Climbed Little Bear on Saturday, the 23rd. The road still suxs. The Lake Como area probably has the most mosquitos I've ever experienced in Colorado. The lake is loaded with trout. We started at 3:30 AM to try and get ahead of any other parties. It worked. Hourglass wasn't too bad going up. The previously mentioned red, 300 foot, 6 mm cord was gone. The 8 mm burgundy rope which was mentioned on the 14ers.com fb page was still there. It had taken a few hits from rock fall and the core was showing. Also, a black and red 11 mm that was really beat-up and tied into an older, even more beat up rope was there. I thought the most challenging portion of the route was above the Hourglass. On our ascent, we went to the left at the anchor station. We went too far left after the anchor and ended up in some really crappy terrain. We topped out on the ridge about 30 feet to the west of the actual summit at 8 AM. On descent, we followed the route on "Photo #18" of the route description and ended up on the east side of the rappel station. Other than a ton of loose rock, this was a good descent. At the rappel station, I used an oval quick link to tie into the two anchor cables, and my own 100 meter/328 foot, 6 mm cord that was doubled over to rappel to the ledge area which is about 3/4 of the way down the Hourglass. This worked well for us, and we were able to quickly, and safely clear out of the Hourglass. The rest of the descent and walkout was an uneventful suffer-fest.
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