Devils Peak/South Ridge

Following the same directions as the march 31st report we did not run into snow needing snowshoes the entire way to the basin by the lake. We DID run into about 25-30 BoAlps on their snow overnight field trip, resulting in almost no parking within 1/4 mile of the trail head.

After reaching the lake we found the easiest and least unpleasant brush/snow route up the steep slopes 200-300' above the lake. Once clear of that it was just a snow slog to the base of the route. We elected to set up two fixed ropes for the party to self tend prussics on. One a full rope to the base of the summit gully, and the other a short one up from there to the summit.

The route starts at a very large tree in the gully on the left (south) side of the peak. Head for the easy 4th class steppy rock on the right side of a small minor gully directly above the tree. After about 50' it tops out onto the ledge system that we ran back to the right for another 70-80' to a set of double bolts. Note that the ledge, while easy and with small trees to set up pro to protect the hand line traverse, slopes down and outward slightly. as this is a friction traverse, it would be "sporty" to attempt while wet or covered in ice.

At the bolts it was easy 2nd class to the summit. however due to wet snow on the rocks just above the bolts we elected to run a hand line to the summit, approximately 70' further.

The descent is an awesome double rappel off the bolts. Note the start of this rappel is unfortunately though some small brushy sub alpine firs that cannot be avoided. Immediately after the brush, however, this turns into a full hanging rappel for approximately 50-60' that everyone on the trip agreed was the highlight of the entire climb.

Car to car was approximately 9 hours.