Prusik West Ridge

[Maestro]

I can read in the guidebooks that the West Ridge route on Prusik Peak is rated at 5.7 and has 4 pitches, but other information is a bit vague. Having never been to Prusik--or anywhere in the Enchantments for that matter--I would like to ask for a bit of beta from anyone who is familiar with the route and willing to share what you can.

 

Specifically, what would be an appropriate rack? Since it is a fairly long haul up there, I obviously don’t want to schlep along a ton of hardware that won’t get used.

 

And what is the order of difficulty of the pitches? From reading the books, I am guessing that, from easiest to hardest, it would be 3-1-2-4. Does that sound about right? This is to be sure the right person on the team leads the most appropriate pitches.

 

If these questions are already answered somewhere that I missed, I would appreciate a link to that thread.

 

Anything I didn’t ask that you feel would be helpful would also be much appreciated.

[larrythellama]

none of it is sustained and i sam sure you will never know when you did the "5.7" move.

 

as for a rack bring some med to large hexes and some stoppers.

 

and you can down climb the rap route if you want or make a couple of single rope raps.

[matt_warfield]

It is not sustained and a light rack will suffice. The 5.7 step is unprotected so put your strong leader on it. The last pitch has a few 5.6-5.7 moves and then eases.

 

A couple of other notes: 1)the route winds around lots of features and communication is difficult so plan around that, and 2) the last pitch does NOT climb the chimney straight above the start of the pitch but instead winds around the corner to the right to an easier short chimney. Some topos are misleading in this area. It's a classic route in a grand position to a tremendous summit. Have fun!

[TimL]

The 5.7 section is a slab and alll you really need is one sling to protect it to clip a pin. I believe you can back the pin up with something, then you can get a small, maybe orange TCU in after the crux. You could bring for a rack singles from the blue TCU to a #3 camalot and a small sets of nuts and bring a lot of slings. You certainly could bring less and be fine depending on your comfort, but the above rack should be good for climb and setting up anchors.

[TimL]

And if it is early season, bring boots on the climb for the descent and walking across snow. Depending your comfort on snow, you might want an ice axe.

[Maestro]

Thanks for all the beta and advice. I just hope 100 of my closest friends don't decide to climb that route on the same day.

[Dustin_B]

Thanks for all the beta and advice. I just hope 100 of my closest friends don't decide to climb that route on the same day.

 

If you're going this weekend, you'll probably have it all to yourself....

 

If you run into a fixed #1 cam, you are on a more difficult variation of pitch ~3? (and what I thought might have been the crux of the route)...

[matt_warfield]

Thanks for all the beta and advice. I just hope 100 of my closest friends don't decide to climb that route on the same day.

 

Between the 10 mile approach and the permit system, I'll bet the route is hardly ever crowded. Go get it.

[Jake]

After the easy 5.7 slab deal there is an exposed traverse right along the ridge crest. You probably want your more experienced person there. It is simple, but there is some rope drag. That last chimney o/w to the summit can be interesting, though it is definitely harder than the other way. Rap off with a 60m rope, though a 50 would work with a little down climbing if you had to. I don't know about actually downclimbing the entire rap route. It would be way hard (vertical cracks and steep steps) and the rappel is fun and quick anyway.