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| Sprial Route   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 40.31880°N / 105.6941°W Route Type: Trad Rock Climb Time Required: Most of a day Difficulty: 5.4
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| Page By: buhrmest Created/Edited: Aug 1, 2005 / Sep 23, 2005 Object ID: 166074 Hits: 1776 Loading... Page Score: 75.52% - 2 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
Starting from Bear Lake, take the Flattop trail for one mile, then take the left-hand trail to Fern Lake/Odessa Lake for 2 mile. Turn off the trail after a 200 yrd decent toward Lake Helen (seen through the trees on the left), just before the trail turns the corner at the ridge crest. Skirt by Lake Helen on the right side on a climbing trail heading up toward the small basin SW of Notchtop. Follow cairns up a brushy slope with low out-cropping to a small pond in the upper basin. You can bivi here with a permit, but set up at least 200 ft.from the water.
Route Description
Start up the obvious West Gully north of the basin. Traverse right out to the crest of the South Ridge on the first major ledge you come to (about 60 yrd up the gully from where the solid rock face starts). Ascend 3-4 short pitches of 5.4 enjoyable rock moving up just right of the nose of the South Ridge. There are broad ledges with good natural horn anchors on each ledge. On the 4th ledge, you'll be below a vertical section of the South Ridge; traverse right about 60 yards around a flaking outcropping on to the grassy "meadow." Once around the corner, work directly up the grassy ledges on the left side toward the notch which is visible above. Don't get too far to the right above the meadow or you'll get into some 5.7 climbing that doesn't lead directly to the notch. There are about 2 short and one long pitches. The grass and dirt on this section are annoying and could be dangerous in wet weather. Also, the last pitch toward the top was the crutch of the Spiral route, which runs counter to one guide book's description of this section as "class 4 scramble." Climb to the notch between the spiral and the main ridge and then drop over and left (south) on to a broad rock ledge on the SW face of the spire. Ascend a 4-5 class broad chimney to the summit of the spiral. The summit is small and very airy.
The decent of the spire summit bock is an exposed 4-5 class down climb. Old slings indicate that some have rapped down to the broad rock ledge. Go back to the notch and climb back over to the north-east side. Desend using the West Gully-North Ridge route. Finding the decent route from here is tricky. The guide books don't make it clear that the route switches from one side of the ridge to the other. From the notch facing north, ascend north up about 80 yards on an easy scramble to near the peak of the ridge spires, keeping right (east) of the crest. Looking north from the top you should see a faint trail traversing down the south-west (left) side of the north ridge. This is largely a 4th class scramble, but involves real exposure. Because it is a traverse, it takes some planing to protect against pendulum fall lines. Continue down the traverse to where the West Gully meets the North Ridge, and then descend left down the West Gully to the basin where the Spiral Route started.
It took my party of four 3.5 hours to reach the summit and 2 hours to down climb. It could take substantially longer if you get off-route on the down climb.
Essential Gear
We did the route in late July 2005, so snow was not a factor. The rock climbing could be done with double slings only for anchors, but I placed a couple of mid-sized Rocks for pro in a few places. Take at least 5 double slings if the weather might force a quick repell off the south ridge or NW face.
Miscellaneous Info
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Rocky Mountain National Park
