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Trip Report    

Intermediate Alpine Climb - Le Petit Cheval/Spontaneity Arête

Overall, this was a fun and relaxing climb on good rock with a great partner, and perfect weather. Pretty much perfect.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • Ideal conditions

7:00am- Trail Start

8:00am- Reached base of rock climb

12:30pm- Reached summit

3:15pm- Back to packs at base of climb

4:15pm- Back to car

 

APPROACH

A climber's trail starts on the west side of the milepost 165 turnout, down the road embankment to a distinct cairned trail through the forest. The trail crosses Early Winters Creek on logs and wanders up an open, rocky drainage to three fixed lines on rock before the trail tops out on a flat area. The climb starts at a large snag on the far left/exposed portion of the ridge.

 The Climb:

The climb is characterized by a series of benches separated by short moderate rock pitches.  The first two pitches have fun 5.7 hand/finger cracks, to a semi-roof, and around the climbers right side of the roof on a cool traverse to a large ledge with a tree anchor.

After un-roping we scrambled for a while to where the ridge steepens up again.  We walked, climbers right, into the gully to a short, fun crack climb up to the ridge crest with another tree anchor.  Pitch four was some moderate crack climbing to another bench.  Pitches 5-6 are similar blocky steps with hand cracks separated by benches. Pitch 7 was a moderate crack climb to a fun, well-protected 5.7 hand crack, and gear anchor, and a final scramble to the summit.

Decent:

The descent down the ridge was long, and there is a fair bit of walking/ down-scrambling separating short raps down the steep parts.  We tried moving to the gully at the base of pitch 3 and scrambling down a ways, but quickly diverted back to the ridge, which was much more pleasant in climbing shoes.