La Cueva: Purple Poot Revisited

I made a short trip to La Cueva after work today, something I'd like to start doing more regularly. I got to la Cueva around 4pm, but had to park all the way up at the visitor's center due to some road construction being done at the La Cueva picnic loop. Checking in with the "ranger", I learned that with the construction going on, the park/gate is closed at 5pm. Fortunately for me, he offered to leave the outward gate open as long as I closed it on my way out, so I headed out to climb.

The trail from the visitor center takes you right to the Hermit's Cave, which is pretty close to where I wanted to go anyways. I had invited some other climbers to join me, but no one was around so I took all my rope-soloing gear with me. I found some nice shade on the easy slabs under the route I had dubbed "Purple Poot Slab". This is a low-angled, broad lichen covered slab, with several route possibilities leading to the summit ridge. I had climbed it once before on January 13th, 2006 with Liz, and found a single old 1/4" bolt to rappel off of. It had a small purple poot sling on it at the time. Right now, the whole slab was well shaded, and it felt perfect for climbing. Despite the valley getting into the low 100's, and not much breeze being present, the well shaded wall was pleasant climbing temps, a little warm but not hot or oppressive (unlike last weekends sunny melter on Rabbit Ear Slabs). When climbing Las Cruces in the summer, shade is key.

On my own, I decided to explore the left-hand side of the slab, a dirty corner. I rigged up the soloist and started up to the corner. Before even reaching the corner I had some misgivings, I couldn't place any pro until stepping up on some loose foot-holds, and it looked even chossier the higher up I could get. After fiddling around a little bit, I opted for traversing a little to the right and up the heavily featured and easy looking face. this time my judgement was spot-on. the face was very easy (5.4ish) and had slightly better rock. I was able to place a few tri-cams in pockets along the way although I would hardly call it well protectable. There was a logical anchor point before the summit on a broad ledge roughly level with the top of the left-hand corner system. I decided to anchor here, clean the route I had climbed and attempt to top-rope the dirty corner back up. I had nearly rappelled down when Bob Cort showed up around the corner.

I had invited Bob along and was hoping he would show up. It's not that I don't like rope-soloing, but it certainly leaves something to be desired. Bob was interested in leading directly up the middle of the slab, so I left my rope on the left-side and flaked out Bob's rope over to the right, at a thin seam/crack in the middle of the slab. Looking back on my journals now, I think that the start the Bob did was not the one that I had climbed before. I had started at the far-right corner. The start where Bob led up had a "crux" 5.6 move at the start about 10ft up but without any prop. Actually Bob was able to place a wire at this spot, but it was a very marginal placement. After the start though, the climbing was pretty straightforward. Bob led pretty much up the middle of the slab. After the big ledge 2/3 of the way up, he opted for climbing the face instead of staying in the right corner as I had done. He ended up a little bit beyond the purple poot and belayed from the hidden alcove above.

I seconded up and also cleaned my solo-anchor on the way. I brought up my rope as well so that we could descend in s double-rope rappel. When I got to the belay, we both explored the summit a little bit. The summit is a great ridge to explore, you can scramble pretty far off to the west, and there are ways to get up to the other summit blocks as well. despite scrambling around and searching, I didn't find any fixed gear for rappels.

From the alcove belay, a short crack/face climbed up to a summit point and we decided we'd check it out to see if there was a better rappel station from up there. I started out leading up a steep finger crack, but after realizing that it involved a tricky move, (probably wouldn't have been that hard, but I'm still a nervous kleader on steeps) I opted for the more straight-forward route up to the top. It looked like it would be possible to down-climb east and perhaps reach the anchors at the top of Banana Splits, but this seemed a little out-of-the-way and it was starting to get late. We rappelled off a horn of rock back down to the alcove, and then did a double-rope rappel to the ground off of the single 1/4" bolt with the purple poot. The route can no longer be called the "Purple Poot" though because I cut the poot off, and tied on a new piece of bright orange webbing for our rappel.

