Here's a pic of anchors on top of Sharkstooth. Th...
Description
From the Andrew's Glacier trail, you will see the Sharkstooth to the south. Hike up the Gash, which is the large boulderfield between you and the rock. As you get near, there will be a long fin of rock coming off the northeast ridge and heading, guess which direction...northeast. Climb to the east of that and scramble up on some large ledges for the first pitch.
P1. The first pitch can start in several places that are all about 5.4-5.6. I'd say we ran about 160 feet of rope on the first pitch. There are probably several places you could rig a belay.
P2. The second pitch was similar to the first 5.4-5.6 climbing, about the same distance and straight up the northeast ridge. Not a lot of zigzagging on this route.
P3. The third pitch goes 5.6 in the guidebook, but it was probably the crux pitch, in other words, it was more difficult than the first two. The guidebook says startup a left-facing dihedral. Well, I didn't see any of those. I saw a big right facing dihedral and then a crack about 4 feet to the right of that. The dihedral looked tough, but the crack next to it was good. Later on that pitch, you finally work you're way into a good right facing dihedral with some good stemming moves and a small section where I moved out onto the face for easier climbing. The moves weren't hard here, but smearing stems always seem a little unsecure to me, have fun. Somehow, we combined pitches 3 and 4 in the guidebook together and ended pitch 3 on top of a large ledge in the ridge. The ledge is big enough that you can untie, get a good view of the crowds on the Petit and have a snack.
P4. Pitch 4 starts up a wide crack, but I hung out on the face for most this, because I think offwidths are about as fun as getting beaten with a rubber hose. The climbing is a lot easier on these last two pitches. Also, the route is completely obvious here as well. The 4th pitch ends on another, somewhat smaller ledge. More people on the Petit...if only they knew what they were missing over here.
P5. On the 5th pitch, there was little more loose rock and hollow holds, so be a little more cautious. From the top of #5, it's a very simple scramble to the summit. Ok, I was roped up, so what? But honestly, it's probably class 2 to the top from here.
The top has a great view of the surrounding area. Also, a little less comforting, look down through the boulders on the summit on the west side. I swear I saw daylight through there. Anyway, head southeast from the summit and down a little gully to rap rings. There are 3 50-60 meter raps to the top of the Gash here. The rap rings looked pretty good. Don't forget to bring a second rope or you'll be downclimbing. Also, there seems to be a lot of loose rock that gets knocked down when you toss your ropes on each rappel so be prepared to shout "ROCK!!" often to the people below and watch for more of it when you pull your ropes. That's it. Down the Gash to the trail. Hope you enjoy it. Also, I gave this a grade III, because it took us 13 hours, but we took a 2 mile detour by going to the south side first and then backtracking around to the north side. It's probably somewhere between a II and a III.
On the third pitch there is a nice 5.8, or 9ish?? variation. From the second belay, cruise around to the right, traversing for about 10 feet or so, to where you are more on the wall facing the approach path then on the left which is kinda the line of the route. In other words, you come out more onto the North?? face... Ok, the rock is sorta round, but, after you traverse around, just past the sight of your belayer, you should see a left facing dihedral kinda thing. Take this up through the interesting little overlap (undercling it) which would probably take a cam if your brought any (this climb easily gets sowed up with hexes, and nuts). Belay on a ledge a short ways after the overlap. From here, you can easily join the normal route(s). Granted, there is a ton of variations to go on this route, and you can just head up till your at the top, but, this (un-obvious) variation gives you some wicked exposure on the steeper North?? face...
Overall, a great route. Only a few spots of loose rock keep this climb from getting three stars. Leaders should be prepared to run things out a bit and, especially on the first pitch, there can be some route finding issues. The crux felt harder than 5.6. Have fun. Stan
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Mar 14, 2002
If you happen to look up and see some slings hanging down on the first pitch, you are likely too far right. Done that, had to traverse left a bunch. Start can be tough to figure out 1st try.
