Basic Rock Climb - South Early Winter Spire/South Arête

Start time: 7:20 am

The snow was entirely melted out aside from some collections of hail courtesy of a lighting storm a couple nights prior that also triggered 2 landslides across the road near the hairpin.  We followed the normal summer trail/route up, reaching the base of the climb at 8:45 am

Brian D led first with Emily Following.  Tim led second with Brian N and Stephen on a cow’s tail.  The cow’s tail offered the typical discomfort on traversing terrain, but general went well.

After the 3rd pitch, we Simul-climbed until reaching the Whale’s back. Brian D setup a hand-line to protect the traverse.

After this we all scrambled the rest un-roped, reaching the summit at 11:50 am.  Once on top, we stopped a while for lunch and views.

Heading down, we dropped into the couloir and regained the ridge at a low-point with a small, easily climbable ledge, allowing us to skip the more exposed down-scramble above.  Brian D setup the Hand-line again for the whale’s back and we cruised our way back down to the 3 rappels.

We repacked and it was a quick hike out, reaching the cars at 3:50pm.

This was a fun climb with a great group of people on a beautiful day.