South Early Winter Spire/South Arête

We met at the Blue Lake TH at 6:30 and were on the trail at 7:00.  We were a team of four with two strong basic graduates, Devin and Luke Lampe.   We arrived at the base of the climb at around 8:35, geared up and started climbing at 9:00.  The weather was cool, getting colder and windier as the climb progressed. 

We made good time up the two technical pitches and simul-climbed up to the whaleback.  Many climbers, including us, follow the well worn path past the crack on the right face, that leads up to the whaleback, before having to backtrack.   We set a traverse line across the whaleback and consolidated on the far side. 

The team was moving well with confidence.  We decided to finish the route unroped.  We topped out before noon and enjoyed our summit luncheon. 

We were unable to find an easy third class way down so we set a rappel with a gear anchor that brought the team down to the bottom of the crack we missed on the way up with a 60 M single rope rappel.  I cleaned the anchor and down climbed.

Based on the July 13th trip report, I was under the misapprehension that a 70 M rope was needed for the rappels.  60 M was more than enough and we probably could have done it with a 50 M.  Perhaps there are multiple rappel routes.  We saw goats near the base of the climb on the way up, but our packs remained unmolested.  The descent from the summit took around 3.5 hours. We got back to the cars around 4:00pm.  It was a great day of no drama climbing with a skilled highly efficient team.