question about first kiss at smith

[shad]

can you walk off the top or do you have to rap?

 

thanks!

[Plaidman]

Walk off. It is a bit of a scramble up to the right through the notch. The first time I roped up for it. It is a bit airy. Then walk off toward The Monkeyface and the trail.

[jlag]

2nd notch is better, 10 ft of 3rd class and then you come down the other side. Climber trail is right there and leads down to main Misery Ridge trail.

 

JL

[TobyB]

You can walk off the top of every pitch as described by the guidebook except the first and the third.

[Seamstress]

At the top of pitch 2, there are 4 bolts to protect the escape, and that is the finish of the climb formerly known as Scabies. It is easy to traverse over to the Misery Ridge Trail from there.

 

At the top of pitch four, it is a short descent off the climber's right to reach terra sorta firma. From there, it is an uneventful walk to the elbow of the Misery Ridge Trail.

 

You can also rap off pitch one, more easily know if some quicklinks installed there recently.

[shad]

thanks for the info !

[corvallisclimb]

its very easy to link the first two pitches and avoid the one crappy belay stance.

 

also depending on where your coming from its a long walk back to the base... consider going light and climbing through with all of your gear, or if your coming over misery ridge, leave some stuff near the top out, the easiest way i could describe this would be to go over misery ridge and go down the first short switchbacks then the first long one heading north down hill cuts below fairy tale tower keep heading that way and pick up the climbers trail that will put you atop the small ridge the kiss the lepers forms. stash your stuff somewhere up there then go back the way you came, pick up the misery ridge trail back down then head over to the base of the route. im lazy and i hate wasting time hiking and crap, so with that attitude theres my 2 cents

Edited October 28, 2011 by corvallisclimb

[Seamstress]

That is the way to do it - take a short jaunt up from the major switchback midway down the Misery Ridge Trail. Stash your stuff. Then when you exit pitch four, your traverse puts you right back at your stash.

[Bad_Goats]

We did First Kiss for the first time yesterday. We're wimps when it comes to exposed scrambles, so we had been wondering about the descent, too. The descent went very well.

My description would go as follows:

From the anchors, walk away from the anchors which is over scree and a couple of boulders, up into the notch, which will be on your right. In the notch, make a single easy move to get up about 3' onto the large level formation. Walk across the formation, again in the direction away from the route/anchors. The "third class exposed" moves are to climb down about 6' onto the next large block. We found good hands and feet for the moves and felt comfortable doing them. The exposure was off to one side, not right under your feet. From the block, walk left around the next block and you'll be at the climbers trail.

We really enjoyed the climb.

Hope this helps anyone who is searching for beta like we were.