Weather forecasts

Gear

• #0.1-3 with double #0.3-3 (0.1-0.2 are for NEWS West Face)
  • Beckey Route: Double 0.4-3 (since simul-linking P1-2 and P3-4), slings, no nuts
  • North Face Double 0.3-3 and nuts (since linking P2-3) OR Cave Route (slower): #0.3-3 with double #2-3
  • NEWS: #0.1-3 with double 0.3-3
  • SEWS needs double 0.3-3, optional #4-5 or South Arete only needs single 0.3-2.
  • Be ready to ditch gear at base of first climb.
• Nuts
• Radios
• Single 60m rope
• Bug spray (mosquitos)
• 12 draws (2 sport, 8 single alpine, 2 double alpine)
• 2L water each

Timeline

On July 13th, sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset is 9:00 PM.

• 3:00 AM: Approach to Beckey Route (1.5 hours)
• 4:30 AM: Base (ditch 0.3’s and #4/5 and nuts and backpacks)
• 5:00 AM: Climbing (4 pitches, 5.6, simul, 1 hour)
• 6:00 AM: Top
• 6:10 AM: Rappel (3 rappels, one scramble, 1 hr)
• 7:10 AM: Notch, grab gear
• 7:30 AM: Climbing Concord (3 pitches, 1 hour)
• 8:30 AM: Top of Concord
• 8:50 AM: Rappel (2 rappels, short walk, 30 mins)
• 9:20 AM: Base of Lexington
• 9:40 AM: Climb Lexington (3 pitches, 5.7, easier, 1 hour)
• 10:40 AM: Top of Lexington
• 11:00 AM: Walk/rappel Lexington (2 rappels, longer walk, 1 hour)
• 12:00 PM: Base of NEWS (ditch gear)
• 12:30 PM: Climb NEWS (5.11, 6 pitches, 3 hours)
• 3:30 PM: Top of NEWS
• 3:50 PM: Rap NEWS (5 rappels, one gully,1 hr)
• 4:50 PM: Base of NEWS (grab gear), walk to SEWS
• South Arete (easier) option…
  • 5:20 PM: Base of SEWS (#0.3-2 with double 0.75-2 since simul’ing)
  • 5:40 PM: Climb SEWS (1 hr)
  • 6:40 PM: Top of SEWS
  • 6:50 PM: Descend (Last time 1:50 hr, 1hr now?)
  • 7:50 PM: Base
  • 8:10 PM: Walk to car (1.5hr down to car?
  • 9:40 PM: Car
• Southwest Rib (tougher) option…
  • 5:10 PM: Base of SEWS
  • 5:30 PM: Climb SEWS (3 hrs?)
  • 8:30 PM: Top of SEWS
  • 8:40 PM: Descend (1hr?)
  • 9:40 PM: Base (1.5hr down to car?)
  • 11:10 PM: Car

Approach

2.5 miles, 1,900 ft gain, 1.5 hours?

Beckey Route

5.6, 4 pitches (each about 150′). Thinking simul P1-2 (Alexis) and then P3-4 (Andrew) with 100′ of rope out. Belays are on trees. Bring double 0.4-3, slings, no nuts.

Gear

Alexis starts off with the gear.

• Double 0.4-3
• NO nuts
• 12 draws (2 sport, 8 single alpine, 2 double alpine)
• 60m rope (with half in Andrew’s backpack)
• Ditch at the base…
  • Alexis’ backpack
  • All waters
  • Nuts
  • #0.1-0.3 cams
  • Radios

Overview

P1 – 5.3, 130′

Climb the chimney/tunnel (easier) OR the face to its left (a little more sustained), belay from a large ledge with a tree.

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P2 – 5.5, 130′

Continue up the chimney for about 30m, climbing past chockstones and blocky slabs until reaching obvious 3rd/4th class terrain. People say this is the most difficult pitch. Belay from a tree.

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P3 – 5.5, 120′

Ascend the 4th class terrain to a 6 foot finger-crack traverse past a large roof (climbing past a fixed pin) (5.5), then follow a dihedral back to the right and up onto the summit shoulder. Belay from a tree, use long slings and watch the rope drag.

P4 – 5.6, 200′

Shortly after leaving the belay on the ridge to the summit, you’ll encounter a slabby 5.6 boulder problem ~10′ high. After surmounting this obstacle it is easy 3rd/4th class terrain to the summit. Belay from a tree 20′ below the summit on a good ledge. Then it’s a 2nd class 20 ft scramble to the summit.

