The summit of Sherpa Peak?

[eric]

Can anyone give me a detailed account of Sherpa's summit from the South

route? According to all of the beta I had it's supposed to be a pretty

straight-forward climb with one exposed move across a slab to a short

chimney, then a scramble to the summit. I didn't find the route quite so

easy.

To spice the climb up I came at the summit from the crest of the

Southeast-trending rock ridge, which offers some low 5th class climbing

from about 7800' up to the balanced rock. Once I got to the balanced rock

I moved to the North side and crossed the slab, according to the standard

South route. I went up the chimney, but then found a couple of short

knife-edge traverses with some serious exposure. Once across these I came

to a stout rock pinnacle approx 10-15' high. This appeared to be the

summit, it was a little higher than balanced rock and I could see nothing

that rose any higher. The problem was that the pinnacle was very exposed

and from my vantage point there was no reasonably safe way to the top

without a partner and a rope.

Sorry for the long-winded preamble, but I'm now wondering if I missed

something while I was up there. As embarrassing as it may be, did I miss

the true summit?

Anyone have any similar experiences?

thanks

[chucK]

I climbed it last year via the SE route. I remember two harder sections. One was a short chimney. The chimney turned out harder than I wanted on the way up and I had no rope with me so I chained two or three bootied rap slings together to make a little prison-break rope to aid my descent. After the chimney I came to a decision of an exposed traverse on the right of a tower or a 25' high or so corner with a crack (and slings at the top) that led to ledges left of the tower. I took the corner. From there I went left of the tower then right of the balanced rock then easy to the summit. I don't remember(?) any other difficulties. I probably was on the summit as I do remember reading summit register entries. I also remember that the insecure summit combined with the foreboding about my upcoming descent precluded me from enjoying myself very much on the summit.

Does this sound familiar? Did you find my flag of rap slings?

Chuck

[This message has been edited by chucK (edited 09-24-2001).]

[James]

eric. 2 friends and myself did this route in august. we were able to follow the route according to becky's description, and also found ourselves w/ 15' of slabby rock to reach the summit. from that point the down climb to the ledge below (on your right when facing the summit) looks bad, but is very easy and comfortable w/o a rope. once down, cross the ledge and follow the easiest path the the summit, the hardest stuff is behind you at the exposed step over to the chimney. we descended by leaving the summit to the west toward stuart and into a steep, but solid and narrow gully. no raps were needed, and it was a very fast way down. this took us to a large bench above cliffs from which we moved to the left and down again into a gully that took us back to the trail exactly where we had left it that morning.

[eric]

Thanks James, that's exactly the information I was looking for. Unfortunate to hear that it was easier than it looked though, to think I was that close and turned back. On the other hand, it's nice to know I'm not losing my mind. Next time I'll try it with a rope and a partner, maybe try the balanced rock while we're up there.

[eric]

Thanks for the info chucK. Your 'rap rope' is still there. I think it's been added to since then, according to all the dates on the slings. As a matter of fact, there are abandoned rap slings all over the top of the route, in all directions.

Your description matches my experience perfectly, with the exception of the last part. Once I moved past the balanced rock I encountered a short chiminey and two exposed traverses to a 15' rock tower. It looked like it was possible to by pass the rock tower on the north side, but it required down-climbing about 20 feet onto an exposed ledge system and I wasn't up for trying it without a rope.

Do you remember anything like that? If not, do you remember if your position on the summit was considerably higer than the summit of the balanced rock?

[chucK]

I do recall that West of the summit was a precipitous dropoff and that I got to the final summit point from the North. That would imply that I traversed under it on the right (East). I don't recall any scary parts there but perhaps it's being blocked from my memory by post-traumatic stress?

Like I wrote above, I did find a summit register. I don't remember thinking that I hadn't summited. I do remember thinking it would be cool to climb that crazy balanced rock (with a partner).

Here's a cool picture from Alex Krawarik's page. You decide which is higher. Chuck