I did this route last Saturday (06/28/03). We started in the middle (B route on SuperTopo). Here is the beta as I remember:

--We took 3 quarts of water. Consumed one on the approach, carried one with us (NOT enough) and left one at the base.

--We had rain jackets but neglected to carry a backpack up so my second was shivering after the 3rd pitch as well as dealing with a serious altitude headache. She was not a happy camper.

lots of people, horseplay, and rocks being knocked off constantly. It seemed that many of the folks climbing this route approached it as very casual and non-committing.

Fun route not to be underestemated as the approach, climb, routefinding (unless you follow the hordes), descent, and altitude are commiting.


P1: went easy 5.6

P2: I tried the recommended face climbing was but found the "Not recommended" Right facing corner more comfortable as it takes better pro. I eased up into a left facing slot ,left side in or back against the wall where I got a solid #3 in, after which I pulled around onto the face. After 20 feet, I moved back into the corner system to finish.

P3: since the B route was completely overran with people, I opted to move to the C route out right. This was a fun pitch, the 5.6 fingers toward the end of the pitch are very comfortable and secure.

P4: I moved the belay to the base of the chimney (short pitch.. about 20 feet) so my 2nd would be out of everyones way and in the shade. She started to get cold here and altitude sickness began to set in.

P5: 5.7 corner with 3 pitons. NOT THE FIRST CORNER SYSTEM, LOOK AROUND THE CORNER TO THE 2nd or 3rd FLAKE SYSTEM WITH PITONS. This is a great pitch. I found the 1st piton without any trouble and climbed up to a knife edged flake system which traverses out right. Searching for the 2nd piton, I wound up at the end of the flake and stood there looking at a dicey face smear over to another flake system 5 feet further on (off route). After setting a cam there, I decided that there is no way this is going 5.7 and dug out the ol' topo for another look. After gazing back over my left shoulder, I found the 2nd piton about 15 feet up a flake system 25 feet back from where I stood. Not much further up, is the 3rd piton. There is a big slot, too big for hands but there is a vertical ledge back in there so if you throw yourself into the slot, everything is there. At the end there is a nice hand crack, sort of overhanging with a big hold out left to finish up on. The belay is a blue sling around a tree, a VERY MANKY 1/4 inch bold (Needs replacing), and a #1 or #2 cam down left.

P6: instead of using the 5.7 corner, I got out on the face just left of the corner. There are lots of knobs here and easy climbing. This pitch went fast with minimal pro. We were out of water and my partners diminishing health, along with dehidration for us both, became a very real concern. We needed get down ASAP.

P7: Climbed hand crack up left to just below the true summit. We traversed out across a dropoff to a 3rd class system of ledges.

Decent: These became 4th class soon so we rapped off of trees, to the scree field below. After walking for awhile we made it around and over the ridge mentioned in supertopo and down to the path. Once I made it back to our backpack, just before getting to our water, I swallowed a mosquito and thought I was going to die having a coughing fit. I stumbled back to my couragous partner with our water, we shared water and advil and began our trek back out of the woods.

The next day we went to the grill for a greasy hamburger. While there, I noticed a guy had a t-shirt on which said: "Out of pain grows strength"