The 5.9 handcrack variation on Guide's Wall. Can f...
Description
Guide's Wall is a classic Teton non-summit rock climb. Its moderate grade, quality climbing, easy approach and easy descent all combine to make it an extremely popular route. There are many variations, as well as many nearby short climbs, that allow for a wide range of difficulties.
P1- 120', 5.7: Move to the left shoulder of the ridge. Climb easy rock to a short dihedral with pins. Continue above and end at rap anchors.
P2- 60-70' (short), 5.5-5.7: Either continue up easy 5th-class rock straight above the rap anchor, or move right to a fun 5.7 crack. Both bring you to a large ledge.
P3- 180': This is actually pitches 3 and 4 described in the book. It's easy to link them if attention is paid to rope drag. Anyway, there is another left (west)/right (south) option on this ledge.
WEST: take the big dihedral (5.7) for a full pitch, passing the rap tree in the first 30'. It becomes 5.6 after about 80'.
SOUTH: Move right on the ledge to a large flake with a finger crack above. Climb this pretty crack and pull a 5.7 bulge to a ledge. Belay here or follow the crack to Flake Ledge at 5.6.
P4- 80': A great pitch, no matter what path is taken. Traditionally, the leftmost handcrack is taken at 5.7. The right thin hand/finger crack is wonderful as well. While it is possible to traverse back into the 5.7 crack under the roof, you can also pull it at .10. A small traverse back to the left is required if doing the roof.
P5- 80': All variations funnel into this one, a classic 5.8 dihedral/finger crack lined with plenty of awesome faceholds. An outstanding position! There are a couple of pins.
Descent: Four double-rope raps get you down.
Location
Look for cairns/climber's trail up the talus just past a large pond in Cascade Creek. Guide's Wall ascends the obvious buttress/ridge to the right of the gully.
Protection
A light Teton rack. Bring extra .75-2" pieces if you're doing the handcrack/roof. Extra TCUs and small Stoppers for Blobular.
Great climb (Thanks Jim!) - Best way to introduce yourself to Teton climbing with an escapable route, great rock, and short approach via the boat & all kinds of wildlife in the Cascade (I was more concerned with the moose than the bears).
The P4 splitter is friggin sweet - off fingers, but perfect ring locks into perfect hands 5.9+. Don't get spooked on the last pitch or the preceding pitch to the crux splitter - both 5.8, just commit & move through. A full rack is almost not needed due to a fair amount of fixed pins (totally agree with the route description comment as to pro).
With a descent, double-rope rap to the flake ledge (the start of the splitter), then walk out through the gully (don't take the next tree rap), then walk back into to a final rap. These are both bolt stations & ends of saving you on a double-rope rap that is not clean.
There are so many great variants to this climb - the original 5.8 line seems like you miss some of the good stuff, but considering a post-WWII ascent, I'm glad they didn't hammer the crap out of the splitter.
A 70m rope links the traditional 6 pitches into 3 total. Speeds up the climb and slows the descent a bit (adds a rap or two). Exactly 35m from the chains at the top of the traditional first pitch to your packs.
Great warm-up for bigger and better Teton outings.
Finally climbed the roof on top of Flake Ledge. Protected with stoppers. Huge jugs! .10b. The roof/splitter are actually part of a route called Vieux Guide, put up by Yvon Chouinard and Jim Donini. They started about 200' to the right of the standard Guide's Wall and linked up at the Flake Ledge.
To arrive at the top of the "walk-off" descent, complete a 6th pitch (officially 7th) which goes at 5.5; starts with a roughly 50 foot traverse to the left and goes up a large right facing dihedral.
Non-trivial walk-off: At the top of the large right facing dihedral, traverse to climber's left on exposed but easy ledges until one can descend the SW couloir of Storm Point. While traversing the ledges it is tempting to descend an obvious/distinct small gully which shortly cliffs out. Traverse past this gully and climb 4th class rock up and left 20 or so feet, and then continue left on additional exposed ledges to the SW couloir.
Descending the SW couloir involves periodic 3rd/4th class downclimbing. Also, we rejoined the route at the top of the 1st pitch and lowered/rapped from the bolted/chained anchor: 1st person was lowered to gauge the reach of our 60 meter rope (rope middle was marked) and the last person rapped without knotted ends; had to be careful at the end of the rap. The remaing downclimbing was relatively easy.
I had forgotten about this wonderful route until seeing this. I rope soloed Guides Wall back in 1979 while waiting for buddies to join me in the park. It was a great day for me and very memorable.
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