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Descent

From the summit, go back down maybe 25 feet of the route you ascended, but veer to skier’s left and look for a groove in the rock. Take caution on slabby down climb and you’ll see a couple slings wrapped around a tree with double rings. 60m rope is sufficient.

• R1: ~28m, down to the large ledge below.
• Scramble/down-climb skier’s right leading to a cliff. Look right, and you’ll see a rock ledge and bolts on a wall.
• R2: Rappel climber’s left toward a large tree with a small platform next to it.
• R3: ~25mm find bolts on the wall climbers right of the tree, rappel down into the gully where the standard route starts.

First two rappels…

Photo of the R2 anchor…

Concord – North Face – 5.7, 3 pitches

Begin from the top of the notch between Liberty Bell and Concord Tower. Normal gear is single #0.3-3 and nuts, with optional double 0.5-1.

Plan:

• Alexis leads P1 (single 0.3-3 and nuts and 1 double alpine and 4 single alpines)
  • Andrew carries second set of 0.3-3, 1 double alpine, 4 single alpines, 2 sport draws)
  • Wear crack gloves!
• Andrew leads P2-3 (200′)

P1 – 5.6, 60′

Short and straightforward. Follow a crack system to a large ledge with some small trees. Belay from the trees or belay further right toward where P2 starts.

P2 – 5.7, 110′

Crux pitch. From the ledge, go right on easy terrain then straight up on some hollow and flaky sounding rock. The pitch ends right after what appears to be 10-15 feet of an unprotectable blank wall, but has huge huecos with great holds (stay left here to stay on North Face).

Maybe can link P2-3? Ppl seem to link that most frequently, 60m just reaches.

P3 – 5.7, 110′?

From the belay head left up some crack systems (easily takes a #3 cam) then go up two 5.0 slabs and up a bear hug flake just below the summit

Descent from Concord

Single 60m adequate. Rappel the South Face.

• R1: ~30m, from south side of the summit, rappel off a bolted anchor to another bolted anchor.
• R2: ~30m, Rappel to a ledge.
• From that ledge, easily walk/scramble down to the Lexington-Concord Col. Walk the short distance across the Concord-Lexington Notch to the start of the North Face Route on Lexington.

[ALT OPTION] Concord – Cave Route

5.8, 3 pitches. The route starts on the north side of Concord Tower about 50 feet down the gully from the notch at two semi-parallel diagonal cracks.

Gear: #0.3-3 with double #2-3?

P1 – 5.8

Crux pitch. Move up the two semi-parallel right diagonal cracks. There’s a “bomber 0.75” somewhere. Once past the diagonals, continue up a flake past a dead tree and again move up and right to another tree (that no longer exists) to gear belay from.

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P2 H1

From the belay, move up and to climber’s left under an overhang and continue traversing left. Bring a few extender slings or rope drag will be an issue. The traverse will lead you around a corner and slings will be about 20 feet from the corner at the entrance of the cave to belay from.

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P2 H2, 20′

Move through the cave (~20 feet) and belay from the other side.

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P3

Looking up the face there’s a 5.4 crack that leads to some face climbing to the top where there is a belay spot at a tree. To get into the crack you have two options, one is an exposed knobby slab to the left you can travel up to the crack or you can make the lie back move to get into the crack right off the bat. The rest of the pitch is easy face climbing.

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P4: Scramble to summit

Lastly, scramble up about 40 feet to the top to summit. It’s very exposed so you might want to rope up. The rappel is on the west side of the summit.

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Descent from Concord

Single 60m adequate. Rappel the South Face.

• R1: ~30m, from south side of the summit, rappel off a bolted anchor to another bolted anchor.
• R2: ~30m, Rappel to a ledge.
• From that ledge, easily walk/scramble down to the Lexington-Concord Col. Walk the short distance across the Concord-Lexington Notch to the start of the North Face Route on Lexington.

North Face of Lexington

5.7, 3 pitches. Gear: #0.3-3 with double #2-3, nuts.

PLAN: Pitch it out, swap leads? Andrew climbs P1 (5.7, 125′), Alexis climbs P2 (5.7, 85′), and Andrew climbs P3 (low 5th, maybe 100′)?

OR: I lead 1-2 separate and Alexis does P3?

P1 – 5.7, 125′

Crux of the route is right off the ground in an awkward rightward trending handcrack. Once through it, the climbing eases. Pick you way up the easiest options to a large belay block slung with tat and a rap anchor (visible from the base of the climb). If you try to link with P2, it’s 65m.

