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Peak(s)  Petit Grepon, 12,001'
Date Posted  09/09/2023
Date Climbed   09/07/2023
Author  Ericsheffey
 Closing out Summer on a Fifty Classic   

"Closing out Summer on a Fifty Classic"

Petit Grepon, 12,001'
via the South Face

(5.9 Variation, Trad, 8 Pitches, Grade III)
Rocky Mountain National Park

~10.6 miles RT, ~3600' Gain
September 7th, 2023

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Petit Grepon and the rest of the Cathedral Spires above Sky Pond, taken the morning of the climb

Choosing the Climb & Backstory

This year has been a big year for me in terms of trying to push myself as a technical climber and combining those technical skills with my pursuit of peak bagging. Although my number of new peaks is rather low, I've completed some really cool alpine climbs of varying nature, such as Rainier via the Emmons-Winthrop, Grand Teton via the Upper Exum, and Spearhead via the North Ridge. This follows a really successful season of ice climbing that ended in April, which inspired me to finally hit it hard with training for rock climbing after seeing so much progress in my ice climbing. I think there are a few classic alpine rock climbs that are on every alpine climbers list, the Petit Grepon being one of the most sought after here in CO. I have personally dreamed of climbing it for several years, even considering hiring a guide to take me up there and demystify it for me so that I could at least see how far out of reach it would be for me to lead the climb. Instead, I kept trying to push myself at the local crags around Denver (NTM, CCC, Eldo, etc), and pursue other alpine objectives that climbed at lower grades as test pieces. I even climbed the Sharkstooth via the NE Ridge (the Petit Grepon's taller sister spire to the South) as a test piece last year, as I knew that I wanted to start getting more true alpine climbs under my belt.

It's worth mentioning that since I began climbing outdoors ~4 years ago, one partner of mine, Jordan LaRosae, has consistently taken me under his wing and mentored me. Jordan and I have climbed in some really cool places, often with him taking lead on some incredible routes and myself offering a belay and follow while I learned the basics of multi-pitch efficiencies, anchor building, and placing gear. We've climbed together all around Golden and Boulder, Vedauwoo, Indian Creek, and more. In fact, he even coached me through my first trad lead in Summer of 2020, leading "The Bomb" in Eldo, 5.4. Over the years the frequency in which we climb together has varied, but we have both continued pushing ourselves to become better climbers, and have shared dreams of tackling some big alpine climbs at some point. Our first attempt to get in an alpine climb together was the East Face of Mt. Whitney, but despite having our permits in hand, our trip was cancelled due to bad wildfires that year. Fast forward to this summer, we were chatting about possibly finding time to finally go after an alpine summit together. Knowing that climbing one of the "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America" was something that really sweetened the climb for Jordan, I suggested we go and make an attempt at the Petit Grepon. Although I typically only lead trad up to 5.7, he leads trad several grades harder and I knew he'd be stoked to go after something as worthwhile as the Petit. Sure enough he was stoked on the idea, and so we put a date on the calendar and started trip planning. We planned on climbing Petit on Thursday September 7th, sleeping in his van Wednesday night at the Glacier Gorge TH so that we wouldn't have to make the drive from Denver the morning of our trip.

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Jordan giving me a belay and coaching me through one of my first trad leads, a 5.6 offwidth in Indian Creek, UT. He has helped push me to get out of my comfort zone on the sharp end many times, and it has always been worth it.

