't try this route in a summer, it sucks. In winter it's a totaly new (and much better) game. Before you do it, make sure you know how to get off the South Face of LPP. It could be the undisputed crux of the trip, if you get lost in those cliffs. PS. In my topo above, the Winter Route is hidden behind the "Summer Ridge". It follows a very deep gully to the Winter Route Notch (drawn). From there, the various ways are drawn. CC 2days, 3 if you go to the summit. IV, 5.7

You wanna hit that one up, V?

Good stuff here

Love that mounain

Hamik and Kellen....

You might want to consider this quiet southfacing jewel as an option as well...Stemwinder.

Thanks for the recommendation, Chief. I'll look it up in Secor when I'm in the library.

We left the Ashram Friday at 3am and bailed midday because of terrifically slow, unconsolidated conditions. It took us about three hours to do the first gully swapping leads through literally waist-deep (and sometimes deeper) snow. It's not impossible right now, but it would take at least two days including some night climbing, which would have been three for us. With an impending storm Saturday we turned around after the first roped pitch.

There was a 1-inch thick ice smear in the right-facing dihedral after the first gully, most of which I knocked off on lead. Does this dihedral form ice, or is the ice usually in the two pitches above the second gully? Pictorial TR here: http://picasaweb.google.com/hamikmukely ... directlink



Edit: updated photo to reflect Alois's later season comment

Great pix Hamik
Looked like quite the sufferfest indeed