James Pitkin - Aug 22, 2017 11:34 am - Hasn't voted
East Ridge Additions
Climbed with Larry 8/19/17. We pitched the whole thing out.
On the approach, do not go too far up the gully. Not far at all, actually. You will pass two distinctive bands of white rock going up the left side of the gully. The second, narrower band is the way up. Follow this band of white rock to what almost seems like a skinny sidewalk.
After a short distance, look to the right, and you will see some 3rd-class terrain – basically another, much smaller gully. Scramble up this, and when it becomes easy 5th-class rock, this is the start of the first pitch. We built a gear anchor here.
The first pitch is fun but maybe stiffer than you would think, and some of the rock is slippery. I’d say it’s a 5.5.
There were slings with rap rings waiting for us at the top of this first pitch, and we used this as our belay anchor for the next pitch. It’s clear that some people have bailed rather than continuing on from here. You're faced with a jumbled “staircase” with no good options for pro. This is really only 3-4 moves of low-5th-class climbing, but the steps are down-sloping, and the rock is slippery. There is a good handhold to be found if you go far left and reach up. Pull yourself up to the ledge, put in a big cam, then talk past the gendarme.
After that, there is a tricky short down-climb to a notch. This is where the Nelson/Potterfield book suggests you might want to belay.
The “third pitch” in the Nelson/Potterfield book is easy and fun climbing up the ridgeline, on solid rock, with lots of pro. This was the money pitch.
That pitch ends directly at the start of the knife-edge traverse. The knife-edge is short, easy and super fun. It’s sufficient to put in one piece of pro at the start and just skitter across. Larry led this and belayed me up from the second large rock structure you pass after the knife-edge ridge.
From here, I led another unremarkable pitch to the base of the crux. This spot is easy to find, because the route changes direction and heads off to the right before reaching the crux. I stopped where the route changes direction. You can identify the crux up above, because it’s a lot steeper and bulgier than anything else you’ve climbed so far.
This was the only gear anchor we built on the entire route, except for the one at the start of the first pitch. The other anchors we did by using existing slings (at start of the second pitch), or slinging the very large, solid features that are abundant all along the route.
Looking up from the belay station to the crux, you see two cracks side by side. There’s a wide one on the left side, which appears from this perspective to angle off to the left. There’s another crack just to the right, which is much thinner and goes more straight up. The correct way to go is by taking the wide, angling crack on the left. A #4 cam was perfect for protecting this 5.7 crux. There are only 2-3 moves, and then it’s over. It’s more awkward than difficult. There are very good hands to be found by reaching high up.
After the crux, I continued climbing around and to the left, all the way to the summit, where I put in a final sling anchor to belay Larry up. From the summit, there’s a walk-off down and to the left to the South Ridge rap anchors. The rap anchors are out of sight, past another (slightly lower?) summit just beyond the summit where I did the final belay.
It is possible to rap down the South Ridge with a single 60m rope, in three raps. You rap from the top to the midway anchors, and then rap again to a wide gravelly platform. From the platform, scramble/downclimb a short distance to another rap anchor (slings). From there, do a third rap to the base of the South Ridge route. (Another little bit of easy down-climbing here if you brought a 60m instead of 70m.)
We brought along a second rope for the rap, because we thought maybe two were actually required to get down. They are not. You can do it with one rope. The second rope just combines the first two raps into one, so you do two rappels total instead of three. It was obviously not worth the extra weight to save time on one rappel.
James Pitkin - Aug 22, 2017 11:34 am - Hasn't voted
East Ridge AdditionsClimbed with Larry 8/19/17. We pitched the whole thing out.
On the approach, do not go too far up the gully. Not far at all, actually. You will pass two distinctive bands of white rock going up the left side of the gully. The second, narrower band is the way up. Follow this band of white rock to what almost seems like a skinny sidewalk.
After a short distance, look to the right, and you will see some 3rd-class terrain – basically another, much smaller gully. Scramble up this, and when it becomes easy 5th-class rock, this is the start of the first pitch. We built a gear anchor here.
The first pitch is fun but maybe stiffer than you would think, and some of the rock is slippery. I’d say it’s a 5.5.
There were slings with rap rings waiting for us at the top of this first pitch, and we used this as our belay anchor for the next pitch. It’s clear that some people have bailed rather than continuing on from here. You're faced with a jumbled “staircase” with no good options for pro. This is really only 3-4 moves of low-5th-class climbing, but the steps are down-sloping, and the rock is slippery. There is a good handhold to be found if you go far left and reach up. Pull yourself up to the ledge, put in a big cam, then talk past the gendarme.
After that, there is a tricky short down-climb to a notch. This is where the Nelson/Potterfield book suggests you might want to belay.
The “third pitch” in the Nelson/Potterfield book is easy and fun climbing up the ridgeline, on solid rock, with lots of pro. This was the money pitch.
That pitch ends directly at the start of the knife-edge traverse. The knife-edge is short, easy and super fun. It’s sufficient to put in one piece of pro at the start and just skitter across. Larry led this and belayed me up from the second large rock structure you pass after the knife-edge ridge.
From here, I led another unremarkable pitch to the base of the crux. This spot is easy to find, because the route changes direction and heads off to the right before reaching the crux. I stopped where the route changes direction. You can identify the crux up above, because it’s a lot steeper and bulgier than anything else you’ve climbed so far.
This was the only gear anchor we built on the entire route, except for the one at the start of the first pitch. The other anchors we did by using existing slings (at start of the second pitch), or slinging the very large, solid features that are abundant all along the route.
Looking up from the belay station to the crux, you see two cracks side by side. There’s a wide one on the left side, which appears from this perspective to angle off to the left. There’s another crack just to the right, which is much thinner and goes more straight up. The correct way to go is by taking the wide, angling crack on the left. A #4 cam was perfect for protecting this 5.7 crux. There are only 2-3 moves, and then it’s over. It’s more awkward than difficult. There are very good hands to be found by reaching high up.
After the crux, I continued climbing around and to the left, all the way to the summit, where I put in a final sling anchor to belay Larry up. From the summit, there’s a walk-off down and to the left to the South Ridge rap anchors. The rap anchors are out of sight, past another (slightly lower?) summit just beyond the summit where I did the final belay.
It is possible to rap down the South Ridge with a single 60m rope, in three raps. You rap from the top to the midway anchors, and then rap again to a wide gravelly platform. From the platform, scramble/downclimb a short distance to another rap anchor (slings). From there, do a third rap to the base of the South Ridge route. (Another little bit of easy down-climbing here if you brought a 60m instead of 70m.)
We brought along a second rope for the rap, because we thought maybe two were actually required to get down. They are not. You can do it with one rope. The second rope just combines the first two raps into one, so you do two rappels total instead of three. It was obviously not worth the extra weight to save time on one rappel.