MichaelJ - Sep 3, 2007 5:28 pm Date Climbed: Aug 30, 2007
3.5 hours
Liz and I soloed most of the route (now rated 5.8 in the Piche and Atkinson guidebook but not nearly that hard) in 3.5 hours. The crux was actually gaining the notch from the glacier, which had a wide shrund and crappy, loose rock on th right side where we scrambled up. The route finding is a bit tricky (and here the older Green/Bensen guidebook topo is much better) but the climbing is fun and varied. I laybacked the offwidth, which was probably the technical crux, and got through it in three moves, although higher up there's a few feet of delicate face climbing, which can be protected by clipping three pins. Three quickdraws were the only gear to come off the rack on the entire climb. I think the original 5.6+ rating is spot on. After rapping the west gully we returned to the hut via the Snowpatch-Pigeon Icefall rap route.
MichaelJ - Sep 3, 2007 5:28 pm Date Climbed: Aug 30, 2007
3.5 hoursLiz and I soloed most of the route (now rated 5.8 in the Piche and Atkinson guidebook but not nearly that hard) in 3.5 hours. The crux was actually gaining the notch from the glacier, which had a wide shrund and crappy, loose rock on th right side where we scrambled up. The route finding is a bit tricky (and here the older Green/Bensen guidebook topo is much better) but the climbing is fun and varied. I laybacked the offwidth, which was probably the technical crux, and got through it in three moves, although higher up there's a few feet of delicate face climbing, which can be protected by clipping three pins. Three quickdraws were the only gear to come off the rack on the entire climb. I think the original 5.6+ rating is spot on. After rapping the west gully we returned to the hut via the Snowpatch-Pigeon Icefall rap route.