The Approach

We woke up a little after 3am in Jordan's van in the Glacier Gorge TH parking lot in RMNP. We were both a little slow to get up, ultimately hitting the trail and starting the approach around 3:45am. Having spent a lot of time in this area of RMNP, including several trips hiking to Sky Pond, as well as having ice climbed Timberline Falls and other areas around Loch Vale, knocking out this approach with a loaded pack felt very familiar. We stopped for a 10 minute break at the trail junction to Andrew's Glacier, but other than that we maintained a steady pace on the hike to Sky Pond. We arrived at Sky Pond around 6:30am and took one more long break while we waited for the sun to start illuminating more of the spires and warm up our route. We filtered water from Sky Pond to fill our bottles, fueled up on chocolate bars and mixed nuts, and soon took off up the talus slopes to the base of the climb. Upon reaching the base, we met another team of climbers from Fort Collins that had beat us to the climb. They were already geared up and flaking their rope, so we told them we wouldn't be racing to get on the route and that we would wait for their follower to get up pitch one before we started up behind them. Although this caused a delay of a little over an hour at the base, it's hard to be bummed with the immense views of the Petit Grepon towering overhead, especially knowing that we had weather on our side and could spend as much time as we wanted on the route.

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Stopping near the trail junction to Andrew's Glacier for a 10 minute break while on the hike to Sky Pond
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Ascending the talus slopes to the base of the Petit Grepon
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Taking in the views at the base of the spire
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All smiles at the base of the climb, gearing up and about to take off on P1
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The lead climber in the party from Fort Collins making their way up P1, climbing the obvious chimney that keeps P1 easy

The Climb

We tied in to our twin ropes and quickly picked a line up the low angle P1 to gain the "First Terrace", a large grassy ledge a little over 200' above us. Prior to the day of the climb, Jordan and I had agreed that we would try to break up the climb into 8 pitches following beta available online, with Jordan taking the "odd" pitches (1, 3, 5, and 7) and myself taking the "even" pitches (2, 4, 6, 8), swapping leads the whole way. Pitch one is generally rated 5.5 as there are several easy pathways to gain the First Terrace, with the most common route ascending a chimney feature with low angle ledges before and after. Jordan took off and picked a slighter spicier line, staying left of the obvious chimney and climbing some crack systems instead. Despite the length of the pitch, I think Jordan placed no more than 4 or 5 pieces of gear the whole way, as it's quite easy to run out this terrain with all the good ledge systems along the way. He arrived at the "First Terrace", slung a boulder as a quick anchor, and brought me up on follow. I joined Jordan at the top of P1 feeling excited to get going with my first lead of the day on P2. P1 was ~65 meters for us and likely 5.6.

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Tied in to our twin ropes, getting ready to take off on P1. It's not often I get to climb with twin ropes, and they present their own unique rope management skills.
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Jordan leading P1, staying left of the obvious chimney and getting close to the First Terrace below an even larger chimney that will be climbed on P2.
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Quick and easy anchor at the top of P1

It was time for my first lead of the day, tackling a large chimney system above the first terrace. This pitch would take me up the large chimney all the way to a large roof where I would exit to the left and build an anchor just below a large left leaning crack that would be climbed on P3. I took off up the chimney and immediately found myself feeling at home in this terrain. I placed no more than 5 cams along the way. There was fun opportunities for stemming, as well as ample jugs along the left side of the chimney to grab onto at any moment. I made my way around the large chockstone in the chimney, continued upwards, and exited to the left just under the roof. I built a three piece anchor, equalized it with a triple length dyneema runner, and put Jordan on belay. For those with an attentive eye, you may notice that I am belaying thin twin ropes on an ATC-Guide and not an ATC-Alpine Guide. Unfortunately I had forgot to pack my alpine ATC, however our ropes were only 0.1mm below certification for the ATC, and I found no issues giving a belay with a standard ATC. P2 was ~40 meters for us and went at 5.6.

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P2 as seen from the top of P1, the large chimney seen looming overhead with the large left leaning crack that will start P3 also visible at this time.
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Three piece anchor at the top of P2
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Looking down from the belay at the top of P2, Jordan pictured at the top of P1 on the "First Terrace" getting ready to take off and follow me up

Jordan joined me at the top of P2, we swapped gear and drank some water, and soon he was taking off on the left leaning crack of P3 as he worked his way up to the "Second Terrace", the next large grassy ledge where P3 would end. This pitch can be a little tricky with a pack on, so I was happy to have Jordan take the lead on this one and then cruise up behind him on follow. The pitch ends at the base of a small chimney that will be tackled on P4. At the top, Jordan built a three piece anchor, placed me on belay, and brought me up. P3 was ~30 meters for us, and went at 5.7.

