Sometimes a great route hides in the shadow of a Fifty Classic right next to it. This is true of the
Southwest Corner of the Petit Grepon. It is not uncommon for the
South Face to have half a dozen parties patiently (or not so patiently) queuing up at the base while the
Southwest Corner route hides in plain sight just 100 feet to the left, devoid of parties. The
Southwest Corner of the Petit Grepon follows a crack system to the Second Terrace and then climbs up left onto the southwest corner. This upper section of the route is sustained and exposed and offers excellent climbing.
In 2007, I had been a part of the conga line up the
South Face of Petit Grepon. This was my first (of many to come) climb in Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as one of my first multipitch alpine climbs too. So it was fun to come back and climb the Petit Grepon over a dozen years later. This time by the
Southwest Corner route with my newfound Boulder friend Erin.
The weather forecast for the day wasn't exactly ideal ("70% thundershowers after noon"), but we hoped that with an early start we could beat the rain. But the weather arrived much earlier than expected. It was only 8:30am when we arrived at the top of Pitch 4. Vertically, this is halfway up, but it is also the harder half of the route that is still to come. It was at this point that the sky began to spit. We decided to just continue upward, hoping the forecast was correct and any significant rain would hold off for a couple of more hours. It began to pour when we were at the base of Pitch 6 (just after 9am). Pitch 6 is the crux 5.9 pitch of the route. At this point we had to make a decision to go up or down. There was a mess of slings around a flake at the base of Pitch 6, giving a relatively easy bail option. On the other hand, the gully below looked like no fun, and as of yet there was no thunder or lightning, just a wet blanket of stable-looking clouds. We decided to go by the motto that it is often easier and safer to just continue up than to go down, so upward we went. I actually found myself enjoying the added challenge of leading up slick gneiss on 5.9 terrain. We had the opportunity to bail off onto the rap route when we intersected the South Face route two pitches from the summit (plenty of fixed gear to rap off of), but at this point the terrain had backed off a bit and our summit fever inspired us upward. The rain stopped just as we reached the summit. Ha! The 6-rappel descent went smoothly, with weather continuing to improve and dry us out a we descended.
Overall, it was a really fun day, and the rain just added to the overall adventurous nature of the climb. Thanks Erin for being such an awesome partner for this adventure! (And for not complaining about the chilly belay at the base of Pitch 6, that couldn't have been comfortable on that exposed arete in the cold rain.) It was pretty cool to be the only party of the four parties on the Petit that day to be determined enough to continue to the summit.
The following page gives time stats, and overlay, and pitch-by-pitch photos from the climb. Enjoy!
