South Ifidi Pinnacle

This is a spectacular tower, which has a surprisingly easy route leading to the summit. 

Getting There

Approach: 1 hr 30 min from Caesar’s palace to start of the first pitch. From Caesar’s palace hike back towards the Ifidi Pass to a gully, which looks out over the South Ifidi Pinnacle and Gendarme and is 700 metres before the head of the Ifidi Pass. Scramble down the gully facing the pinnacle. Where the gully steepens, anchor a fixed rope to boulders and abseil to the bottom. This gully forms a small waterfall and may be icy in winter. Alternatively, go down the gully and then scramble out onto the grass slope to find a single fixed piton in a large rock fairly far down the slope (hard to find). At the bottom of the gully, walk across to the col between the prominent Ifidi Gendarme and the escarpment. Traverse anti-clockwise around the base of the gendarme and back through the gap between the gendarme and the South Pinnacle. Then scramble out onto a grassy sloping ledge to the base of a large crack on the Pinnacle itself. 

Route Description

Start: At the base of the crack. 1. 25m (E1): Climb up through the short chimney to gain a sloping grass ledge at the base of two parallel chimneys. Climb the left-hand chimney to reach another grass ledge and then scramble up to the base of the next chimney on a large ledge. 2. 15m (E1): Climb the chimney formed by a large flake and exit through a wormhole onto the final grass ledge. A short clockwise scramble leads to the serrated summit. Descent: 1 hr (from summit to start of pitch 1) and 1 hr (back up to the escarpment). Abseil down the top pitch. A second abseil from a chockstone reaches the grass ledge at the bottom of the first pitch. Retrace the approach and back up the fixed rope

Essential Gear

2 x 50 m half ropes. 1 x 50 m abseil rope. Standard ’Berg rack. Extra gear for fixed rope set up. 2 x ascending devices or prusiks. 10 m abseil cord. 

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