If you can spare a few bucks for those affected by the Pack Fire, a little bit goes a long way ❤️

Last run at home this summer 😭

LOOK OUT!

Silver Divide Day 3: Mount Izaak Walton and Out

Silver Divide Day 2: Silver Peak and Tully Lake

Wow! So happy to get this done! Wasn't sure if we'd have the skills and time to do it, but we managed it!

Mostly followed Steph Abegg's beta, but it's kind of off in a few places...

We found the climb up the chute towards Thunderbolt pretty easy and straightforward, then followed the third class variation to reach the base of the summit block, which took a minute but wasn't too hard. Then we probably spent 30-45 minutes trying to figure out how to get up to the summit rock. The stick-clip technique didn't work for us, it was a bit too far and the hiking pole stick-clip was too flimsy. Eventually we managed to lasso it using one of the techniques I found on YouTube and then took turns climbing up to the summit.

Off the summit of Thunderbolt to the top of the Underhill Couloir, we intended to follow Steph Abegg's class 4 chimney, but we didn't find any rap tat and it was a little stiff, so we passed over to the west side of the crest and made an easy rappel down some fifth class stuff to the top of the slab and then downclimbed to the top of Underhill. Easy enough.

From the top of Underhill, we followed Steph's beta for a little bit, but the climbing gets tough near a large rock with three or four stripes across it, and there's an easier, but more exposed option out to the east (traverser's left) that we followed. Higher up, Steph's route seems to follow the crest. We trended right over easier terrain to a small tower and then rapped down to class 3 terrain below and then climbed back up. After this rap, you're in a vague bowl that's right below the summit of Starlight. The easiest route up to it is on the right side, eventually climbing up a low fifth class chimney. I spent some time messing around here, you want to just go directly up the chimney and then you'll see the summit rock to your left from the top. It's like class 2 over to the summit rock from the top of the fifth class pitch.

We spent another 30-45 minutes trying to figure out how to get up to the true summit of Starlight. We weren't quite as deadset on getting up this as we were on Thunderbolt, and it's a bit harder to protect, but I eventually worked up the courage to make the awkward move onto the "back" of the "giraffe" with an iffy toprope anchored on the other side for protection. From the back of the giraffe, it's easy enough to stand up and clip the sling and pull yourself up.

From Starlight, we crawled through the hole and then headed right to a rappel station that's slightly lower and farther north/west than the ones marked in Steph's topo. This was a bit faster because one rap takes you down to class 3 terrain, where you go across and then start climbing up towards the top of the "creative rappel," which is tough to find. Basically, try to identify the rock you're going to go over and climb to the top of it (not the sides). The rap anchor is on a flake on the other side of that rock. Rapping into the notch is a bit of an ordeal but manageable.

We kept the rope out from the notch for two really short pitches, which wasn't necessary. The route here goes right around some rocks, climbs up a slab to the crest, and then heads right again at a large triangular rock. Then it descends a scree-strewn ledge featuring one exposed butt-scoot section before reaching a large leaning rock that marks the start of the pitch up to North Palisade. Once again, I spent some time exploring this pitch when I should've just climbed directly up to the summit. At the very top, when it gets hard, there's a small chimney to the right that leads to a rap station that's right below the summit of North Palisade.

After enjoying the summit of North Palisade for a little while, and celebrating because the trickiest bits were over, we opted to rappel off a leaning flake rather than downclimb the huge rocks off the summit. This dropped us into the bowl, which we crossed. Then we climbed up and crossed to the east side of the crest to search for the rap anchors for the Chimney Variation. There must be a dozen rap anchors on this face, but we eventually found one that dropped us at the top of the U Notch after two rappels.

We debated going for Polemonium, but we were pretty zapped, and Shannon's headlamp had died and we only had 2.5 or 3 more hours of daylight, so we didn't think we had quite the time and energy. Fortunately we did have food and gear for another couple of days, so we decided to come back for it the next day. We're not too tied to the fourteeners list, but when you're already at the base of the route with a full day for it, why not?

We dropped down the U Notch, which was kind of loose at the top but got better above the giant slab, and made our way back to camp.

Great day, really proud of this!

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Iain Macdonald

Thunderbolt-to-North Palisade

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If you can spare a few bucks for those affected by the Pack Fire, a little bit goes a long way ❤️

Last run at home this summer 😭

LOOK OUT!

Silver Divide Day 3: Mount Izaak Walton and Out

Silver Divide Day 2: Silver Peak and Tully Lake

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