Great Climb! Wonderful exposure for a moderate climb. Warning: The little marmot farts will eat your food and your boots if you leave them laying around. They can unzip zippers! Have fun!
did this route on 7-5-02. Great route, spots of 5.6 scattered along the first four pitches. The rock is somewhat broken and grabbing large but disconected blocks is common. A couple such blocks shifted and it was pretty alarming. Anyway, testing all such handholds before commiting to them could definately prevent an injury. Also, it's easy to knock off softball sized rocks on the ascent and the rap route, and they just go screaming down the route smashing into things harder and harder as they pick up speed. Great route, but loose holds and rockfall are major issues.
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Jul 20, 2002
Descent comment: The 2nd rap described by Rossiter seemed to be gone 7/18/2. Saw the ledge. Recalled the spot. But no 2nd rap station.
We used the rap just below the S end of the summit block with 3 pins (one is blue), 180' (though the end of this is 3rd class with big exposure) to a big block with multiple slings and an old pin. Here, we rapped 195' (past 2 less solid appearing rap slings) to a rap station on the R side of the gully with a pin, chockstone, and a Wild Country Rock. From here, it was short rap down to the Gash that a Marmot easily scrambled up and past.
The crux probably lies in a left-facing dihedral on the third pitch. This 15ft. section should be easily recognizable with the labored breathing and the two fixed nuts that were there as of late August 2002.
The last pitch is easy but memorable...truly spectacular.
Check those rappel pins before you weight them. Albert Ellingwood himself may have bashed those in....
I think that routefinding is the crux on this route! It certainly is not that obvious where to go. Rossiter's topo is useful but we still weren't sure we were in the right place. Don't get too stressed out if what you see doesn't match the description - there are many variations possible.
The route was good because of the cool exposure but personally, I felt the rock quality was poor. There was loose stuff everywhere. Not to mention the lichen and moss. There is a distinct possibility that we were slightly off route on some of the pitches. As far as the descent, we made 3 raps off of sharkstooth, then 4 more in the East Gully, then headed over to the south face of the petit where we located our first rap station. The 2d rap station that we found, our 60m rope fell about 30' short of the next rap. My partner rigged another station with some red webbing and green cord so that a 60m rope will now suffice. Overall, the climbing was fun. The gorgeous approach is very moderate except the scree to the base of the climb. We got a late start and thankfully, the weather was perfect from sun-up and beyond. But, because of our late start and getting lost on the descent, we missed the last bus!!!! Hiking the road back was soooooo annoying! Every time we saw a reflector on the barrels along the road, we'd have false hopes that we'd soon see a sign for the parking lot.
Can the descent be done comfortably with one rope?
By Tony B From: Boulder, CO Jul 30, 2004 rating: 5.6
Descent with 1 rope? True, I've done it a few times that way. Odds are, 1 rope is better than 2 most of the way, as you will have it tied to your back, not be on rap. That said, there are some technical moves and some loose rock, and some will be more comfortable rapping off. I think 1 rope should be just fine for this, if you are cautious and watchful- there are plent of anchors or anchor opportunities in the notct, just take a little extra webbing, which you might want for replacing existing ones anyway. Worst that can happen is you lose 2 nuts and some webbing if you put in an extra station somewhere- and that's what, $18? Heck, I'd risk that not to carry the extra rope.
Then again... should you climb alpine with a single rope? Depends on you and your skill level, but in any case it is a separate question to consider.
My partner pulled out the blue pin at the first rappel station with just a little tug, that kinda sketched us out...we pounded it back in...but [don't] trust that pin. On the left somebody has slung a small chockstone as a back up, I pulled on that with some force and the chock snapped in half...I [wouldn't] trust whats left of that either. We [decided] to build our own chockstone as a back up so we slung a large chock in the wide crack on the right with webbing, still seems kinda marginal...so rapping from here is basically putting most of all your faith into those two old rusted pins, which seem pretty strong, but they are certainly old. If any of this makes you feel uncomfortable be prepared to deal with it. The 2nd and 3rd stations seemed bomber to us.
