Pervertical Sanctuary

Hi all - Coming in from out of town to climb Pervertical Sanctuary on Sunday.  I have wanted to climb the Diamond for 20 years now.  Psyched!

A few questions for you locals:

• Should microspikes be enough this time of year for Broadway and approach?
• Are the belays bolted?
• 60m or 70m rope?
• Wear edible underwear in case we run out of food?

Eric Dwrote: Hi all - Coming in from out of town to climb Pervertical Sanctuary on Sunday.  I have wanted to climb the Diamond for 20 years now.  Psyched!

A few questions for you locals:

• Should microspikes be enough this time of year for Broadway and approach?
• Are the belays bolted?
• 60m or 70m rope?
• Wear edible underwear in case we run out of food?

It's quite alpine-y up there at the moment.  The face is pretty dry but the conditions getting to Broadway are sub-optimal unless you're experienced in those conditions which leads me to the next question: why does it matter if the belays are bolted for you?  If you bring a single rope plan on topping out and walking off.  

DWF 3wrote:

why does it matter if the belays are bolted for you?  

Because bolted belays allow rap offs without leaving gear.

Hi Eric,
To answer your questions:
-Most folks climbing the D recently have brought spikes of some kind, ranging from light boots with proper crampons to running shoes and micros. There is still significant snow in the lower part of the N Chimney and crossing Broadway to the base of Pervertical. As Don mentioned above, it's still in early-season condition. If planning to rap the wall, you can leave boots at the base of the route and pick them up while rapping down.
-There are a couple of belays with bolts on the route, but it's not rigged to rappel in it's entirety. You'd likely be leaving some gear (or hunting for random tat) to angle down and right towards the Diamond rap route.
-Two ropes are your best bet up there, which at least gives you the option to rap the face or bail in weather. I don't think 70's give you too much advantage on Pervertical. I usually take a 60m and a skinny rap/haul line, 'cuz it's steep and wide and sucks to climb with a pack. 

North Chimney is in fine conditions. Broadway still has lots of snow on it. Expect to traverse moderate snow slopes, so whatever gear makes you feel safe.
Some will want spikes, some will want axes.
Bring at least 2 60m ropes to rap. If you don't top out and need to bail expect to leave gear
North face descent is still very snowy and can get quite exciting

You would be happy with crampons and an axe. 

just gonna mention the beal escaper if you are not tagging a pack and want the option to rap a full rope length if things go sideways but don't want all the weight of a second rope

Boy, thats serious.  Crampons and an ice axe up the ante.  Strap-ons on approach shoes?  Steel axe?  Whatcha got, OP Eric D?  

i thought you moved to New Jersey cuz you were over climbing...we miss you guys. Come back!

AMTwrote: i thought you moved to New Jersey cuz you were over climbing...we miss you guys. Come back!

The climbing in New Jersey is sick!  Up to 50 foot tall scrambly ledges!  Time for a road trip AMT.  Miss you guys too.  :) 

If there is too much snow to easily get to Pervertical Sanctuary with microspikes, it looks like the Casual Route is right above the North Chimney and could avoid a lot of snow.  Thoughts?
 

Casual is more likely to be wet/have a gigantic snowpile at the base of the 5.8  dihedral pitch. Also if you made it through the north chimney you very likely have the gear/skills neccesary to traverse over to the left side of Broadway. Multiple parties have been up there the last several days and there is probably a decent bootpack up there for the snow you can't avoid.

This may be OBE, but I climbed PS yesterday and found that 

• spikes (at a minimum) are recommended for the Mill Glacier approach. You also might not be sad having a light axe
• most (all?) of the snow is out of the way between the end of N Chimney and the start of PS.
• The upper bits of the diamond was raining small chunks of ice at us the entire time we were in the N Chimney. It felt quite epic having chunks of ice wizz past our heads (and sometimes painlessly hitting us) the entire time. Be careful when looking up ;).
• Larger ice and rock chunks were spontaneously falling far right on the diamond out of the path of the N Chimney and the popular diamond routes, but there was some 'splash' of shattered small chunks of ice the made it over to the N Chimney. Exciting.

Mike Soucywrote: If planning to rap the wall, you can leave boots at the base of the route and pick them up while rapping down. 

Just keep boots away from the marmots or it could be a long painful hike back to the car.

I second that, do not leave your boot/shoes at the base.  Hook'em to your harness.  Just to add insult to injury some marmots "walked" off with our approach shoes and it just added to the epic of a day hiking back to the car in climbing shoes, talk about toenail removal.  Darn marmots.    

arodwrote: I second that, do not leave your boot/shoes at the base.  Hook'em to your harness.  Just to add insult to injury some marmots "walked" off with our approach shoes and it just added to the epic of a day hiking back to the car in climbing shoes, talk about toenail removal.  Darn marmots.    

Oof! Yeah, I guess I should have mentioned to hang your gear...but no need to carry them up and down the route. There are plenty of options on Broadway.

We climbed PS today. There are a couple of small snow/ice patches in the chimney, but otherwise everything is dry. Micro spikes were nice for blasting past parties on the Mills.

Lots of loose rock melting out. Be attentive while you’re climbing the chimney and traversing Broadway. It’s not difficult to avoid knocking rocks down, yet there was a near miss today. 

We used 50m ropes on the FA.

Mike Soucywrote: ...
-There are a couple of belays with bolts on the route, but it's not rigged to rappel in it's entirety. ...

curious which belays have bolts.  i only remember one old crappy bolt with some hardware store door bracket at the top of the 10a fist crack.  my partner had run out of gear, and when i got up to that belay he had that crappy bolt and his leg jammed down a crack.  good times!

slimwrote:

curious which belays have bolts.  i only remember one old crappy bolt with some hardware store door bracket at the top of the 10a fist crack.  my partner had run out of gear, and when i got up to that belay he had that crappy bolt and his leg jammed down a crack.  good times!

There's a newer bolt and a nut at the top of the crux pitch (wedged block). And there's the old bolt (actually double 1/4" on single hanger) on top of the wide pitch that you reference. "No Worg" stamped on the homemade hanger. Ron is that yours? 

Definitely best backed up with the body, but no crack to jam a leg in...good thing you sent. 

Good to know some belays are bolted in case the notorious Diamond surprise storms role in. It sounds like the belays that don’t have bolts are largely fixed anyway.

Thanks all for the beta. Didn’t get on it due to weather but will be back in the area in the future. 

@eric, "some belays are bolted" is a mis-nomer. One belay has one bolt and is backed up by a nut. Other belays are fixed (eg. slung horn backed up by a nut or two). I agree, that it does facilitate bailing, but its a good idea to bring some cord and consider leaving a nut or two if bailing.