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zozo
Aug 19, 2004, 1:53 PM
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Registered: Feb 3, 2004
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Looking for some info - got any? How many hours did it take you? Im hearing it's long and hard, and Im hearing it's not that bad.
Should also say we are thinking of doing it early october. Snow?
Thanks in advance.
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shorty
Aug 19, 2004, 3:27 PM
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I thought it was a fun route. Simul-climbing the lower arete allowed to move quickly and still maintain my "I hate soloing" mantra. The first real climbing pitches (5.5 or so in dihedrals) went without a hitch -- good pro and easy route finding. The crux pitch was a little strange -- an awkward move into the wide, right leaning crack. Seemed a little hard for 5.7, but it is at altitude with a small pack. The route finding after the head crack is somewhat nebulous, but as long as you stay away from the "overhanging dihedral with the handcrack and field of lichen" area just to the west after finishing the head crack, it goes just fine.
Coming down can be a pain if you don't know the way. We kept going left from the summit and found beautiful 3rd class scrambling (with only minor back tracking for getting into 4th class terrain). Our total car-to-car time was 9 hours, with 1 hour on the summit. I never felt we were rushed or that we pushed all that hard.
October could work, but it could be "interesting" if any snow has fallen on the peak.
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steelmonkey
Aug 19, 2004, 4:00 PM
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Registered: Oct 10, 2002
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The route is nice. If you can move over class 3 terrain quickly, you should be able to complete it with an early start. Most of the climbing is pretty easy and even the technical pitches up high aren't that bad. Don't know what the odds are of weather or snow in October, though. If you thiink you'll have a time issue, might be better to backpack into the lakes to get a closer start than trying to go parking lot-to-parking lot in a day.
I have some pictures and a rough topo of the route on my site:
http://tinyurl.com/46ll4
Buncha trip reports on the North American Classic Climbs site:
http://www.naclassics.com/...bs/crestone/beta.htm
Good luck. Nice alpine route.
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steelmonkey
Aug 19, 2004, 4:01 PM
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Registered: Oct 10, 2002
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The route is nice. If you can move over class 3 terrain quickly, you should be able to complete it with an early start. Most of the climbing is pretty easy and even the technical pitches up high aren't that bad. Don't know what the odds are of weather or snow in October, though. If you thiink you'll have a time issue, might be better to backpack into the lakes to get a closer start than trying to go parking lot-to-parking lot in a day.
I have some pictures and a rough topo of the route on my site:
http://tinyurl.com/46ll4
Buncha trip reports on the North American Classic Climbs site:
http://www.naclassics.com/...bs/crestone/beta.htm
Good luck. Nice alpine route.
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zozo
Aug 19, 2004, 4:58 PM
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Registered: Feb 3, 2004
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Yeah Im talking about the ridge on La Plata. Im reading alot of conflicting stuff about it so I wanted to hear from some people who have actually done it.
Thanks. I bookmarked the infor on the arete for future reference.
Allen_Ellis, those are some great photo's! Give's you a great look at the route and terrain.
Skibabeage let me how it goes if you decide to do it on sunday. Good luck!
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climb14er
Aug 19, 2004, 8:11 PM
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Registered: Jun 26, 2003
Posts: 152
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You're going to have difficult and sustained third and fourth class climbing and scrambling ahead of you that will probably last eight hours (or more) and that's just the ascent.
IMHO, this is a route for hardened climbers and 14er folks who are used to moving very quicky and finding ones' way on a two mile, tough ridge.
Good luck, enjoy and I look forward to your TR.
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