One of the finer alpine rock routes in the area with interesting climbing, good pro and generally good rock (for the Rockies of course!).
Approach by traversing along the base of the North Face and rather than drop to the base of the face, traverse in on scree covered ledges. Follow ledges leftwards for some distance past a set of prominent left leaning cracks and continue for approximately 35m past these to the end of the ledge. You should be down and left of a right facing corner with a prominent flake.
P1 - Begin below the middle of three right facing corners (quite shallow), moving up to belay at the base of the corner. (30m 5.7).
P2 - Climb the corner for 15m then follow a crack in the left wall. Move left to a right facing corner with a wide crack which you climb to a belay. (45m, 5.10a).
P3 - Move up and right over a roof to a groove, climbing this before moving up and left to ledges. Continue up and right on run-out terrain to reach a straight crack, climbing this to belay as high as possible. (50m, 5.8).
P4 - Continue up the crack to a ledge below a wet chimney. The length depends on where you set the last belay. (45-55m 5.8).
P5 - Step left into a corner climbing this before moving left again over a roof and continuing up to a bolt at the base of a dihedral. Climb the dihedral to a large and bolt belay. (55m, 5.10a).
P6 - Traverse left along the ledge before moving up and right on sloping ledges to a flake. Climb past fixed pins then left to ledges, belaying on the highest ledge below an obvious dihedral. (45m, 5.9).
P7 - Climb a wide crack for 10m before stepping right to climb extremely loose rock to ledges and a piton. Continue up to a bolt belay on a higher ledge. (50m, 5.9).
P8 & 9 - Move up and left to a crack in the dihedral which you will follow for 2 pitches to ledges at the top. Move left to easier ground before scrambling up and right to a belay at a large detached flake. (115m, 5.7).
P10 - Go behind the flake to a ledge, continuing onto the large slab on the right of the scoop. Traverse right to an easy groove before moving right again to fixed pitons. Climb down and left for 5m to a nice and belay here or at an exposed ledge a short distance higher on the right. (60m, 5.8).
P11 - From the lower belay, move up to the ledge then easily right. Climb a short ramp on the left side of an arete to gain access to a corner. Follow the corner until below an obvious crack to the right of a wet and very uninviting chimney. (25m, 5.10a).
P12 - Climb the crack to a roof then step right to a ledge. Step back left to the crack when possible and go up to easy ground (50m, 5.10a).
The remainder of the climb is straightforward but time-consuming. Continue on mainly 4th class terrain to join the NE right before climbing several pitches of low 5th class to the summit.
FA: George Homer & Rob Wood, 1972