Light Line

This is one of the classic San Juan Ridge scrambles on par with Wham Ridge (5.4) of Vestal Peak and the West Buttress (5.5) of Snowdon Peak. While a little cruxier than the other two, this one has a much easier approach. They ALL have an alpine feel to them in regards to adventure and rock quality. Don't go into this thinking it has the rock quality of Boulder's Flatirons. That is not the case. While the quartzite is bullet hard, there is loose rock all over the place, and you need to be diligent about keeping several points of contact and checking your holds before you commit to them along with a good sense for route finding. If you rope up for the entire route, it will take you a long time, and be prepared for many runouts. Quartzite can be tricky to place good gear in. The crux is pretty high on the route and is very exposed.

Light Line is the prominent arete/buttress rising above the Engineer Pass pulloff parking area. When the sun is out, it's very easy to spot.

This route first started out as a free-soloing exploration, but I ran out of time and had to go pick my son up from school. I returned a couple of days later with Jeff Skolada, and we climbed the buttress roping up for two pitches in the steeper middle section.

From the parking area, walk up the Engineer Pass road about 300' to the first drainage gully. Ascend this to just past the base of the buttress, maybe by about 100' to a staging area to begin your climb. If you're lazy and have 4WD, you can park at the second pullout on the Engineer Pass road and shave a couple of minutes off of your already short approach. You can leave a pack at the base as you'll be descending this way in most cases.

Look up the gully and towards a small buttress on the right side. This is where you will be descending.

In general, you'll be following the buttress to the top with minor wandering from side to side to avoid difficulties and looseness. Bolted anchors have been added to the steeper sections by an unknown party, likely SJMG. These will facilitate anchor set-ups and potential bailing, but you'll need two ropes.

The first 400'-500' of climbing head up the buttress with occasional steep sections. This is the loosest part of the route, so take care, but the climbing is not difficult - maybe one or two spots of up to 5.5.

Once the wall steepens, it might be a good time to rope up if you haven't already. Expect about 300 feet of 5.5 and 5.6 climbing that is exposed. Wandering to the left of the buttress initially avoids most of the loose rock. Move back right aiming for a weakness on the buttress. Be careful in choosing your route to avoid loose rock. If you're leading, expect it to be runout. A belay can be found on a small ledge about 40' below the roof. Just before you crest the steep section is the route's technical crux. It's a rock-over move stepping over a small roof onto a slab.

Once you've reached a small ledge above the steep headwall, the difficulties ease, and there is less loose rock to be found. Expect another 500' or so to reach the top of the ridge. There's one spot in particular moving left from the right side of the ridge with trees that you'll want to be careful on.

Once on the summit, take note of the descent. You'll be able to look over toward it. You'll be rapping of a tree at a low point to the top of a buttress and then down a dihedral into the top of the gully you've hiked up.

Descend the summit ridge to the right, down a hill of dirt and into the drainage that forms the upper portion of the ascent gully. Look for faint trails through here. There's no need to go bushwhacking. Where you cross the creek/drainage, you should be on a deer trail. follow this across the drainage and across the hillside. You'll want to drop down into an open area before cresting the next ridge. On one of the lower pine trees are anchor slings. Note, there are other rap slings in the area both from people getting lost and from winter ice climbing descents. The first rap finishes down the hillside over a little step onto the top of the buttress with a tree on it. Take note of this while on the summit.

The second rap follows the dihedral toward the gully. Look for anchors on the wall of the dihedral at the 100' mark. Watch your rope ends.

The third rap heads down the slap and onto a steeper wall. There's an inverted V-notch slightly (climber's) right of the fall line with the next anchor. If for some reason this area is icy (like a winter ascent for example), there's another anchor further right that's harder to get to.

The next rap lands you in the gully. Hike down the gully, and you'll encounter two dropoffs. You can either downclimb these or rappel. The first step has bolted anchors (skier's) right, or you can downclimb (skier's) left. The second step you can rap off some old mining relics (skier's) right, or downclimb (skier's) right. The rest is just a walk down the talus in the gully to your car.

Alternate solo descent (5.5): see the guidebook for a map. Only consider this if you soloed the climb and were comfortable and you know where the rappels are. If you soloed the climb and it wasn't chill, I suggest walking the summit forested ledge upcanyon past a mine until you can descend scree back to the Engineer Pass Road. While the scree is unpleasant, you're unlikely to die this way. Essentially, downclimb the first rap to the top of the buttress, drop off the upcanyon side for about 20' (stay on the more solid rock along the buttress), then contour back skier's right around the ridge to the face below the 2nd rap, and continue down weaknesses about 20' skier's left of the rappel line dihedral. Avoid the 3rd rappel anchor, and you'll reach a grassy/bushy patch before the wall steepens below. From the grassy bench, traverse left/upcanyon around the ridge and down a ledge/ramp system heading towards a big tree. There are a couple of loose blocks to watch out for here. Just above the tree is the crux. Once you reach the tree, head back toward the prominent gully down a ridge. A body length or two downclimb gets you off the ridge, and then you'll soon be in the main gully where you would have finished the raps.

Note: it is possible to hike off to the right (upcanyon) along the big ledge system past an old mine and then down to the Engineer Pass Road. I wouldn't recommend it as it's loose and rough going, but in some cases, it could be better than a rappel epic.

To be edited in.

One 60m rope. A light rack of gear will suffice. I don't recall using anything bigger than a #1 or #2 Camalot.