Rob Lewis crusin' the final moves to the top of Ea...
Description
This route mostly follows the original Conn route done in 1949. Only the 3rd pitch splits off of the first ascent line. The climb is all 5.3 or under except one 5.6 move at the beginning of the 3rd pitch. Look for a heavily trampled area in the grass on the east side of the spire.
Pitch 1: Climb up the water drainage through sometimes very large crystals. One of the coolest parts of this climb is a near vertical section in a large quartz band. The pitch ends at an obvious set of fixed anchors.
Pitch 2: Finish climbing to the top of the water drainage. The last move is the hardest, and requires a belly flop for some on to a huge belay ledge with fixed anchors.
Pitch 3: This variation is probably the standard now. Climb up the face above, using 1 bolt to get off a ledge on to the face. Make a few moves to fixed anchors at the top.The highest point is a "jump" away. If you want, carefully head over to the true summit.
To descend, rap the route. Make sure to bring 2 ropes.
Protection
Standard Rack. Protection is sparse in places, but definitely adequate.
Pitches 1 and 2 can be combined into one 185 foot pitch. For fun, instead of clipping the bolt on pitch 3 and climbing up the face, move right from the top of the pillar and make a very exposed step down and right to a gully that leads to the top. It may be only 5.3 but it is very exciting--one of those instant exposure kind of moves. For the descent, three short raps seem to make more sense to avoid getting a rope stuck on retrieval.
By Peter Gram Administrator From: Salt Lake City, UT Jul 9, 2003
I climbed this route again about a month ago. My memory must have been shady, only one rope is necessary. Even though pitches one and two can be combined, there is a very nice belay stance at the top of pitch one.
The route starts at the very easy looking drainage with the obvious trampled dirt patch. It is NOT the water worn streak with large crystals a few hundred feet North near the high point of the saddle between Spire 2 and Spire 3 (although this climb is an ADVENTURE in itself!)East Face route is an asthetic climb w/good pro.It CAN be rapped from the top with TWO one rope 60m rappels, if you go down East from the ledge at the top of Pitch Two (viewed by going East through the short "tunnel" created by the leaning rock). This will just lead you to a rap station slung around a horn. A one rope 60m rappel gets you to the ground. This rap route undoubtably presents a greater risk of your rope getting stuck, but it's reasonable if you take care in pulling your rope. We had no issues.
Hey Aaron, send me your pics and/or post em up yourself! Great climbing with you again. Superb route, my favorite spire so far. First 2 pitches easily done as one, although it's runout to the top. I guess either way it would be, but it's easy climbing anyway.
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