Index route reccs to work up to Thin Red Line?

Or other routes around the pnw. Thanks

i feel like if you can climb the benchmark 5.11s at the LTW you will have no issues: JG, iron horse, Shirley, thin fingers, tpmv, the cabin.

I don’t think any of the pitches are particularly hard on TRL, but it’s fairly sustained for a day out. If you could spend a day climbing most of those Ltw climbs with a reasonable level of panache, TRL should be cruiser.

I would also point out that TRL is a pretty forgiving route, you can rap from anywhere. Maybe just go give it a rip and learn what you need to learn?  

The crux of TRL is a boulder problem coming out a roof. Haven't climbed all those Index routes but they have no significant overhangs from what I can tell? Not much of that at LTW. Try get on some steep bouldering? 

Agree with the above that it is very easy to just rap the route so go try it. Worst case scenario you pull on some gear through to the crux, try it a couple times, rap down and TR some of the other good pitches. Then you know what you need to train for.

Consider the (very similar, maybe better!) Liberty & Injustice route to the right if you don't want a roof crux and want more on-your-feet climbing. It gets relatively little traffic. You still finish up TRL.

IMO the roof crux pitch is no harder than the roofs  on golden road or heavens gate… maybe 12 gauge IQ would be another good one (those are all obviously bolted though, unlike this pitch).

For the prior stemming 12a pitch, Shirley, Clay, Faries Wear boots come to mind. For me Faries is by far the hardest of all of these but others may disagree  

The penultimate 11d pin scars pitch is much easier than iron horse. If you can send JG and iron horse I reckon you’ll do fine on this one unless you have massive fingers, then idk. It’s also very short so it’s easy to give multiple go’s on it.

Another question if I may - for folks who have done the route, any beta you can share about timing the route with sun/shade? Looks like the wall doesn't see shade until 1pm ish. Do most parties start around that time? Thanks

Austin Blum wrote:

Another question if I may - for folks who have done the route, any beta you can share about timing the route with sun/shade? Looks like the wall doesn't see shade until 1pm ish. Do most parties start around that time? Thanks

It seems like most people start around 12 for any of those E. face routes other than getting an early start aiding Liberty Crack. Maybe begin a couple hours later if you are confident and/or happy to descend in the dark. In my view it really adds a lot to the experience to summit the mountain and enjoy the upper climbing, even if it makes for a dark descent. You'll get amazing sunset views of the otherwise-hidden main chunk of the North Cascades from up top and some of the best moderate climbing at the pass. If you get to the base too early, there are some big boulders nearby to find shaded hangouts for lunching and racking up. Even on pretty hot summer days it gets dramatically cooler and more "sendy" feeling around 5 or 6pm and there are still several hours of daylight left. There's also a stretch of weeks (probably beginning soon this year!) where mosquitos can make it really unpleasant to spend time at the base (and even low on the wall.) 

Amazing thank you sir!

You have spot on beta above from some very knowledgeable East Face aficionados. A couple ideas for you: 

I'd second Matt's comment that the route (and the E face in general) is more forgiving that it might seem and therefore you should just go climb it, send, or learn some good lessons and bail to try again later - lots to learn, potentially, in that scenario. It's alpine in ambiance, but multi pitch cragging in practice. 

I'd also second Blake's rec for Liberty and Injustice to the right. I found that route to be more interesting (more techy, for sure).  

If you want a good, low stakes, intro to climbing on the E. face but don't want to attempt to tackle a whole route first, I'd recommend going there and cragging at the base by climbing P1-3 of a couple routes. Climb, for example, the first 3 pitches of Live Free or Die and then rap. Then walk left and climb the first 2 pitches of Freedom or Death and rap, or, climb the first 4 of TRL and rap. Basically, you can get a good idea of what climbing on the E. face is like quite easily by sampling the lower pitches of routes on a nice cool summer evening. Short approach, evening shade, lots of bolted rap anchors... What's not to like. You'll likely learn much more re this goal by doing that then lapping pitches at index.