"...will allow you to summit without too much trouble."
"When I was here I didn't get myself to stand at the very top of the block but I did find a way to get my head above the true summit"
How do you know the exposure is minimal and it's easy to get to the summit if you didn't make it yourself?
I spent some time yesterday exploring the options and found each one to be a bit tricky. First I traversed the dirty ledge around to the north ridge and scrambled up near the summit. I'm guessing that's as far as you made it, right? It would require real climbing to cross the knife-edge to the summit from there.
I back-tracked to near the beginning of the dirt ledge and scrambled up a steep loose gully with bad footing and scant handholds. Half way up I decided the gully was too loose to descend safely considering a fall could potentially dump you over the east face cliff. I decided to search for a better way down.
From the summit I climbed down a hidden 10 foot chimney to a ledge. This ledge is just a bit north of the loose gully (12 feet above the dirt path). A single class 4+ move brought me back to near the bottom of the loose gully.
Yes I walked that dirty ledge and scrambled up to a point where I looked over the summit at Dumbbell Mountain and the Lyman Lakes. I wasn't standing on the summit itself but it didn't matter to me. If you want to actually stand on the summit, I saw the route you described but at the time I wasn't supposed to leave my friends down by Cloudy Pass and I was already scaring them by running up this peak and didn't want to be away too much longer.
gimpilator - Jun 15, 2015 8:13 pm - Hasn't voted
Summit Block"...will allow you to summit without too much trouble."
"When I was here I didn't get myself to stand at the very top of the block but I did find a way to get my head above the true summit"
How do you know the exposure is minimal and it's easy to get to the summit if you didn't make it yourself?
I spent some time yesterday exploring the options and found each one to be a bit tricky. First I traversed the dirty ledge around to the north ridge and scrambled up near the summit. I'm guessing that's as far as you made it, right? It would require real climbing to cross the knife-edge to the summit from there.
I back-tracked to near the beginning of the dirt ledge and scrambled up a steep loose gully with bad footing and scant handholds. Half way up I decided the gully was too loose to descend safely considering a fall could potentially dump you over the east face cliff. I decided to search for a better way down.
From the summit I climbed down a hidden 10 foot chimney to a ledge. This ledge is just a bit north of the loose gully (12 feet above the dirt path). A single class 4+ move brought me back to near the bottom of the loose gully.
Matt Lemke - Jul 26, 2015 2:01 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Summit BlockYes I walked that dirty ledge and scrambled up to a point where I looked over the summit at Dumbbell Mountain and the Lyman Lakes. I wasn't standing on the summit itself but it didn't matter to me. If you want to actually stand on the summit, I saw the route you described but at the time I wasn't supposed to leave my friends down by Cloudy Pass and I was already scaring them by running up this peak and didn't want to be away too much longer.
gimpilator - Jul 26, 2015 8:47 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Summit BlockFair enough. I was just wondering.