Thanks for adding this route to the Gayley page. You're right, it's a fine route. My partner and I followed the same way you did back in '01, but rapped/downclimbed the West face at the tower because thunder and lightning were on the way.
We took a variation on the highest breach in the lower cliffs on the left. Very easy, with a short cl. 4-5 slab (1-2 moves). This was a more direct way up to the bowl that gains the ridge.
Above, we skipped the 5.3 groove and scrambled slightly above it to the ridge by taking a traverse up left and then right just above a white dike. Clean cl. 3-4.
We never needed to deviate from the ridge crest below the big notch once we started up it. A belay is nice for exposure, but the rock is good and about cl. 4-5 with a lot of exposure.
From the big notch, the blocks were leaning far enough out, with no pro, that is seemed harder than 5.5 to surmount them, with no gear and questionable stability of the blocks. There is a clean 5.6-5.7 hand crack in a nice corner about 50 ft down the chute to the east (my follower climbed up this), or about 100 ft down you can climb into the N Face via a cl. 3-4 move (I kicked down all of the loose blocks in the way, so it is much cleaner/safer now). Easy to climb straight back up to above the hand crack from here, so I left my first piece above.
At this point we could have gone straight to the ridge ASAP, but instead angled up towards it taking the most reasonable lines of weakness. This was mostly cl. 3 on ledges traversing left, then more steeply up at cl. 4-5. Upon reaching the ridge crest it was cl. 2-3 the rest of the way.
Taking our way, I'd call the route II 5.2, although maybe grade I 5.2 if you knew more precisely where to go beforehand. Overall good rock, great position, and mostly a scrambling route with a bit of simul-climbing and a belayed pitch. While the descent is long, such things typically don't factor into a route grade, so grade I-II is right for this.
myles - Jul 3, 2008 12:26 pm - Voted 10/10
nice jobThanks for adding this route to the Gayley page. You're right, it's a fine route. My partner and I followed the same way you did back in '01, but rapped/downclimbed the West face at the tower because thunder and lightning were on the way.
PellucidWombat - Sep 5, 2016 6:55 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: nice jobI think I bootied your carabiner, then! Slings were left in place. They look good but are getting a little stiff now ... :-)
fossana - Jul 3, 2008 3:17 pm - Voted 10/10
thanks...for taking the time to put this together. The topo is great.
PellucidWombat - Sep 5, 2016 7:05 pm - Hasn't voted
VariationsWe took a variation on the highest breach in the lower cliffs on the left. Very easy, with a short cl. 4-5 slab (1-2 moves). This was a more direct way up to the bowl that gains the ridge.
Above, we skipped the 5.3 groove and scrambled slightly above it to the ridge by taking a traverse up left and then right just above a white dike. Clean cl. 3-4.
We never needed to deviate from the ridge crest below the big notch once we started up it. A belay is nice for exposure, but the rock is good and about cl. 4-5 with a lot of exposure.
From the big notch, the blocks were leaning far enough out, with no pro, that is seemed harder than 5.5 to surmount them, with no gear and questionable stability of the blocks. There is a clean 5.6-5.7 hand crack in a nice corner about 50 ft down the chute to the east (my follower climbed up this), or about 100 ft down you can climb into the N Face via a cl. 3-4 move (I kicked down all of the loose blocks in the way, so it is much cleaner/safer now). Easy to climb straight back up to above the hand crack from here, so I left my first piece above.
At this point we could have gone straight to the ridge ASAP, but instead angled up towards it taking the most reasonable lines of weakness. This was mostly cl. 3 on ledges traversing left, then more steeply up at cl. 4-5. Upon reaching the ridge crest it was cl. 2-3 the rest of the way.
Taking our way, I'd call the route II 5.2, although maybe grade I 5.2 if you knew more precisely where to go beforehand. Overall good rock, great position, and mostly a scrambling route with a bit of simul-climbing and a belayed pitch. While the descent is long, such things typically don't factor into a route grade, so grade I-II is right for this.