Ascent Notes for: Standard East Face - 5.4 popular Average Rating : 4.63/5

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I've done this route a few times, it's always a great way to relax on a nice long route.

Roped solo ascent: Climb; rappell and clean; climb again. No crowd; fun day. Passed by 2 free soloists around 1 1/2 pitches from the top. No one else seen on the route that day.

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really tough to actually call this 5th class.

I thought this would be a funner approach to the west face routes. While it was more fun it did take a while. We simulclimbed it in two pitches. Would have been faster but partner was a bit worked by his shoes. Guess down turned toes aren't so good for 1000' slabs.

This was my first what you might call "trad" route. It made for a decent opportunity to practice placing gear, but obvious placements are few and far between, and after awhile I just decided to go without it. There were a few spots where it seemed necessary... between eyebolts 2 and 3, as this pitch is super-long. I barely made it to the 3rd eyebolt with a 50m. Also, going from the 5th eyebolt, we chose to stay left of the "channel/gash" and there is a little mantle move, which protects pretty easily. After that, it's smooth sailing. After rapping, we chose to scramble off to the southwest (right, if you're facing the wall). This certainly is not the way, and I would encourage others to learn from our mistake.

Fun. A group from Boulder was doing time trials while I was on it. They were in running shoes and lightweight harnesses.

The first pitch has 2 bolts; the intermediate bolt that can be seen from the East Bench. Pitches 2-5 each have 1 bolt at the belay stance. It could be easy to go past a bolt but climb slow and keep looking around and you should see every one.

We went left of the channel for the 6th pitch which has no bolt. Pitch 7 is hard to place gear on but pretty easy.

It was possible to place a lot of gear along the way. I took only 7 nuts, quickdraws and some shoulder length slings. I never placed over three pieces of protection (nuts, threaded slots, slung horns), though that ended up feeling only like practice setting gear. The climb can be very runout, though if you look, you can definitely find plenty of gear placements. I would recommend also bringing 3 Camalots (#1-3) if you were climbing with gear.

climbed it in two groups of two; the leaders were mostly right next to each other going up. very runout but very easy; we basically just climbed until our rope ran out. the whole thing went in four pitches; a couple ended near bolts. (near the top of the C being one.)

very cool