Rabbit Ears Canyon Climbing with Andrus the Lithuanian

There is a foreign exchange student in my wife's lab named Andrus. Liz has mentioned a few times that he was eager to get out and climb in the Organs, and we finally connected today on his birthday. Originally, I had suggested Sugarloaf as our destination, something very memorable and one of the areas best. But with the heat-wave coming through, my lack of much real climbing this year, and Andrus' telling me he has never done trad climbing, I opted to take us into Rabbit Ear Canyon to chase shade on whatever walls we could.

We left Las Cruces at 7:15 and were in the Canyon a few hours later. The Rabbit Ears slabs were completely shaded so I selected a route that I had done with Scott Jones a few years back to be our first climb. I think I had called this route 5.7, and in hind-sight that is probably pretty accurate, but I wasn't feeling strong or confident on the first pitch. There is a nice variation finish to the first pitch, which doesn't skirt around the large block under the tree, but goes directly up it. It looks pretty doable, and protectable, but I opted for the easier, rotten way around to the left, which Scott had done before as well. Andrus also climbed it this way. The 2nd pitch was pretty much how I remembered it, with a crux move past a bolt out on the left and then easier climbing up to a nice ledge underneath a headwall. We only had a single rope with us, and attempted to descend in two rappels, but the rope was about 5 meters short of the first belay ledge and we had to swing off to a side, build a small anchor and scramble down to the 1st belay ledge. To make things even more fun, when we pulled the rope from the 2nd pitch belay, it got stuck in a flake 10 m above our make-shift anchor, and I had to climb up and un-stick it before we could head down. At least I was giving Andrus a feeling of trad adventure!

The slabs were just coming into the sun as we finished this route, so we packed up and bushwhacked around the corner to the east to try to find a shady climb on the west face of Citadel. A short 5.8 corner was just barely still in the shade so we jumped on it. This route was called Iron Worker, and while the climbing was pretty fun, was very short, had poor protection placements and was a little chossy. I usually had decent stances to fiddle some gear in by stemming the corner, but the gear placements were never that good; wire stoppers that didn't contact the rock well, cams that barely work but have the lobes at awkward angles. And the climbing moves between the "rest" stances involved pulling up steep sections, making me worried my out-of-shape arms would get pumped. Fortunately, they didn't. However overall impression of the climb was not great. We didn't find any fixed rappel gear at the top, although the route tops out on the ledge which connects to Finger Zinger and the West Ridge routes. We could have tried descending one of these routes, but I opted for leaving an old sling and rappel ring above Iron Worker for a simpler rappel.

By now it was past noon and there wasn't a bit of shade in the lower Rabbit Ear canyon. Despite no shade, it didn't feel too hot yet and there was a light intermittent breeze, so we scrambled up and over to the Shortline area. This small wall had two beautiful crack climbs and was our best climbing of the day. We started off on the right-hand crack, "Shortline". The start was a clean and easy hand crack. The crack steepens at a spot where it splits. The upper split had two great hand-jam moves, and then 2-3 perfect finger jams before the crack disappeared at the crux. A bomber nut placement protects the crux 5.9 moves, which are delicate slabby moves past the crack. The slab eases up after the first crux moves, but there wasn't any protection, so I had to keep focused up the final 20 ft to the bolt anchors. This is a fantastic short route, with nice climbing, solid protection and a good spicy slab up top.

The second crack was similar although the climbing easier and the crack a little less pretty (plants in more places). It was still a good climb though. The 3-bolts on the anchor were all old 1/4"ers with thin SMC hangers. they were adequate for top-roping, but could use replacing. I top-roped the thin face between the two cracks, probably a low 5.10, possibly harder if you can avoid using some of the crack features you pass by.

After these 3 climbs it was really getting hot, and we were about ready to call it a day, but before leaving, Andrus wanted to try out trad leading on an easy pitch on the Rabbit Ears Slabs. It was mostly a scramble, but he basically has the idea and his placements were decent. However, it was really starting to get hot now, with climbing shoe rubber burning through, and our water supplies depleted, we quickly cleaned Andus' little climb and hiked out. It took us an hour before we were on the road and could stop at a gas station for some cold refreshments. We were sun-burnt and Sasha was wiped.

