What's not hard to say is that we had sunny skies and t-shirt weather in late September at 13,000 feet on Mt. Evans this past weekend. After a weekend with Team Mammut on Mt. Baker in full white out snow storm conditions, Dougald MacDonald and I met up again for some more cooperative alpine conditions in the Rockies.We printed out MP beta on a few climbs but after a short scout along the base of the Tan Buttresses opposite the Black Wall, we chose a line that led to a beautiful ridgeline between Astro Goat and Musafar's Home Cookin'. We had info on Astro Goat but not Musafar's at the time.
Starting the first pitch, it was hard to say where we were going to end up, hence the name. After negotiating some loose rock at the start, I pulled over a small roof and continued up the shallow corner to another roof. I finagled some small gear below before laybacking up the arete where the crack closed off, stemming and finding just enough gear to motivate upward progression. A short traverse and splitter small hands crack led to a ledge. 5.10. So far so good.
Dougald headed up the second pitch, climbing cracks and flakes towards a steep and attractive arete above. He crossed over the arete to find a beautiful face crack. After contemplating his remaining gear, he climbed up balancy terrain to a small roof. A great find and a stellar pitch! 5.9.
After a short tiered roof of sandy horizontals, a beautiful double crack continued up ridge proper. Moderate climbing over fun flakes reminded me of the North Ridge of Stuart in the Cascades. 5.8 and its no longer hard to say, the ridge eased up and fun climbing continued ahead.From the 4th pitch onward, we climb previously traveled ground as for Musafar's Home Cookin'. Dougald climbed a short chimney and dagger flake to gain more fun ridge climbing similar to the Flying Buttress on Meeker. Goat Food also meets back up on the ridge crest for the 5th and final low-fifth ridge traverse.
Hard to Say, 5 pitches, 5.10, ground up trad (in blue)
Its 1:45, still sunny, and there is plenty of time to get back to town for a fun evening out. Cary Granite, Road Warrior, and Good Evans looked amazing and I can't wait to take another trip to climb on Mt. Evans.In fact, Arun and I took a leisurely tour the next day, taking photos of Summit Lake, an 1000+ year old stand of Bristlecone pines, Echo Lake, and aspen stands on the way back down:
