Backbone Ridge 

I'll second that comment. A 12 pitch climb like this really deserves to be fleshed out some more.

Any idea what kind of snow conditions we might be looking at in the last week of May this year? Route doable?

Notes -
There is a lot of 4th class climbing. you will gain a lot of vertical quickly in this 4th class section. be efficient on the 4th class ground to give yourself enough time when the going is more technical.

we went light on cams for our rack, taking tricams, hexes and stoppers for weight savings. looking back, i would take a more standard cams based rack.

amazing exposure on the top "fin" pitches. great climbing. four stars.

This one can be done as a long day climb from the parking lot. it's burly but can be done. i think we did it in about 18 hours round trip. i slept good that night....

how scary is the offwidth without a #5? is it secure enough to (basically) rope solo? I don't climb many offwidths but I'm trying to get my skills up. I don't want to spend a ton of money on a piece of gear I'll only use once.

We had trouble finding the 5.6 initial corner that leads to the crux dihedral and instead went up a 5.7 obvious open book for two full pitches (with lots of mossy gardens) that bypassed the crux and ensuing 5.7/5.8 cracks. The open book is to the left of the shorter corner and a good way to gain the ridge for those less interested in battling the 5.9 OW.

I brought a #5 & #6 for the offwideth and was glad to have both. I Don't like 30 foot runouts on offwidth 5.9. Lots of loose rock on the route.

First alpine rock route...trial by fire with a grade IV+! Glad to have a #5 and #6 for the offwidth but you can stem if you have poor technique (I did after my knee got stuck...!). Route finding isn't too tough, it seems most pitches will go at the same rating on-route or off (most not all!)...on the Fin follow the obvious weaknesses and you can solo past the first (huge) gendarme on the backside. Car to car makes a long day...

Bring a #6 and you will be much happier and safer unless you are a OW guru. I did not have a #6 and did not feel safe trying to push my single tipping out #5 up (which was basically useless and would not take any kind of fall higher up). Cool route, lots of choss.

you can sling a few chockstones in the offwidth. Then you get up on toward the top and there's good finger sized pro if i recall correctly.

A stellar route with incredible views. one of my favs.