8/17/2024 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 8/19/2024, By: Boggy B Info: There are 2 registers. One has 13340 crossed out. Not sure what's up with that, but it appears someone moved the register from 13350 (fka 13340), which has none. Next party going N-S could move it back over there.. |
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6/29/2024 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: supranihilest Info: The West Fork and Porphyry Basin trails are pretty muddy and more moisture coming won't help. Lots of little stream crossings. Once above treeline things dry out quite a bit. No snow of consequence. The final approach to the ridge is steep and on very loose dirt/scree/talus. Poles were useful for balance on this stuff, which slides all over the place. Once on the ridge things get serious. The exposure starts right away and the rock is quite suspect. I spent more time cleaning the holds off than actually scrambling, since loose scree or dirt covers nearly everything, and a lot of the "solid" rock is broken and requires careful hold selection. For the first 30-50 horizontal feet we traversed the west side of the ridge which was both the worst rock and highest exposure. On descent we traversed a better ledge on the east side of the ridge with less consequences for a fall. The remainder of the route is generally obvious, follow loose Class 2+ and Class 3 gullies up and across on the west side of the peak. Only a couple of cairns exist. The Class 4 headwall has what looked like two options, we felt the Class 4 rating was accurate and the rock solid and not too exposed. There's a little bit of Class 3 above this and then an easy walk to the summit. Descent took us probably half the time at 15-20 minutes and felt significantly easier than ascending. We were actually grateful for the dirt on this peak being a little damp from recent rains - it wasn't wet enough to be muddy and slick and was actually kind of tacky instead. Still, this peak requires a lot of care and was Whiley and I's least favorite of the day. |
