North Ridge of Arrow peak!!!

[ptyrg]

Hi all! I am doing a trip into Vestal basin next week and was wondering if anyone out there, has ever climbed the north ridge of arrow peak (5.6). I have found some beta on the route, but not much. How does it compare to the wham ridge? any route finding problems? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!

[ptyrg]

resubmitting.

[BrianWright]

We attempted in a few weeks ago and got into Vestal Basin but had hell with the weather. Hopefully you have better luck.

[ptyrg]

We attempted in a few weeks ago and got into Vestal Basin but had hell with the weather. Hopefully you have better luck.

Thanks Brian, We will give the north ridge of arrow, the north face of west Trinity, and the wham, on Vestal a shot. I hope this weather starts to dry up a bit.

[Steve Climber]

We were just up there last week. Did Vestal via Wham and Arrow via standard ramp, but a couple of us were eye f***ing the N Ridge (at least I know I was). It looks fairly comparable to Wham for the most part...maybe a bit more slabby/cruxy, but rock on both is AMAZING so I would guess there is still tons of pro available and route finding should be reasonable. Aesthetic for sure. Looking forward to hearing how it goes!!! TR with pics or it didn't happen

[Mick]

A partner and I did the north ridge of Arrow a couple of years ago, followed by the standard line on Wham Ridge the next day. By way of comparison, I thought the rock on the north ridge of Arrow was less enjoyable. It was solid, but less grippy - more smooth and slick.

As far as route finding, it was pretty straightforward for the fifth class section of the climb, but we ran into some difficulties by staying directly on the ridge after that. Based on the Roach description, we had expected no more than class 3, but we found ourselves in some tricky 4th and low 5th class sections. I don't know if we should have somehow left the ridge proper after the 5th class section to avoid this - didn't seem like there was a simple way to do that, though. After some 3rd class climbing on climber's left of the ridge, we gained the ridge again, and finally skirted the main difficulties by taking a small ramp on climber's right of the ridge that traversed and dropped down from the ridge itself, then reascended to the ridge on loose 4th class. I tried to to reascend to the ridge itself too soon initially (and found no route on either side of the ridge at that point), so had to drop back down, continue farther on, and gain the ridge again. At that point, it was class 3 for a short section to where we intersected with the standard route.

I have to assume there is a better way to finish this route up, but it wasn't obvious to us. I was tempted to call Southwest Adventure Guides in Durango after the climb to see if I could chat with someone there, but then never got around to it. It might be worth trying that before you go.

If you get a chance to do the route, please post a TR or short summary! I'd be really curious to see if you have better luck with the end of the route than we did.

[ptyrg]

thanks for the Info Mike! I may do that, give them a call,and see if they can give me there route beta.

Thanks again!