Little Bear Hourglass Question

[DeTour]

I have never felt more alive on a peak than I did that day.

Well that endorsement will get a guy thinking. I'm in about the same space as greenonion.

Shoot, I thought I had this thing figured out, now you give me something else to ponder. Oh well, guess I'll have to go find more TRs to study.

[Gene913]

DeTour - there are not that many but i studied these trip reports prior to my climb.

stevevets689 - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=10266
wentzel - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=17393
michael j - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=18282
handonbroward - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=17909
cincybearcats - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=6769
jamienellis - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=3611

[PJ88]

Did some searching around and found my answer - post removed.

[CaptainSuburbia]

Did some searching around and found my answer - post removed.

Here's a trip report if you're still interested? It's just a slightly shorter way of doing the SW ridge. You still need to climb mama bear and traverse to Little Bear.
https://mtnclmbr.cloud.prohosting.com/littlebear.htm

[PJ88]

Did some searching around and found my answer - post removed.

Here's a trip report if you're still interested? It's just a slightly shorter way of doing the SW ridge. You still need to climb mama bear and traverse to Little Bear.
https://mtnclmbr.cloud.prohosting.com/littlebear.htm

Interesting. Thanks! Plenty to climb before I get to Little Bear, but it is an intriguing peak for sure.

[Wentzl]

Hey Gene913, please note that I endorse the W Ridge Direct, not the SW Ridge. Although both are safer and easier than the hourglass, the SW Ridge includes a long detour to the start and the traverse over Mama Bear making it too roundabout to be the "standard".

[Gene913]

Hey Gene913, please note that I endorse the W Ridge Direct, not the SW Ridge. Although both are safer and easier than the hourglass, the SW Ridge includes a long detour to the start and the traverse over Mama Bear making it too roundabout to be the "standard".

duly noted and i stand corrected.

[Kiefer]

Hey Gene913, please note that I endorse the W Ridge Direct, not the SW Ridge. Although both are safer and easier than the hourglass, the SW Ridge includes a long detour to the start and the traverse over Mama Bear making it too roundabout to be the "standard".

duly noted and i stand corrected.

I can't say much about the West Ridge Direct since I haven't done it, but with the Hourglass being considered the "standard" route on Little Bear, it is a hazardous route. I've climbed the coully twice with snow/ice and both times, I've measured the crux around 50°. In the summer, you best be comfortable climbing high 40°s on solid rock. Is it the safest route? Absolutely not. That distinguishment belongs to the SW Ridge.
I don't really think the SW Ridge is any longer than the West Ridge. And if it is, it's borderline negligible. But because of the old private property concerns south of the Sierra Blanca's, regardless if there's homes there or not, it's largely considered verboten.
I've done both routes. And I think in terms of objectives hazards and and dangers, the SW Ridge is VASTLY safer. There's still a small, class-4 knife ridge you have to scramble/scoot/climb across, but compared to rockfall from above, I know where I'm hedging my bets.

The West Ridge Direct does intrigue me, especially after reading Tom's comments. And I plan on doing that this summer, along with the Black Hand.

[rijaca]

Was Little Bear Lake used as an approach back in the day, then that access was cut off, so the current route was used instead? Something in an old Lampert book? Not so sure of my own theory, as Lake Como Road is right there.

One of the ancient Ormes books has a pre-hourglass (1973) map of the area that shows two old approaches from Blanca Basin (that got cut off), but it also shows the route up the NW face. This is complete speculation but if the NW face is sketchier than the hourglass apart from the rockfall danger, I could see how it could have become the standard pre-internet when beta was all by guidebooks and word of mouth.

lbear.png

The 8th ed. of Ormes "the traditional southern route to Blanca is presently open....Little Bear is also climbed from this camp....up S slopes and along rotten ridge to summit." Essentially the SW ridge route from a Blanca Basin approach.

The 9th ed. of Ormes "the traditional southern route to Blanca is presently closed."

Neither edition of the guidebook mentions the hourglass route. The Borneman and Lampert guidebook describes the hourglass route as the 'standard' route. I know from conversations with past partners that the SW ridge route was used by most climbers in the 1960s and early 70s.

[justiner]

Where was the SW Ridge accessed from Blanca Basin (approx.)? The big detraction of the route presently is the 'schwack at the beginning (which I didn't think was all the big of a deal, but whatever). Was it the subsidaery ridge all the way to Mama Bear?

[scvaughn]

I wrote this when people ask these questions

https://justinsimoni.com/2018/12/07/sho ... bear-peak/

I haven’t used the hourglass in a few years, but since then have taken the sw ridge, west ridge, and gash ridge. There are options. Hourglass is still probably the easiest, the main worry is rockfall from those above you honestly.

From yesterday's climb. Friends don't let friends use ropes that look like this. It's been tied back together at least four times, someone cut it off just above the crux, and I believe they did the right thing. I didn't need it, and wouldn't have trusted it if I did. Thank you for creating the write-up!

IMG_5558.jpg (630.13 KiB) Viewed 2984 times

IMG_5534.jpg (494.62 KiB) Viewed 2984 times

[bdloftin77]

So I ended up joining this crew at the last minute to check out this route. I continued from there to do the Traverse but the other two guys came back down this route and shared their notes with me.

I just posted a detailed write-up for this West Ridge Indirect route here:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

Let me know if you have any questions not answered by the TR...

Quoting here for more publicity. Daway8 checked out the West Ridge Indirect route and posted a trip report with his thoughts.