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Ascent Notes for: South Face III 5.8 - 5.8 Average Rating = 4.60/5 Average Rating : 4.60/5

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Ratings
  Difficulty 5.8
  Safety Rating PG13
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Onsight Onsight ascent by: jmeizis on 2013-06-27 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars Excellent Alpine Route

Really fun, pretty casual. Made the approach in 2 hours, climbed the route in five hours. I recommend bringing two 60's as we used a 50M tagline and that proved to cause some slight difficulties in the descent. It can be done but it doesn't make it easier. Lots of good pitches and a great summit. The altitude makes it feel a little hard for a 5.8

Added: 2013-06-27

Ratings
  Difficulty
  Safety Rating G
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Onsight Onsight ascent by: 5starclimbs on 2012-06-25 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars 2nd day

w/ Justin Caggiano

Added: 2012-09-04

Ratings
  Difficulty 5.8
  Safety Rating G
Onsight Onsight ascent by: 3cclimber on 2009-08-17 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars fun

good climb with a good freind two ropes are very nice.

Added: 2010-03-25

Ratings
  Difficulty 5.8
  Safety Rating G
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Flash Flash ascent by: diggler on 2009-08-27 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars awesome climb

One of the best climbs I've done. Approach is 4.5 miles, straightforward, & by & large mellow (don't believe any horror stories). If you look at the map (most label the second lake as Sky Pond, so I don't understand any confusion here), it should be obvious (also it is completely obvious where the formation is- once you get to Sky Pond, the view is exactly the one shown in every guidebook).

First 2 pitches (straight up the most obvious chimney system I've ever seen) are straightforward, easy 5th. Then the climbing gets fun!

I found the crux to be burly for a 5.8, but the pro' is bomber, so go for it!

Remainder of climb is highly enjoyable. Second (?) pitch above the ledge directly above the crux pitch requires some route-finding, but if you follow the chalk, fixed pieces, & the easiest line, it's not too bad- just be mindful of rope drag.

Summit is perhaps the most outrageous I've ever been on- extremely invogorating!

We only had one rope for the rappels, which made the descent a bit more tedious than I was hoping for, but you CAN get down with 1 60 (though 2 would definitely make it easier- wish that rap' stations accomodated those with 1 rope better; the actual climb is fine to do with just one 60)- it just takes some more hunting around/some easy downclimbing.

Excellent climb, amazing formation & rock, great pro. A classic, just like Steck & Roper called it.

Added: 2009-09-03

Ratings
  Difficulty 5.8
  Safety Rating G
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Onsight Onsight ascent by: benanderson04 on 2009-08-14 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars Great

made the hike in in a little under two hours, climbing the route with about 6 other party's (really fun) and made the descent without incident. one lone day for sure but very fun. All info from "rock climb colorado" was accurate with common sense. Go have fun!

Added: 2009-08-21

Ratings
  Difficulty
  Safety Rating G
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Onsight Onsight ascent by: pendereki on 1992-08-18 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars Fun

Very worthwhile.

Added: 2009-03-08

Ratings
  Difficulty
  Safety Rating G
Onsight Onsight ascent by: stamplis on 2008-07-29 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars _

A fantastic outing with a fabulous summit. The rock is really quite solid and pro quite reasonable - and as a bonus it has one of the easiest descents in the Rockies: bring two ropes and do 5 raps or so (all from bolts) from the summit back to Skypond. We climbed Saber the next day and had a very different experience, tiptoeing around huge loose flakes and sketching out while descending "The Gash". It's funny to hear the story from the guy below - Sounds like we climbed it on the same day because we sat down by Sky Pond and watched a party of 2 have a LONG, epic-looking day complete with two or three bouts of rain/hail before bailing. Now it makes sense why they got such a late start - We were glad that they got off safe.

Added: 2008-08-21

Ratings
  Difficulty 5.9 V0 WI1 A0 M1 F
  Safety Rating X
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Hang Dog Hang Dog ascent by: shawnbenson on 2008-08-05 (View Climbing Log)

1 out of 5 stars Don't bother

Disappointing! That is the best word to describe this route. I recommend hiking in without gear and hang out at Sky Pond and take in the scenery. That’s the only reason this route is climbed anyway. If it wasn’t for the scenery, you would see very different reviews on this route. But, if you want to find out for yourself here’s what to “really” expect. First off, here’s some useful information on the approach that everyone left out: the first pond you come to at the top of the waterfall is not Sky Pond. I’ll say it again because it’s that important. THE FIRST POND YOU GET TO AT THE TOP OF THE WATERFALL IS NOT SKY POND! I like to call that F-U pond because this little piece of information turned our approach into a 4 hour tour. When you get to F-U pond, follow the carins to the rest of the obvious trail to Sky Pond. You will not be able to see the route until you can see Sky Pond, so don’t waste time looking for it yet. Then, right before you get to Sky Pond look for a slightly beaten down climbers path that eventually scrambles talus to the base of the route. PUT HELMETS ON HERE! You might as well get used to wearing a helmet now, because you are about to encounter the loosest rocks you have ever seen. Oh, and if you’re thinking the approach is only 2 hours…think again! Expect a MINIMUM of 2.5 hours for the approach if you know EXACTLY where you’re going, even with the beta you get here and anywhere else, and expect about 3 hours if you’ve never been there before. With some of the untold beta I’m giving you, there shouldn’t be much issues with finding it the first time, even when you’re doing a pre-dawn start in the dark…as you must if you want to do this as a day climb.

