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| The NE ridge of The Sharks Tooth |
7/3/2011
Ethan and I climbed the Sharks Tooth via the classic NE ridge on Sunday. The climb is a little heathery and a little loose in places, but generally solid and spectacular. The route climbs the light/shadow line in the photo. I chose to climb in my boots and was somewhat rudely surprised by how sustained the difficulties were: long stretches of solid mid-5th class climbing with much less 3rd and 4th class ground than I was expecting. Combined with a very minimal rack, this made the day quite exciting! The first two pitches were uninspiring: lots of heather and broken rock. The best pitch we climbed was our 3rd. It followed a clean right-facing dihedral until the difficulties became too severe. Then a magical leftward traverse appeared on four-inch-square mini ledges across an otherwise blank 80-degree slab. An exciting final step left around a corner led to a nice flaky left-facing dihedral that ended in a comfortable belay ledge. the rock here was impeccable. Above this the difficulties eased and the exposure increased to a dramatic pitch as the ridge narrowed. However loose rock became more common. A perfect day out! Thanks, Ethan!
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