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West Ridge

Easy 5th, Trad, Alpine, 5 pitches,  Avg: 2.5 from 4 votes
FA: unknown
Alaska > Anchorage & S C… > Hatcher Pass > Glacier Creek D… > Lower Spire

Description

This is a fun adventure climb that most parties will likely do in 4-6 roped pitches. The climbing is choose your own adventure, with opportunities to throw in some fun 5.6-5.8 moves. It can also be done all 5.easy.

Follow the west ridge up from the pass as it becomes progressively more difficult from 3rd, to 4th, to 5th class. Favor the left side of the ridge for upward progress linking tundra ledges. Rope up when you feel the need, but it's reasonable to scramble to ~5840.

From here rope up and climb the ridge to your liking. There are existing anchors, consisting of webbing/rope slung rock, but anchor options abound and bypassing the existing anchors on the way up makes sense for efficiency.

Closer to the top, gendarme like features will require downclimbing, rappelling, or traversing to avoid. Traversing a slab on the right side of the ridge makes sense on the way up. While it may be a crux of the climb it's still 5.easy and avoids the hassle of rappelling or the sketchiness of a very steep downclimb.

For the last 1-2 pitches balance on the knife edge, or au cheval.

For the upper descent it might make more sense to downclimb on belay, rather than deal with awkward rappels. Lower down, rappels and easy unroped downclimbing easily link existing anchors even with a 50m rope.

Protection

Light alpine rack with plenty of cord (as existing webbing and cord is quite rotten).

This is a good route for approach shoes. Climbing shoes would make it sketchier due to the lack of any tread.

We climbed it with a single 50m 7.3mm w/o issue. Pick your poison. The climbing is easy and could be free soloed, but the descent w/o rope would be sketchy. Due to fickle weather and the nature of the route, not having a rope could be VERY dangerous if there's any precipitation.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Jess on one of the upper pitches
[Hide Photo] Jess on one of the upper pitches
Lower Spire W Ridge.  Many low 5th options abound, with a couple harder lines in there as well.
[Hide Photo] Lower Spire W Ridge. Many low 5th options abound, with a couple harder lines in there as well.
Traversing a low angle slab pitch
[Hide Photo] Traversing a low angle slab pitch
Another look at a ledgy pitch
[Hide Photo] Another look at a ledgy pitch
A look at one of the more direct and steep pitches
[Hide Photo] A look at one of the more direct and steep pitches
A look at some of the ledgy, blocky climbing (why approach shoes are preferable to rock shoes - look at all that moist tundra)
[Hide Photo] A look at some of the ledgy, blocky climbing (why approach shoes are preferable to rock shoes - look at all that moist tundra)