Mt Percy Smith

A bold climb beginning near Richardson Bivvy. Climb the rock and ice until the ridge is reached, turn a large gendarme on the eastern side, and regain the ridge on solid red rock. Cross two chevals separated by a hand traverse with a 600m drop on the west, before completing the final scramble on deteriorating quality rock. An excellent alpine challenge.

The south ridge commences from the col between Mt Williams and Mt Percy Smith, and climbs 500m to the summit.

Appears to be unclimbed at present.

The tremendous slabs of the south face are most imposing ... wrote Scott Gilkison and Harry Stephenson in 1956. Imposing, and unclimbed, the 700 metre high south west face remained until February 1993 when Bill McLeod and Peter K.Dickson arrived during a fine spell. To those who admire the Tall and Steep this face is a compelling sight from Baker Creek. Well fortified with overhangs, verticality, and stone fall zones. The route however is not threatened and is climbed on good rock with a multitude of grips. Bill McLeod, personal communication, February 1993.

Here's a more general description that may help: Walk around the top of the glacial lake from the magnificant bivvy rock beside the stream that drains it. The highest bit of the face has a wide "V" gully feature on a scale of about a third of the height of the wall. Start just to the left of this central feature to avoid rockfall potentionally funneling down from the top. There is only 1 place to start here because either side of it has overhanging rock. Do not be tempted to start further out left of this because promising rock invariably ends up in dangerously loose ground after 2 pitches. Use your eyes to pick the correct line and make sure it all connects up. There is only 1 possible line on this side of the 'funnel'. Climb easy ground eventually moving onto an easy rib, this rib is essentially the left side of the gully below this big "V" feature. At a particular point on the rib it changes, (getting steeper?). During inspection from the bottom of the face you should have already noted a series of ascending ledges about 2/3 the way up, leading to the left like a staircase. During this ledge traverse you will find a potential excellent unused flat bivvy protected from above by an overhanging wall. After that there are no flat bivvys and the one sitting bivvy is exposed to rockfall (we started the climb at 2pm so had to bivvy). After going left up those ledges go up an unlikely looking loose wide corner (17/18) using a 'rib' just to the right of it to finally break through some steep ground and gain access to the final headwall. The headwall overhang is intimidating. Towards the right hand end of it, and hopefully now directly above you, you should see a weakness that may have ice choking it. Chop this away and crank over it (15/16). From here it is just 1 pitch to the top of the face, but expect a few surprises after that.

The three km long west ridge provides a slow but achievable route to the summit over ricketty stacks. The first two kilometres of the West Ridge are straight forward, providing enjoyable climbing over steepening slopes and ridges. From point 2200m, there is an unpleasant downclimb, followed by increasingly loose rickety stacks. This continues up to the summit headwall, which is reached after a couple of easy pitches, and a terribly loose rap to the base of the headwall. From here, two stellar pitches (16 & 14) go someway to redeeming what is otherwise a terrible route. The first ascentionists do not recommend repeating or descending this route, and instead recommend the South Ridge as a better descent option if a route on the SW Face tops out near the summit.