P2 – 5.7, 85′

Initially climb a few moves right of the belay, then head back left up and over some more blocky (and mossy) terrain. Meander your way back and forth climbing the path of least resistance, eventually trending farther right. Belay at the rap anchor notch between the true summit and the west summit (there is a rap anchor here as well).

P3 – Low 5th

If you are comfortable, unrope for this pitch and scramble to the true summit along the ridge crest. There may be one 5.easy move on it, but it’s mostly 4th class. Climb to the RIGHT of the spine/tower.

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Descent

From the summit of Lexington…

• W1: Descend 20 feet east
• R1: Rappel 30m down to the ledge where the East Face and Tooth and Claw top out.
• W2: Look to the south to a large flat area on the ridge crest: that’s your destination. From the bottom of the rappel, head due west a short distance down a steep scree gully. Until you can cross over a few short 3rd class ribs and traverse down and left aiming for the large flat section in the ridge. Once on the large flat section, head to the far south end
• R2: Rappel 20m off a tree to a scree-covered slope.
• W3: Walk along the crest for a short distance until you can drop down a gully that angles toward the northwest edge of North Early Winters Spire and the start of the West Face and the Northwest Corner.

West Face of NEWS

Gear

My recommended gear…

• #0.1-3 with double 0.3-3
• Nuts
• Crack gloves
• 60m rope (just enough to reach new rappels)
• 12 draws
• Leave extra gear at base? Sounds like the new rappel deposits you close to where you start.

People’s opinions…

• Elsie: Double #0.1-3, and a single #5 (no #4), 16 slings
• Jordan: Next time I’d leave the #5 at home
• David: I think you could leave the #5 at home (or bring a #6 if you’re worried about the flake move).
• David: 0.1’s and 0.2’s useful at the start of finger crack, nuts go a long way too.
• northshorealpinism: Double 0.3-2, nuts, ~10 alpine draws
• Brian: #5 was too small for the wide crack

Route

Pitch 1 – 5.8, ~160′

Shares P1 with Northwest Corner. Climb the runout face and then the crack/corner/chimney to the ledge with trees. Continue up 3rd class terrain to a huge sandy ledge at the base of a large corner, the base of the second pitch (or belay at the first trees and then walk the belay up).

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Pitch 2 – 5.8+, 60′

Climb the corner/finger crack on the left side (5.8+) and then a brief stretch of 5.7 above the corner and belay on a horn that normally has slings on it.

Link with P3 (as 5.9+, 150′). Linking recommended though if you don’t have a #6 for the flake (to avoid factor 2 fall).

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Pitch 3 – 5.9+, 90′

Lie back up a 5″ flake (5.8) until you can stand and put in some pro (can place a #3 below the flake or a 0.2 slightly higher up, a #5 does fit but the flake is loose). Above the flake, undercling right, past a bolt, on sustained undercling/layback climbing, and just before the roof gets bigger there’s a big reach and a cool jug to the exposed semi-hanging gear belay.

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Pitch 4 – 5.11-, 50′

The crux pitch (5.11-) begins at the end of the undercling, so get psyched. Climb the thin (!) crack up and a little left until it eases up and you can step left into the next crack system. Gear is quite good, takes #0.2-0.4 and can even place 0.1. You can build a gear anchor before the next easier thin 5.10c finger crack pitch.

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Pitch 5 – 5.10c, 150′

Continue up another thin finger crack (5.10c) until it opens up to 2″ and eases off to 5.9. Clip a bolt (some belay just below this) and make a few slab moves right across the face to an easier 5.6 hand crack system. Follow that up to a tree and belay off the tree or off med/large cams slightly higher up.

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Pitch 6 – 4th class?

Run across easy ground to the summit.

Descent

West Face Rappel (Recommended more recently)

Single 60m rope works. There is a very nice rappel route adjacent to the top of the West Face route, deposits you close-ish to base of the climb?. The rappel station is about 15-20 feet climbers right of the final hand crack of the route. It is a little bit exposed getting to the anchor, but it’s not bad. From there, four very clean rappels down the face brings you to a gravelly ledge. There is a cairn skier’s left on this ledge with a little dirt path that leads around a corner. There is a final rappel station around this corner that avoids a very sketchy, sandy downclimb.

Two hundred feet around the corner to your right is the base of the route.

From the base, walk over to the base of the Southwest Rib of South Early Winters Spire.

