The Southwest Corner goes up the obvious, sharp arete/corner on the Saber, and runs parallel to the South Face route on the Petit Grepon. Follow the approach for the Petit, and start about 100 yards right of the South Face route. There are actually a lot of different ways you could start the route, so, just pick a decent looking line, and aim for a big ledge about (at least) 400 feet up. The guide book calls this section fifth class, I dont know about that, but, it's easy enough that you can mostly simul-climb. Either way, move fast since this is a really long route. Continue up to a broad ledge with an obvious wicked looking, left-facing dihedral. The dihedral is the crux first pitch of the Kor Route (5.8+)...
Pitch one, the crux, starts on face, moves in a thin left facing corner about ten feet to the left of the Kor Route's first pitch. My partner, Dave, placed an RP in the corner, moved left and up a few feet, then continued up steep face moves to a nice 3 foot ledge, out on the corner about 150 feet up. From here, the route finding is more difficult. However, continue up the corner systems on the arete for about 7 more pitches of mostly 5.9 climbing. Staying pretty much out on the corner. There is some really cool exposure on this part of the route, but also some death blocks, so be very careful! The top of the route is at a block with some slings, which is where the rappell route starts.
Protection
Cams up to #4 (doubles on about 1,2,3), stoppers and RPs. Two 60 meter ropes for the rappels.
This is a way good route, with a lot of good climbing at 5.9 grade. The crux feels plenty harder than 10a, pretty sustained and steep. It protects well when it gets hard, but don't fall the first 20 feet or so in the crux pitch. Anyone who is capable of climbing this route should feel comfortable simulclimbing up to the starting ledge. If you did the start with three pitches of belayed climbing, then you are in for a really long day (and you are probably should consider doing the Kor Route which is not bad either).
Beware the Rossiter guide. The written text and the topo didn't seem to match well. The written text made a lot more sense to me than the topo.
The summit situation is what makes this route (and the neighboring Kor route) a lot longer outing than the Petit. You have to summit the Saber proper, get down a saddle by rapping or lowering, summit a second spire, and then down climb an upclimb the final headwall. I guess you can rap off the top of the first tower with two ropes, but we chose to hit the highest summit. I think you also could rap the gully between Kor Route and the Foil as there is a ton of tat in there, but it isn't really appealing unless weather or something dictated it necessary.
Pound for pound this is a great route- most climbing is on par with the 5.9 pitch of The Direct South Ridge on Notchtop. Once you dispatch the beginning pitches, you get 5 steep, clean, sustained pitches in a row. Good stuff.
Based on Frank's comments, I'd say that we rapped off the "top of the first tower with two ropes", to the climber's right. This goes right back to your pack in about 5-6? long raps on established anchors. Be careful about your knot/check the pull, etc.., if you go this way. My guess is that this is the fastest way off after the steep stuff. There aren't many retreat options on the route either (not that we saw), so plan accordingly. For me, a long route... Definitely memorable and fun however!
The 10a crux was very sustained. I did not lead this pitch, and thank God. Julian Smith did a good job. If you place enough 5.9 and 5.10a moves with out stance in a row, does the rout deserve an upgrade? At the time I was feeling ready to move into the harder 10 grads, untill I was push to my climbing limit by this 10a.
Great route--very steep and dramatic. We used Rossiter's topo, which seemed way off on the 2nd pitch (counting from the big ledge). The topo and description tell you to angle up left into some large roofs. Looked dicey and improbable, so we took the obvious corner straight up, which is very moderate, and takes you where you need to go. Pitches 3 and 4 are real gems--vertical, exciting traverses, steep corners, big air, etc. The last pitch to the summit ridge is a bit confusing--most people I've talked to including us end up on harder than 5.7.
The crux pitch is a hard lead for .10a (I followed it), but I don't think it's a sandbag. Getting into the crux corner is tricky, and then you have about 40 feet or more where every move is either .9 or .10a, however, there are rests and good stems if you work for them. The climbing is devious, the pro a little thought-provoking, and the climbing excellent through this section, which is out of character with the rest of the route (i.e., significantly harder and more sustained). Does anybody know if it's possible to climb a 5.9 pitch around to the west and avoid the crux pitch, as the old Gillete guide indicates?
By Ken Leiden From: Boulder, CO Aug 16, 2004 rating: 5.10b
We had a long day on this one, underestimating how much the route finding would contribute to the total time. Great position and cool views of climbers on the upper half of the Petit. Appreciated the comment from Charles about 1st pitch being out of character with the rest of the route.
