Hiking & Climbing PhotosNotchtop Mountain - Spiral Route (III 5.4)
6/25/06
| (1) | | Pre-dawn view of Lake Helene. |
| (2) | | Alpine glow on Notchtop Mountain. |
| (3) | | More alpine glow on Notchtop Mountain |
| (4) | | Me admiring the alpine glow reflection in small pool (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (5) | | Alpine glow reflected in a small pool. Little Matterhorn is off in the distance. |
| (6) | | Me approaching the buttress (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (7) | | I talked Michael into gaining the buttress fairly low down. I think he may have been right that the correct place to attain it was higher up, but my way worked too. |
| (8) | | After climbing two pitches up the buttress we traversed right along a grassy ramp up to the East Meadow. |
| (9) | | Me ascending the East Meadow (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (10) | | Another shot of me in the East Meadow (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (11) | | Looking up at the wall atop the East Meadow. The crack in the very center of the photo forms the route Mornin' (5.7). |
| (12) | | Shot of the left side of the wall atop the East Meadow. I was sorely tempted to attempt the flake system in the center of the photo but after scrambling up to it and having a closer look I decided to play it safe and stick to the easy 5.4 variation. |
| (13) | | Me scrambling over to the easiest 5.4 variation on the wall above the East Meadow (photo by Michael Hodges). The line I chose goes up the flake system in the center of the photo. |
| (14) | | Michael works his way up the grassy ledges above the wall. |
| (15) | | Me at belaying at the stance above the wall (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (16) | | Me on the west face ledge below the summit block (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (17) | | Me scrambling up to the summit of Notchtop Mountain (photo by Michael Hodges). The exposure here was pretty intense. |
| (18) | | Michael and I on the summit of Notchtop Mountain. |
| (19) | | Michael downclimbs off the summit. |
| (20) | | Looking down at the summit block of Notchtop Mountain from the other side of the notch (photo by Michael Hodges). |
| (21) | | Michael scrambles along the Notchtop ridge searching for the correct gully/ledge system that will get us to the saddle. A mistake here could, and often has, led to an epic. |
| (22) | | Me scrambling along the ledge system to the saddle (photo by Michael Hodges). The scrambling was non-trivial and the exposure was intense in places. |
| (23) | | After successfully navigating the ledge system to the saddle Michael begins the descent down the gully to the base of Notchtop Mountain. |
| (24) | | View of Notchtop Mountain's impressive west face during the descent. |
| (25) | | Me downclimbing the only tricky section of the gully. |
| (26) | | I'm just about down as the storm clouds move in (photo by Michael Hodges). |
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