direct E. buttress, S Early Winter Spire

[haireball]

a magnificent route which I finally got around to doing this week. I found Nelson's beta from Selected Climbs misleading on a couple of counts: 1) Both Nelson and Beckey suggest racking pro to 3" for this route. Pitch #4 has a 5" crack that goes for 70' and is protected only by a hangerless bolt stud unless you take a couple of larger-than-4" pieces. 2) Selected Climbs info says descend either east or west (Blue Lake Trail) from the base of the S. arete. Since we'd parked at, and approached from, the hairpin on the east side, we descended east. Following a well-beaten path from the ridge crest, we found ourselves drawn into what we came to christen "foo-king gully". (foo-king is indigenous dialect for 'corridor of death'". We counted ourselves lucky to escape five hours later. Since we never found any human remains along the way, I can only conclude that the tracks and rappel slings we past had been left by a party of winged alpine assassins whose little death-trap failed this time...