Weather Window Waltz (The Guardian NE Face) 5.9
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| Type: | Trad, Alpine, 8 pitches, 1700 feet, Grade IV |
| Consensus: | 5.9 [details] |
| FA: | (Possible First Ascent?) Wesley Ashwood, Nic Harnish, Kealsea Sheely, August 2011 |
| Submitted By: | Nic Harnish on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Weather Window Waltz with belays.
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Description This is a wonderful, sustained route with mostly quality rock on the NE Face of The Guardian in the Weminuche Wilderness. It has 8 pitches of corners and cracks with occasional broken sections and about 500-600 feet of simul-climbing on the final ridge section.
Descend off the South aspect of the mountain. Depending on where you camp, this can make for a long day (for us it was a 19 hour round trip camp-to-camp).
Location This is on the eastern-most mountain in the East Grenadiers. Read the area page for The Guardian for details on how to get there.
Protection There is no fixed gear on this mostly well-protected route. Some belays are marginal. Bring a double set of cams from 0.5 to 3.5 and a set of nuts and an extra set of TCUs.
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Very beginning of the route.
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Top of pitch one.
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Top of pitch one.
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Beginning of pitch two. Eventually you move left ...
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Following pitch three, fun corners.
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Beginning of pitch four. Loose blocks right above...
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Beginning of pitch five?
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End of pitch five?
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Top of pitch six?
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The end of the technical climbing, beginning of th...
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Summit ridge.
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Enjoy the climb....
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| Comments on Weather Window Waltz (The Guardian NE Face) |
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By Kelsey Sheely
From: Durango, CO
Aug 13, 2011
| Make sure to get up and climbing early, 'cause the walk around from the South side is a long one! |
By Nic Harnish
From: Durango, CO
Aug 14, 2011
| Next stop, the Silex. |
By Wesley Ashwood
From: Durango, CO
Sep 30, 2011
| I flaked on writing anything up about this! Fun route. After the first 2 or 3 pitches in the obvious dihedral just above the toe of the dihedral, you can pretty much go anywhere and the grade will be the same. Easy climbing with a few short steps up to 5.9. Mostly quality rock, but there are some widow makers in there, so be careful. |
By Jon Rezabek
Feb 22, 2012
| Good to see this put up. I'm glad the weather held out for you.
Nice alliteration too, Nic, you're so clever. |
By chosspector
From: San Juans, CO
Aug 7, 2012
| What makes you so sure this is an FA? It's an obvious weakness up the face.... |
By Nic Harnish
From: Durango, CO
Aug 7, 2012
| It's certainly possible this is not a FA and, I must admit, probable that it at least criss crosses existing ones. I did as much research as I could to find existing routes and found nothing, but given the prominence of the face over the well traveled Vallecito Trail, I do find it hard to believe that there are no routes on the face. I have heard of winter ascents up the major cleft on the west face. If this is not a FA, then I would be more than happy to remove it as one. I would actually enjoy hearing from someone else that has done it. |
By Matthias Holladay
From: Durango, Colorado
Aug 8, 2012
| I know Mike Vanderbeek, on one of our thirty-days, soloed something up this face. |
By Nic Harnish
From: Durango, CO
Aug 8, 2012
| I thinks it's best that I list this as a possible FA. I agree there's too much speculation and doubt and it's hasty of me to assume otherwise. Any info regarding any activity on this face would be welcome as it's hard to find anywhere else. |
By Matthias Holladay
From: Durango, Colorado
Aug 8, 2012
| I would say try and find him for info., on where he went exactly, but he died years ago on Denali. |
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