Edith Cavell East Ridge 5.3
Dry – never touched any snow so no ice axe or crampons! Ideal conditions with a perfect sunny day so we had to go do this classic. Stayed at hostel which worked out ok- reasonable bed and used kitchen at 4 am. walking at 5 am – busy as at least a dozen others on route. Took trail to climbers trail by headlamp and followed trail between trees and moraine to col – see pics and map – 2 hrs- good work Wietse! Came up to left of snow/ice patches and then followed slightly rising trail right to col. Lots of others crashed and rolled rocks as they went up moraine early and then down on loose talus and then straight up at col on talus and snow.
Stayed right of gully(would be snow most of year) for first part of ridge switching back and forth on ascending ledges and easy scramble until close to snow triangle/shoulder then followed cairns left across gully below snow and then up to ridge and up to plateau. ~ 2 hrs
Up to steeper steps. First step roped up and did ~ 30 m pitch to rap anchor – mod to dif scramble but exposed. all the other groups were ahead at this point so no rush.
Second step is the real climbing. Roped and did two 25+ m pitches to rap stations on steeper rock 5.3 ish – maybe 5.4 for 1-2 moves. Started out on right side for 10 m then moved left and went up left side for rest. Several lines up the face but not that hard to find the easy line. Some pins in place but easy placements – lots of cracks in the quartzite – carried three small cams in the .5 to 1.5 inch range and several small nuts and tri cams.
Short roped, scrambled or simu-climbed from here to top over 7 or 8 more little steps on the upper lower angle part. leisurely pace as we thoroughly enjoyed the climbing so 8.5 hours including breaks.
Dry along top for all three summits and bypassed some of S ridge down left off west summit on scree and then crossed ridge to right over into SW bowl – scree trail down and right to SW ridge and followed trail on top of ridge down to Sorrow col to correct drainage. Big cairn – down drainage/rib and then follow cairns down ledges – some moderate down climb – and rib to talus fan and eventually to meadows. Nice rest/nap and then follow trail out to main trail and long walk back to road. 15 hours total with breaks and nap. Sunny beautiful day with great climbing on a classic ridge – hard to beat.
Added a bunch of comments to pics.
pics Edith Cavell
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