Southwest Ridge

Approach

Start from the MistyMoon trailhead and head like you're going to climb Cloud Peak. Go around the corner into Wilderness Basin, then hike up to the pass Bonney calls "Pass 105".

This is a MUCH shorter and easier approach than the northern side of the mountain...

Route Description

This route follows the crest of the obvious long, winding ridge from Bonney's "Pass 105" to the summit tower, a distance of a couple of miles. There are a number of fun small towers to climb over, mostly on good rock except for one notable tower of rotten black diabase (be careful!). Stay right on the crest pretty much teh whole way. The crux is a short wall coming out of a notch between two towers, on good but steep rock. The standard north face of the summit pyramid was used for the last bit (about 5.4), which is also quite rotten.

I descended the big nasty south-facing scree gully just west of the summit pyramid (in a hurry, to escape a thunderstorm), which was actually not all that bad considering how psycho it looks from below!

Essential Gear

I soloed this route in approach shoes, but if you want to use gear, a light rack and single rope would suffice. The difficulties are confined to just a few short sections, the vast majority of the route is 3rd class. Escape from almost anywhere on the route would be quite easy.

Miscellaneous Info

If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.