Two days of climbing with my dad in the Organs

My dad came to visit for a week. I was expecting a leisurely visit with some climbing high-lights. This changed a bit when the first day he was here, the conversation turned to painting our house, something my wife has been wanting to do for a year. My dad seized on the idea, "I'll help you paint! You'll need this, this and this..." The next thing I know we are spending our time together painting the house bright yellow. After 4 days of painting, I had enough. There was still some trim-work to be finished, but if we were going to have any father-son climbing adventures, it needed to happen right then.

Dad low down in the Chute

Despite my Dad feeling sick with bowel troubles, we took two days to climb in the Rabbit Ears. Our first day turned out to be frigidly cold and windy. By the time we had hiked up through Rabbit Ears canyon, we were being buffeted around by the wind like rag-dolls. Not wanting to admit defeat, we opted to climb up Boyer's Chute. This turned out to be an excellent choice, as the chute was very well shielded from the wind. It is also simply a fun scramble. My dad soloed the first "crux" 5th class section by going on the right side of the chock-stone. I attempted to bypass this by climbing a bit further to the right, and what looked to be an easy ramp. This is what John Bregar had climbed before and said was kind of sketchy. After climbing it I agree, while none of the climbing was difficult, the rock was a bit crumbly and it involved some awkward balancy steps.

Dad at the first "crux"                            Dad climbing up the crux chimney

Dad let me lead the crux chimney, not feeling up to snuff himself. We then simul-climbed the rest of the way to the top. I was pleasantly surprised to see 5 or so new entries in the Summit register that I recently had replaced. A couple parties had climbed Boyer's Chute and someone had done one of the West Face routes, but wasn't sure which one.

Dad near the top of the chute

We descended back down the chute, and I replaced the bolt rappel station at the top of the chimney pitch. Dad timed me, it took 20 minutes for me to drill and install a bolt. I wasn't able to cleanly remove either of the existing bolts. I was able to shear them off though, so they are unusable and not so conspicuous. Overall, thoe choice to climb Boyer's chute was a good one, it was probably the only route well protected from the howling winds and allowed us a great day out despite the weather.

The next day we had much nicer weather, calm and warm and headed back up Rabbit Ears Canyon to attempt our original goal: The Church Key route on Middle Rabbit Ear. This route is described in Ingraham's guide as being "5.7"" and with a possible pendulum move on the first pitch. The first challenge was just making sense of the route description. The route starts at the saddle between NRE and MRE, by scrambling upa mossy 3rd class slope.

Dad on the 3rd class

From here the description says to head directly up a chimney, or take steeper rock on the left until climbing becomes "impossible" and then pendulum into the corner.

I tried the direct approach first, climbing directly up the corner crack pictured below. This was surprisingly steep, and I ended up below the wide section of crack and scratched my head. I was hoping it would be a squeeze chimney, but it looked too small for me to squeeze into. I hadn't brought my off-width cams, and I'm not even sure if they would fit, but after scopung it out up close a few minutes, I though "No way this is they way they went" and I bailed off a chock stone to try to find the alternative 1st pitch.

The "steep rock" to the left was up this blocky arete. The climbing was pretty easy up to the last step, at which point it became nearly blank. This matched the Ingraham description where the climbing became "impossible". It actualyl looked pretty doable, slabby but not impossible, The only problem was that there didn't appear to be any protection if I continued up the arete. The alternative was to place a pendulum peice here and move back into the corner. However, it was clear that this would land me at precisely the same spot under the wide off-chimney that I had decided not to attempt. After some deliberation, I decdide to bail again, this tiome simply down climbing.

