evtilley - Oct 19, 2021 9:47 pm Date Climbed: Oct 16, 2021
Fun but spicy route!
I saw this route on a topo map and thought it looked like a possible way of getting from the El Cap Trail to the summit of EC. I found a single trip report for the route, and it wasn't promising. The report was from 1994 and the author summited EC via the standard route then tried to shortcut down to the EC Trail. He encountered difficult 5.9 downclimbing. I'm not a rock climber, but I have decent scrambling skills. I decided to try it anyway, hoping that with the advantage of attacking the cliffs from below, I would be able to find an easier route up.
When I reached the cliffs at the top of the gulley, I studied them for about half an hour and contemplated turning around. I found one chimney route that looked safe enough and decided to go for it (avoiding the 1500' descent of the gulley definitely influenced my decision!) Once I cleared the chimney, I felt the wind pick up and I knew I was right below the saddle and had the route in the bag. From there, it only took a couple of class 2 moves to gain the saddle. It was easy bushwhacking from then on to gain the ridge and follow it to the summit.
evtilley - Oct 19, 2021 9:47 pm Date Climbed: Oct 16, 2021
Fun but spicy route!I saw this route on a topo map and thought it looked like a possible way of getting from the El Cap Trail to the summit of EC. I found a single trip report for the route, and it wasn't promising. The report was from 1994 and the author summited EC via the standard route then tried to shortcut down to the EC Trail. He encountered difficult 5.9 downclimbing. I'm not a rock climber, but I have decent scrambling skills. I decided to try it anyway, hoping that with the advantage of attacking the cliffs from below, I would be able to find an easier route up.
When I reached the cliffs at the top of the gulley, I studied them for about half an hour and contemplated turning around. I found one chimney route that looked safe enough and decided to go for it (avoiding the 1500' descent of the gulley definitely influenced my decision!) Once I cleared the chimney, I felt the wind pick up and I knew I was right below the saddle and had the route in the bag. From there, it only took a couple of class 2 moves to gain the saddle. It was easy bushwhacking from then on to gain the ridge and follow it to the summit.