South Peak - West Face Rock Climbing

The west face of the south peak contains many classic routes at Seneca. Highly featured and often exposed, it faces the vistor's center and the telescope viewing platform located there. On busy days, arrive early or you may be waiting in line for the more popular starting routes. These include (from bottom to top) Ecstacy (5.7), Ecstacy Jr. (5.4), Triple S (5.8), Le Gourmet (5.4), Prune (5.7), Old Man's Route (5.2) and Thais (5.5).To descend the west face there are two major rappel stations. The first is from the tree at the top of Conn's West/West Pole. The tree is slung with heavy-duty ropes and rings. 1. Rappel from the tree to a set of rap hangers near a deciduous tree on Conn's West. (50ft) 2. From there you can rappel to a large ledge on Old Man's first pitch with a tree to the north. (65ft) 3. Behind this tree are rap anchors to the base of Old Man's Route. (70ft)The second rappel is from the Traffic Jam notch. Anchors are located around the corner to the south from the notch. 1. Rappel from these anchors to the top of Neck Press (45ft). 2. Rappel from Neck Press to another set of anchors. (65ft) 3. Rappel the remaining length to the ground. (70ft)As of 2016, there are two additional descent options for the West Face, both of which require double 60m ropes: a set of anchors just north of the summit that rappel over Pleasant Overhangs (first rapp is single rope, second is double), and a set of anchors north on the same ledge as the Conn's West rappel that descend over Westpole (first rapp is double, second rapp is single).