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South Arete,
4th class with a couple of 5.4 moves, 400'
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back
to wa pass |
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The
descent route off the South Spire and a popular first climb in the
region. After a surprisingly stout first move, some less interesting
stretches takes you into the big chimney, capped by a roof. Another
memorable sequence negotiates this overhang, followed by enjoyable
srambling and the occasional knife edge arete. Soon the summit of
the highest spire in the group is reached.
As a descent route after summiting from other climbs you should
find it relatively straight forward. The wear marks and obvious
lay of the route makes it a simple down climb until the optional
two rappels at the bottom. Time: less than an hour. |
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Sonja posing under the
route after climbing Spire Gully in early morning of this May day
in 2007. The South Arete looks clean and snow free from this vantage
point, yet we encountered somewhat challenging conditions.
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The main difficulties
behind us, we're faced with enjoyable snow and mixed climbing on
the upper spire. The crux moves at the beginning was tough this
day, with icy rock and friction moves in big boots. Also the chimney
was a dripping icicle, so we found an interesting, yet committing
variation to the climbers right.
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The upper part of the
arete with the approaches to Kangaroo Pass spread out under us
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Left:
Sonja leading the summit pitch |
Below:
Finally a picture from drier times. Joe Sprauer descending the
South Arete after climbing another route |
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