Prussik descent question

[Doug_Hutchinson]

After climbing the South Face, I assume we'll descend the West Ridge. To get back down to the Snow Lakes basin area (or whatever the smaller lake basin at the base is called) from Prussik Pass will we need axes and crampons at this time of year? I assume that area will be completely snow covered so how steep is the descent? Thanks.

[matt_warfield]

Normally, you don't descend the W. Ridge but rappel the N. side of Prusik in 4-5 single rope rappels. There will be some snow around the Enchantment basin but I doubt if crampons would be necessary.

 

You may get a response from somebody who has been in there recently and can report on the snow pack. Have fun- it's a great peak!

[tanstaafl]

Did South Face of Prusik June 5. Rapped down N. Face into knee-deep snow, traversed slope, which was steep (50 degrees maybe? Or maybe it just seemed like it at the time), back around to south side. I was wearing Mountain Masters and my buddy wore some sort of mountaineering/climbing boots.

 

No crampons necessary in the upper enchantment Basin, unless you do what I did and tie plastic grocery sacks around your feet to keep them dry. Then some ultralight crampons come in handy.

 

We did take light axes, which we pulled out for the descent down Aasgard, but ski poles were overall more useful and would probably be sufficient, depending on your comfort level.

 

Have fun.

[thrutch]

I have found to down climb the north side of pussik a nice challenge, it is also about 20 minutes faster.

[Alex]

When we did S Face Prussik last year, we rapp'ed the N face to the snow (steep) and post-hole traversed back the the lower W ridge in rock shoes, from which you can downclimb easy 2nd and 3rd class rock and goat trails to the base of the S Face.

 

From the summit there is a very well-established station, and from there you can pick and choose from lots of stations (good and some not so good) on the way down the face, depending on whether you are on single or double ropes. Its blocky terrain, but steep enough to want to rap all of it. I recommend double ropes.

[Redoubt]

I recommend double ropes.

I don't, unless you are going to do the climb with doubles or twins anyway. It's a very straightforward single rope descent and there's no reason to lug an extra rope just for the descent. Four raps from good stations, as I recall, but toss in some extra webbing.

 

And rapping the W Ridge does work okay. Just more downclimbing and some rope tossing issues since you're traversing so much. I've done both a few times and prefer the north side.

[Alex]

I recommend double ropes.

I don't, unless

 

Ah, sorry, good point - yes we climbed as a party of three and thus had double 8.5s.

[Doug_Hutchinson]

Thanks. I thought about ski poles, but hauling or climbing with poles or axes through the South Face chimney pitch seems like a really bad idea. So...how do you deal with that chimney and packs?

[thrutch]

You don't climb with a pack.

[matt_warfield]

For the squeeze, just hang your pack from your harness with a tether. But as has been suggested, take an axe for the approach but don't take it on the climb. Go light and scramble/carry around at the base to your left gear.

 

If you don't like chimneys, do the Beckey S. Face route instead as profiled in Kearney's guide. Either wasy, it's a great face that wants you to climb it.

[Redoubt]

I also think that by the time the second gets to the squeeze, you're close enough to the belay above for the leader to drop you a bight of rope and haul the pack before you climb the chimney.

 

As far as not doing the chimney, there is a variation to the Burgner-Stanley that moves right well below the chimney and then regains the route at the base of the final pitch. Never done it, but I think I'll try it next time, 'cause I think the squeeze sucks.

[Doug_Hutchinson]

I'll close the thread by answering my own question. On 6/26/04, we found no snow (except occ. patches) on the approach to the south face. At the base of the NF raps, there was a few feet of soft snow from the base of the raps about 100 yards to Prusik Pass. From there, easy downclimbing or one rap back to the base of the route. No axes or crampons were necessary since the snow was soft enough to kick knee high steps. In a few weeks, you could traverse back to the base in rock shoes, but now approach shoes or boots are nice.

 

Other notes on the south face: 1) Don't get suckered into the left hand chimney on pitch four that has a fixed rope (like I did), the correct chimney is right of the fixed rope; 2) Redoubt was right - you can easily drop a bight of rope to haul a pack up the squeeze chimney; 3) posters from previous threads who recommended avoiding the squeeze chimney also had it right - the squeeze sucks!; and 4) the last pitch is so awesome that you forget how bad the squeeze was by the time you flop onto the summit.

 

(PS - Are the cc.com spell checkers on vacation? I spell Prusik wrong and no one corrects me? How sad.)