eric

Thanks for the info chucK. Your 'rap rope' is still there. I think it's been added to since then, according to all the dates on the slings. As a matter of fact, there are abandoned rap slings all over the top of the route, in all directions. Your description matches my experience perfectly, with the exception of the last part. Once I moved past the balanced rock I encountered a short chiminey and two exposed traverses to a 15' rock tower. It looked like it was possible to by pass the rock tower on the north side, but it required down-climbing about 20 feet onto an exposed ledge system and I wasn't up for trying it without a rope. Do you remember anything like that? If not, do you remember if your position on the summit was considerably higer than the summit of the balanced rock?

Thanks James, that's exactly the information I was looking for. Unfortunate to hear that it was easier than it looked though, to think I was that close and turned back. On the other hand, it's nice to know I'm not losing my mind. Next time I'll try it with a rope and a partner, maybe try the balanced rock while we're up there.

Can anyone give me a detailed account of Sherpa's summit from the South route? According to all of the beta I had it's supposed to be a pretty straight-forward climb with one exposed move across a slab to a short chimney, then a scramble to the summit. I didn't find the route quite so easy. To spice the climb up I came at the summit from the crest of the Southeast-trending rock ridge, which offers some low 5th class climbing from about 7800' up to the balanced rock. Once I got to the balanced rock I moved to the North side and crossed the slab, according to the standard South route. I went up the chimney, but then found a couple of short knife-edge traverses with some serious exposure. Once across these I came to a stout rock pinnacle approx 10-15' high. This appeared to be the summit, it was a little higher than balanced rock and I could see nothing that rose any higher. The problem was that the pinnacle was very exposed and from my vantage point there was no reasonably safe way to the top without a partner and a rope. Sorry for the long-winded preamble, but I'm now wondering if I missed something while I was up there. As embarrassing as it may be, did I miss the true summit? Anyone have any similar experiences? thanks