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Jordan leading P3, climbing the left leaning crack and then gaining the "Second Terrace".

I arrived at the top of P3 to join Jordan and we quickly swapped gear while I assessed the small chimney above me that I would be climbing P4. It looked fairly cruisey, and it turned out to be my favorite lead of the day. Plenty of opportunities for fun stemming with good holds, nice rest stances to place gear, and the surrounding terrain slowly but surely getting more vertical as we ascended further from Sky Pond. This pitch ends on a small downsloping ledge to the right with two pitons to build an anchor. I always have a certain level of apprehension using old pitons, but after spending a few minutes trying to find somewhere to place a piece to back up the pitons, I gave up and built an anchor with just the pitons. On the bright side, this would give Jordan the entire rack of gear to use to protect P5, the crux pitch of the route. P4 was ~35 meters for us and went at 5.6.

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Myself on lead on P4, shooting up the small chimney before gaining the small downsloping belay ledge at the piton belay
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My anchor at the top of P4 with Jordan on belay and coming up behind me.
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At the top of P4, finally starting to gain some distance from Sky Pond below
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Jordan on follow, making his way up to join me at the piton belay at the top of P4.

Jordan joined me at the top of P4 and began racking up and mentally preparing himself for the crux pitch. It's worth mentioning that although we were halfway up the climb, we noticed that we were moving slower than predicted, especially with the toughest pitches still yet to come. We accepted that we would likely not be summitting until early afternoon, but felt comforted that we still had bluebird skies in all directions. P5 has two options from the piton belay, a reported 5.8 option to gain the slabs to the right of the belay, or going straight up at 5.9 with still spotty pro. Above that, the pitch would remain at 5.8 as it follows a finger crack dihedral to a grassy ledge on the East Face of the spire. Jordan took off on P5 from the piton belay, running out the 5.9 section and then making quick work of the rest of the pitch. The excitement in Jordan's voice as he radio'd down that he was done with the pitch was palpable, as that was the only part of this climb that had him nervous. At the grassy ledge above, Jordan built a four piece anchor and placed me on belay. This was the first section of the climb that really served me a slice of humble pie, as I started following the 5.9 variation. Right at the top of the 5.9 section my foot slipped and I came off the rock, obviously not taking much of a fall since I was on belay from above, but it reaffirmed that leading this grade in the alpine was still likely a little above my pay grade. I hopped back on the rock and pulled the moves with no problem this time and continued on up until I reached Jordan at the belay ledge. P5 was a little longer than 35 meters for us and went at 5.9.

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Jordan on the crux pitch
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Jordan at the top of P5, his four piece anchor pictured behind him with P6 looming above as we would move onto the face climbing on the East Face
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Feeling stoked at the top of P5, the crux pitch over and done with, the Saber pictured behind us
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Another look at P6

