South Face

A simple and direct route up the Spire's steep southern face. We found this route in order to ascend the Spire after rappelling Razorback. The first pitch is up discontinuous cracks for about 50 ft. Then head right for an airy traverse out (5.7). The traverse can be either a hand-traverse, or balancy foot-ledge, either way being exciting. After the short traverse a large ledge is gained.

The second pitch heads directly up from the back of the ledge, starting with a thin lay-back crack. this layback is the crux 5.8 moves, and it is possible to avoid it by bypassing the large block to the right. Above the layback is another ledge and then a left-leaning crack underneath a large summit block. the rock underneath the summit block is a little crumbly, and there are some large detached rocks to be careful around.

The start of the climb is on the west side of the saddle between Razorback and The Spire. A lone tree about 100 ft down from the saddle marks a ledge. the left side of this ledge is where we started the climb up the discontinuous cracks.

Light rock rack. We brought a set of nuts and Camelots # 1-3. No fixed gear was found (or left) anywhere on the route).