Upper Marian Valley
Lots of unexplored terrain, easily achievable as a day trip from Homer Hut. A cosy biv site can be found 10 meters below Barrier Peak to the west on the Gertrude Valley side.
Best accessed from Gertrude Valley via Barrier Face to Barrier-Crosscut col. Alternatively, access via Gertrude Saddle to Barrier Peak then scramble down ridge. Several pitches may be required to traverse exposed sections into upper terrace.
Routes
| Reference | Title | Grade | Length | Pro | Quality | Alert | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortensen Whiston | 0m | ||||||
From the Barrier Crosscut Col, traverse to the terrace below the face to climb a line near the col. |
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| Clark Gabites | 0m | ||||||
Take the only continuous crack-line from the head of the Upper Marian to the South Ridge, offering 600m of good climbing. The route starts on the left side of the lower cirque wall. |
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| Denz Judge | 0m | ||||||
Traverse across from the Barrier Crosscut col into the upper face; the route takes a narrow right-slanting ramp then directly up to the ridge on excellent rock. The traverse across the face to the start of the route is difficult and exposed. |
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| Hillary Jones | 0m | ||||||
A direct line through the lower cirque wall finishing 100m from the summit. |
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| JH | JHJaz Hands, 17 | 17 | 240m |  |
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Takes corner system up prominent buttress topping out on ridge 100m below summit. 5 pitches - good pro. |
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| Peaking Pete, 20,A2 | 20,A2 | 440m | |
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Right facing corner goes up to belay on a ledge
Parallel corners on good gear up to belay on legde
Handcrack up to small pendulum to right hand crack
Starts hard up thin corner, then moves right then easy right trending ledge , moving around chimney back left to good ledge directly under your belayer
Straight up
Rad chimney pitch with slight tension traverse right hand side of main feature. 17, A1, or 23-24 free
Move right around column features, then across to right hand corner. Up this corner, and then pendulum back left and up left hand corner to hanging belay
Go straight up, not left, stepping slightly right of belay att the cracks
Scramble over steep loose ground to ridge |
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| Uren–Skelton, 19 | 19 | 0m | |||||
Traverse snow ramp quite a ways right until just before the buttress that separates Barrier from Marian forces you down. Start up an obvious crack aiming for a distinct, detached pillar of rock that looks like a thumb. The original ascent attempted to climb a roof below and on the way to this thumb, before being subdued back into the corner. The corner offers four pitches of fun, well protected climbing with a little spice on each pitch. The thumb awaits an ascent if a would-be climber can fight through the well protected roof (25ish). 5–6 pitches in total. |
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Images
Michael Eatson can yo redo the access topo with the yellow maybe in white and a larger font? and maybe increase the line width of the routes a couple of points too?
In reply to Michael Eatson can yo redo by cragrat
I can read the yellow lines on my PC monitor no problems, so perhaps cragrat is saying how about modernising topos so people with smart phones can read them?
Anyway I can't see where the bivi is on the topo, and I do not understand the description because I am uncertain of the aspect the main pic was taken from.
Is the bivi just below the summit on the other side of the main topo? I'd hate to be looking around for the bivi that was that high up without not knowing what side of the mountain to start looking.
In reply to I can read the yellow lines by Peter Dickson
Well not on a 12" laptop screen