We climbed this Saturday, August 2. This is a formidable peak and actually took us 8 hours from the lake, I'm not fast. Important things to note: the traverse from the top of the gully to the base of the hourglass was a lot of route finding as many of the cairns were no where to be found. We dropped about 25-30' below the ridge and charted a course to the hourglass, finding a few fallen cairns along the way. My climbing partner rebuilt them as we went...much appreciated. As for the hourglass itself, there was a steady stream of water coming down. I stayed left for a while then climbed up the water simply b/c it's easier, holds are solid and traction was surprisingly good. My very experienced climbing partner inspected the anchors and wet rope along the way. I did use it coming down and was very happy to have it but advise you make your own decision upon inspection. The rest of the journey is a challenge, we chose to stay left and it worked fine. Just remember to check your foot/hand holds before you rely on it. Other then that, I am just glad to be done with that one.
As for Como road, we made it past Jaws 1 and based on reports from other vehicles coming down, decided to camp just before the creek crossing. This was a wise choice. There has been considerable rain over the past few days. There were several rock slides past Jaws 2-3 that made it impassable by truck but smaller ATVs did get through. That was in the morning. By afternoon, several crazy looking jeeps had managed to get through by building, pushing, moving...whatever. You best have a super high clearance, 4wd vehicle and heed all the warnings posted by experienced drivers. The creek is running fast and high as well, just an fyi. Sorry no photos at this time.
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