Rating: M6 WI6
Length: 160 Meters
Pitches: 4
P1: Climb “Hooligan” to a 2 bolt anchor on the party ledge below “Glass Onion”.
P2: “Pandemic Pitch” Follow the generously bolted line up the better quality rock hooking and pick torqueing through 30 feet of slightly overhung climbing. Pull a moderately exposed couple of moves to the upward left trending ramp. Continue to follow the bolted line to the 2 bolt anchor in the “Room with a View” to the left of the direct ice flow. Special thanks to Travis McAlpine for spearheading this bolted project.
P3: The “Super Susy Pitch” Originally named by Sue Nott and Brian Teale on their legendary bold first ascent of the “Indirect Onion” variation in 1998. Traverse from the “Room with a View” through 15 feet of exposed mixed moves to gain the icicle. Climb through very steep to overhanging ice directly straight up until the route starts to trend right. This is a serious pitch of climbing and requires run out short screws through overhanging moves on thin ice.
P4: The last pitch is where the standard “Glass Onion” takes over. Lead through the steps of vertical ice with good rests in-between to finish off the route.
FA: Ryan Sims, August Franzen, Taylor Brown. Special thanks to Travis Mcalpine for the vision and Benny Lieber for putting in some work with us. 2020-11-27
Descent: The route can be rappelled on double ropes using standard rappelling practices. However, I have always walked along the canyon rim to the north where a patch of tall spruce trees are. Walk down slope into the Simple Twist drainage to find a nice fat Spruce tree with rappel tat. Make sure to use common practice and inspect the tat before committing. Rappel through the alders straight down onto the top of Simple Twist and finish out the rappels on v-threads. Use common sense and be mindful of potential other parties on route before throwing ropes or committing to this descent route. A heinous walk-off is also possible down the chute to the south of Keystone Greensteps but be mindful of avalanche conditions.
Posted by: Ryan Sims, December 8, 2020.
Lat: 61 04.192 N
Long: 145 53.957 W
Get out of truck. Walk to climb.
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Nice work! This is a rad looking line, we were hoping to climb this line/something similar to this on our trip in 2017, but the river was opening up our 1st day there. We barely got to climb on that side of the river at the end of our trip. Definitely want to do this one if we get back!