So, you finally made to Sky Pond…quite the view isn’t it! You’re saying to yourself, “Boy the Petit Grepon sure looks cool from here, and I bet the view from up there is even better. I don’t care what Shawn said about the route, I want to climb it!” Well, I understand. I am the same way when it comes to climbing and most things in life: I like to find out for myself and I always seem to learn things the hard way. So here’s some beta from my recent experience on 29 July 2008.

When you get to base of the climb the description is to start to the left of the huge crack. Well, we saw some shoes at the base of the route to the right of this crack and thought maybe this is where to start. “But the book says to start to the left?” I said. So, I decided to stick with the description I had and start that way. A lot of people say that they solo the first 2 pitches. If you start on the slabs to right of the crack, then I can see doing that, but if you’re starting on the left, I don’t recommend it because of the loose rock you will encounter. Now, I’ve soloed the entire East Buttress on Whitney so I’m familiar with soloing easy stuff at high altitude, but with the amount of loose rock on this route, I wasn’t feeling it, so I roped up part way up. I’ve had a bad experience with loose rock in the Highlands in Scotland and let me tell you…this is no place you want to chance it!

The top of the first two pitches is the first big grassy terrace. It’s huge and you can see the nice new rappel anchors way to your right. Here is where the climbing really starts, but this pitch is not inspiring at all. Here is where your “loose rock” adventure really starts. Climb the chimney and follow the beta Mr. Vernon has described on the Mountain Project website. Be very careful on EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH! This includes hand and foot holds. This entire piece of rock is one big loose mess and any piece of it can break off, so be careful. I like the hard-tapping method with my palm to see what it sounds like before I use it.

The next pitch (I’m not going to say the third pitch, fourth pitch, etc. since it all depends on what you did to get to the first terrace) actually has some good climbing on it. The diagonal left-leaning crack is pretty fun and well protected. Enjoy it while it lasts! Soon after, it’s back to the loose mess again.

The next pitch is not impressive at all and is confusing. I had one description that said go left out of the chimney and another that said go right. I decided when I got up there to go left since there was actually places for pro and I was already worried about killing my wife with loose rock belaying me down below. At the top of this pitch are the two fixed pitons at a hanging belay and a gnarly thin crack directly above. Save a #1 camalot for another good anchor point in a small hole down & left of the pitons. The rope hook was very handy here also!

The crux pitch. That crack directly above you…that’s a stiff 5.9 crack. Let’s mention that again. THE CRACK DIRECTLY ABOVE YOU IS A STIFF 5.9! I failed to note this in the description I had with me and went up that way, since that’s the only place there was any chalk. As with all alpine climbs, everything up here is about 1-2 grades harder than usual. I can climb 5.9’s and some 5.10’s all day long at 7,000 ft or lower but up here it’s a lot different. This is the only place I hung and had trouble on and I looked stupid on this pitch. I wasn’t climbing anymore, I was aiding. I wasn’t convinced that avoiding the crack and going right was correct or safe so I tried my luck at the crack. Also, I was not sure that I would end up where I was supposed to be after the runout up & right of the pitons. That’s probably the way to go to keep this route at 5.8, but I was already nervous about runouts on this climb by that point. I don’t mind runouts and that’s probably why my absolute favorite type of climbing is old-school slab climbing (like you see on White Punks on Dope in the Needles). However, based on what I already saw regarding loose rock up to this point, I decided to play it safe. The weather was already looking bad on the previous pitch and it started raining and hailing a bit. But by the time my wife got up to the previous pitch it cleared up and I decided to stick it out. Now, add the fact that I’m now aiding up this pitch and not climbing anymore, I’m losing enthusiasm. At the top of this pitch is a nice huge ledge on the East side of the route with more loose rock. As per usual on every pitch on this climb, watch what you’re doing and where the rope is to avoid launching rocks on your trusty belayer.

By this time it was 1700, the weather was looking grim again and we had enough. I found a retreat spot around the corner with some slings and rap rings and we decided to call it a day. I am usually obsessed with reaching the summit on my climbs and always do no matter how long it takes, but on this route…I just didn’t care anymore. I was ready to retreat and get off this thing. The view…spectacular! Also, the only reason this route sees traffic as I mentioned before. The rappel descriptions described by James Beissel are right on the money! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! You do need two ropes to rappel the route and they must be 60 meter ropes. One piece of information: the slings you see in the distance to the right of Petit Grepon are not the slings around the horn you’re looking for. The slings around that horn are directly below the second terrace and are pretty camouflaged. They are round slings as opposed to flat slings and you won’t see the bolted anchors below them until you are right at the slings. Basically, rappel directly down the Petit Grepon where the rope naturally falls on rappel 4 of Mr. Beissel’s excellent description.

