https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107213152/no-sweat-arete
Quick summary of what you’re getting into…
- Ticks, lots and lots of ticks during tick season (even on Aug 5th we found 3 on us).
- Location on MP is wrong, I’ve submitted a correction and also posted GPX approach/descent trails)
- Not the best approach (1-1.5 hrs), steep dirt scree slopes for the second half
- Terribly loose rocks and blocks for P1-P2, I knocked off a softball sized rock, be careful
- P3 is actually super fun, super solid/clean rock with fun climbing
- P4 isn’t as loose as the first two, easy blocky climbing
- Nice belay ledges pretty much anywhere you choose to stop
- Route finding can sometimes be a problem, but mostly easy to follow
- Descent (walk off, ~1-1.5 hrs) is actually pretty good. Mostly mellow walking on some dirt scree slopes, probably slightly better than the approach
- Gear: #0.3 – #3, with doubles of #0.5 – #3 and nuts, even some doubles of 0.3 and 0.4 if pushing your grade. 12 alpine draws, 2 of them doubles.
- Communication: Radios could be nice but you can mostly hear each other decently
- Route stays shaded at least till 11
Overall, if you’re out of state, I wouldn’t bother doing this route.
Approach: 1.9 miles, 1,433 ft gain
Descent trail: 2.0 miles, 1,900 ft descent
Original start – 5.8, 190′
Original start is tougher than anything else on the route, I’d say 5.8. Halfway up, stay on the left side. A few loose rocks but better quality than P1-P2, although can be a little runout.
The base of P1 is around a little ledge traverse, slightly exposed but pretty decent.
P1 starts off with a fun move that looks intimidating… Use the face features to the left of the crack and then use both the left and right crack. But then the rock quality degrades, lots of loose rocks sitting on ledges, and lots of hollow sounding blocks (I accidently knocked off a softball size rock). Belay about anywhere after ~100 ft, lots of ledges to belay.
P2 continues with the poor rock quality. At one point there was a decision to go left or right, left had a mantle move to get on a blank looking face, but once on it there’s a bunch of cracks. Also about ~100 ft, belay once you get to the base of the high quality rocks on P3 (you can visible see a difference, they’re also orange rocks rather than black lichen covered). An even nicer belay ledge this time.
P3 is super fun, solid climbing for 150′ to a nice belay (tons of belay options).
P4 starts with a fun short crack that’s maybe 5.7, but then starts to have some loose sounding blocks, still better than the first two pitches and pretty easy climbing.
Descent looks like it’s going to be terrible, but surprisingly there’s a ledge that walks right to the gully you go up (gully is to your east). In the gully, there’s one boulder to climb up over (one 4-5th class move) but otherwise easy (four goats got stuck beneath here and died on the ledge…). After getting over the gully, the trail is pretty well traveled and descends trending east and slightly downhill. There are a few steep dirt scree slopes, but most are the right grade such that you can actually slide down them a bit. Overall, similar or possibly better than the approach trail.
Reports
No Sweat Arete 5/23/2020
Goodness was this a rough day! Location of climb on Mountain Project is totally wrong Cold, cloudy, windy, and a potential storm rolling in Ticks, ticks, and more ticks The first thing that went wrong was the approach. On Mountain Project, the crag’s location is set to be around the main crag wall. That also…