Southeast Ridge, North Crag

A fun variation on the approach to Shanahan's South Face routes (

i.e.

, we got lost and climbed up North Shanahan Crag). Typical east face slab stuff with little boulder problems in between. We soloed the route, so pitch lengths are wild guesses.

Find the base of the North Crag and walk just around the southeast corner. Go 100 feet up the gully and find a weakness where a tree stands close to the rock.

P1 - Follow nice jugs to a ledge on the east face of the crag, scratching your back on the branch on the way up. Move right around the overlap and belay. Short pitch.

P2 - Trend left up the slab to a beautiful ledge below a very short overhang. 100 feet?

P3 - Surmount the two-move overhang and follow nice slab to another flat area. You are presented with two choices: traverse right 50 feet, above an overhang to a steep break, or downclimb to an alcove with red rock. Go down and belay. 80 feet?

P4 - Up the red slab and tackle a steep step to the right where sprouts a tree--another fun boulder problem at 5.5. Tiptoe up past some slightly suspect flakes and arrive at the logical conclusion of the route, a ledge with a leaning silver snag. There is a higher summit due west, separated by a fair distance.

Hop right off the rock from here. You can reach the South Shahahan Crag by scrambing up mossy slab to the ridgecrest, dropping down between the crags, and thence stomping south-ish until you are surprised to discover the routes you were looking for.

Take the approach to the Terrain Boulders and keep going up. Trend a bit left until you see a flatiron, then walk left to meet it. Bulges on the left and right, with a wide chimney a few hundred feet up, mark the face.

Walk around the southeast corner and 100 feet up the slope to find the start of the route, where a tree pokes a dead branch at the rock.

Descend by dropping briefly into the north-side gully, scrambling left up a mossy slab to the ridgecrest, and then down over the other side. From here, walk around the west end of South Shanahan Crag and locate the obvious South Face routes. A climber's path descends from here.

Light Flatirons rack. Pitches are short because of the wandering nature of the route.