Basic Alpine Climb - Yellowjacket Tower/East Flank

6/18/17 - Party of 6.

Started up from the road around 7:30am.   Returned around 7pm.   Cross the bridge and hook a left and there is now a sign saying "YellowJacket" pointing to the climbing trail so you don't wind up in someone's back yard.

Steep but easy climbers trail to the base of the gulley.  Can be an intimidating climb to get above the gulley obstruction.  We wen't up a 5ft crack to the right, looks like you could also scramble up a bit to the left, but its  bit exposed either way.  Consider having someone lead up if anyone wanted a handline.  Noone in our group needed one.

Rockfall in the gulley can be bad.  You can ascend a fair amount of it staying far left against the wall or go up in tighter groups.

Don't go too far up the approach gulley or you will go past the hidden gulley.  Once you spot the "chicken head" walls go to them and there are 3 trees in a group and one has blue rap slings.  Start the hidden gully here.   Most everyone struggled trying to go up the obstruction in the middle of the gulley, so consider just climbing up the thin crack to the exposed face, far easier.  A handline though from the belay station might be nice since its a lot of loose kitty litter.

The climb itself is straight forward and fun, but short.  The summit block no longer takes a "red" tricam. The hole is so big you need a blue tricam and even that is kinda sketch.

Watch out for goats hurling rocks down on the descent.   Once you do one rap down the gulley you can do a couple more, we found it easier to stay far skiers right and scramble down the side to the final rap station before that initial obstacle in the gulley