Basic Alpine Climb - Yellowjacket Tower/East Flank

To add to my notes from two weeks ago: This time we knew the correct route. However, pitch 2 is probably a 5.6 (5.7 in mountain boots). Also, the last few feet of pitch 3 are difficult in mountain boots and protectable only with a #3 tricam (which I did not have). Overall, I found that the technical difficulties make it questionable as a Basic Rock trip (although 3 of the 4 participants did make it up pitch 2). And with basic students along, expect more than 5 hours to the top and plenty of time to descend. The scrambling in the uppermost part of the approach gully is steep and downsloping, so we bypassed it with a rappel, plus a rappel to get past the chockstone.