North chimney to pitch 4 of Kor ingalls.. Castleton tower

Can anyone give me a clear description of how to gain pitch 4 of Kor ingalls I can't seem to find a clear answer. I am climbing with the wife so I want to go the more laxed way

The Kor-Ingles and North Chimney Routes join at the last pitch.

Its really straight forward. At the end of the 3rd pitch you belay from a large ledge, between a separated pillar and the tower. The "4th" pitch is short, but sweet. You just fire straight up and slightly to the left of the belay.

• edit* I guess we did a traverse across into the chimney, highly exposed and fun. Recommended.

Here's a pic from the top out.

Sunny-D wrote:The Kor-Ingles and North Chimney Routes join at the last pitch.

Well kind-of. The normal belay for the last pitch of Kor-Ingalls will be down and left (in the sun) from where you find yourself on the North Chimney (in the shade). The standard finish on Kor-Ingalls is a short squeeze off the left side of the belay ledge. The standard finish off North Chimney is more pleasant face climbing, which can also be reached from Kor-Ingalls by going right (have not done that). I don't really know why anyone would want to go over to the squeeze finish and I don't know how easy the downclimbing would be in any case. Your finish IS the lax way.

ddriver wrote: The standard finish on Kor-Ingalls is a short squeeze off the left side of the belay ledge.

I've never heard of anyone doing this supposed "standard finish" to the Kor-Ingalls, and can't even remember seeing a short squeeze off the left side of the belay ledge. Everyone I know that's done the Kor-Ingalls (myself included) finishes up with the face climbing in the chimney just like north chimney route.

kennoyce wrote: I've never heard of anyone doing this supposed "standard finish" to the Kor-Ingalls, and can't even remember seeing a short squeeze off the left side of the belay ledge. Everyone I know that's done the Kor-Ingalls (myself included) finishes up with the face climbing in the chimney just like north chimney route.

From the MP description:

"P4 - you can either do 5.7 face with a hand or foot traverse right or the 5.similar chimney to the left. Definitely do the chimney if someone in your party is not a trad climber. You can easily watch them flail."

Pretty sure the left option is the original route, though I don't have any of my Bjornstad guides in front of me. I'm not surprised that folks nowadays would choose face climbing. The squeeze chimney is undoubtedly a bit more challenging.

I've been up there a bunch of times and it has never occurred to me to climb anything other than the 5.7 facey way. I bet you'll figure it out.

Mike's added photo shows it clearly. Look straight down between his legs at the chimney coming up from Kor-Ingall's. The start of that is a squeeze right off the belay, lower than his belayer.

His belayer is in the notch coming up from the North Chimney. They got there by coming through the notch further behind (left). I've always finished from there by going straight up the face above the belayer, which others are also describing. It's easy protectable terrain.

I'd say that what Mike has done here is probably atypical.

Ya we did something non-typical.
When climbing I went up directly from the belay in the notch. After about 10 -feet you can take easier stuff to the top. I decided to traverse a ledge to the chimney for just bonus points.

Very doable, unless Alex Honnold's film crew has fixed a static line down the whole route like they did two weeks ago.

People really get lost on north chimney? It's a chimney. Start at the bottom of the chimney. Climb up the chimney. When it ends go towards the top of the tower (up). It's about 30 feet. Bam! all the beta you should need.