5/25/2024 Route: South Face and East Ridge Posted On: 5/25/2024, By: supranihilest Info: There's snow blocking the road about half a mile before the outhouse. It's solid snow from there and above. We booted to the obvious couloir on Kismet's south face. This couloir goes straight up from the Mount Sneffels signs at the upper 4WD trailhead. We climbed up to just below the ridge, snow was up to 45 or 50 degrees and rather icy and hard. We dropped our packs there but kept our crampons on, crossing the rib to climber's left on horrible loose rock. A slip here would be catastrophic. We "scrambled" an ascending traverse to the ridge on super loose junk and traversed west across alternating steep snow fields and steep choss. Upon reaching the summit block we began scrambling up. The rock of the summit block is significantly better than the trash getting there but care was still required, we tested every hold, and plenty of loose rubble covering everything. The route is difficult to describe due to the amount of micro route finding we did, but we generally stayed off anything slabby, especially the obvious, large, east facing slab that's about half the height of the block. We began by climbing straight up Class 3 ledges with some ice and small fields before traversing slightly left and onto Class 4 terrain. Don't go too far left, it's either just a cliff or much more difficult terrain. Eventually we left our crampons and ice axes behind for the final Class 4 scramble to the summit ridge, which required a bit of airy Class 3 down and up to avoid snow on the ridge direct. We very carefully reversed our route down, put our crampons back on when we reached the snow, and my companions skied the couloir while I booted down. Exposure from the top of the couloir to the summit is unrelenting, as is the loose rock. A fall anywhere along the way will probably be fatal. The summit scrambling is a lot better and more fun than I expected but this peak is not to be underestimated and would almost certainly be unpleasant at best if dry. Gear: helmet, crampons, at least one ice axe (we all did fine with one). |
