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Boyd(fortmyers-b), Brian and I did the Little Bear - Blanca traverse on Aug 17, 2014. Boyd and Brian also traversed to Ellingwood Point, which is Boyd's 58th. Congratulations to Boyd! However, I did not go for Ellingwood, so this trip report only covers the LB-Blanca traverse.
Our time frame was conventional: hiking to Lake Como on Day 1 (08/16), camping and then climbing on Day 2 (08/17). Because we opted for the Hourglass route, we started very early on the climb day. Leaving Lake Como by 3:50 AM ensured us at least an hour ahead of any other party.
The hiking went smoothly, until we got to the base of Hourglass Couloir in the dark. Climbing on the left side of the rope is the easiest way, otherwise there might be class 5 moves.
We reached Little Bear summit shortly after sunrise. We spent 3 hours to climb Little Bear, which might be typical for not-very-slow hikers.
Then, the traverse. Actually it went smoothly too. I can't recall anything significantly harder than the climbing of the Hourglass. Maybe a few downclimb moves could be rated class 5, but I feel they are actually easy enough for a non-rock climber (like me). Since on this site there are already some very good trip reports containing detailed route descriptions of the LB-Blanca traverse, I will just use our videos and photos to show how the traverse ridge look like.
I have categorized and combined my helmet camera video clips into two: climbing below the ridge crest and scrambling on the ridge crest.
Best to watch them in 720p-HD.
According to someone I spoke with on the summit of Ellingwood on the 16th the bear got around quite a bit the night before. He didn’t get much sleep he said. I did Blanca and Ellingwood as a day hike so I missed the "fun".
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