Intro
Nate and I decided it was high time to get into the alpine. One of the few major summits we had not climbed the previous summer was Notchtop. Also, I had climbed the South Ridge of Notchtop 14 years previous on my first trip to RMNP, so I was eager to return. So to Notchtop we went.
Our plan was to climb the Direct South Ridge. This spectacular route that ascends the exposed south arete of Notch Spire. We ended up climbing the first three pitches of the Direct South Ridge and finishing the route by climbing to the right and up 5.9 terrain just right of the final two pitches of the South Ridge. The climbing was good, but we were a bit miffed at how we couldn't figure out a reasonable way onto Pitch 4 of the Direct South Ridge. In fact, if I recall correctly, Mark and I had finished via the same way when we climbed the South Ridge in 2007.
Note: This 2007 trip report is given at the bottom of this page due to the similarity between the route Mark and I took in 2007 and the route Nate and I took in 2021. In 2007, Mark and I had climbed the first four pitches of the South Ridge and done the 5.9 finish to the right of the South Ridge; while in 2021, Nate and I had climbed the first three pitches of the Direct South Ridge, and then Pitch 4 of the South Ridge and the 5.9 finish; since the two routes share the same first pitch, the route that Mark and I climbed in 2007 was only two pitches different than the one Nate and I climbed 2021. This explains why I called the route Nate and I did the "South Ridge (sort of)".
Below is a trip report and photos from our climb of the "South Ridge (sort of)".
Time Stats
Bear Lake Trailhead to base of Spiral Route on Notchtop: 2 hours 30 minutes
Climb South Ridge (sort of): 4 hours
Descend (rappel Instant Clarification): 1 hours 30 minutes
Hike back to Bear Lake Trailhead: 1 hours 45 minutes
Total car-to-car (includes breaks): 10 hours
Pitch-by-Pitch Photos
Approach
3rd
From Bear Lake trailhead, hike the Flattop Mountain trail, the Fern-Odessa Trail, and the Lake Helene Waytrail. Hike up to the base of the South Ridge.
Approach Pitches
~5.4, 3p (Spiral Route)
Climb the first few pitches of the Spiral Route to the large ledge below the South Ridge headwall.
Pitch 1
5.6, 80'
Climb up and left towards the arete and belay on a small ledge beneath a right-facing corner.
Pitch 2
5.9, 130'
Jam a good crack up the dihedral and turn the obvious roof. Follow the corner to a smaller roof that is passed on the right. Work up and right, then back left to a small ledge just right of the arete.
Pitch 3
5.8, 90-120'
Climb straight up a prominent crack through a triangular roof and belay on a small ledge. There is also a belay stance left of the arete a bit further on.
Pitch 4
5.8+, 150'
Traverse right across a slab and climb steep crack to a ledge at the bottom of a large, open book dihedral.
(Note that the actual Direct South Ridge route goes up here, but we ended up going right when we were a bit miffed at how we would continue on the Direct South Ridge. The guidebook description did not seem to match the terrain and the climbing between the belay at the top of Pitch 3 and the splitter on Pitch 5 above did not look trivial. Later conversations with Bernard Gillett indicate that going directly up from the belay at the top of Pitch 3 is probably the way to go.)
Pitch 5
5.9, 190'
(we were to right of both South Ridge and Direct South Ridge)
Climb up cracks to the notch in one long pitch. The route we took involved a nice 5.9-ish finger crack section. We could not figure out what route this actually was, but it was right of the South Ridge and Direct South Ridge. Whatever the case, it was quite good climbing.
Top
A bit less than 12,129'
The route ends on the top of Notch Spire. This is not the true summit of Notchtop. We actually stopped at the top of our long Pitch 5 since some thunderheads were brewing and we wanted to get safely down the descent before any storm materialized. From the top of Pitch 5 the first set of rappel anchors are visible just across the way.
Descent
4-5 rappels + scramble.
There are two options for descent: (1) Scramble along the summit ledges to the West Gully and descend the West Gully (4th). (2) Rappel the bolted anchors on Instant Clarification (two ropes needed). The top rappel anchor is near the top of Notch Spire, but from the true summit of Notchtop you can access a lower top anchor by descending a ramp that heads down from the notch between Notch Spire and the summit. We chose to rappel Instant Clarification.