By the time I had bailed off both the first pitch attempts it was getting close to 2pm, and we decided we'd pack it in for the day. While dissappointed that we hadn't climbed the route it was still a nice day out with my dad. The whole way down I was thinking about how I should have tried harder to squeeze into the off-chimney, or if I had only brought a bolt kit I could have mustered the courage to attempt the arete. This will have to be added to my list of "next times". 

Dad scrambling down on the descent. The large chimney shown above him is bypassed by going around the left and up to the NRE/MRE saddle. The mossy 3rd class scramble puts you on tom of this chimney/shoulder where the climb "actually" starts.

Squaretop Summit register

Below is what I was able to retrieve of the Squaretop summit register last week-end. I was glad to find one, but it is apparent that the original register has already been removed, lost or destroyed by weather. There were some remnants of a glass bottle, indicating what might have been the original register container. The existing register only had 4 ascents recorded dating from 1996 through 2001. Not a lot of traffic for this little square. I'll still copy the entries out and place the history back up with the new register, but its sad that I cannot find the complete history.

Square Top: South East Arete

John Bregar, whom I had climbed with last November on Boyer's Chute had mentioned that he would be up for coming down to Las Cruces again this spring to attempt Squaretop with me. Squatetop has been a goal of mine for a while, ever since I attempted in in January 2006 and was thwarted by the snow-covered slabs at the entrance to the Squaretop gully. While this winter has been particularly snowy for the Organs, the route appeared to be pretty dry and John contacted me saying he could come down this week-end to make an attempt. He picked me up at 7am and we were off. Below is a blow-by-blow of the trip. for a shorter version, see the description on Mountain Project.

We made short work of the approach, using the familiar trail up to the tooth and then traversing south through some brushy terrain to reach the base of the Squaretop gully. This gully is protected by a 250 ft slabby section, that is steep enough to merit attention. There are weaknesses on either side, I opted for the left side which was more direct. John took the right hand side which looked more gentle. As it turned out, the right hand side got pretty steep near the top, steep enough where we almost considered having a rope. I helped John unlock a small series of ledges and holds on the right-hand side which while not difficult, were exposed enough over a clean 100 ft slabby drop to merit caution.

Entrance Slabs

Above this slab the gully became pretty choked with Apache plume, scrub oak and yucca. We pushed our way up slowly. Sometimes we'd cling to the left hand side and find some respite on the rock, only to be thwarted a few dozen feet higher by dense shrub. then we'd move to the other side. I checekd ingraham's guide which recommends to follow "deer trails" in this gully. Maybe the organ mountain deer population was higher in his day, but deer trails we found not. We grunted and shoved our way up, looking for the top where we were supposed to find "three gullies". Turns out, this was pretty accurate. We passed one gully on the right early, and wondered for a minute if this was to count as one of the 3 gullies, but once we got higher up it became immediately apparent; the main gully stayed brushy and trended left. In the middle was a clean rocky gully, and to the right was a pine-tree studded gully. We took a pause at the base of the middle gully to put on our harnesses as the top of this gully appeared steep.

Looking up the middle gully.                            John gearing up at the base of the gully.

Since we were all geared up, we opted to simul-climb the gully in case the going got steep, with me in lead. The gully had immaculate rock, perfect for scrambling up, and with hardly any loose or chossy stuff. The slabby wall to the right was gorgeous and would be worth making a trip back to put some lines up, despite it not being too tall. As I scrambled up it began to get steep, enough so where I had to pause and think about where to put my hands and feet. About 120m up, I reached a nice ledge, to the left was a way to gain the ridge-top by crawling underneath a huge boulder, to the right was a steep headwall continuation of the gully we were climbing.  I was pretty sure we were to continue up the headwall, but I wanted to check out the ridge to the left, so I belayed John up to this ledge. Scrambling over to the ridge involved crawling underneath a giant boulder, with barely shoulder room to crawl through. As I was attempting to worm into this spot, a giant boulder i was stemming off of wiggled loose. It didn't fall, but it was loose enough and in a weird enough position where I decided to abandon crawling underneath the boulder.

