Direct East Face

An enjoyable climb straight up the middle of the broad east face of Mt Darwin. Straightforward to approach, just pass around the right side of Midnight Lake, hike uphill towards Blue Heaven Lake, and then contour west, heading past the small unnamed lakes at the base of the East Face. The route ascends an obvious bowl between two ribs. See the photos.

The climb begins a little to the right of the highpoint of the snow. Climb an easy corner crack, then traverse left under an overhang (5.6). Continue up and left to a big ledge. If you're reading the Secor book you might think you're done with the difficulties, but you're not.

At the back left corner of the ledge is an overhanging chockstone (old fixed cam was there at time of writing). Make some bouldery moves getting established above the block. Probably hard 5.9 or maybe 10a, but it's one of those things that doesn't count toward the rating because it's just 5ft of climbing off a ledge. If you're soloing it's no big deal because there's no exposure. You can also pull on gear to get past, if you need to. After that, there's another couple hundred feet of easy 5th trending up and left and then up and right, following the path of least resistance.

Once the terrain gets lower angle and covered in loose debris it's probably best to change to approach shoes and coil up the rope if you haven't already. Scramble up the gully, passing some cliffbands with 3/4th class on the sides. Trend left at the top and you'll arrive at the notch between the plateau and the summit spire.

To ascend the summit block:

Looking at the summit from the notch, get onto a ledge down and to the right. Then shimmy down a very clean and smooth chimney a short ways. Step across to another ledge that leads around the corner to the Southeast side. Then climb straight up a lovely corner crack with good jams and holds, moving right at the end. From here mantle onto the summit.

Middle of the East Face, a dark water stain is in the middle of the recess.

Light alpine rack