This route goes up the knife blade east ridge of Wolfs Head.  To get on the ridge there are 2 different options.  IMO the easiest way to gain the ridge is to scramble 4th and 5th class up the gully in between Pingora and Tiger Tower. Summit Tiger Tower, then do two, 40ft raps on to the east ridge of Wolfs Head (see picture on wolfs head page).  The other way, is to scramble 3rd and 4th class up the south face then up to the ridge.

Once on the Ridge the climb goes at about 10 pitches but many of these can be combined or simul-climbed.  The description below is what worked for us.

1.)  Start by moving west along the ridge aiming for a 30ft slab that's about 3ft wide with a 30 degree slope. Scamper across this beautifully exposed bridge (5.2), then run the rope out for 195ft until you find a belay.  (mostly exposed 4th class)

2.)  From here its roughly 3 pitches of easy 3rd and 4th class climbing along the ridge.  This can be easily simul-climbed and highly recommended.  End at a ledge 10ft down to the south (left) of the ridge, just before the first tower.

3.) This is the first of the tower pitches.  Pass this tower to the south by making a exposed step around a boulder.  After this look up and you will see a chimney in between the towers, go through this chimney (tight squeeze) to gain a ledge on the north side of the next tower.  You can belay here, but I recommend to keep climbing to link this pitch with the "piton pitch".  Follow 4 or 5 pitons for some delicate exposed face climbing (5.6).  After the last piton go straight up and belay on the nice ledge.

4.) The best pitch of the climb.  From the belay move straight up the layback flake for 20ft.  Once on top, go up a finger crack for 10 feet to gain a beautiful hand crack traverse 5.6(still on the north).  After the traverse move up to the top of the knife blade ridge for some beautifully exposed climbing.  At this point you should be eye level with the "Darth Vader Tower".  Belay in an overhang on the south side of the ridge under the tower.

5.) From the belay move out on to the south face to traverse a 4in crack.  Going feet in the crack is easier but hard to protect.  You will see a chimney down left, your aiming for this.  Follow a slanting hand traverse using "black nubbins" to gain the chimney.  Climb the chimney until you see a hole that you can dive through to bring you back to the north side of the ridge.  Belay on a ledge on the north side of the ridge.

6.) From here you can simul-climb to the summit staying mainly on the north side of the ridge. (mostly 4th and 5th class)

Descent:  There are many ways to descend, the goal is to rap to the west until you can hike south to the gully in between Wolfs Head and Overhanging tower.  All the raps can be done with one 60m.

All stations contain at least 3 slings.  If your rapping off something with less, you may be off route.

1.)  Find the slings on the West side of the summit, rap down 80ft to a ledge.

2.)  Walk 10ft to the west to find another group of slings in a boulder alcove.  Rap 70ft to a ledge.

3.)  Walk to the south west along a climbers trail to locate the next set of slings on your right.  Rap another 90ft to a ledge.

4.)  Carefully scramble down the trail to the next set of slings.  Rap another 95ft to a ledge.

5.)  If my count is right, here you will walk along a trail for about 400yds to the south toward Overhanging tower.  Do another 90ft rap to the saddle in between Wolfs head and Overhanging tower.

6.)  Follow the cairns for a while still heading south.  Eventually this takes you to a station that will allow you to rap into the gully formed by the saddle.  It looks like it should be a double rope rap, but one 60m will be fine.  After rapping scramble up the gully to the east bringing you back into the cirque lake basin.

There are many options, and this may sound confusing, but the trails are well worn and marked with cairns, and all the stations were very easy to find.

East Ridge

Green Dragon

White Buffalo

Red Cloud

Brass Monkey

South Face-Left

Wind Walker Traverse

South Face, Right

Direct South Face

Driese-Kehoe

Fred Becky's Route

Approach as for Wolf's Head East Ridge.  Look for a series of grassy ledges just to the LEFT of a dirty chimney system (not right, as the recent Bechtel guidebook states... one of many errors discovered in 4 short days climbing here).  Scramble up the grassy ledges (I'd argue 4th class, not 3rd; some may wish a rope especially if grass is wet / slippery) to the broad, sloping ledge immediately below the knife edge of the East Ridge proper.  From the top of the grassy ledges, head left and ascend a sloping ramp up and left to the base of a large right-facing corner (see Beta photo).

Climb the right-facing corner using a combination of jams, laybacks, and underclings - often strenuous, never desperate.  The route goes in 3-4 short pitches, with 3 belays on downward-right sloping ledges.  Pitch 3 has some large loose red-colored flakes that get your attention but are easily, if gingerly bypassed.  In general, the rock is gorgeous, the stance is phenomenal, and this route clearly deserves more traffic to brush away a little lichen and grit.  Once onto the East Ridge proper (having bypassed the knife edge portion), follow the East Ridge route to the summit and descend as described for that route.  If you've just climbed this route, I would highly recommend simul-climbing the rest of the East Ridge, although rappelling the Beckey Route is an option for descent.

