Beta request - Perren Route to Neil Colgan Hut

[spotly]

SummitPost describes this route as having 4 pitches from 5.4 to 5.7. but I've read descriptions for guided hiking tours that go from the Fay Hut to Moraine Lake that describe the descent of the Perren Route as being only "steep and exposed" in places. Maybe it's not a contradiction at all but for a hiking tour I'd expect to see mention of having to rap and not just a blurb about steep and exposed. Anyone have any beta on the approach to Neil Colgan Hut from Moraine Lake? Thanks.

[Alex]

I've decended the Perren after climbing up to the Cogan hut with genepires via Scheisse Ledges. The Perren route is MUCH more direct than the S Ledges route and much cleaner, and as far as technical ground at most has probably 1 or 2 shorter pitch of 5.7 on it. We chose S Ledges on the way up because it had no technical terrain and so seemed like we could just go go go without breaking out a rope.

 

On decent of the Perren, there is one major rap over the one 5.7 pitch, but the rest of the decent is unremarkable.

 

That's not to say EITHER of these routes are easy routefinding, though. There is a LOT of scrambling and if you are unfamiliar with the area in general or the Rockies, or have difficulties with loose rock, finding and traversing even these well-travelled routes will be a challenge.

 

 

[spotly]

Yeah, I hate the loose crap and a picture of the traverse pitch certainly looked loose. The route overall looks interesting though so we're hoping to get up it then run up Mount Little sometime in August. Thanks for clearing up the conflicting descriptions.

[mattp]

I agree with Alex, that the rest of the route (aside from the roped part) was "trivial." It has been over 20 years since I've been there, but my recollection of the Perren route was that even the roped bit was trivial but kind of fun in a novelty way because of how it was all fixed and the pro was marked with spray paint and it was almost a via feratta. We carried overnight packs and ice climbing gear.

 

Faye was my second climb in the Canadian Rockies and I had never dealt with Rockies caliber rock before. If you have done much rock climbing and some mountaineering, it will probably be trivial. If you have not, well, it won't.