Retreat info:
Bring two 60 meter ropes! I so want twin ropes now J Since we bailed at the grassy belay spot right when the route turns to the East side of the spire, I only have retreat info from this point. BRING A HEADLAMP AND RAIN JACKET! The weather comes in from the other side of the spire that you can’t see so it can be on top of you instantly. I hope this retreat info is useful to anyone this happens to. Be prepared. There is a rappel station, that is not part of Mr. Beissel’s description, on the top of the crux pitch. It is to the right around the corner. You can’t see it until you look around the corner on the far right side of this ledge. There are a bunch of slings, a couple rap rings, and a medium nut as the anchor. It looked fairly solid, but I don’t know how long it would last. Use caution and check that the rock is solid before trusting it. Push-come-to-shove…I would have left gear if necessary. I always bring some slings and rap rings on these type of routes just in case. Use good judgment here. Rap down about 20 – 30 meters to a grassy ledge (still on the East side of the route). You can use one rope for this rappel, but you will need two for the rest. The rappel anchors for rappel 4 of Mr. Beissel’s description are to left of this grassy ledge. Finish the retreat per his description from those anchors (3 more rappels from here).
To retreat from the second terrace, VERY CAREFULLY, down climb to the horn with the slings around it. In fact, I would be on a rope and down climb to it and then have my belayer clean up the anchor and belay them down to me. The rappel anchors are just below the horn. Finish the last two rappels as described by Mr. Beissel.

If you must climb this route, then do the rappels for the descent. It’s really the way to go. It brings you back to your packs and shoes and gets you out of there quickly. You should allow a good hour to hour and a half for all the rappels from the top. Both my wife and I had small daypacks with lunch, water, and rain gear on the route and that was plenty. Make sure you have a good 2 liters of water for the climb. Here’s another tip: you can refill your water from one of the waterfalls up at Sky pond. There’s the obvious one you climb up to get to F-U pond and there’s another on the left side of Sky Pond. We didn’t do that because we didn’t know but I would think it would be safe to drink. There’s no animals up there to contaminate the water and it looks pretty pure. Do your homework on this first and maybe bring a purifier tablet or something in case, but that would save you a lot of water weight. We each carried in 4L of water and used it up by the time we got back to our car.

We were lucky enough that the party above us were on the East side of the route and almost to the summit when we started. This is not a route to do with people above you since you can easily get seriously injured or killed by loose rock above. Personally, I would avoid this route and find something else to climb. It simply isn’t worth the risk and the climbing is really poor. Now I know I didn’t finish the route and it’s possible the best climbing was still to be had, and if that’s the case…still not worth it. You have to climb about 5-6 pitches of everything I just described to finally get to it and then there’s not that much of good climbing by that point.

The hike out can be done in 2 hours if you’re moving really good. I had my beer legs on so I was cruisin’ pretty good. It took us just under 2 hours to get to the car after down climbing the waterfall. Make sure you have new batteries in your headlamp and if you can avoid going down that waterfall at night…then do so! The trail between the parking lot and the waterfall is obvious, sign posted, and very well maintained. On the way in, just follow the signs for the Loch and Sky Pond and on the way out do the reverse for Glacier Basin trailhead. Keep an eye out for bears. We didn’t see any but obviously they’re there. The misquotes weren’t too bad but you may want to cover up or put repellent on for the hike. To do this climb as a day climb be on the trail no later than 0500, or 0300-0430 ideally. Expect to not be the only ones there, even on a weekday. I can’t understand why other then the scenery of the route, but oh well. Be extra careful regarding loose rock and don’t even think of climbing without a helmet. Bring rain gear and be ready for cool weather. You won’t need a down jacket but you may want a light long-sleeve and fleece vest top to climb in. Wear good hiking boots, preferably waterproof, on the hike in and comfortable trad shoes for the climb. Leave the big hexes behind and bring a rack with plenty of nuts, runners, long slings, and cams (single to doubles of micros and smalls, a couple #2’s, a #3, and a #4 camalot). Bring a few long slings and rap rings in case you need to replace any or retreat.

This was my first trip to the Rockies and despite my experience with this route, it definitely will not be my last. There must be better routes there and I’ll find one next time. The hiking there is great and there’s hikes for everyone. We did a little hike up to Emerald lake the next day and that was nice. Boy is hiking different when you don’t have a full pack! I hope this review is helpful to anyone considering climbing this route. I know other reviews and the beta found on the internet helped me. Hopefully this one does the same for you.

Added: 2008-08-05

Ratings
  Difficulty
  Safety Rating G
Onsight Onsight ascent by: bnoble on 2007-07-21 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars My first alpine route

I think me and aaron picked a good one for our first. Alpine climbing in glacier gorge is pretty breathtaking.

Added: 2007-07-26

Ratings
  Difficulty
  Safety Rating G
  Exposure
  Rock Quality
  Scenery
  Fun Factor
Onsight Onsight ascent by: smith_curry on 1997-07-18 (View Climbing Log)

5 out of 5 stars sidewalk in the sky

Classic

Added: 2006-12-25

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