Forty Classic Scrambles of North America Sean O’Rourke Cover photograph: Bob Burd descending Middle Finger Peak in northern Yosemite. Frontispiece: East ridge of Wolfs Head, Wind River Range, Wyoming. Back photograph: The author descending Thunderbolt on the Palisade Traverse. Photo © Renee Elsdon Jacobs. Map (p. x) Copyright © OpenStreetMap contributors, via CalTopo (http://caltopo.com/). Black and white photo (p. 133) from Howard Palmer, Mountaineering and Exploration in the Selkirks. Typeset with LATEX (XeTeX 3.14159265). Copyright © 2019 by Sean O’Rourke. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without express permission from the author. Cover design and layout by the author. Photographs by the author unless otherwise noted. ISBN 978-0-9855784-2-8 Contents I The Western Desert 1 1 Baboquivari Peak (Forbes route) 4 2 Weavers Needle (West face) 8 3 Sandia Peak (Knife Edge of the Shield) 11 4 Rainbow Peak (Solar Slab) 14 5 Rainbow Peak (Rainbow Direct) 17 6 Snow Lake Peak 20 II The Colorado Rockies 23 7 Blanca Peak (Little Bear Traverse) 26 8 Vestal Peak (Wham Ridge) 29 9 Crestone Traverse 33 10 Kit Carson Peak (North Ridge) 36 11 The Flatirons 39 III The Sierra Nevada 42 12 Lone Pine Peak (North Ridge) 45 13 Mount Russell (East Ridge) 49 14 Whaleback (North Ridge) 52 15 Middle Palisade (East Face) 55 16 Thunderbolt to Sill 58 17 Laurel Mountain (Mendenhall Couloir) 61 18 Clyde Minaret (Starr Route) 63 iii 19 Ritter (Muir route) 66 20 Matthes Crest Traverse 70 21 Cathedral Peak (Muir route or Southeast buttress) 73 22 Mount Conness (North and West Ridges) 76 IV The Tetons and Wind Rivers 79 23 Wolf ’s Head (East Ridge) 81 24 Grand Teton (Upper Exum Ridge) 84 25 Mount Owen (Koven couloir) 87 26 Hanging Canyon Traverse 90 27 Mount Moran (CMC face) 94 V The North Cascades 98 28 Sloan Peak (Corkscrew) 100 29 Goode Mountain (Northeast Buttress) 102 30 Johannesburg Mountain (Northeast Rib) 106 31 Eldorado and Dorado Needle 111 32 Southern Pickets 115 33 Mount Shuksan (Fisher Chimneys) 121 VI The Selkirks and Canadian Rockies 125 34 Pigeon Spire (West Ridge) 128 35 Mount Sir Donald (Northwest Ridge) 132 36 Asulkan Ridge 136 37 Mount Assiniboine (North Ridge) 139 38 Mount Smuts (South Ridge) 143 39 Mount Temple (East Ridge) 146 40 Mount Colin Traverse 150 iv A Routes by difficulty 154 B Routes by overall quality 155 C Afterword 156 v Introduction Chimneying up Mount Smuts, Kananaskis Country, Canada. In the early 21st century, essentially all of North Amer- peaks above 14,000 feet; in California, the 248 peaks of ica has been thoroughly explored, mapped, and docu- the Sierra Peaks Section list; in Washington, the hundred mented. Detailed mountaineering guidebooks and web highest peaks in the Cascades; in Canada, the 54 peaks pages exist for the more accessible mountain ranges, and above 11,000 feet. While these lists can be a starting point, even for many of those usually reached by helicopter. they often include many forgettable routes and peaks. This profusion of information can overwhelm an aspiring A better option is to find a guidebook or list of hand- scrambler, who is faced with more routes than he could picked routes tailored to one’s abilities or interests, such climb in a hundred lifetimes. They can range from thrilling as Alan Kane’s Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies or Peter to tedious, magnificent to forgettable, impossible to triv- Croft’s The Good, the Great, and the Awesome. However, most ial, and he must dig through the pile and guess which are of these guides cover only a single region. which. The best-known such guide covering all of North A typical response is to follow a regional list based on America is probably John Roper and Allen Steck’s Fifty some arbitrary criterion: in Colorado, the 54 (or 55, or 58) Classic Climbs of North America, published in 1979. To vi for people like me. I am reasonably fit, experienced on a variety of terrain, and have the time to travel by car around the western United States and Canada. However, I do not have the skills to climb serious technical terrain, the pa- tience for aid climbing, or the money for chartered flights and expeditions. Even if I did, I suspect I would not enjoy those activities, whether I was waiting out a storm in a tent on a glacier, or trying to sleep on a portaledge partway up a big wall and defecating in a tube. I prefer “scrambling,” loosely defined as moving effi- ciently and usually alone over varied, moderate terrain with minimal gear, and returning to the trailhead in a single push. Over the years, I have been fortunate to