[TR] Inspiration Peak, Southern Pickets - Northeast Buttress, New Route 7/20/1996

[alanjay]

Trip: Inspiration Peak, Southern Pickets - Northeast Buttress, New Route

 

Date: 7/20/1996

 

Trip Report:

As I never reported this climb anywhere, I thought it was time. Alex Bertulis, Mark Fielding and Russian climbers Sergei Efimov and Alexei Lebedehin first climbed the North Face of Inspiration in 1977. And since the North Face was repeated in 2004, there may be a spike in Pickets activity.

Dana Hagin and I put up the adjacent Northeast Buttress climb by approaching from the Inspiration/West McMillan saddle, with a couple rappels and down climbing. We then traversed a ledge westward to gain the buttress, about 500 feet above the glacier on the north side.

From there it was mostly enjoyable climbing, with maybe one pitch of 5.10-, a scary loose pitch, a bivy on a good ledge, and the summit on day two. The descent was down the West Ridge of Inspiration.

For the complete story and more quality photos go to: blog

Edited April 1, 2011 by alanjay

[JayB]

Cool. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to checking out the full story at your blog.