Ellingwood Ridge Proper beta

[JaredJohnson]

We're planning to do Ellingwood Ridge in a week and a half, the general idea seems to be that sticking to ridge proper leads to some really fun low-5 scrambling and a few mandatory rappels off the backside of some towers. This sounds great, I wonder if anyone has some more specifics though

- like one or two mandatory rappels, so maybe we're better off leaving the rope at home and backing off when we find these and skirting ridge proper a couple times? Or like twenty mandatory rappels and we should go ahead and use the rope or we'll constantly be backtracking onto mundane lines without it?

- any idea of the longest rappel required so I can decide whether to bring my shorter rope?

- is the ridge proper pretty solid? I've read some descriptions complaining about loose stuff but I'm guessing those are folks that kept it class 3

- does ridge proper eliminate some of the time and route finding concerns or do you still need to plan on 10 hours and a ton of route finding?

Thanks!

[JaredJohnson]

- one more. We would bring some webbing and such in case we need it; but do people actually rap sections of this route often so that we're likely to run into some useable anchors, or will we need to plan on building each and every rap anchor that we use from scratch?

[RETEP 1]

I guess I can’t answer any questions about the technical climbing. I’m quite certain though that no time will be saved by setting up gear. This was one of the longer more exhausting routes I’ve done. There are only two times on this site below 10 hours so I would guess that using gear would only add to that. Plan on longer…

[JaredJohnson]

There are only two times on this site below 10 hours

Sorry I meant 10 hours to get to the summit:) I believe the site times are round trip, if I'm wrong I'll be very grateful to be corrected

[Gandalf69]

Also speaking as someone who has done the route I'd say leave your rope at home. Or if you bring your ropes, bring a tent, stove, sleeping bag and enough stuff to stay out for a night. Watch the virtual Sherpas YouTube vid, he's a strong climber, and he's tired when he gets to the summit. Here is a picture of the start, end looking back, and looking back at a tower, typical of the ridge. I have a old peak conditions report, but I'd definitely watch the virtual sherpa vid. Definitely do it, just be prepared.

[Gandalf69]

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstat ... cnum=18617
My old peak conditions report, if it helps. I remember being on the ridge proper most of the way. (Until I climbed into sketch terrain, and back climbed)

[tortilla]

I stayed mostly ridge proper and remember having to backtrack maybe 2 times? My partner and I did downclimb some stuff that others might avoid though. I remember a tricky downclimb through a wormhole formed by a chockstone at the top of a chimney. The rock quality is suspect, but the formations are unique and out of place for the Sawatch. It is a fun day. Bring extra water and expect for it to take longer than you think

[JaredJohnson]

Thank you for all the information! A friend turned me on to a 30m, 8mm, 2.5lb rope that I managed to snag for 60 bucks. We're going to go ahead and bring that with us, and plan for a lot of suffering, a lot of time, and possibly a lot of rappels. But we can hope for extra efficiency and fun being able to stay on the ridge and backtrack less. Hanging around at the top of a tower setting up a rappel will be time consuming but should be a bit less energy consuming than backtracking!

I have a 50m fairly light rope as well, I am still debating whether to cut off 30m of that and let my partner carry that in case we need to bend them together for extra length

[tortilla]

I don’t recall the backtracking being all that annoying really. 4th class options on our left (East) yielded ledgy traverses above the cairned route. The very prominent photogenic tower people often include in posts is off the apex of the ridge. The most challenging parts were the mental game and the devious nature of the rock. The ridge is more complex than it appears when you first crest it and the rock looks solid but is very crumbly in many places. 30m with a tag line would probably be sufficient