Matthes Crest question

Seems like many guidebooks and many climbers prefer to traverse the Matthes Crest from South to North - and many recommend making double-rope rappels down the west side after reaching the North summit.

Some of don't want to carry two ropes out a long ways from the road when there's only some short sections of 5.7

One guidebook says that if want to continue N along the ridge from tne North summmit to say the Echo Ridge or the Echo-Coxcomb col, you get into non-well-protected 5.8 down-climbing -- which includes getting past two substantial towers (which I could see today from the NE from the Coxcomb area). Another guidebook might be saying it's 5.6 (but I find that whole description confusing).

Then I notice this page on MountainProject says an alternative is to continue north past the North summit for a ways, then down-climb the west side just before (both?) towers - not more than 4th class.

So this seems to offer a better hope of traversing the Matthes Crest with only one rope (? or no rope ?)

Has anybody else tried it?

Thanks for sharing your experiences -- or other ideas and strategies for doing all or part to the Matthes Crest.

Ken

I carried a single twin rope and never used it. I did all the towers, but the last one was definitly technical climbing solo, left side, climb a 5.8 corner, then no hands rail, leap down to no feet rail, then downclimb flakes...what I chose. The right side is sheer. You can def avoid this last tower by 4th or 5th class scrambling down the left side. If weather was an issue and you had to rap the north tower, one 60m is going to get you down the west side no worries. Just have to walk/scramble in between raps and maybe off of the end of your rope a meter or two.

The right side of the last tower is steep, but more like 5.7 on a tad hollow flakes, then the rest eases up until you can walk off the end of the ridge. As Dow said you can downclimb off the left side before the last tower at 4th/low 5th.

I did Matthes for the second time a couple weeks ago. From the notch between the north and south towers you can rap to pretty easy ground with one rope. This means skipping the north summit or doing the down climb. If you don't have light twin ropes it might be worth skipping the north summit to avoid a huge load on the approach and most of the climb.

I thought the crux of the climb was a downclimb a bit after the '5.7 crux' (climbing of the steep hand crack about half way though the S to N version). climbing on the East side of the last tower offered some hollow sounding but likely bomber flakes/jugs that were quite exposed but about 5.7, as has been said above. if you opt to do the whole traverse you can easily walk off the end of the ridge without down climbing. I'd recommend doing this, as it's pretty satisfying to actually do the whole ridge. Whatever you choose to do, it will be an amazing day!

I would highly recommend doing the whole thing. The second half is better than the first, IMO.

I agree with Hippy: coming from the south, if you skip the North summit, it looked pretty easy to downclimb from the notch to the rap slings. My partner & I even discussed the cost/benefit of tagging the true summit versus dragging the second rope on the approach and climb.

If I did it again, I would take only one rope and either skip the summit or do the whole thing.

Thanks for sharing all those experiences.
I'm intrigued with the idea that continuing the full way to the north end has the most interesting climbing.

And good to have confirmation that it's possible to down-climb w no rappel after the N summit but before the tough moves on the lower towers.

Or rappel with single-rope after tagging the N summit and getting back down to the notch between N + S summmits.

Ken

fossana wrote:I would highly recommend doing the whole thing. The second half is better than the first, IMO.

Thanks a lot for that perspective.
I got out there yesterday and did only section between the N summmit and the N tower (farther north + much lower than the N summit) -- traversed it in both directions -- great + fun experience.

I was very impressed with the interesting variety of rock structures and climbing moves, and with the percentage of the ridge which is narrow - (Hope the other southern half of Matthes has stuff nearly as good when I get to that). I felt that northern section was at least as good as the best easy ridge traverses I've done in Europe.

Most memorable structure: 10-12 ft overhanging traverse on the E side - with 100ft of air under my back - took several attempted starts before I could get myself to commit to it. (This can be avoided by going down low on the W side).

At least one soloist and one 3-person party continued past the N summit on that day. Another party rappeled from between S + N summits.

Ken

Dow Williams wrote: You can def avoid this last tower by 4th or 5th class scrambling down the left side.