My partner and I attempted to climb this ridge on 8/17/05, but we were unfortunately chased off by storms that arrived earlier than expected. In order to get off the rock, we had to rap the route leaving gear behind as we did. If anyone finds this gear please e-mail me, nduncan@purdue.edu, I am willing to reward anyone returning this lost gear as well.
Gear Lost:We started under the fixed rap slings (a red and a super faded orange). About half a rope length above the slings there should be a #2 and a #3 C4 Camalot with a 4 foot red and white runner connecting them. Another half rope length up there should be a 3 piece anchor with a red and pink tricam and a #1 C4 Camalot. Above this is the crux, and where I bailed off a fixed Alien (or Alien look-alike). Above the anchor and below the fixed Alien we lost a #.75 Camalot (not C4) a #0 and #1 TCU. Also lost but not as important are #s 2, 4, and 7 Wallnuts.
By Ernie Port From: Boulder, Colorado Jul 16, 2006
Great route, on superb stone, worth the grueling approach, if you have great weather like we did..a blue bird day. We set up a bivy down in the gash and were right behind a CMS guided party of three the next morning at our 6:45 start. However, Roy Leggett did an outstanding job of guiding his clients, and we never waited long and enjoyed their company.
This route has excellent position and has good, sustained climbing at the grade (5.5 & 6) the entire way. The crux was probably a short layback off a flake on P2. There is loose rock, but generally solid. In the crack 10' off the ground on the last roped pitch, beware of a large, oblong stone. It came off when I touched it and was in my lap. I was able to settle it back where it had been, only because I had a good stance, or I would be on crutches right now.
I would do this route again tomorrow under similiar conditions...real nice climb.
Doesn't get much better than this. Stellar alpine granite, awesome position, heinous approach/descent - Alpine! Brilliant! Thank you! We seem to have followed Rossiter's topo and pitch description pretty closely and felt the crux was a small roof with a crack just above the "inset" that Rossiter describes on P2. We started just left of the R-facing dihedral to the left of the route drawn in the beta photo. This leads past a rather large, old piton and up to a good belay ledge right below the inset. Done this way, P3 is definitely not the crux and climbs the left side of a left-facing flake system. The crack moves on P2 felt pretty close to the difficulty of the Bastille Crack (if only for a few moves), so I'd give the roue a 5.7 (minus?). The pro can be run out in spots (esp. P5), but the climbing is usually easy in those spots.
My partner and I thought we'd save time going up the gully just below the route, BAD IDEA! It's loose as hell, and there's no easy way up it. We wasted a good 30 minutes trying to find a way up it before we gave up and practically slid down again.
First pitch was very wet and not that fun on June 29th, 2009 (too shaky for me). All the other pitches were mostly all dry and very fun.
We used crampons in the morning to get to the first pitch but the snow is very soft in the afternoon. Still lots of snow up there which makes for great glissading at the end of the day!
As of July 19, crampons are not necessary for the approach. There are several large snowfields to cross and the snow is pretty hard in early morning, but we managed to do it in running shoes. Wonderful route - some loose rock of course, but generally good quality, and diverse, aesthetic climbing. In my opinion, better than the standard route on the Petit.
By Jack C Swift From: Evergreen, CO Aug 17, 2009 rating: 5.7
Can someone please describe the best place to bivy in the Gash? Last year my partner and I slept under a large boulder (barely enough room head to foot for two) just off of the trail before you take a left, through the boulder field, toward the Sharkstooth.
By Chris Plesko From: Westminster, CO Aug 21, 2009
As of 8/20/2009 you could have definitely rapped off good stations with a single 70m. We carried leaver slings/nuts but it wasn't necessary. The normal rap stations are in good shape.
This was a great route. The route is a ridge route, despite the pictures here making it look more like a face. It starts out broad and narrows. Just head straight up from the start following fun features, don't trend left or right, routefinding seemed trivial. Stick to the ridge proper on the final pitch for some great exposure. The bivy sights in the Gash are amoung very large boulders just before you reach the main headwall cliff.
I need to know the best bivy spots for the Northeast Ridge on the Sharkstooth. I know that it is going to be very cold, but a friend and I have put together a trip up the route the first weekend of October.
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