Partner - Little Bear Variant - Sat 7/13

[Joey_parm]

Looking for partner(s) for Little Bear this weekend via the west ridge variant (trip report linked below for reference). I will be camping at the lake Friday, summiting and hiking out on Saturday. DM me to discuss details, etc.; texting preferred 7189168867. I am quicker than average on non-technical, slower than average on technical.

Trip Report:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... J-9YxkulZA

Diagram (not mine). Route is in pink and felt like Class 4, not Class 3, by others who have done it:

[DeTour]

Sorry to be no help for a partner this weekend, but good luck, and I’d love to see your feedback after doing that alternate route. I still covet LB even though I’ve talked about it for 2 years without even trying it. Judd’s TRs have been great but a few more opinions would be welcome.

[seannunn]

Please let us know how that route goes.
Climbing (and especially) downclimbing the Hourglass is THE thing that concerns me most for the remainder of the 14ers that I have not yet climbed.

Sean Nunn

[CaptainSuburbia]

Please let us know how that route goes.
Climbing (and especially) downclimbing the Hourglass is THE thing that concerns me most for the remainder of the 14ers that I have not yet climbed.

Sean Nunn

Here's a recent conditions report for that route
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstat ... cnum=29808

[daway8]

Sorry to be no help for a partner this weekend, but good luck, and I’d love to see your feedback after doing that alternate route. I still covet LB even though I’ve talked about it for 2 years without even trying it. Judd’s TRs have been great but a few more opinions would be welcome.

Please let us know how that route goes.
Climbing (and especially) downclimbing the Hourglass is THE thing that concerns me most for the remainder of the 14ers that I have not yet climbed.

Sean Nunn

So I ended up joining this crew at the last minute to check out this route. I continued from there to do the Traverse but the other two guys came back down this route and shared their notes with me.

I just posted a detailed write-up for this West Ridge Indirect route here:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

Let me know if you have any questions not answered by the TR...

[bdloftin77]

So I ended up joining this crew at the last minute to check out this route. I continued from there to do the Traverse but the other two guys came back down this route and shared their notes with me.

I just posted a detailed write-up for this West Ridge Indirect route here:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

Let me know if you have any questions not answered by the TR...

Thanks for sharing! I'm glad this route is getting more publicity as I think it's objectively safer than the Hourglass, though with a lot more exposure. Since some think it's class 3 and some think there's a couple class 4 moves depending on the exact route, class 3+ sounds like a good compromise.

[Briere]

Sorry to be no help for a partner this weekend, but good luck, and I’d love to see your feedback after doing that alternate route. I still covet LB even though I’ve talked about it for 2 years without even trying it. Judd’s TRs have been great but a few more opinions would be welcome.

Please let us know how that route goes.
Climbing (and especially) downclimbing the Hourglass is THE thing that concerns me most for the remainder of the 14ers that I have not yet climbed.

Sean Nunn

So I ended up joining this crew at the last minute to check out this route. I continued from there to do the Traverse but the other two guys came back down this route and shared their notes with me.

I just posted a detailed write-up for this West Ridge Indirect route here:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

Let me know if you have any questions not answered by the TR...

Thank you for the detailed write up; I will definitely go back to it when the time comes to hit up LB

[justiner]

I really enjoy watching this process of community driven route creation

[mindfolded]

I really enjoy watching this process of community driven route creation

It was incredibly fun. Are there other viable alternative routes up other mountains that can be explored?

[Wentzl]

Hey Mindfolded, I have done a bunch of "alternative" routes on lots of 14ers but here is one of my favorites that I think worthwhile:

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

[DeTour]

Thank you for the tremendous detail in that TR Dave. I echo Justin’s comment about how great it is the way the community shares its knowledge on this platform. And you are a leader in that. Your TR really lays out the routefinding challenges and gives a person much more help in navigating them.
That said, can we play the comparison game? From Judd’s TR I thought the crux slab might be roughly comparable to the class 4 slab on the Arapahoe Traverse? From yours I wonder if it’s considerably smaller. And the descriptions of that “chunky exposed ridge” make me think of the unnamed shark’s fin on the El Diente - Mt. Wilson traverse (“Narrow section,” photos 22-26 in the traverse route description) - ? But maybe a bit more clumby - that shark’s fin was relatively horizontal along the top.

[jsype]

Thank you for the tremendous detail in that TR Dave. I echo Justin’s comment about how great it is the way the community shares its knowledge on this platform. And you are a leader in that. Your TR really lays out the routefinding challenges and gives a person much more help in navigating them.
That said, can we play the comparison game? From Judd’s TR I thought the crux slab might be roughly comparable to the class 4 slab on the Arapahoe Traverse? From yours I wonder if it’s considerably smaller. And the descriptions of that “chunky exposed ridge” make me think of the unnamed shark’s fin on the El Diente - Mt. Wilson traverse (“Narrow section,” photos 22-26 in the traverse route description) - ? But maybe a bit more clumby - that shark’s fin was relatively horizontal along the top.

I climbed Little Bear via the Variant last August 2023 using CaptainSuburbia's route discription and .gpx tracks. I haven't been on either the Arapahoe traverse and I climbed ElD and Mt. Wilson separately. However, I can say the rock is graciously very solid on the LB variant route. Exposure is out of this world - I think more than Capitol or Pyramid. I climbed the variant solo, and so every single handhold and foothold required a singular effort in mental concentration -but that's what makes it fun right! I felt routefinding wasn't too big of a deal - it becomes pretty clear when to leave the West ridge and head for the ledges.I recommend this route 100%