The "Molar" on Sargents Ridge

January 10, 2010 - Climbing above 10,000 ft on Sargents Ridge, there are cliffs stretching down from Shastarama that force you to traverse on the left (west) side of the ridge. The biggest of these we dubbed "The Molar". It looks close, but it was really quite along ways away! Thin snow and exposed rocks made for fun yet slow climbing on the ridge as we were constantly doing class 2-3 moves in our crampons, or navigating the high-relief snow surfaces. We seemed to be climbing up and down more than we were traversing along the ridge! The pointy rock on the upper left skyline is one of the gendarmes where Sargents meets with Green Butte.