It was now past noon, but we were feeling good and still enjoying the good weather. I racked up and began scoping out above terrain of the East Face. I knew that I had to make my way up to the "Pizza Pan Belay" on a small ledge on the Southeast corner, but I had read beta that said to stay at least 30 feet from the corner until the very end of the pitch, otherwise you can find yourself pulling some 5.8 or 5.9 moves instead of the 5.7 moves that is typical of this pitch. The start of the pitch felt cruisey as I made my way up some ledge systems that went at no more than 5.5. After about 10-15 meters, things became much more vertical and I started pulling a few exposed 5.7 moves. I continued looking around at my options, and none looked very enticing. Jordan and I shared some conversation via radio, and we thought I may have been too far left and that I may be working my way into spicier terrain than anticipated. I slowly made my way up some tricky crack systems and tried cutting up and to the right. At this point, I was already dealing with bad rope drag, but didn't feel like I could safely extend many of my pieces as far as would be needed to reduce further drag without compromising all my safety. I kept moving up, with the rope drag getting worse and worse. I recognized that I had climbed about 30 meters so far, but I couldn't identify where the "Pizza Pan Belay" might be as I looked up and over towards the Southeast corner. Another 5 meters above me I saw a small grassy ledge with decent crack systems, and decided I would just make it to there and build an anchor to bring up Jordan and regroup as it wasn't worth the continued rope drag to try and cut back left to find the "Pizza Pan Belay". I worked my way up some slick face climbing to gain the small grassy ledge and built a 4 piece anchor. I placed Jordan on belay, and could feel the rope drag disappearing with every piece that he cleaned on the way up, bringing me a lot of relief. I felt a little silly that I hadn't made it to the "Pizza Pan Belay" since I knew I must be within 10 meters of it, but sometimes it's better to just regroup, especially on unfamiliar terrain. P6 was ~35 meters for us, and went at 5.7 (a stiff 5.7 IMO, but maybe that's just in my head, plus I think I may have been off route).

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Looking down from the top of our P6, bringing up Jordan after about 35 meters of climbing.
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While giving a belay at the top of P6, I spotted the group from Fort Collins on rappel, beginning their descent. Congrats on your summit, y'all!

Jordan joined me on the grassy ledge and we were glad that we had dealt with all the rope drag, but it was still unclear where exactly we were in terms of the actual beta. We deducted that we were just short of the "Pizza Pan Belay" and so we agreed that Jordan would do one short pitch to get us up and to the left in hopes that he comes across the bolts, and if so, we would regroup once more there before setting off on our true P7. Jordan grabbed the gear and we transitioned quick. He climbed less than 10 meters traversing up and to the left before finding the "Pizza Pan Belay". He built a quick anchor and brought me up. From here, the next pitch became obvious as it's features were fairly recognizable. Since Jordan was initially slated to climb P7, we flipped the rope and I placed him on belay once again so that he could lead P7. The 5.7 crack just above the belay gave him no issues, and he soon found himself up to the crest of the ridge. He radio'd down and said that he could see the summit and that he knew we would have enough rope to get there if I was okay with him combining P7 and P8. In the interest of time, I told him that would be just fine, and so he pushed through and in another ten minutes radio'd down that he was at the summit. P7 (P7+P8) was about 60 meters for us, and went at 5.7 due to the crack just above the belay, but then eased significantly afterwards with nice ledge systems. Jordan built a 4 piece anchor on the south end of the summit and brought me up on follow. At the summit, we took a small handful of selfies and then he placed me on belay while I traversed to the north end of the summit to find the bolts. I anchored myself to the bolts and gave him a quick belay over to me so that we could start rigging our rappel and begin the long descent back to the ground.

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At the "Pizza Pan Belay", the winds starting to make it pretty chilly
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SWAMP anchor on the bolts at the "Pizza Pan Belay"
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The 5.7 crack just above the "Pizza Pan Belay", with the rest of P7 trending above and to the right.
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Cresting the ridge, with the summit not too much further away.
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Jordan's four piece anchor
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On the summit!
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Jordan on the summit, the Sharkstooth looming over him in the background.
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Selfie with the Sharkstooth. Stoked to now have ticked both the Sharkstooth and Petit.
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A photo I took last year from the Sharkstooth, looking down on the summit of the Petit Grepon, hopefully giving some context to the nature of the summit
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Another photo I took last year of climbers on top of Petit
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One more photo I took last year of climbers on top of Petit, which really drives home just how small the summit is, the climber on the left at the bolts on the North end of the summit

