Clawing the grass at the top of the offroute 5.5 c...
Description
The route starts just to the right of the large snow filled gully. We went straight up some wet rock ledges that ended at a 20 foot corner ~5.5. The easier way we found on the way down is to cut left up toward the gully on an angling ramp (4th class ramp described in guide books?) that was somewhat wet grimy but pretty easy, and even had mountain goat tracks on it. From here, it's easy grass up to below the upper cliffs, traverse right behind a small detached block, across the top of a gully (we went down this on the descent) and continue up grass and rock ledges at the base of the summit cliffs. Eventually, you hit the short rock step below the notch. There was a longer (30-40 feet) crack in a corner, and around the corner farther, a 20 foot section with a couple groove type features (5.2 section). We went up this, I didn't really notice any decent gear, but it is short, with a big, but sloping ledge below, and there was a slung block to anchor to. From here, go up to the notch, and start traversing back left on exposed ledges. There's one spot where you step around a corner with a straight drop directly below, this was the only place besides the rock step we used the rope. Right after this, there's an easy chimney back up left, then easy scrambling with one tricky move to the summit. On the way down, we found an 8 foot slot at the top of the final chimney to go down to avoid the exposed step around, and made a short rap down the 5.2 rock step. There's also two bolts on the summit to rap off the north side with two ropes.
Protection
We used a 50 foot 7 mm cord, a few slings, and one medium sized nut.
According to Bueler's "Roof of the Rockies" (a must have book for all Colorado mountaineers) the first ascent was in August of 1933 and was a team of San Juan Mountaineers including Carelton Long, H.L. McClintok, Mel Griffiths, Dwight Lavender and Lewis Giesecke. The present day ascent route was actually a descent pioneered by William House and Elizabeth Woolsey in 1934.
By scotthsu From: Los Alamos, NM Oct 10, 2008 rating: 5.0