Geurt's Ridge 

if you know the olympus trail well, all you need to know is after one hour+ or so of hiking up the trail when the trail turn right and starts going up the final push to the east(towards the saddle), that is when to bushwhack over to the ridge. i saw no cairns and climbed up the lower cliffband(classic 5.4) then down and over to the start of the ridge.

the "catwalk" part was the first pitch for us. we only had to use gear for two short moves on two different pitches. simul-climbing would have been better/easier with a 100' rope instead of a 200' and the 2 raps are no more than 50'.

Where the stream comes down before blister hill. Follow the stream and a very faint path up for another 30-40 min. and you can get 2-3 more pitches that are good and more sustained and steeper than the rest of the ridge. About 5.6. It is also the true start to the ridge.

Does anyone know if you can bail off either side of the ridge?

Perhaps my fav route on the Mountain of the Gods- long, varied, somewhat adventurous, beautiful rock, and it ends at a summit. I nearly felt like I was in the Tetons. Bring a knife and some webbing to clean up the ratty rap anchors- I chopped about half, but didn't have enough web to do it right. And yes, you could easily bail off the ridge at numerous points (especially south). Very cool.

I did this route last Saturday (June 25th) and my partner left a red BD cam at the end of the 'catwalk' pitch. If you find it, please contact me and let me know. Thanks.

Both raps can be bypassed on the right (south). The first involves about 50ft of down climbing (follow the goat droppings), the second about 10. If you're comfortable with exposure and 5.2 moves then just skip the raps and leave the rope at home.

I would rate this route on par with the West Slabs in both difficulty and quality.

Good to know, thanks.

I soloed the route today and thought I'd add a bit more about the downclimbs that bypass the rappels. The first downclimb felt to be about 5.4 (the crux move for me was toward the end of the downclimb) and was relatively exposed. I started the downclimb about 30 feet back from the notch.

The second rappel bypass felt like 4th class scrambling and is really short and obvious. It's not very exposed. Even if I'd brought a rope I would have just scrambled down that one. Someone added a bolted rap station here in addition to the slings around the block.

(See the photo I uploaded that shows both rappels and the approximate downclimb routes.)

I thought the route is easier than the West Slabs, less sustained, and not quite as good.

Thanks Tristan, that's perfect.

you've got to be kidding me!! a bolted anchor for that 15 foot rappel that you can walk around. Super lame. Why are all these climbs that used to not have bolts on them keep sprouting bolts?? WTF.

Throwning some slings around a block I can understand. Bolt over a 15 foot rap is a joke.

soloing this takes 3-5 hours car 2 car, and the downclimb around the rappels is easy, but very exposed. if I wasn't up for soloing, I'd bring a 50' section of cord for a belay around the raps...really no need for any rappelling. a very small amount of mountain sense will get you to the correct downclimb/traverse locations.

look out for rattle snakes, almost stepped on a big one scrambling off the top to the trail, and look out for dogs - got chased by an angry dog off the leash who didn't like me running down the trail.

fun route, brutal descent. if this were in the Tetons, it would be a world famous mountaineering route. but it's not - so it's just a pretty fun morning adventure. ;)-

Does anyone know why there is a two-bolt anchor just up from the notch after the second rappel? No tat attached, plenty of cracks nearby to place gear, kind of ridiculous. I'd love to hear that they're there for a cool reason. Otherwise, WTF.

A delightful link-up with MS this weekend: climbed West Slabs, descending into Tolcat, climbed a moderate line up the south face of the Guert's, and descended to Pete's Rock. North Face of Guert's has a lot of quality-looking lines: have any of y'all climbed these?

MS working up the NFace of of the South Summit. Submitted By: Manilius on Dec 2, 2012

Thought it would be fun to do a "winter" ascent of the ridge, so with the recent snow storm we decided to plod up to it. Did the ridge, but it was quite a bit more "involved" with the slush over the slabby rock, and I found myself placing way more protection (like more than the 1 or 2 pieces I placed in the summer) than I would have without snow in rock shoes. Interesting day.