August 1st, 2010
Everything is an adventure climb here. No beta but what's in the guide, and often that's no more than a sentence or two. It makes things harder, but also ups the awesomeness of it all.
Having been stymied by the glaciers, it was time for a little more rock. We headed up the Los Alamos route on Claw peak for a fun half-day out. The route description didn't really make any sense to me, so I just picked my own line up the face, which upon review seems to coincide reasonably well with the line Mr. Serl has drawn in the guide. The exception to this being that we didn't bother with tromping across the snow to reach the first two pitches. instead we climbed half the West Ridge again, and made a descending traverse onto the south face. Our first pitch climbed straight up the lower half of the prominent chimney/crack system that slashes straight up the south face to just left of the notch on the east ridge. Clean, fun climbing, but a wee bit run-out in it's middle. The pitch finished with a spectacular lie-back-under-cling-stem-mantle thingy that exits right out of the chimney onto a sloping ledge/pedestal. Great belay, protected from rockfall by a nice overhang. From there it was up over the bulge to to the right and onto easier ground. A series of fun ramps and crack systems led to a frighteningly loose top-out on the east ridge. Fortunately all looseness was confined to the notch, and Jim led another fine 5.6ish pitch up the east ridge to the summit! From there it was an easy descent back down the familiar west ridge, directly to the hut! All in all, another fine outing, not to be missed if you have an extra day at the hut.
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