This tip literally "made my day", so thanks much.
Yesterday I started by climbing up the W side to near the last towers -- with the intent that I'd be really sure that I could exit after the S->N traverse, without worrying about the 5.8 move. But then once I got up there the climbing along the northern section of the ridge was so wonderful, I just kept exploring in both directions -- finally climbed easily down the same way I'd come up. Then walked down to the S end of the Crest and started climbing up, but just couldn't get myself psyched (so instead I checked out the Coxcomb).

Thanks also for the conservative estimate of difficulty, but the descent line I used seemed to be class 4 in the sense that there were maybe a couple of class 4 moves, with the rest class 3 on slabs with abundant holds.

At least one party of three yesterday continued their S->N traverse past the N summit and down-climbed the W side before reaching the towers, which strikes me as such a good idea (and not in the guidebooks), that I'm going to offer some ...

details on Down-climb exit before towers:
As you do the approach hike in from the N around the W side of the Matthes Crest to reach its S end, you see the two summits, which are the normal endpoint of the guidebooks' route descriptions. But you can also see lots more of the ridge north of those highest points -- and two towers (much lower than the two summits) toward the N end of the ridge. About 75-100 yards S of those towers, see an area of weakness in the rock just below the ridge.
(You might notice another narrower line of weakness just next to the S tower, but I don't think it works out as well, seemed too steep when I looked down it from the top.)

Since there's an area of possibilities to work with, likely most parties don't need any help, but just in case somebody late in the day is getting tired of navigating, here's the line I found while I was fresh + focused in the morning with lots of free time (and had the advantage of being able to see it and work it out first from the bottom) ...

A ways before you reach those two towers -- and a ways after the exciting (avoidable) overhanging traverse on the E side -- meet the narrowest fin-with-vertical-sides on the whole crest - (I made a cairn of rocks down in a floor crack there). If you find you've gone all the way to the towers without noticing this descent spot that's OK, because going to the top of the first (S) tower is fun, as is traversing the whole S tower to inspect the difficulty of the N tower -- and then you can return south to this descent spot.

From the notch at the south end of that very thin fin with vertical sides, diagonal back toward the south, on a gently descending traverse, soon reaching a ramp, for say 35-50 feet. Then straight down a wide gully with some loose rock in its center -- down like 25-40 ft there is a little notch in the rock at the bottom of the gully, just below a pit which accumulates loose rock. Down through this notch (class 4 move on slopy footholds and unusual but positive-enough hands). Next move a bit N (descender's right) (class 4?) to more positive holds (including many side-pulls and a couple of underclings). Then down and down whichever way seems to fit your down-climbing style and avoids loose rocks.
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Happy also to get more details on other useful exits which people have used. (seems to me there have to be some exits to the East side, and it's not all that difficult to hike out N from the E side).

Another option with the two northern towers:
I found hits in the newest guidebook (and an old one) that you could bypass both towers by going below them on the W side on non-difficult ledges (? class 3 ?), then rejoin the ridge and continue on its crest to the northern end of Matthes.
Looked sort of believable based on what I saw there yesterday, but I didn't check it out.

?? so after this careful concern about unprotected 5.8, now we're looking at class 3 ??

Yesterday in between trying some fun stuff in the Echo Peaks and Echo Ridge, I went along the Matthes Crest from its N end, to the northern-most tower. Then I climbed up to its top and down its other side to the notch between it and the next tower, and then I climbed up its S side and down its N side, and back N to the north end of Matthes ridge. It was wonderful exposed moves on very narrow arete. I wouldn't want to "bypass" that.

I noticed a loose flake on the E side of the S end of the northernmost tower. But actually there was another good hold near it, so I didn't need to rely on that. And on the E side of the N end there was a down-climb move to a very positive rail, but it was not strenuous, not balancy, seemed like not more than 5.6.

? So which tower has the unprotected 5.8 move ?

Funny thing is that when I looked at the next tower south from this last one, it looked impossible. But on a different day when I traversed the southern tower (and it seemed fun and not difficult), I remember looking at the northern tower and thinking that looked impossible.
So maybe there's a third "intimidating ghost" tower in between those two which scares me off.

So many ideas ...

Ken

We rapped the col between S and N summits with a single 60m. 4th Class downclimbing was involved after the rap, and was only 20ft.