East Face, Left Side Cracks
5.7+ YDS 5a French 15 Ewbanks V+ UIAA 13 ZA MVS 4b British
Type: | Trad, Alpine, 1187 ft (360 m), 11 pitches, Grade III |
FA: | Elaine Mathews (first half) 1970 Greg Donaldson, Rich Mathies (2nd half) 1972. |
Page Views: | 40,016 total · 176/month |
Shared By: | Ben Mottinger on May 26, 2006 · Updates |
Admins: | Mike Snyder, Taylor Spiegelberg, Jake Dickerson |
Description
Great long route up Pingora. Mostly hands to offwidth climbing with some dihedral and a bit of slab. Mostly sustained 5.7 for the first third, then eases up for the middle third, then steep sustained 5.7 with the crux pitches for the last third.
Climb: Climb the lower crack section for about 3-4 pitches depending on how far you stretch it. After this you'll reach a large grassy ledge. Continue following straight up the lower angle cracks to another large ledge for another couple pitches. After this follow steeper hands-slightly offwidth cracks to the top for another 3-4 pitches. Total between 8-12 pitches for about 1400 feet of climbing from bottom to top.
Variations: can bail when level with the South shoulder by scrambling around to the left at the top of the easier climbing just before it kicks up again around pitch 6-8. Can finish on East Ledges for the last 2-3 pitches.
Location
Approach: Starting from the east side of Pingora, around the corner from the south shoulder, find a snowpatch. The climbing starts to the right of this in the left leaning and rightmost of parallel cracks.
Descent: rappel the south buttress route in about 3 raps. A single 70m will comfortably get you down. A 60m will require some easy downclimbing to get to the next rap station.
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