Justin doing battle with the 4th pitch. Another be...
Description
Ithaca climbs the huge arching corner system just right of the plumbline of Airhead (5.11d) and a bit left of Warhead. Start off a long ledge system reached after some easy scrambling.
Pitch 1: Climb straight up the beautiful slab below the arch with no gear but good holds. Belay in some ledgy stuff below a nice clean right facing corner. Delightful 5.8x 160ft.
Pitch 2: Climb the [L-facing] corner to a nice stance below a left angling roof/arch. Excellent. 5.11a 75ft.
Pitch 3: The crux. Climb out left with underclings under the roof, but nada for feet. Very similar to The Adventures of B-Dog on the Book. A fixed wire helps protect it. The climbing eases after about 20 ft. Climb out left to a corner and up to a little stance. Wicked. 5.12a 100ft.
Pitch 4: Climb the hanging corner above. Tricky to protect but safe. Brilliant. 5.11 100ft.
Pitch 5: More of the same. straight up more thin corner till it ends. Climb up steep flakes above, belay below a big wedged flake. Nifty. 5.11 125ft.
Pitch 6: Step up and climb onto the huge flake.Negotiate a spicy section of 5.10. Continue up through the very imposing roof above with a delightfully juggy finish. Mind-bending. 5.11 150ft.
To descend, walk east down the Summit Ramp, or bring two ropes and rap from the saddle between Mchenry's and Arrowhead. It's possible to link pitches on this badboy, but the climbing is hard, and when Andy says to stop, ya'll better stop. All in all, one of the finest routes I've climbed in the Park. Enjoy.
Protection
Doubles to 0.75 Camalot, singles in #1, 2, 3 Camalot, RPs.
By Rob Kepley From: Westminster,CO Aug 23, 2009 rating: 5.11+
Probably the best route I've done in the Glacier Gorge area. I gave it only 3 stars because I feel it needs to clean up quite a bit. The 5th pitch is really dirty. I had to do quite a bit of gardening just to place pro on this pitch. Also, I linked pitches 4&5 together with no problem. I would also like to clarify the lengths of pitches 4&5 as described above. I did both as one pitch and arrived at the belay with exactly half of a 70 meter rope left. That would be about a 115 ft, give or take some, pitch. The information above would you have believe it would be a 225 ft lead which is not the case. Sorry Justin...
Also, the 1st and 2nd pitch would probably go as one with a little silmu-climbing. I would do it this way next time for sure.
As far as the gear beta described above, spot on.
By Steven Lucarelli From: Glenwood Springs, CO Aug 24, 2009 rating: 5.11c R
I agree with Rob, this would be a 4 star route if it was a little cleaner, but it's still well worth doing. A note about the crux pitch: the fixed nut is not there and I didn't really see a spot where you could place one, but it's hard to see the crack when you're climbing it.
Also I wouldn't rate this pitch any harder than 11c, if you compare it to the crux on "All to Obvious" on Spearhead I thought it was definitely easier. It's heady though since I was only able to get good pro at the start of the traverse and didn't see any other spots for reliable placements until I was through the crux. A fall on this pitch would most likely result in a hard swing back into a left-facing corner.
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