Turning our attention to the gully's headwall, it looked steep, Enough so where I had John belay me from the ledge and even placed a few pieces of protection. There weren't any hard moves, but a slip would send us tumbling down for hundreds of feet so we played it safe. I belayed John up to a grassy brushy area underneath the main Squaretop cog and with a nice view of the S-1 spur. the spur was supposedly only 4th class to its top, but looked more like 5th to us. Only the week-end before I was debating

John checking out the S-1 Spur

The S-1 spur was dwarfed by the over-hanging summit cog of Squaretop. There were some cracks up this face that might me climbable, but not by me. We followed the brushy ledge around the summit cog and climbed up and easy 3rd class open book, passing under a giant boulder to reach the saddle.

John climbing out from underneath the boulder-saddle

We ate lunch at the saddle and admired the view; the Tigerfang was right below us begging to be climbed, the North/East sides of LST/LSTM also showed themselves to us. I was contemplating a traverse over to these peaks. It must be doable, but I could not see the whole route. There were too many jagged spurs between us and those peaks. However, it would be a nice goal to come back and climb Sqauretop, and then continue over to the LSTM area and down the regular Organ Needle trail. Or why stop there? we could continue up the Needle's NW ridge and bag all 4 summits. Maybe next time.

Looking down on Tigerfang from the ST saddle

Checking out the final pitch up Squaretop, we both agreed that we'd want to be roped. It alos appeared to be harder than 4th class, although there is certainly room for debate on this. My theory is that back in the 50s, rock pitches like this were climbed with ropes and protection, but if the overall angle was not too steep, they were still deemed 4th class. By "modern" standards, this pitch seems to fit a low 5th class rating, being as steep as other 5.3 and 5.5s in the Organs. And steepness aside the starting move did not look trivial; it looked like we'd have to stem into a corner underneath a small overhang, and then hand-traverse out right until we could mantle up onto easier territory. the traversing over though exposed one to a big 40ft drop over the east-side gully. Not exactly something that we were willing to try un-roped.

the crux move started in the shadowed corner and traversed on the crack out right until you could step up. Due to hidden edges and holds, it's easier than it looks.

In the crux-corner, we found an old piton for protection. Cams/wires also fit, but I still clipped the piton as a back-up.

I led up the last pitch which was indeed easier than it looked, despite being exposed. Above the crux move, there were good crack systems and a gentle angle making it a cruise to the top (time ~130 pm). We didn't stay on the top long, taking a few pictures and replacing the summit register. The old register was in a pill-container and was only two pieces of paper, with 4 recorded ascents going back to 1996. There was also some broken glass from an old jar. no doubt the previous register was already swapped out years ago, or perhaps was destroyed when the glass container broke.

<< summit register and broken glass

We found poot slings at the top for a rappel, but they were probably as old as the last recorded ascent in 2001, and looked pretty beaten up, so we swapped them out for some new webbing. Our single 60m rope got us down to the saddle without a problem. We then down-climbed the 3rd class open-book and walked down to the top of the 4th class gully. The rappel anchor we found at the top of this gully was an old piton and a giant tangle of mangy webbing. At first I thought that the piton was the only anchor point, but buried in the nest of webbing was an old wired hex. By cutting away all the old webbing, we were able to create a two-point anchor using the hex.

Cool old-style hex. I was tempted to keep it as a souvenir

The rest of the descent was pretty straightforward. We rapped another rope-length down the rock-gully and then down-climbed the rest of the gully. Bush-whacking down went quickly and we rapped the entrance slabs off of a gnarly juniper snag. I used up all 25ft of brand new 5/8" webbing that I had just ordered from REI. I should have order a bunch more, we had to replace the webbing on every rap-station we used. I also should have brought more water, my single 3-L camel back was empty before we reached the car at 530pm and I was feeling dehydrated and beat. Lesson learned right? despite feeling totally exhausted and dehydrated, Liz dragged me out to a barbaque at our friend Matt's house where he fed me Oryx burger and made me feel all good again. Thanks Liz.

