Zurbriggen Ridge

A classic route from a historical perspective, but it’s really a long grind that gets a lot of early sun. Begin by climbing snow slopes on the edge of the lower east face. The original route gained the ridge 400m above the Plateau, up a step of poor rock, then up the rocky ridge interspersed with snow slopes to gain the Summit Rocks, where the Linda Glacier route intersects.
More recently, the standard practice is to avoid the ridge proper by staying on the edge of the east face, on snow all the way, until the Summit Rocks. Snow was avoided where possible on the first ascent because Zurbriggen and Adamson didn’t have crampons—only ice axes and a bottle of red wine!
Above the Summit Rocks ascend the North East Arête, commonly referred to as the ‘ice cap,’ to the summit—refer to Route 4.29 for details. The easiest descent is down the Linda Glacier, but it may be necessary to reverse the ridge (as on the first ascent), if avalanche or crevasse conditions in the Linda are unfavourable.