[Hide Comment] Nice alpine rock route! The western approach (PCT to first creek crossing, then up) has minimal brush and the approach pitch (55 m to ridge) is on decent rock. Gave it a PG because the gendarme section has minimal pro to protect second. Pretty easy for 5.9 trad climbers, not so much for a 5.7 team. If you approach from the west, strongly encourage reversing the route with a mix of rappels and down-climbing. We descended the West Ridge and could not find a reasonable way back into the approach drainage. Aug 22, 2018

[Hide Comment] A trip report for North Ridge on August 16th, 2020: summitseeker775258741.wordp…
We did the Washington Pass approach, which I wouldn't recommend. The first pitch was terrible terrible rock. Once you've gotten through the first two pitches though, the rest is fun and cruiser. We descended the West Ridge. Dec 24, 2020

[Hide Comment] North Ridge - Porcupine. The approach is straightforward and gaining the ridge is too. I can't think of a single place on the ridge that was more difficult than low 5th with good protection. The West Ridge rappels are great but the worst part of the descent follows them. That said, it is far from the worst descent in the general area. There are enough rap stations to easily reverse the N Ridge. If I were doing the N Ridge again I'd probably just reverse the route and suspect it would be just as quick for a competent party. Overall a fun route, but don't expect a lot of technical climbing. Jul 4, 2021

[Hide Comment] Fun climb, nothing terribly hard, some loose rock but solid enough to be quite enjoyable, overall a great alpine outing not to be underestimated. Important note: From Cutthroat Pass trailhead, head north on the trail about 3/4 mile to the first major stream, head east uphill here, do NOT continue to Porcupine Creek contrary to what most approach descriptions seem to say, that would take you into the next basin north with access to the north peak, not the main peak. Climber's right of the stream was easier. Brush is dense at times. At the big waterfall in the alpine meadow we went left up loose crap below the waterfall then traversed right above it. We didn't find any 5th class getting to the notch, just 2nd-3rd class and loose. Starting in the true notch went at 5.6 or so, no pro for 20', worked fine but sounds like gaining the ridge crest from just before the notch is easier. Lots of rap stations, a single 60m is plenty. Descending the route worked great. No crampons/ice axe needed on 7/23/22. Single rack 0.5-3 worked fine. 8-12 hours car to car for most parties. Jul 25, 2022

[Hide Comment] 3 of us approached and descended the Rainy Pass (western) side of Cutthroat. Approach was mild for off-trail travel, staying climbers left of the creek. Once in the basin below Cutthroat, we ascended a climbable, sandy slope left of the cliffs, traversed climbers right and up again, eventually seeing the obvious NR notch. From the Rainy Pass side, reaching the north ridge notch involved only class 3 scrambling, no need to rope up. Pitched the obvious dyke up to a rap station (minimal protection for first 20-30ft), and from there simul cimbed. Rock was good from there to the summit. The Ian Nicholson guide says to leave the crest after pitch 4, but we stayed on the crest for the entire climb, which added a few small sections of 5.6-5.7 climbing. After the downclimb we did a single pitch to the summit with a 70m rope, belaying on a crack on the north side of the summit. Route finding up to the summit was simple. You ascend a face to a chimney/gully; at the top of this the summit is to your left and the rap station is dead ahead. Two rappels on a 70m rope gets you to a short, 4th class downclimb to the west ridge. Simul-climbing this (easy but exposed) until the ridge begins to steepen significantly. There is a rap station I was not able to see until I was just below it. Rappel from here parallel to the west ridge to an obvious dusty platform with a second set of rings (the Ian Nicholson guide was useful for this). From the second set of rings, aim your rope toss towards another obvious dusty platform--thirds set of rap rings are just above this platform. One more rappel will take you to the base of the rock face, and a short hike will get you to the col between Cutthroat Peak and the southwest Cutthroat peak. The descent from here to rainy pass got significantly trickier and more dangerous. Steep, loose, sandy rock made for a slow and risky descent, with high risk of rockfall--we may have missed rap stations but we did not see any. Halfway down we found a tree to rap off of, which we quickly chose versus more downclimbing. We rappelled to a second tree, and pulling down the rope for this rappel discharged a significant amount of loose rock. We got down to the basin after this rappel, and returned the way we came up, avoiding slopes directly below the west rige and opted to go around to the north side of the basin.
Rainy pass approach made for a very trivial approach to the north ridge notch, but returning this way down the west ridge makes for a treacherous descent after the bolted rappels. There are multiple webbing rap stations set up along the north ridge at this point, and this would make for a far safer descent than the standard west ridge descent. My advice is to descend the north ridge if coming from Rainy Pass, and descent the west ridge if coming from washington pass.
Water still present in the western basin. Beautiful climb! Jul 31, 2023