Intermediate Alpine Climb - Cutthroat Peak/Southeast Buttress

Our team of four left the cars a little before 8 am and picked up a well worn climber's trail on the east end of the Highway 20 road pullout.  The trail dropped down and crossed State Creek then began climbing steadily up into the basin below Cutthroat Peak.  Right before the basin, we broke off from the trail and traversed up to the left hand gulley leading up to the notch at base of the South Buttress.   Getting to the base of the gully took about 1.5 hours.  We scrambled part way up the gully, then roped up and pitched out the rest of the upper gully.  Once on the ridge proper, we simulclimbed the initial portion of the ridge, corresponding to pitch 2-3 on Mountain Project, or pitches 2-6 on the Supertopo description.  We pitched out the rest of the climb in 6 pitches as follows per the Supertopo beta: Combined pitches 7/8, pitch 9, combined pitches 10/11, pitch 12, a short sandy gully walk, combined pitches 13/14, and combined pitches 15/16.  Crawling under the chockstone on pitch 8 and the crux gully on pitch 12 provide good landmarks to know you're on route but the route finding is generally intuitive.   The face to the climber's right of the crux gully provided better pro placements and fun climbing at the same grade.

We arrived on the summit a little before 4 pm.  There are 3 single rope rappels from the summit block, all traveling in a northwest direction, or skier's left, rather than directly straight down.  The first rappel chains are just past a blocky area west of the summit and painted gray to blend in. 

After angling northwest, the first rappel drops you on a large flat ledge.  The second rappel chains are hard to see but are below this ledge to the northwest on a vertical face while you stand on a large flake.  The top of the third rappel is rap tat around a boulder in a notch to the northwest of the second rappel chains.  The third rappel drops you on the ascent ledge for the basic West Ridge route.  We simulclimbed the middle portion of the West Ridge, initially following the crest but then dropping down the south side of the ridge and arriving at the first set of rappel chains for the lower West Ridge route.  Three more single rope rappels, all from bolted anchors with chains got us to the base of the West Ridge route.   After descending several hundred feet from the base of the West Ridge route, we moved skier's right onto a sandy rib with a faint climber's trail for several hundred more feet, then into another gully skier's right for the bottom portion of the descent into the basin, avoiding a lot of the loose rock Cutthroat is known for.  Descending the West Ridge took a little over 3 hours, then another 1.5 - 2 hours to descend back to the cars, arriving around 8:45 pm.  The South Buttress is a full value climb with engaging climbing, involved descent, great scenery and a remote, alpine feel despite being close to Washington Pass.