Peter McCorkell Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 (edited) Trip: Prusik Peak - West Ridge Date: 6/8/2010 Trip Report: 4 others and I went up Prusik Peak on Monday and Tuesday via the West Ridge route. We were lucky to have some beautiful weather for most of the trip and it made for a great climb. We left the TH at 12:50pm and reached Snow Lakes just after 5pm. The snow started at before Nada Lake, but didn’t really require gaiters until we got out on the beach around Snow Lakes. From Snow Lakes: There was a pretty good boot track up from Snow Lakes to Lake Viviane, just make sure you don’t start heading up from the lake until you’re at the inlet to the lake. We took off from the lake a little sooner and went up and down an unnecessary 100ft or so. We reached camp at 8pm. At 8am the next day we left camp, skirted Lake Viviane and ascended to Prusik Pass. As far as the climb goes, both Nelson and Beckey had good descriptions, and the Beckey book has a great topo. I think the key is to find the left facing dihedral in the first pitch. After scrambling a well worn and obvious crack we hopped a couple boulders to the left and belayed from there where you can see the dihedral. One rope length up and left took us up to the bottom of the 5.7 friction slab. An old rusty piton protected the two or three friction moves until easier gear was found. A snowy traverse took us to the bottom of the last pitch. Once gaining the large ledge, our leaders traversed right, went up to another ledge and then back left to tackle the awkward off-width crack just below the chimney at the top of the pitch. Apparently, the other party behind us never went back left and must have kept going around right, a route that seemed a little bit quicker then heading up the awkward crack. We hit he summit at about 3:30pm. Loving Life: We did one double rope rap from the top of the friction slab pitch and another single rap from the there to the snow on the north side. There were other slings and rings halfway down our first rap if you’ve only got one rope. Glissades were to be had: On the deproach we saw some sweet wildlife and were super excited about it: Gear Notes: Single rack Approach Notes: The sultan bakery has huge and delicious breakfast! Edited June 11, 2010 by Peter McCorkell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summitchaserCJB Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 nice stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dane Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Yahoo, sunshine and dry rock! Nirvana! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennyt Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Well done! I'm heading that way tomorrow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherri Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Looks fun! Thanks for the stoke and great pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountainsloth Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 someone should change the name of that peak to "perfect peak" love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbone Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 It might be perfect peak if it was a 30 minute approach... Nice pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbcbd Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Dig the bunny excitement shot! Nice work, good stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain panther Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter McCorkell Posted June 11, 2010 Author Share Posted June 11, 2010 Just to clarify, we did a double rope rap off from the summit(it could have been done with one rope, but you'd have to scramble down some stuff). Then we traversed back to the top of the 5.7 friction pitch where we did one double rope rap(skipping an intermediate station) and one single rope rap to the snow. Just making sure I got the details right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 I am really tempted to go do this ASAP. Thanks for the pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoroastr Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Nice shots of the slab pitch. That route's a fave; the variety of moves near the top runs the gamut. Thanks for a gr8 t.r.! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottgg Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Hey Pete My sister and I were that other party you met up there, nice running into you on such a great day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jens Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Sweet pics, but remember as a climber you are supposed to boycott Sultan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafe1234 Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemoreJugs Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Why are you carrying ice axes on the approach? I dont think its all that steep. Just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter McCorkell Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 Scottgg: Yeah, nice meeting you too. Hope you guys didn't get trapped to bad in that rain that came in. SemoreJugs: On some of the snow patches left on the route it was nice for the leader to have an axe (although that snow is disappearing quickly). Also, we saw in a TR that some folks thought axes would be nice for steep snow on the approach and immediately after rappelling. The approach was fine, and there was steep snow after the rappels, but it was soft and mushy at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennyt Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I did this route Saturday, and did the rappells straight down the North face onto the steep snow. Thankfully it had all slid 1-2 days prior... but the axe & boots were necessary to traverse back to the balanced rock. If I had it to do again, I'd do the rappells & traverses further West. [video:youtube] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatboy Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Prussik Peak, the flavor of the week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.