The east ridge of Pettingell was in great shape Saturday. We avoided the slog that seems to be the standard way to access the ridge (which involves heading up to the ridge at the signed turn off) and instead hiked most of the way to the lake. With the snow that was there we were able to head up the small shoulder just east of the lake and then hiked back north toward the ridge and climbed a small gully which contained decent enough snow to get a few kicks in. From then on it was straight forward class 3/4 and we stuck almost entirely to the ridge proper. We descended the standard route.
I can't recommend taking our route up to the ridge, we just happened to catch it when the snow was in good shape. The gully would be a not so safe place to be had it been loaded up just a bit more. But the conditions on Saturday were great!
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