The Descent

We only spent a few minutes on the summit since we knew we still had a long series of rappels ahead of us. Fortunately the beta I had from SummitPost was spot on for rappelling with 70m twin ropes. Slowly but surely we did all five rappels and found ourselves back on solid ground. It was now late afternoon, but for the first time in many hours, we felt like we could take a deep breath and celebrate our success as the hazards of the day were now behind us. All in all, if my addition skills are correct, we rappelled over 900' to get back down to the base, which is by far the most rappelling I've done in a day by a long shot. The only tricky part was the at the bottom of the second rappel on the "grassy ledge" described in the descent beta. Once on the ledge, we had to come off rappel and walk ~30' to the Southeast corner to find the next bolts, of which were quite exposed, to get ourselves anchored for the following rappel set-up. The rest of the descent seemed fairly straightforward. Once back at the base we decided we would make our way back to the area of Timberline Falls where we would filter more water, eat some snacks, and then high tail it from there back to the trailhead. We averaged a little over 2.5mph on our hike back to the trailhead, ultimately having to put on our headlamps for the final miles. Once back at the trailhead we grabbed some more snacks, hopped in the front seats of the van, and bid adieu to RMNP.

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Jordan on rappel
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Jordan on rappel
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Prepping the next rappel
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Continuing on down, Jordan on rappel again
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Jordan exiting the notch by the exposed rap rings
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The final rappel
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Pulling the last rappel
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One last look at the Petit Grepon on the hike out
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Hiking out

Final Thoughts

After climbing Spearhead a week prior, I thought that my efficiencies as an alpine climber had improved tremendously. As such, I had predicted that this climb of Petit Grepon would take far less time than it did. Admittedly, we had some obvious delays during the day such as waiting for a party to clear off of P1, the route finding difficulties on P6, and careful rope management of twin ropes. However, I think I still underestimated just how much bigger of a day it is to climb 8 pitches of rock in the alpine vs 6 pitches or less, especially with it being at a higher YDS grade for multiple of the pitches. Not only that, but rappelling over 900' back to the base was no quick task and was likely also underestimated. Our moving time on strava was more than 10 hours less than our total time, and although some of that is inevitable due to giving a belay, it's clear that there is a ton of room for improvement. But, that's part of why these big objectives are exciting. Big objectives highlight and magnify any inefficiencies or deficits that we have as climbers, and help provide a roadmap to continue improving while planning the next one. Jordan and I both want to double down on working on efficient transitions, and we look forward to tackling another big alpine climb next year, and doing it in even better style. As for me, attempting a climb that I knew was slightly above my pay grade was a great way to demystify certain goals of mine. Although I didn't lead the crux, I now have a better idea of the type of climbing that I need to work on to be able to lead at that grade in the alpine.

This climb ends my 2023 rock season as now I need to shift my focus towards other non-mountain related priorities in life. All things considered, ending my season on one of the "Fifty Classics" is a pretty rad way to end the season and I'm proud of the progress that I've made. Progress isn't always visible to everyone else, but I feel stronger than I've ever been, and can see my own progress in so many ways.


Technical Gear List

2x 70m Mammut 8.0mm Alpine Dry Rope (used in twin configuration)
Double rack of #0.3-#3 cams
Singles of #0.1 & #0.2 cams
One set of DMM stoppers
One set of BD stoppers
Blue Ice Harness
Mammut Harness
4x Single length runners for extending placements
8x Alpine Draws of varying length
Double, triple, and quad length runners for anchor building
BD Helmet
Petzl Helmet
ATC-Guide
Kong Gigi
Edelrid MegaJul
Various locking and non-locking carabiners
2x Rocky Talkies
2x Osprey Mutant 38 Backpack


Permit Info

There are no permits to climb this route, but if you wish to bivy at the base, RMNP requires backcountry bivy permits.

Bivy permit info can be found HERE


Beta

SummitPost

ClimbingLife

Mountain Project


GPX

I've uploaded my GPX recording in case anyone may find it useful.


Thanks for reading!

Hopefully this information is helpful for someone considering this route in the future. Thanks for reading, stay safe out there, and I'll see you in the mountains.




My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):




Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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