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Southeast Face

5.10+ C0, Trad, Aid, Alpine, 2000 ft (606 m), 18 pitches, Grade V,  Avg: 3.9 from 41 votes
FA: A: James P. McCarthy, Tom Frost, Harthon (Sandy) Bill, 1968. FFA Steve Levin, Mark Robinson, Sandy Stewart, 1977.
International > N America > Canada > Northwest Terri… > Cirque of the U… > Lotus Flower Tower
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Description

The best rock climb in the world? Most routes to which this moniker is added may seem insignificant compared to the SE Face of Lotus Flower Tower. The route climbs perfect alpine granite for 18 pitches to an amazing summit.

The climb is all about uniformity. The first three pitches climb a well-defined left facing corner. The next five or six pitches climb a long chimney. Then, the fun starts. After a short left facing corner, the last ten pitches or so climb cracks and knobs on the exposed and narrowing face.

Pitch 1: Climb a left-facing corner to a fixed belay. 5.8

Pitch 2: Continue up this corner to a fixed belay 5.9

Pitch 3: Follow the corner until it's end and exit right, skirting below a large roof. This pitch is often wet, but when dry, the exit moves feel about 5.10a.

Pitch 4: Since you are on the face now, wander up the face to the base of a long chimney. 5.7

Pitches 5-9: Climb up the 5.7 chimney. The chimney is long but secure. It's possible and advisable to simul-climb this section, especially if you're doing the route in a day.

Pitch 10: Wander up and right to a large ledge. This ledge is big enough to park a school bus on, well, probably a short bus. 5.8 This ledge is an excellent bivy, as it's totally flat.

Pitch 11: Climb a big left facing corner, 5.9+, to an amazing small ledge at the very edge of the face.

Pitches 12-15: Follow parallel cracks up the face of the tower. Though you protect in the cracks, the preponderance of strange diorite knobs encourages face climbing. There are many ways to ascend this section. Just follow knobs to the base of an unmistakable roof. 5.9

Pitch 16: Climb past the obvious three-foot roof. This move is easily aided, making the route 5.10 C1. Otherwise, expect a 5.11- pull past the route. This move is much more difficult than any other move on the route. It is possible to traverse right and climb a splitter hand crack through the roof, but this may present its own set of problems. Sustained 5.9 cracks lead up to the belay.

Pitches 17 and 18: Gradually widening cracks lead to the summit. The last pitch contains some 5.8 offwidth climbing, but it's really not too bad.

Descent: Rap the route. The upper part of the route has fixed belay stations, so rapping is straightforward (just be careful about snagging your rope on the knobs). Once you reach the ledge, the rap route diverges from the climbing route and heads down the face. There is a serious epic potential here as the stations are tough to find on the big face. Stay out of the chimney at all costs. I know. If you end up rapping back into the chimney, you're in for a long and slow descent as your rope gets hung up on every possible feature.

George Bell's website has a great topo and tips for climbing this route in a day: gibell.net/cirque/

Protection

Standard rack, heavy on the stoppers for the upper pitches. Two 60 meter ropes.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Headwall above P-10
[Hide Photo] Headwall above P-10
Steven Lucarelli on pitch 12. July 2015
[Hide Photo] Steven Lucarelli on pitch 12. July 2015
Final hand cracks on the SE Face of Lotus. One of the radder pitches I've ever lead!
[Hide Photo] Final hand cracks on the SE Face of Lotus. One of the radder pitches I've ever lead!
Al Rubin and Mark Whiton jugging in bad weather on day 2 - July 1977
[Hide Photo] Al Rubin and Mark Whiton jugging in bad weather on day 2 - July 1977
Climbing pitch 11 above the big ledge. The amazing headwall and the crux roof can be seen above. Photo Yan Mongrain.
[Hide Photo] Climbing pitch 11 above the big ledge. The amazing headwall and the crux roof can be seen above. Photo Yan Mongrain.
Mark Whiton and Al Rubin at the summit - July 1977. This was back in the day when you traversed southwest over one false summit, did a diagonal rap to a col and then did many raps down an icy couloir to get off the route. A very alpine adventure
[Hide Photo] Mark Whiton and Al Rubin at the summit - July 1977. This was back in the day when you traversed southwest over one false summit, did a diagonal rap to a col and then did many raps down an icy coulo…
Savoring the stellar headwall.
[Hide Photo] Savoring the stellar headwall.
Karl Kelley on some of the best climbing ever!
[Hide Photo] Karl Kelley on some of the best climbing ever!
Steven Lucarelli. pitch 15. The roof pitch..
[Hide Photo] Steven Lucarelli. pitch 15. The roof pitch..
the foreshortened Southeast Face from the base of the Lotus, climbers beginning the second pitch
[Hide Photo] the foreshortened Southeast Face from the base of the Lotus, climbers beginning the second pitch
Mark Whiton leading on day 2. By the time we got the second and bigger roof, we'd be dealing with a full on storm.
[Hide Photo] Mark Whiton leading on day 2. By the time we got the second and bigger roof, we'd be dealing with a full on storm.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