Southwest Rib of SEWS

5.8, 8 pitches. Gear: Previous times I brought doubles #0.3-3 and one #4 and full nuts, but next time could just do doubles of #1-3 + nuts (no large nuts needed). Could use the #5 on the bear hug though if I already have it for NEWS. Like a 4 hr climb?

Leave at P1: 0.2, and possibly the #4 and #5, and maybe water.

Pitch 1 – 5.8+, 200 ft?

The official pitch one starts at the base of the dead tree. We’ve unknowingly bypassed it each time.

Pitch 2 – 5.8, ~120 ft?

Gear: I believe I only used #2-#4.

Belaying from the tree ledges, start up some easy 5th class climbing.

Then, the “wavy crack” starts. It’s a wide, left-leaning crack. It’s awkward. Toughest part of the whole climb. End on the dirt at the top left, belay off a tree.

Pitch 3 – 5.6, ~60 ft

Continue up and left from the tree up the crack.

When you reach the trees, traverse right and slightly up around a buldge to the base of the nervous nelly pitch.

Pitch 4 – 5.6+, ~100 ft, “Nervous Nelly”

Continue up mostly unprotectable slab following the easiest path.

About 30 feet up, you’ll run into the crux. Foot and hand holds disappear. There’s a crack over to the right but no obvious way to reach it.

After lots of hunting, you’ll find a tiny foot hold nub far to the right, which you can extend your leg out and just barely reach, and some hand holds on the left that you can lean out to the right on. Your last piece is 10-15 feet below you, did we mention unprotectable? Make a reach of faith to the crack to the right. You’ve made it!

Pitch 5 – 5.7+, ~80 ft, “Bear Hug”

The famous bear hug pitch! Climb the obvious dual widths. You can just barely place a #4 at the beginning. The toughest moves are at the beginning. A #5 would protect nicely, but it’s ultimately not needed. Once off the beginning moves, it starts to feel more secure (which is good, since without a #5 you can’t get any gear in until you get to the top).

From the top, traverse right for 15 feet to a nice blocky flat area and belay.

Scrambling

Scramble or simul-climb the class 4 terrain, following the easiest path.

Pitch 6 – 5.5, 200 ft

Make sure you start your belay as close as possible, as this is a rope stretcher! Climb the slab, clipping the bolt.

Continue up easy slab for the full 200 feet, staying on top of the ridge in general. There’s one section where I traversed right and around rather than climbing up an unprotectable slab ridge.

Pitch 7 – 5.5, ~80 ft

The “bunny ears”. There’s a number of options…

• Left option: Traverse left on some easy ledge systems, nicely protected by some cracks at feet level. We’ve always taken this option.
• Straight over option: Go straight over/through the bunny ears. Apparently you then have to rappel after this.
• Right option: We’ve seen several people go right. It looks sketchy/difficult traversing.

We’ve always gone the left option.

After going around the left, immediately go right and up over a little ridge nook (about 9 feet) and belay.

Into the gully

Down climb into the gully. It’s kind of nice to be roped up for this, with all the loose dirt.

Once in the gully, walk up to the top of the col to the base of the last pitch.

Pitch 8 – 5.5, ~80 ft

Climb the easy crack system up to the summit. There’s one tricky move on this, the rest is nice and easy!

South Arete of SEWS – 5.5, 3 pitches

Easier option. 30 mins up? Andrew simul P1-2 and Alexis simul P3? Bring 0.3-2 with double 0.75-2?

Pitch 1 – 5.5, ~30m

Shortest and technically most difficult pitch. Climb the small slab/flake (crux). Then easy climbing up to a belay beneath the whitish south corner that splits the arete.

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Pitch 2 – Chimney, ~60m

Scramble climber’s right into the gully and climb the gully until it becomes a chimney (easy 5th). Then follow easier ground, broken rock, and ledges, and then up along the crest.

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Pitch 3 – Whale’s Back

Descent from SEWS

There are 3 new rappels, all are climbers right of the gully and the normal climbing route. The anchors are bolts and chains and all offer steep and fairly clean raps and good pulls with a 60m rope.

First scramble back across the whalesback.

R1: The top anchor is on a big ledge right above a small tree that some people have previously rappelled off of. This tree was awkward to rappel off of and you had to climb down and under it to get to the slings. (Some of you will know exactly what I am talking about, while this will seem nonsensical to others) The new bolts are on the large ledge above and just climbers right of this tree.