Is Agnes worth climbing?

[JasonG]

Have any of yous climbed it? I realize that it probably won't be great, but want to make sure that it isn't dangerous, terrifying, and/or terribly tricky. Thanks for any info!

[cartman]

Reports are that it is scary-assed loose fourth class with a few class 5 moves thrown in to make it even spicier. Depends on route taken.

 

From Tom Sjolseth's TR: "There is a reason Agnes Mountain isn't often climbed. Not only is the approach fairly long, the climbing itself is steep, unprotectable, and treacherous. The rock is very friable. Those who have climbed Boston Peak can appreciate my assertion that the rock on Agnes is worse."

 

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7961602&highlight=agnes

 

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Yes, it's worth climbing for the views and position alone.

 

If you're comfortable on steep, loose class 4 (contrary to what I said previously, it IS protectable, but probably more dangerous than to just solo it like we did due to rockfall hazard), then you won't have much of a problem. It's not technically difficult by any stretch of the imagination, but the climbing felt dangerous to me, and I consider myself fairly experienced on chossy piles. We went directly up the center of the W Face, bypassing the 5.6 route over to climber's left. If I had to do it all over again, I would have done the 5.6 pitch instead. Reports are that it is reasonably solid.

 

You might have better luck on one of the ridges (NW?). The SE Face actually looks solid, but it's steep and there aren't a whole lot of obvious lines (to me). YMMV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dberdinka]

If I were going to hike all the way in there I'd skip Agnes and head over to Main Gunsight and climb the 5.6 Beckey Route up the SW Arete. I know one person whos done this climb and they said it was spectacular. Looks good too.