Re: the Rossiter topo/description, most of the pitches are in the 100-120 ft range rather than 150 ft. Pitch 1 shows to diagnol left to the belay from the dihedral. Climbing is sketchy this way, better to climb up until even with the belay ledge before traversing over. Pitch 2 we did as Charles suggested. Pitch 3 the topo is right, but the written desciption mentions a roof prior to reaching the big corner, but there isn't one. The topo for pitch 4 shows the route climbing the corner of the south and west faces. There are at least 3 dihedrals to choose from at this point. I picked the middle one initially since the gear looked best and switched left or right as needed. Big exposure here, but the rock is so featured that it didn't feel intimidating.For the last pitch, we climbed a 20 ft headwall with a finger crack. It didn't look too bad at first, but turned out to be hard 5.10 since the wall was slightly overhanging. In hindsight, we should have traversed right around this whole feature.
We couldn't find the first rap anchors, but we could see the 2nd rap anchors from the 25 ft notch in the summit ridge so we knew what to aim for. The rest of the rap anchors are in good shape.
In June sometime my partner ct rumble(maybe you've heard of him) and I had a real hard time finding anchors on top, and I had rapped off a few years earlier so was real confused. After finding a shady anchor just east and below the summit we backed it up and rapped to the grassy ledge/2nd anchor. Upon which we found, resting on the ledge, the FIRST RAP ANCHOR!!! sketch! It was a loop of webbing that had either blown off, or the block it was around failed. FUN TIME.
Check out my comments under the Saber rock page. Someone set up that anchor as a death trap last year--that's how we found it when we got to the top. We rearranged it and it was acceptable though certainly not great, but it doesn't surprise me that it blew off!
[Descent] info: (Weather permitting) From the last bit of real climbing it is three scary and exposed pitches of scrambling up the ridge to the true summit, including a short down-lead into the notch on sketchy rock. Do not rappel into the [gully] to the east unless you are up for about nine sketchy rappels off of horns and suspect blocks. The best way is to leave packs and extra gear just above the lakes on some ledges to the east of the Saber. From the summit you can [downscramble] or rappel to the northwest into the other drainage below the Shark's Tooth and then traverse East through the talus to a sweet [gully] right above your pack. A few easy and not too scary rappels (and an awesome station off of a jambed chock-stone) and some down-climbing will bring you right back to your pack. I agree that the topo and pictures in the Rossiter and [Gillett] books are B.S. when it comes to the Saber. That's what makes it so exciting. You won't find a lot of chalk on the Saber, but you might score a lot of retreat bootie if you make it to the summit. Andale pues!!!
By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO Jun 6, 2006 rating: 5.10b PG13
The first rap anchor at the top of the first summit (spire proper) has been refurbished. It was 2 stoppers 2" apart with a single bent-gate on them. This is where the topo shows slings. I put a new sling around the summit and fixed this to the stoppers and put on a new 3/8" Mallion Rapide (8,800 lb.-tested). The first rap is ~110' to a good anchor. (Est. we used a 70m, which had length to spare.) The second rap is ~100 to a 'not so comforting' anchor. (Est. w/70m) The third rap is ~150' over the edge into space and down to a ledge... The next two raps can be combined with 60 or 70m ropes, skipping a not-so-inspiring anchor at the end of the gully with loose rocks to pull down when you pull your rope- so stay on the E-facing wall and skip the one at the back of the gully with the long 'leash' on it. After that, you rap to the ground on double ropes again.
The approach is snowy up top, and hard in the AM, but soft enough to slide out in the PM. Cathedral Spires are 'in season.'
We also combined a lot of pitches and did the route in 4 pitches after the simul-climbing. It would have gone in three 70m pitches had we taken double ropes (instead of 8mm twins) to reduce drag.
By Ken Leiden From: Boulder, CO Dec 5, 2006 rating: 5.10b
I was just looking at the spectacular beta photo of the Pocketknife, which lies to the climber's left of the SW Corner. I think that the big dihedral with the wide crack on the right edge of the photo is part of the SW Corner -- if my memory is right, this is the pitch after the crux pitch. What a great angle -- too bad there were no climbers on it when the photo was taken.
Great route! Simul the first 350 - 400` to the ledge. 4 pitches from there if you stretch to rope's end on doubles (or 5 using normal belay points). Despite what I read here, the raps were easy and straightforward, with solid anchors. Rope got stuck once and that could be an issue depending on your luck.
I didn't get any gear until about 25 feet into the crux pitch. Don't blow it cuz you will hit the ledge really hard and will likely need to be rescued. In response to Dan's question, if there are a lot of 5.10 moves in a row does it change the grade?, yeah sandbagged 10a ;)
12 hours car to car moving pretty quickly all day. Pretty happy with that!
RSS Feed