One of the most interesting aspects to this route was how to grade it. Ingraham describes the last pitch as high 4th, and all the earlier stuff only 3rd class or easier. This felt sand-bagged to me, but is starting to feel kind of consistent to some of the other old 3rd and 4th class routes described by Ingraham. I'm, beginning to think that the definitions used for 4/5th class back in the 60s were a little different from what is now used. And that grades such as 5.3 didn't even really exist. I'm guessing that anything below 5.5 was simply called 4th class in those days, and there is some logic to this. This kind of grade does not demand much technical skill, and many modern day climbers walk right up these climbs. But there is also a point where roping up on this grade makes sense, where the fall potential is serious and real. I bet even back in Ingraham's day they roped up for the same pitches that John and I roped up for. John and I both found this interesting to discuss as we climbed this route.

Solo up the North Rabbit Ear

After spending two days taking care of a sick wife and baby, I earned a day of hiking out in the Organs. Sasha and I struck out up rabbit Ear Canyon with the goal of scrambling up the North Rabbit Ear  (NRE). The Davis route, first climbed by a couple who used to live just a block away from where we live now, was the NRE's first route, and reportedly the easiest. I figured if it is easier than Boyer's Chute, than I wouldn't have much of a problem scrambling up and down it. I did bring a smattering of gear though just in case; some webbing, carabiners and my trusty 30m rope. I even brought a bolt-kit with the intention of replacing the bad bolt anchors on Boyer's Chute... if I had the time.

Sasha and I left the car on the Topp Hut road at 950am and made remarkable time on the approach. I was already past the Citadel after an hour and by 1200 I was at the saddle between the NRE and MRE. Rabbit Ear canyon is still flowing with green-tea pools, about as much as it was a month ago. It's still in prime camping conditions and will probably be this way for another month. I tied Sasha up below the saddle and started up what I thought was the Davis route. Stupidly, I hadn't brought the INgraham guide description with me, so i was relying on my memory. I remembered rappelling the South side of the NRE directly to the saddle and a few bolted rappel stations along this route, so this is where I started. However, I should have taken a hint at the first 25 ft, which was closer to 5.6 than 5.3. The rock here was smooth and clean with a disconnected crack system. the climbing was pretty straightforward but required a balancing move to get from the first crack over to the left onto the next crack. I guess this would be considered the crux.

Start of S Face Direct

After this first smooth section I noted some rappel slings that were just low enough where I could reach the ground with my short 30m rope, always a good thing to know. While down-climbing the start section was feasible, rappelling would be much nicer. The angle eased up considerably after this and I could almost walk up to a spacious belay/rappel ledge. I later learned that Ingraham calls this the "Scooped Out Place". From here I had some decisions to make. There were a couple of nice looking lines leading off the scooped out place. One went directly up from the belay anchor on slabby beautiful granite. Another ascended a series of shallow corners to the right of the rappel anchors. Both of these though did not look 5.3 easy to me, and I wasn't about to try them without proper gear and belay. I was almost ready to descend, but made one last effort by traversing around a corner (~5.5 but secure feeling) to the right. By continuing to the right I was able to find an easier path up block terrain. the climbing stayed in the 5.4 range but was not exposed and always had good holds easily in view. About a rope-length's worth of climbing and I gained a brushy gully that would take me to the summit.

Looking up from the top of the first "crux" 25 ft. Just visible in the middle are two yucca stalks which mark the upper rappel anchors. the scooped out place is below those. I ascended via the blocky terrain on the right-hand side of the photo.

Looking at the new and empty summit register, only one group of climbers had summited since November when John Bregar and I replaced the register. I marked my name and attempted to put a print-out copy of the old register back into the glass jar. Unfortunately, I didn't plan this part very well. The print-out register was 16 pages long, and try as I might, I couldn't cram it in the small glass jar and still have room for the empty note-pad and writing utensils. Eventually I figured something out and got it all stuffed in there, but it's not really well done. I am making a mental note to bring a bigger summit register jar on my next ascent. My summit time was about 1pm.

