Prusik Peak
My friend Ben's on a climbing rampage ever since he broke up with his girlfriend and this last "winter" cured my friend Josh of the desire to ski, so we needed to go to the mountains. We motored up the trail and made it to Upper Snow Lake in 2:45, just before the sun set. Ben packed in a 14" kielbasa and I brought a quart of PBR. Good times at camp.
Up at 6am, we looked for friends Nick and Jumar Jon, but they were no where to be found. The flatulence of the previous night continued through the morning and was the source of much humor.
We started up the West Ridge in a cool breeze (windshirt recommended here). The climbing was good fun, with nice exposure, and went quickly. You have to do a couple short pitches because of rope drag around ridge features.
For the last pitch, we walked to the right end of the ledge splitting the summit block (above the handcrack) and belayed at the bolt overlooking the west face. A cool knob grab leads to the hilarious 5.4 chimney and the summit.
The descent was annoying. Three 30m raps from the summit bolt into a couloir, downclimbing steepish hard snow in approach shoes, traversing same snow back to the balanced rock. I'm sure there's a better way, but whatever. Lots of fun-looking cracks on the north side.
A few notes on gear: We climbed on a doubled-over 60m half rope and the leader belayed with a Reverso, which worked really well for a group of three. The half rope (8.5mm) saved weight over a single and the climb lends itself to short pitches anyway, so having only 30m of lead rope was no problem. We used a small rack consisting of nuts #4-8, Forged Friends #1.5, 1.75, and 2.5, and hexes #9 and 10. I think I placed every piece at least once. Four double slings and three singles are plenty, plus a cordelette for belays. There are lots of horns to sling and some fixed gear on the route.