john_methot

Many people do Sharkfin Tower in a day. Especially if you car camp at the trailhead and get an early start. In decent shape, you should be able to do: 3-4 hours trailhead to gully (exit from glacier) 1 hour up gully to base of climb 1-2 hours on climb 1-2 hours descending climb 1 hour descending gully 3-4 hours glacier to trailhead -------- 10-14 hours total So given current daylight length, if you left the trailhead at 5:00am and did my worst-case times, you'd have almost two hours of daylight in reserve. If you do run out of time, I consider getting to low camp (5600') by dark to be the key to a successful exit. I wouldn't want to find my way down the slabs and to the trail in the dark. The trail from there on out is easy with a headlamp. Permits can be very hard to get, especially on weekends. We were at the RS at 7:00am last Fri to get a Boston Glacier permit and we were told all of the Boston Basin permits had been gone since 9:00am the previous day. Steel yourself to listen to the feces disposal speech.

Even though we read the above description several times before going, we still ended up at the top of the gulley! Downclimbed and took the [climber's] left gulley. We still rapelled (off a questionable chockstone) onto the glacier and over the schrund (handy bridge right now). We took this route 1) to avoid the 5th class in Sharkfin Col proper and 2) because Beckey specifically says it's a double rope rap to the glacier from the col. 2) is not true at the moment - it is probably half of a single rappel from the Col to the glacier, but getting longer every day.

The last time I remember seeing my camera was on the summit of Liberty Bell on June 20. I may have left it on the summit or in the Liberty Bell/Concord notch when repacking on descent. If anyone happened to find it, pleae contact me at john@methot.net. It's a silver Minolta Zoom camera in a blue and gray nylon case. Thanks. [This message has been edited by bum (edited 07-11-2001).]

In Selected Climbs, page 133, Buckner/North Face, Boston Basin approach, Nelson describes how to access the Boston Glacier via the Boston/Sahale Col. I did Sharkfin last September and no 5th class moves were required to get into Sharkfin Col. It depends on snow level on the Quien Sabe glacier. Any recent beta anyone?