Basic Rock Climb - Slippery Slab Tower/Northeast Face

12.00mi 3522' gain

3:26 car to base of climb
0:08 gear up, changes shoes
1:42 base of climb to summit
2:59 climb route, summit stay, rap, return to base of climb, pull ropes, coil ropes, changes shoes
2:41 base of climb to car
9:13 car to car

brought ice axes and crampons because the satellite image showed snow would block our path, but the snow melted, so we did not need. so it goes.
we all scrambled(class 4) the first pitch, anchored at the tree/lower rap anchor, then asa led on the 60m and belayed from the upper rap anchor a few feet above another tree. one follower tied in at the middle mark of the 60m rope, the other follower at the end. they drug the 50m rope and belayed me up. from there, we all scrambled the class 2 to the summit. one 60m rap down to the lower rap anchor(to avoid the possiblity of the rope getting caught in a notch, i did the upper rap last, down to a landing a few feet below and off to the side of the lower rap, which gave a better/safer angle for the rope pull), followed by a 50m rap to the base of the climb. although it was a very strong group, we made it mellow by going at a very social pace and took our time climbing. everyone had fun!!! :>)

ps - ran into many doing the pct. on from mexico, who when asked if he needed some food(most through hikers want food), he said yes, so each of gave him a bar :>)

water: on the trail to hope lake, on the trail between in a few spots between hope lake and trap pass, a melt pond and a few large snow patches below slippery slab tower,

equipment: helmet, harness, rock shoes, ropes - a 60m and a 50m, asa placed one nut and placed cams from .4 - to .75m, maybe a #1, maybe 5 pieces
equipment brought, but not used: ice axe, crampons

compare to:
slippery slab tower 9-7-2012
11.69 mi 3517' gain

3:47 car to base of climb
0:09 break
0:45 base of climb to summit
0:51 summit stay
0:33 summit to base of climb
3:18 base of climb to car
9:23 car to car

i read others taking 10 to 12 hours to do this climb but their times did not make much sense after doing it. we went about as slow as i could imagine and we still finished in 9:23.

we used a single 40m rope for a short rappel(could of easily scrambled) and then single 60m rope rappel to base of climb. i downclimbed the 4th class approach gully while all the others used a single 60m rope to rappel.

equipment: helmet, harness, rope (we used a 60m(for modern and i) and 40m rope for the 3 other people), modern placed one nut and placed cams from .5 - to #1, maybe 4 pieces of gear all single runners
equipment: no ice axe, no crampons