Saint Sophia Ridge

Route: Standard
Posted On: 5/30/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: Huge thanks to Boggy for organizing a great climb of Saint Sophia, and his friend Dylan for leading the crux pitch. My point in posting this is to say this climb is (like most/all Sneffels Range climbs) almost certainly better on snow, and earlier season snow at that before the snow/rock interface all becomes hollow. Access to the bottom of the ridge is easy and instead of taking the gully directly under the summit tower's east crack we took a gully two to the north. Snow was probably 45 degrees up this gully, soft and somewhat hollow behind and sure to get more hollow as the season progresses. Boggy belayed me up it since I wasn't on my A game and that felt easier and safer for me. If you can find good snow that will save you the apparent 5.0 pitch getting to the ridge on what is horror show trash rock, basically layers of sand and dinner plates mashed together. From the top of the gully we scrambled the 100 or so feet south to the summit block at about Class 2+ with some steep snow to climb over and around. The summit block itself is actually quite nice, certainly better than the junk getting there. The crux moves are right off the ground, as is the worst rock. The climbing is easier and the rock better as you ascend. The crack can be sewn up with mid to large cams. Dylan led the crack in mountain boots, Boggy and I followed in boots and boots and crampons, respectively, so the climbing isn't so hard it requires rock shoes. The rap anchor is in OK shape, we cleaned up a bunch of rotted webbing and cord, some looked decent so we didn't leave anything new. Bring more anchor material just in case though. The rap off the summit tower to the ridge is short, a 60 or 70 meter rope is fine, and then we slung a big rock and I single strand rapped off the ridge a full 70m to lower angle terrain. It sounds like rapping with a 60m rope and a little bit of down climbing will get you off the ridge but remember that the rock is terrible and the snow you might encounter could also be terrible (I fell chest deep into a moat rapping down), so if you're concerned about down climbing on trash you could bring two ropes and get a full length rappel. Boggy and Dylan down climbed our ascent gully like champs - only possible on snow. 

Route: East to North 5.7
Posted On: 6/26/2023, By: blazintoes
Info: Parked at 11,000 on Governor Basin Rd after the switchbacks. Hiked up to Sweepstakes mine then crampons at 11,400 straight up the basin heading SW then NW to the base of the ridge. There were two approach pitches. P1 had good step kicking snow for 40 feet. Needed one ice screw for the anchor. P2 was much steeper with alpine ice left and sketchy rocks right. Turned right above the lose rock and used natural protection for a belay. Placed a # 5 Camelot on P2. Traversed from east to north along the base of the pinnacle and switched to rock climbing shoes for the final summit pitch. Placed the #5, 4, 2 and 1. Crumbly rock with many lose blocks up the entire pitch. The summit anchor was in good condition but the summit register is soaked. Got to see one famous name. We rapped the summit pitch to the base and transitioned to boots and crampons for the final rappel. We down climbed a 5 foot snow berm to get to the anchor that has a 0.75 cam with a nut and good webbing with one quick link. All in good condition. We had double 60m ropes and this got us all the way down to the bottom of the approach pitch; P1. This was a genuine alpine climb with snow, rock and ice. Come prepared. 

Route: Northwest Corner
Posted On: 8/7/2016, By: Boggy B
Info: Climbed east gully to northwest corner (crack). We took the left fork in the gully to climb directly up beneath the split summit block. The wet runnel forced us to stay right on loose and exposed 5.low, and I had to drop the rope to bring my partner up. For the summit crack we wished we had brought sticky rubber. Recommend doubles of C4 #1 - #4 and leave everything else behind. The summit rap anchor is in bad condition (see Monster5 TR); we intended to replace it but instead built a station for rappelling the right fork of the east gully (just north of the summit tower). A 60m reaches the fork with a little to spare. Pull was manageable from our anchor.