Sustained and varied new route with mostly good protection and excellent climbing.  Two bolted anchors and no fixed pro.

Splitter Crack in South Face with no bottom.

Start Becky Route, 5.7 warm up pitch. Some fix at belay. 35+m

P2: climb up and left, then improbable face, 5.12d (or A1) past bolts, into bottom of crack, up widening crack to belay from bolts. 30m

P3: Up hand crack through small roof, belay from bolts 5.11a 33m

P4: Finger and hand crack then a traverse right, 5.11c, then up easier ground.  33m

direct finish is open project, a thin off-set left trending seam, 5.11+? after scrubbing?

Rap route with 70 m rope or continue East Ridge to summit.

South Face Wolf's Head below summit.

see topo and photos...

Awesome, hard route on the South Face of Wolfs Head.  Good protection and fixed anchors.  The crux is a challenging undercling roof to flared hand jams, pinches, and finally jugs.   We tried multiple tactics on the crux pitch to keep the rope out of a constricting crack and we finally settled on a directional protection bolt.  We used a quickdraw with a DMM Revolver to minimize rope drag on this bolt.  We established this as a rap route, but it is not trivial.  If you choose this descent be sure to rap west(skiers right) of arette on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th raps from ridge or you will be stranded free hanging.

From a point, above Cirque Lake and almost directly below the large tower on the ridge, climb chimneys, flakes and slab to the "East Ridge Route".

50 Peak/subpeak traverse of the Wind River Range along the continental divide. Highlights include Gannett Peak, Fremont Peak, Mt. Hooker, Downs Mountain and Cirque Traverse (minus Pingora), 167 miles and 126,000 vert gain/loss. 15 days in total. Mostly 5th class scrambling except for first half of cirque traverse.

Peaks traversed

1) Union Peak

2) Peak 11507

3)Three Waters Peak

4) Shale Mountain

5) Peak 12399

6) Peak 12302

7) Peak 12254

8) Downs Mountain

9) Peak 12702

10) Yukon Peak

11) Peak 12705

12) Pedastal Peak

13) Flagstone Peak

14) Gannett Peak

15) Miriam Peak

16) Dinwoody Peak

17) Fremont Peak

18) Angel Peak

19) Peak 11286

20) Peak 11615

21) Peak 11580

22) Peak 11584

23) Europe Peak

24) Peak 11778

25) Peak 12230

26) Halls Peak

27) Odyssey Peak

28) Kagevah Peak

29) Walt Bailey Peak

30) Tower Peak

31) Mt. Hooker

32) Peak 11886

33) Peak 12468

34) Mount Washakie

35) Peak 11925

36) Wolfs Head -East Ridge

37) Overhanging Tower

38) Sharks Nose

39) Block Tower

40 Watch Tower

41) Pylon Peak

42) Warrior 1

43) Warrior 2

44) Warbonnett

45) Mitchell Peak

46) Big Sandy Mountain

47) Peak 11593

48) Peak 12105

49) Mount Nystrom

50) Peak 12103

This is an excellent Alpine adventure up an obvious and spectacular corner system. According to the Bechtel guide, the route was previewed on rappel before leading. In its current state, about half the route consists of crumbling kitty litter, while half is bullet granite. I suspect with more traffic, this will clean up into a 3 or 4 star area classic! We did the route during an extended stretch of high pressure in August, and still had to negotiate several sections of wet rock (including the crux moves), so I suspect the route is almost always wet it places...probably best to get on this one late in the season (August).

P1: Begin as for the Becky route, at a black horizontal dike. When possible traverse right onto wandering crumbly slabs with sporadic gear. Find your way into the base of the obvious 400ft rightward angling corner and belay on a slab about 15ft below using 1-2 inch gear (5.8/5.9 150ft).

P2: Negotiate a couple dangerous loose blocks to gain the corner. Layback and jam up the corner, involving insecure footwork with thin but good pro. This pitch is rather crumbly and wet...I pulled off lots of loose flakes, and most of the feet crumbled away when I moved off of them...this pitch will become cleaner, and perhaps a bit harder, as it sees more traffic. There are a couple spooky blocks that should be avoided or trundled. Belay at a small ledge with good gear options (5.10ish, 170ft-ish). We had to break this pitch into 2 because we only had singles of TCU's and nuts, however it can easily be done ledge to ledge with doubles in the smaller sizes.

