Natural pro requiredExciting moves over diverse terrain and good gear (yes, tricams). Start: On
Queen's Drive walk past the Clearances and the Notch snow gully and around
the lowest point of buttress. You will be out of sight of those routes but
can see the face further south. Look up for a broad 90 degree corner cut off
at the bottom (see photo. There is a topo attached but it gets more
approximate for each pitch).
- P1
- Mixed M5
- 40m
- Trad
(M4+ sustained) Fantastic pitch of technical stemming on thin edges and rattly hooks in the fist-sized crack at back of corner. Well-protected throughout and the occasional jam for a breather. At the rooflet exit right and belay on a little jutting snow ledge that is walled in from two sides and seems to continue round to the steep snow at right.
- P2
- 50m
- Trad
Don't follow the ledge but boulder up from your stance and wade onto the Notches superhighway. Cut straight across and up the steepest part of the slope trending left. If snow is a bit spooky get some gear in at each of the rock steps. At the final rock barrier, belay under two prominent sharp beaks that marks the spine of the main buttress (see photo- there is nothing further left but open space).
- P3
- Mixed M5
- 40m
- Trad
(M5 crux) Overhanging right-leaning corner about 5m high. Torque to glory on bomber pick and nut placements. Pray for ice on the lip as you haul/mantle over and scratch around for a possible 0.3 camalot or piton placement. Follow moderately angled groove with very sparse pro but decent ice (even in a lean year). To the left be nothing but blank slabs and that then drop away to the Telecom tower. Follow groove as it trends to the right until a small cave and a good belay among the broken blocks just past it.
- P4
- Mixed M4
- 30m
- Trad
(M4 crux) A few metres above the belay is a weird moderately angled chimney inside a giant flake (see photo). Keep this to your right and instead march into a corridor sized slot higher up with some gear at the back. The right wall of this slot is a steepish corroded slab about 10m high that takes nuts with some imagination. Delicate moves get you to an easy scramble to ridge. Exit: Traverse left along ridge 50m to find hidden platform behind Telecom Tower. Rap off flake and pull really hard to get your rope down!
