West Face / Southwest Ridge Additions and Corrections

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bizweasel - Oct 20, 2005 5:54 pm - Hasn't voted

Route Comment

I wish I had this photo when I headed up to try the "West Face" as described in the Goldman route. Hers is a terrible description. I wasn't sure which gully to do and just went by feel. I tried gullies and buttresses further south and these cliffed out. However, what I'd like to point out is that all possible navigational difficulties can be completely avoided by taking the true SW ridge route from the Ice Lakes side. I discovered this after retreating to Ice Lakes col after my aborted try. SW ridge from Ice Lakes side described briefly as follows: go past the gully indicated, remaining on Carne High Route to a saddle just as traversing out of Leroy Basin. Here, routes split, take the uphill one towards Ice Lakes. For the most part this route is just as obvious as the Carne Route itself. After crossing the col, the S/SE side of Maude is in plain view. Descend on talus N dropping approx 200 vf to a small rocky basin, then continue contouring or climbing talus until beneath a small gully and notch that goes through very minor cliffs and gives access to the SW ridge at about 8000 foot level, just slightly above where the West face gully joins this same ridge. In early season there may be some cornices here. Except where the talus blocks are big, most of this route has traces of a trail and occasional cairns. It's linearly longer, but rockfall danger is nearly nil, and routefinding issues under normal visibility also nearly nil, and it's not even clear that it's any slower of a route. I'd particularly recommend this as a way of getting down from an Entiat Icefall or North Ridge climb when you're tired and don't really know the West ridge route well and don't have time for mistakes.

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