Intro

This route the left side of a 400 foot wall on the east face of East Glacier Knob, not far beyond Alberta Falls (in the winter this wall has some mixed routes). It is a nice summertime option for a half-day morning-sun climb at 10,000 feet with a short approach. The rock is gneiss and genearlly pretty solid.

The mountainproject description has this route at 5 pitches with a double rack to #2, triples in 0.5, a single #3 and #4, and a set of nuts. We found this to be overkill. The route can be easily (and logically) climbd as 3 pitches (linking 1&2 and 4&5 is probably best) and with a single rack to #2, a set of nuts, and maybe double 0.3 and 0.75 because these are handy at the anchors. We would have found the 5.11 and 5.10+ slightly less hard without the weight of a lot of unnecessary gear.

My general impression of the climb is that it is a mediocre climb for the area, but nevertheless has a couple of sections of really good challenging climbing (the 5.11 stepped roof and the 5.10+ cracks). I would climb the route again just to reattempt those sections with more success. Ovearll, the route is worthy of doing if you want to get out for a half day on something multipitch away from the crowds.

The following page provides a trip report for the climb. Enjoy!

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd

From the Glacier Gorge Trailhead, hike the main trail past Alberta Falls. Keep going until the trail makes a second switchback to the west and the wall comes into view. Keep hiking on the trail until it is obvious to head east across talus to the base of the wall. Begin near the bottom of a prominent left-facing dihedral. The route climbs the center wall's left side. 35-45 min.

Pitch 1

5.8 R

Start up short crack on the left, and traverse 30 feet right to base of the roof system. It is logical to combine this pitch with Pitch 2.

Pitches 1&2 are logically linked

Pitch 2

5.11

Pull/jam through roof crack (burley, hard) and belay above on a ledge. This ledge may or may not have a fixed pin (we did not see it).

Pitches 1&2 are logically linked

Pitch 3

5.10+

Climb a steep and tricky crack to a pod and to some hand jams. Pull onto the slab above splitter. Head up and slightly right to tree belay. Or belay about 20 feet higher if you plan to link Pitches 4&5.

Pitch 4

5.8

Head up corner behind tree then head right. Face climb over a short bulge via a left-facing flake. This pitch is given a "5.8 R" rating on mountainproject but the R occurs on quite easy terrain where you aren't even thinking about placing gear. You could link Pitch 4 with Pitch 5 all the way to the top, especially if you had a high belay at the top of Pitch 3.

Pitches 4&5 are logically linked with a high belay at top of Pitch 3.

Pitch 5

5.8+

Climb up a left-facing corner crack to a tree belay on the right or continue up easier terrain to the top of the wall.

Pitches 4&5 are logically linked with a high belay at top of Pitch 3.

Descent

Walk off to south

You can rappel the route starting from the tree at the top of Pitch 5. Apparently the rappel works with a single 60. Based on what I saw, you would need to upgrade a couple of slings and add a few carabiners to rappel the route.

You can also top out and walk off to the south (which I would advise). Top out by climbing to the top on Pitch 5.

We chose to walk off to the south. At first it looked like it would cliff out, but we found a steep but stable talus field to scramble down. Walkoff was about 20 min back to the base of the route (faster and more predictable than rappelling 4 or 5 times).