P3&4: The next 200-250ft features spectacular corner climbing on perfect clean granite (5.11a)! Layback and jam with mostly smears for feet, while the corner progressively angles harder and harder to the right. The climbing is sustained and classic. A couple of very wet mandatory hand jams made things a bit more interesting. We used a hanging belay in the middle of the pitch since we only had a light rack, however, strong parties might be able to put together an epic rope stretcher! The final 30ft-ish of the pitch traverses straight right on underclings, and the rock quality deteriorates a bit. The corner ends at bush and some black rock, where a belay can be had. From this point, I believe we ended up "off route", so I will describe what we did, and where I believe the route was supposed to go.

P5 (What we did): From the bush, I climbed straight up a clean flared corner with tenuous gear placement (5.10). At the end of the corner, one can either hand traverse left or right 20ft. We went right at around 5.9-ish. Whichever way you go, continue up to a ledge system with no gear, and return to some big flakes above and slightly left of the flared corner. From here, I climbed a dirty left facing corner, pulling mostly on grass tufts (5.9), up to a flake with good hand and fist sized gear. From here, hand traverse right (5.10) to a ledge, and then climb a short OW to a short thin hand crack leading to the ridge crest (5.9). (150ft, 5.10)

P5 Alternative?: About 20ft down and right from the bush at the end of the corner, I noticed what appeared to be a two bolt belay. I saw it from above after the hand traverse, and it was invisible (around a corner) from the bush belay. If it is a solid bolted belay, one could feasibly downclimb to it from the end of the corner, and then traverse right out of the belay into a better corner system on the right which appeared to lead to the ridge-crest as well.

Descent: From the ridge, one can either continue to the summit on the East Ridge (recommended), or descend the sidewalk section via down-leading to the class 3 ledges and back to camp. Apparently, one can also rappel the Becky Route which tops out to the north, although we did not investigate this option.

One of the longest routes on the Wolf's Head. Long pitches and clean corners make up the majority of this fantastic route. Route finding becomes very easy after you have climbed the first couple of pitches. Generally just keep climbing the corners towards the really big roof.

Grades are approximate, We did the route in 5 pitches with a 60 and some simul-climbing skipping the first pitch due to snow cover. As such some of the climbing was really draggy and hard to put a grade on. If I were to do the route again I'd stop at the belays described, avoiding all weird intermediate hanging belays. P4 & P5 may link with a 70m and a lot of drag, P7 & P8 will link with a 60m rope.

P1: Locate a right facing corner low on the Wolf's Head. This pitch was still entirely under the snow when we got to it, so we scrambled above it to start the route. My understanding is that this pitch is well protected and not harder than 5.8.

P2: a long pitch up a slightly ledge-y right facing corner system to a ledge with a black band of broken rock going through it. 5.8/5.9?

P3: Go up from the belay skirting a roof feature on its right side. Once over the roof, follow a low angle ramp to the left to another ledge, passing a tatty rap anchor. The rock quality here is a little worse than the rest of the route, but it's very easy terrain. Belay on a giant grassy ledge at the base of a large corner system with a black dike at the bottom. 5.7

P4: Long pitch, follow right facing corners with a lot of liebacking for close to 200 feet ending with a couple moves on spooky flakes. On the right a small ledge can be reached about 40/50 feet below the gigantic roof. 5.10/-

P5: Short pitch, to get to the pedestal at the beginning of the roof traverse pitch. The best way to do this is to traverse left across the spooky flakes again and up under a cool left facing roof/corner feature. Pop up over this and follow a fun flake/crack to the base of the roof. 5.9/10

P6: Big awesome roof traverse, undercling and smear your way out this thing whatever way you can. Good edges allow you to stop and place gear pretty liberally. Finish the roof and pull up and through a techy corner, making a belay at the base of another corner system. A money pitch, and probably the crux. 5.10

P7: Sweet fingers in a left facing corner! techy edging, great gear, and wildly fun climbing all around. Make a belay at a good ledge below a flake and crack system that leads to a flaring chimney. 5.9/10-

P8: Climb up and towards the flaring v-slot chimney. Climb through the chimney and belay on a fat ledge just below the east ridge. 5.10/-

P8+ - Finish the rest of the East Ridge and do the well defined descent, do not rap the Becky route.

Fred Becky hard-man route! Off-Widthy, leaning-chimney, licheny, splitter cracks, flakes, ADVENTURE route. Arguably the best view of Warbonnet and Watchman's tower in the Cirque.

Not for the faint of heart, Alpine Pirates drinking whiskey and practicing hand-stacking technique probably got the FA on this route.

Did i love it? Did i hate it? It's growing on me with time.... my partner and I did this route car-to-car in around 36 hours for a "weekend trip" from Salt Lake. Oy Vey.

Crux is either P1 or P3, you decide...if you stay on route that is.

Description

Protection

Routes in Wolfs Head