Pete's Staircase 

FA:  unknown Type:  Trad Length:  2 pitches, 170 feet Views: 311 page views Submitted By: Andrew Gram on Aug 28, 2004 Add Photo  Add Comment

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BETA PHOTO: Pete's Staircase and Lowe Route

Description 

This is the most frequently done route in the Cirque, but not by choice. Often soloed up and down, but its a good idea to rope up at least for your first trip up since it can be a lot harder with bad route finding. With care, this feels more like exposed difficult scrambling than a real route.

Pete's Staircase ascends the broken cliffs below the Question Mark Wall to the huge ramp system(Collins Highway). Start from the left side of the broken terrain, and make an ascending traverse right to a rap anchor on a tree. From here, the next rap anchor is up and a bit left, the Lowe Route is almost directly above you, and the other routes on the Question Mark Wall are up and right.

The line can be easily rapped with 1 60 meter rope. From the saddle between Question Mark Wall and the South Summit Wall, scramble easily down the ledge system to a rap anchor on a tree. Make one short and then one long rappel to the ground. Probably not a good idea to do it as one rappel with double ropes because there is a lot of vegetation for the lines to get hung up on.

Protection 

Whatever is on your rack for climbs on the upper wall is fine.