jtwalter
Orem, UT
[Hide Comment] Great video of Beth Rodden, Tommy Caldwell, Arnaud Petit and Stephanie Bodet climbing Lotus Flower Tower.

dailymotion.com/video/xh15m… Nov 8, 2007
[Hide Comment] I want to do this climb soooo bad. If only it were closer to home Dec 2, 2007
[Hide Comment] This is one of the coolest routes I've ever done. The knob climbing on the middle pitches was the closest I've ever come to gym style climbing in the alpine realm. You plug gear into the thin seams and pull and stand on these super cool chicken heads. Camping in Fairy Meadows is awesome, but the area is very sensitive - please tread lightly. Dec 5, 2007
George Bell
Boulder, CO
[Hide Comment] The video above is excellent. It is great to see such elite climbers having a blast on this route. I was expecting to hear Caldwell or Rodden complaining about how easy the climbing was, but there is none of this. There is a great sequence of Beth climbing in a snowstorm near the end. Dec 12, 2007
[Hide Comment] @ Brad; Me too. I'm have a loooong distance to The Cirques. I think I'll go there in 2009 or 2010 Jul 19, 2008
[Hide Comment] new link for video

youtu.be/hVkgSZUwn3k May 2, 2012
Spencer Weiler
Grand Junction
[Hide Comment] Link to my trip report jadelittlewood.wordpress.co… Nov 17, 2016
[Hide Comment] Just climbed this a few weeks ago and it definitely lived up to all the hype.
Just FYI to anyone that wants to do an ultra good deed and replace some stuff, every anchor, including on the rappel route bypassing the chimney, is a huge nest of tat. There's generally at least one decent bolt at each anchor but there's also a lot of not amazing stuff. Jul 26, 2017
Hans Bauck
Squamish, BC
 
[Hide Comment] OK, this was a great route, though a bit of a sandbag. In particular the first two pitches are much harder than the topo suggests. I would say 10- 10+, and then 10 for the 3rd pitch. And that is for dry conditions. The rest is reasonable, but still solid for the grades.

There is a lot of dangerous loose rock in the chimneys that demand caution and respect, and we found the entire route to take much longer than we anticipated. Other parties we spoke to agreed with our assessment. We ended up taking two days and were glad we did so. Think of a longer and harder Beckey-Chouinard.

Having said this, it was an amazing (though expensive) adventure from beginning to end and I highly recommend it. The upper pitches are fantastic and camping in the meadows was sublime. Even the drive along the Stewart-Cassiar highway felt adventurous. Aug 15, 2018
[Hide Comment] Anyone got Beta on the roof crux? Jul 24, 2019
Keenan Nowak
Squamish
 
[Hide Comment] Our party removed many pounds of tat off of the extremely congested headwall anchors on July 17 2023. Some of the tat we removed looked like '90s vintage! Aug 8, 2023
Space Dust
  5.10+ C0
[Hide Comment] Long and adventuresome route. Old school 5.10+ A0 or solid 5.11. Did this in a long day. Expect lose rock in the chimneys. Not sure I would call it the best rock climb in the world but I would call it a 5 star adventure. Sep 29, 2023
Christian Black
Salt Lake City, UT
  5.10+
[Hide Comment] Trip report write-up about LFT and packrafting the South Nahanni out here:
freesnakeclimbing.com/trip-… Jan 13, 2024
Joshua Noble
Bellingham WA
[Hide Comment] To save folks some sadness in the dark: the first rappel off of the ledge is out to climbers right and about 30 meters down. Don't go fall line to the end of your rope or you'll be jugging back up by headlamp like me. Oct 3, 2024