Thanks to Mick for patient technical climbing training and leading the climb/rappel, we summited Jagged Mountain and rappelled the north face.

Vallecito Crk Trail –

We drove to the Vallecito TH on Thursday morning and then started the hike shortly after arriving.

As you head north on Vallecito Crk Trail to Sunlight Crk, the trail is well maintained, and you can move along without deadfall getting in your way. The second bridge was washed away in October so that gives an additional location you need to ford Vallecito Crk. This was about 5 miles up the trail.

We detoured about 150ft north of the second bridge where we made the first creek crossing.

Continue north on the Vallecito Crk Trail and after a couple of miles, you’ll need to cross the creek a second time where a third bridge was long ago washed away (about 7 miles north of the Vallecito TH). Hiking poles were useful for both creek crossings.

After the second crossing, it’s about 2 miles to Johnson Crk where we camped. A lot of hiking to Johnson Crk is easy without significant elevation gains.

There are good camping spots at Johnson Crk

Sunlight Crk Trail –

From Johnson Crk continue north on Vallecito Crk Trail about 3.5 miles to the Sunlight Crk Trail.

Turn west onto Sunlight Crk Trail and in a short distance you'll cross Vallecito Crk a third time

From the third creek crossing it is about 4.5 miles up to a camping area. Sunlight Crk Trail is not maintained, and you encounter deadfall (never needed to remove packs) and areas through willows where the trail is less obvious and a few creek crossings with rocks or logs to step across. Sunlight Crk Trail was a pain but not as painful as North Pigeon Crk Trail if you ever hiked that packed with camping gear!

Camp to base of Jagged north face –

On the third day it was about a 2-mile hike from our Sunlight camp to the base of Jagged Mountain north face.

Thanks Mick, for the following details and thoughts on gear, the climb, and rappel –

Gear:

• · The rack/draws recommended by kempenjn in his trip report (https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=21993) is very good. Where I deviated from it, I was generally wrong – but there are a couple tweaks I would make.
  Here is what I would bring if I did it again:

o Cams

§ A few very small cams (0.3 and less)

§ Single 0.4, 0.5, 0.75

§ Double 1 – 3

§ A #4 would be useful if you want to carry it in

o Stoppers – small selection of small to medium

o Couple of cordelettes

o Few extra biners

o I would say 6 to 8 alpine draws, partly because sometimes the draws themselves can be used to wrap chockstones and such.

o Plenty of webbing and rap rings. There are ample opportunities for rap stations, and who knows what condition they will be in.

o Climbing knife

o Radios

· We brought in twin/half 60 meter ropes, and they ended up being very nice to have for the rappel. We got down in 4 rappels, which are detailed below.

Thoughts and beta on the climb:

• · Maybe I was off route, or having an off day, or just not a very good climber (or all three), but IMHO, this climb is sandbagged at 5.2. There were 2 or 3 moves – all on the north face sections – that I thought were easily 5.5 or 5.6.
• · Lots of pebbles, grass, and sloping ledges on the north face – not surprising I guess. I found the climbing there to be challenging and interesting, but I wouldn’t call it fun.
• · Lots of places where I ran into rope drag issues on the north face. The rock is very course and sharp, and any single twist or turn often created a ton of rope drag.
• · We unroped for the section between pitch 1 and the start of crux 2. I think most people do that. I felt very secure unroped on this section, and I’m usually more cautious than others on class 3 or 4. I would say that is only class 2+.
• · The south side ledge traverse, chimney, and final summit scramble actually *were* fun. The rock here is solid and cleaner. Again, not surprising for north face vs. south face.
• · We roped for the traverse across the south face, and this went quite well – just a little rope drag. Lots of protection opportunities, with the airy step across being protectable for both the leader and second. Our 60 meter rope was just long enough to get all the way to the chimney in one lone traverse “pitch”.
• · We found the chimney to be very straightforward. We removed packs and had our backs on the climber’s right wall. This made it easy to transition from the chimney to sitting on the boulder. We brought all the packs up with the rope before the last climber ascended the chimney.
• · The chimney is protectable for the leader. I had a good stance and was able to throw a long draw over the small chockstone. I’m not seeing anyone else doing this, which surprises me because it seems fairly obvious. I would have worried less about leading this section if I had known good protection was available.
• · In general, climbing in the crux sections on the north face was slower, harder, and less fun than I anticipated. The south face sections were more enjoyable.

Thoughts and beta on the rappels:

We had twin/half 60 meter ropes, which gave us a full 60 meters of rappel length. This made things much easier and more comfortable on the descent – we only needed to downclimb about 30 feet of class 2+. It’s a lot of rope, and I spent time untangling things sometimes on the rappels, but I would do that same system over again.

A couple of general thoughts first:

• · Watch out for loose rock on the rappels and rope pulls. That’s probably obvious with the amount of loose rock overall on the north face, but still worth a reminder.
• · The ropes pulled more cleanly than I expected – a very pleasant surprise.

Here are descriptions of the 4 rappels and the associated rappel anchors:

· Rap 1 (station: bolts on the summit)

o We rappelled straight down from the summit, taking the path of least resistance. About 30 meters down, I found remnants from a previously used rap station, just off to climber’s (or rappeler’s) right. There was a nice ledge about 20 feet climber’s left of that station on which we felt comfortable waiting unroped. Going from that ledge to the rap station was secure – so no need for everyone to be clipped into the rap anchor.

· Rap 2 (station: 30 meters below summit)

o We rappelled down and very slightly right, taking us down the steep water-stained cliffs, past the start of crux 2 (just below the Tidy Little Saddle), and down into the gully below (off the climbing route). This gully was loose but not steep. We rapped the full 60 meters, then came off rappel and downclimbed about 30 additional feet (maybe a little more) on class 2+ to the next anchor, which is skier’s right of the gully. This location was good for three reasons: 1) There is an absolute bomber anchor setup, wrapping a huge arrowhead shaped rock with webbing, 2) it is a huge, very comfortable ledge, and 3) it is out of the way of rockfall from the rappel above.

· Rap 3 (station: huge ledge with bomber arrowhead rock)

o This rappel is slightly tricky but works great if you pay attention. For this rappel, angle to climber’s left. You don’t need to angle so much that it is awkward – just enough to get yourself on the left side of a large rock. If you do this, and go the full 60 meters, you reach the anchor for the top of the first pitch of the climb. I used every bit of the 60 meters to do this.

· Rap 4 (station: anchor at top of first pitch of climbing)

o This is the simplest rappel, as you’re just going down the first climbing pitch. Using the full 60 meters took us all the way down below any class 3 or above difficulties.