Sarah's Line

In honor of Sarah Moughamian. 

Not to be confused with a Classic, but a pretty darn good line. 

We bolted this route in a way where one cannot french free through the cruxes. When the pump catches up with you, keep fighting. 

Pitch 1: Deceivingly Steep Flake - 8 bolts (.10a), 30 meters. Start up the black rock that quickly turns into a beautiful orange where a boulder problem crux appears sooner than I would have liked it to. Above the boulder problem lies a flake that the remainder of the pitch follows. Climb the flake with a mixture of face and crack climbing, then make a few mantles to gain the anchors. Two bolt anchor on top of the pedestal. 

Bump the belay left 30 feet onto the large ledge with a bolt at head height below a small roof. 

Pitch 2: Cruxless Zig-Zag - 7 bolts (.11a), 30 meters. Epic Uinta edge climbing that never gets harder or easier. Zigging and zagging is the name of the game. This pitch is rad! Two bolt anchor. 

Pitch 3: Lichen or Not - 9 bolts (.11b?), 35+ meters. Super fun pitch that has an airy feeling. From the belay, climb up and right of the roof, clip the bolt then step left and follow the bolts. The second to last bolt is hard to locate until you step right where continuing straight up doesn’t seem like an option anymore. One more bolt in easy terrain leads to a two bolt anchor on a ledge.  

At the top of P3, (.11?) traverse up and right 50 meters on the midway ramp to gain the Upper Headwall. Watch for loose rock and heads up there is no bottom belay anchor for Pitch 4. 

Upper Headwall

Pitch 4: The Stem Slot - 10 bolts (.11a?), 40 meters. An awkward start leads to easier climbing and a rest. After the rest, fire seemingly unlikely moves out left, score the hold and continue up the face to the belay ledge. Don't give up before the mantle. Two bolt anchor. 

Pitch 5: The Overhang - 10 bolts (.11a?), 45 meters. A few moderate bolts leads into the crunch moves. Get up underneath the roof and reach high. The pitch looks steep and feels even steeper. After pulling the roof keep fighting because it is not over yet. Two bolt anchor at a glory ledge. Turn around and enjoy. 

Summit Scramble: From the top of P5 continue up towards the summit. Approximately 35 meters - From the final belay ledge head up the ramp to the final feature (although there look to be other possible variations), we chose an easy 5th class dihedral both times we climbed this route. 

Summit of Notch Mountain - 11,555'

Walk off west to the Notch Mountain Saddle (stashing water here is a major bonus for the descent). Follow cairns / line of least resistance back to the Notch.

NE Face of Notch Mountain. Follow directions to Ibantik Lake. Traverse the talus field at the base of the wall approximately 20 minutes. Go past a chimney / alcove feature and continue on to another chimney feature. There is a solid flat spot to rack up, then walk up into the narrowing chimney feature to find the start of Pitch 1. 

Alpine Sport