Grizzly to Lenawee

[brankulo]

Not much info on the traverse. Trying to fi d out what class the travers is. One report says 3, another one 4 or easy 5. Any idea?

[richwill]

Don't know if its any help, but heres a shot of the whole ridge I took from Grizzly

059.jpg (123.31 KiB) Viewed 1477 times

. Good luck!

[k-berger]

Class 3, maybe easy 4. Takes a little bit of routefinding to keep it that way but I don't remember it being overly difficult.

[yacobucci]

It's solid class 3 throughout. There will be some class 4 moves, but the hardest bits can be avoided by dropping to either side of the ridge. The route finding is the most difficult piece, but also quite a lot of fun. Traversed it summer of 2015.

[bichito]

Which is the best route out? Coming down Marjorie Bowl? Is the tree chutes ridge too far?

[bichito]

Which is the best route out? Coming down Marjorie Bowl? Is the tree chutes ridge too far?

http://www.14ers.com/usercontent/trips/ ... 9181_l.jpg

I found a route. It goes all the way to the top lift at a-basin. It can probably be shortened by coming down between marjorie bowl and the east wall.

But it would cut also most of the fun since the traverse is kind of tedious until grizzly.

[brankulo]

Whats the exposure like?

[bichito]

I may do it tomorrow. I will let you know. I looked at it from Grizzly 6 weeks ago. It seems less exposure or difficulty than Tour de Abyss which I did recently.

[bichito]

I am planning to do this route this week, I think, and I thought about the possibility of doing it in reverse:

*) Park at A-Basin (in the little parking area across the base on 6)

*) Walk down from L-Pass if need be.

The logic here is that parking at L-Pass is not allowed before 7 am, the hardest section of the route is after Grizzly, this way I hit it first.

The question: are there any critical sections of he route that make this plan a non-starter?

[forwardbias]

I went last Friday, here's an album of the pictures I took: https://goo.gl/photos/AVj9PvSsLFh1BGo8A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some thoughts:

I generally thought it was more technical and more difficult than the TdA (Tour de Abyss). For me I felt like the TdA only had a few true technical parts (the two points on the east ridge of bierstadt, maybe a little on the sawtooth) and the rest was just walking/rock hoping/dealing with some loose rock. Another area it felt a little harder for me was that the technical stuff also had a fair bit of loose/rotten rock. Nothing horrible mind you and some places were great but still something to think about when grabbing a flake.

It also has a lot more route finding difficulty, there's a number of little/medium sized points and you have to choose which way to go as there was no (that I could see) cairns or well trodden directions so its entirely a choose your own adventure (which is great fun but adds difficulty). Some of those options ended end some rather cliffy sections, so you either had to back track or just power through (like I did which can result in some class 4ish stuff). It did however (to me at least) feel less exposed, no big shear drops like the black wall on sawtooth or the drop off the east ridge. There were definitely some airy places though.

Parking: bichito, your reverse description has me a little confused, walk down from L-pass would not be reverse right? So I parked a L-pass and hiked the ridge line down from there. It's a total PITA but I was being conservative since I was solo. I looked a little at other ideas on my way down and I think they could be doable. My thought was to park in A-basin and then hike up to the ridge. The best looking option seemed to be a hike up a grassy slope that lead up the shoulder between Grizzly and the little unnamed sub peak just north of Grizzly (and south of Cupid). It looked like it got a little steep, steeper than the slope up from Loveland but probably no worse than attaining the east ridge in the TdA. Of course then you still have to go over Grizzly (the sides of G are loose steep talus) but it would still cut out 2+ miles of hike in and allow you to park and end right there in the basin. Obviously I did not do this and it could be a complete PITA of its own so don't blame me if you try it and it sucks.

I don't know if I sound discouraging so I will say go have fun, it's not hard just keep your mind on your work

[bichito]

L-Pass has signs that prohibit parking before 7 am.

So if I start around 5 @ the basin, no risk of getting a ticket. And If I can't hitch a ride down it is easier to walk down hill after the hike than up hill.

How long did it take?

[forwardbias]

L-Pass has signs that prohibit parking before 7 am.

So if I start around 5 @ the basin, no risk of getting a ticket. And If I can't hitch a ride down it is easier to walk down hill after the hike than up hill.

How long did it take?

Ok I see start in the basin hike up the ski slopes and then go north up to Loveland pass and hitch/hike back down. Yeah I think that's a good idea, I was considering that option as well if I ever did it again, everything was reversible from what I can remember. You could also get a look at the slope I mentioned and decide if you want to descend.

I think it took me 5.5 hours or so with a hitch to the pass. I started late in the day, so no issues on the parking but then I didn't even realize there was a 7am parking limit on Loveland and I'm pretty sure I've parked before 7am there once before without a ticket but maybe I just got lucky.