pursue this passion throughout much of the western United States and southwestern Canada. Out of hundreds of peaks and routes, a handful have struck me as exceptional. When I began planning this book, I hoped to arrive at a list of fifty “classics.” However, I had read of but not climbed some routes that would likely qualify, so for now I have settled on this shorter list of forty. To qualify as classic, a route should: 1. ascend a striking, dramatic peak or line; 2. be a good exemplar of its region, or have historical significance; Traversing a knife-edge between Mount Randy Morgenson and 3. involve interesting, engaging climbing, preferably on Mount Russell, Sierra Nevada. good rock. The stars in each route’s “at a glance” box reflect these come up with their list, Roper and Steck surveyed emi- criteria as “(1 and 2) / 3,” where each can have from one nent friends and acquaintances in the climbing commu- to three stars. For example, Solar Slab (p. 14) is rated nity, then chose fifty routes upon which to bestow the /. The first means that Rainbow Peak is not subjective title of “classic.” In choosing their list, they con- a striking mountain, the route does not follow a promi- sidered climbing quality, aesthetic value, and historical sig- nent feature, and it does not have an interesting history. nificance, roughly in that order. Roper and Steck made no The second means that the climbing is excellent for claim to having chosen the “best,” or even “most classic” the grade. In contrast, Mount Assiniboine’s north ridge routes. Since the list’s publication, some of the routes have (p. 139) is rated /, because while it is one of Rock- become overcrowded, while others have fallen out of fa- ies’ most iconic peaks, the rock is poor and the climbing vor, and one, Shiprock, cannot even be legally climbed.As not particularly interesting. of the mid-2010s, some people had completed thirty- or As a scrambler rather than a climber, I have weighed the forty-some of Roper and Steck’s classics, but no one had first two and third criteria about equally: I am willing to yet finished the list. There are two main reasons for this. both put up with subpar rock for a superb peak like Mount First, the list demands great proficiency in a wide vari- Assiniboine, and climb a non-peak that has fun movement ety of skills, from hard free and aid climbing to high alti- like Solar Slab. While I am fascinated by climbing history, tude mountaineering. Second, the routes are spread from for this book I have placed much less weight on this factor. Alaska to New Mexico, and many can only be reached by Still, I have put in some peaks to represent often-ignored costly expeditions involving chartered helicopters or float regions, and have included some routes for historical rea- planes. sons. Faced with these options, none focused on the kind of What counts as a “scramble” depends upon the individ- mountaineering I most enjoy, I decided to write a guide ual: one person’s easy solo is another’s desperate, roped vii Climbing Bear Claw Spire’s summit block, Sierra Nevada. struggle; one’s daylight run is another’s multi-day back- rock, easy approaches, long ridges, and stable weather. pack. Here, a scramble typically involves class 3 to 5.5 rock, though I have included a few exceptional routes up to 5.7. In the snowier ranges, scrambling may also include How to use this guide steep snow, moderate ice (about AI2), and easy glacier travel. It is up to the reader to exercise judgment and cau- This guide is primarily meant to introduce a climber ex- tion in deciding which routes to attempt, and whether to perienced in one region to the opportunities available in bring a rope or other gear. others.For example, someone familiar with the Colorado Rockies visiting the Sierra Nevada may be overwhelmed The list of course reflects my personal biases and pref- by the Sierra Peak Section’s list of 248 peaks, or see only a erences; it also reflects my different levels of familiarity small part of the range while climbing the 15 fourteeners. with different areas. This is most obvious in the paucity This book describes, as an entry point, a few of the best of Canadian routes; I have not spent enough time there to scrambles in six regions across the western United States unearth obscure gems. This is also partly to blame for the and Canada (p. x): the Western Desert, Colorado Rock- slight over-representation of California’s Sierra Nevada, ies, Sierra Nevada, Tetons and Wind River Range, North where I have spent more time than in any other range. Cascades, and Selkirks and Canadian Rockies.