For a descent, I retraced my ascent route. If I had brought a full length rope, I could have utilized the nice rappel anchors (both anchors have good hardware, except for the beaten up old slings), but instead I carefully down-climbed down to the scooped out place, and then down to the last rappel slings above the initial head-wall. My 30m rope was 5 ft short from reaching the ground, which was good enough for me. I scrambled down to where I had left Sasha and that's when I figured out where the real Davis route started, about 100ft down from the saddle on the west side, a blocky corner system right above Sasha's rest. I could even make out some old poot slings at the top of the first pitch. Next time!

Sasha getting her ears blown while standing next to the green-tea pools

Sasha and I made excellent time back to the car, getting down by 310pm. Overall, we were car-to-car in a little over 5 hours. Not bad for a day out!

The CWM: the 4rth or 5th class debate

A perfect day for Organ mountain climbing. Overcast and calm, cool temps but not cold. I wish it could be this good all year. I struck out to climb the CWM (Welsh spelling, pronounced COOM) with a co-worker and fellow engineer Chris Benic. He's been interested in hiking in the Organs for a while now, and this week-end just seemed to work for us. He hasn't climbed or hiked for a while, so we chose something in Rabbit Ears canyon because it is an area I'm very familiar with. Still, I've never summited the CWM so we would have our fair share of new ground to cover. I brought my trusty 30m 8mm rope, and a handful of slings, biners and nuts, in case we got into a situation which would require a tricky descent. Sasha came along too, and Chris brought his yellow lab, Buddy. we had a slow approach, but conditions in the canyon were excellent. There was more water than I've ever seen running down the canyon. Large green pools provided ample opportunity for the dogs to splash around. We ended up leaving the dogs tethered at one of the nicer pools at the start of the gully which leads up to the saddle between NRE and the CWM.

We didn't encounter snow until almost at the top of the ridge. The final 100m or so was up a steep snow gully. It was consolidated enough, and steep enough where an ice-axe would have been prudent. Unfortunately I hadn't brought any. I forged ahead kicking steps, but Chris quickly reached the limits of his comfort zone. I offered to tie him into a rope and belay him up, but even this didn't ease his mind. He opted to wait at the bottom of the gully as I pressed forward to the summit.

At the top of the steep snow was a short 20m chimney section. It seemed about as difficult as the chimney in Boyers chute, although Ingraham describes this route as medium 4rth and Boyer's as 5.4. I really couldn't see much difference. At the top of the chimney is a short section of face climbing before the saddle between NRE and the CWM is gained. The north face of the NRE is beautiful, covered in a stubbly grey lichen, and slashed by numerous crack systems. There could be a lot of potential for routes here. Turning to the CWM, a short headwall of slabby climbing gained the summit slab. Again, I'd call this bit of climbing 5th class, but it probably was chalked up as medium 4th. The summit slab was like walking on a pitched roof. It was not too steep that I couldn't walk around fairly comfortably, but it was steep enough where a fall would be difficult if not impossible to stop. It is a beautiful summit, and worth a repeat trip.

I was able to down-climb most of the ascent route, but set up a short rappel for the chimney section. In drier conditions, I probably would tackle down-climbing this as well, but since I had a short rope it wasn't a problem to rappel.

So now that I've got another of Ingraham's "4th class" routes under my belt, I think I'm getting a better picture of his grading scheme. Its my guess that many if not all of his medium-hard 4th class descriptions would go by low fifth in today's standards. These kind of routes can be readily scrambled by a climber of skill and competency at higher grades. It also appears that many of these routes were roped up, which agrees with my interpretation of a 5th class route as something most people would rope up for. As for Boyer's, I think it may ahve received a more modern grade in the writing of Ingraham's guide after the fact. Many of the NRE routes have actual YSD grades, as opposed to the more obscure routes which merely say low/mid/high 3rd/4rth/5th. Now all I've got to do is climb a handful more of these old trade routes to verify this hypothesis.