[TR] Johannesburg - NE Rib 07/24/2025

[JonParker]

Trip: Johannesburg - NE Rib

Trip Date: 07/24/2025

Trip Report:

 

Another Johannesburg NE rib trip report is something the world likely doesn’t need but I’m in a bit of beta happy mood lately. Certain kinds of climbers might find the endless scrambling pretty enjoyable. And with perfect route finding the route doesn’t have to be especially sketchy, though as I found, navigation errors might be punished severely.

 

 

The steep dirt embankment right off the road is a heads up rude awakening that foreshadows what lies ahead. And for such a short approach the bushwhacking is not insignificant.

Steph Abegg has a good photo of the start of the route but the snow fan cuts off the very bottom of the slab and the elevation is wrong. You gain the rock more like 4100’. This confused me back in early June when I came to try the route. I got spooked off the slabs at the start. Thinking I may have missed something due to the “4400’” annotation, I climbed snow higher, but found only sheer cliffs above. On my way back down I saw from Steph’s picture that I had been in the right place after all but it turned out to just be really hard instead of easy class 4.

 

During my second attempt I began by trying to follow blocky terrain on the left side of the slab. It started out good but when it came time to move right, a drip formed an impossibly slimy 10 foot wide barrier to passage. I retreated nearly back to the bottom and instead headed up to a right facing corner left of a roof with a wet slab below it. I went this way on my first attempt before bailing.

It starts with a bit of lieback on a jug and a high reach to another jug, after which you can pull up to easier ground. 

Right after I took this photo my feet blew on slime. It’s a low angle stance, so fortunately I didn’t go far. Humbly I reapplied and was accepted on the second try. This short sequence felt like 5th class though as my fall demonstrated, maybe not exposed enough to count as true 5th. Though I’ve spent more than my fair share of time on that slab by now, I still have no idea where the path of least resistance is.

Having failed to find the “easy class 4” I also failed to find the “sketchy 5th”. At the top of the slab next to the waterfall I found good solid rock and was on my way.

Worse was yet to come in the jungle section. From the stream below I noticed some tall cedars and guessed that it wouldn’t be too crowded at their bases. This was true, I was able to move between them and the rock buttress without any real entanglement (18L pack with ax and tool covered in socks and just barely stuffed inside). However I was getting further and further west and not gaining enough elevation. Finally I saw something I was hoping to find, a steep, rocky and mostly dry bed. But guarding access was minor cliff band maybe 15’ tall. Overly committed, I explored three fairly terrifying options at 5.forest and managed to get through, relying far more on good fortune than I’d like. The episode left a bitter taste on an otherwise umami day. I definitely prefer my climbs not avoidably harrowing.

Above that section I tended to stay in or just to the right of the gully between the two ribs, with a wider diversion to the right just above the last major snowfield.

Where the vegetation finally gives way to solid, polished rock beginning around 6K’ was the highlight of the route for me, both because this was the best quality rock for the day, and because of the sense of relief for escaping what was just below.

At about 6450’ I found a promontory with a great view of the northeast face.

Beyond this point the rock quality declined some (but not terrible) and the route complexity increased. I saw that I needed to move diagonally up and right to get to where the snow was on my map. I found reasonable ramps and ledges cut with interesting quartz bands. There was one more section of minor drama with steep, exposed choss to get around the corner. Then I could see the snow and ice spilling down from Johannesburg’s north face. I gained the snow at 7200’, maybe missing the famous bivy, though I noticed one small one at 7000’ with good but not panoramic views.

The snow arete was AWOL. My guess is the high heat has melted it down to a boring broad shape. Passage on the left was a little narrow but in good shape. There were no real difficulties with shrunds and crevasses and no mandatory hard ice. At the upper face especially the snow was steep enough that I was glad to have sharp things on each limb.

Unlike my first time here, I couldn’t locate the summit register. Before long I began the descent to the east. It was helpful to have been up and down this way before. I had forgotten how much griffin shit is in this zone.

I seemed to take a long time descending. Probably I was mentally fatigued from all the no fall terrain.

It was a lovely afternoon as I traversed the basin over to the ridge off of Mixup, pierced with many marmot cries dying off with slow haunting decay.

Industrious workers of the underworld, unite!

More mental fatigue descending the slabs coming down from that notch, then a long overdue water break below the snow (though somehow I didn’t get dehydrated despite running out shortly after the summit). Pretty straightforward and gratuitously beautiful from there back to the trailhead. It took me slightly less time than going up and down Doug’s direct had, a little under 15 hours. I think I lost at least an hour with the slab and forest cliff navigation fiascos.

Many reports say this climb is best done once. I think that’s not untrue but if you really like scrambling this could be a good one, because the scrambling goes on and on hypnotically. That said, it’s a slippery one.

Gear Notes:
Approach shoes, steel strap-on crampons, one tool, one light ax.

Approach Notes:
Last hair pin before the Cascade pass trailhead. Don’t fall down the very steep hard dirt.

Edited 4 hours ago by JonParker
Photos