BETA PHOTO: Just entering the wider, somewhat flared, crack sy...
Description
Not as clean as the Mithril, but more thought provoking -- crux is a delicate bearhug-lieback type of affair just prior to moving into the roof.
P1 (5.7) As for Mithral. P2 (5.8+ funky )As for Mithral, stop short of roof on platform to the right. P3 (5.10- ~120') Climb through roof, continue until you are tired or run out of gear. The roof is the crux, described else where as a "bear hug", this is either a straight jam and/or stem to 2-3 finger locks. What worked well for us is a 120' pitch to a mostly hanging belay. P4 (5.9 ~120') Straight up through 5.9 climbing which is not too sustained. Basically a few moves to a rest, then repeat. An excellent belay stance on large holds is reached in approx. 120'. P5 (5.9 ~100') More of the same with about 10-15' of a wider crack before an easy corner. Pop out on a large flat area to belay.
We then did a pitch directly to the ridge line and belayed. Then another long (300-400') pitch of simul climbing with definite DFU sections.
Location
There is a good topo of the route in Peter Croft's book 'The Good, the Great, and the Awesome'. This route follows the obvious splitter crack system about 20 feet left of the Mithril Dihedral, heads through a roof, then featured rock and jamming to the ridge, and proceeds along the summit ridge to the top. Descent is as for the Mithril Dihedral -- follow the cairns carefully!
There are options. You can actually bypass the crux by traversing left into the crack using a knobby bulge for feet (no harder than .9). About 2/3 of the way up the face you can traverse into Mithral and, if I remember right, climb that route's last 40ft or so. If you have only one day on the mountain, I think Mithral is a much cooler climb.
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