Bifurcate

Head towards the middle of Hourglass and Girly Man. As you get closer you'll see a snow, neve, ice, or chossy section going up towards a little chimney. When we did this route we encountered a mix of neve and easier alpine ice. In years of low snow you'll encounter chossy third class terrain. Stick left if there's choss. Proceed up towards the obvious chimney. Before the chimney you'll see a granite platform with large granite boulders with cracks to your right. Look further right and you'll see trees and snow going up. Follow the path a few feet up until you encounter the first thick tree (you may need to dig out a branch like we did). Start the first pitch here (anchor 1). This first pitch is the second easiest on the entire route, around an M4-. You'll go left from the anchor up towards an obvious overhanging rock formation. Use a stein pull to get over the formation and proceed straight towards the obvious dead end granite wall. Once you reach the wall look left, you'll see a tree and a boulder (anchor 2). Use these two as anchors (they're pretty solid and held a fall). After you set up an anchor on the tree and boulder and you belay your second, start the second pitch. Switch to climbing shoes and work your way up towards the first micro-crack. Use micro-nuts to protect it. My partner took a fall on a nut and it became part of the rock (it's yours if you can free it). This second pitch is the hardest pitch on the entire route. It's a slabby 5.9 with a few power moves. After you reach the top of the pitch, there is a tree and some solid cracks for a solid anchor (anchor 3). This ends the second pitch. From the top of the second pitch, switch back to mountaineering boots and crampons. Do not remove the anchor, use this anchor to belay your partner across the ridge-line. Treat this as a third mini-pitch. It's exposed and chossy, so for optimal safety we'd recommend you treat is as a super small pitch (hence the 4 pitches, one could technically do it in 3). As you near the end of the ridge-line you'll see a dead tree, an obvious giant granite wall filled with choss. Look to the left of the dead tree. You'll see a few cracks and a horn (anchor 4). Sling the horn with a 240 cm sling and use two or three cams on any cracks you can find. I ended up overcamming a yellow totem and a #2 C4 plus the horn for optimal anchor placement. This entire section is extremely chossy, test everything before you commit. Work your way around the horn and go up the chimney to the overhanging dihedral on the right, do not go left (the left cracks are all loose). The overhanging dihedral has incredible dry-tooling. Bomber tool placements. Overall this final pitch should be around an M5. Make sure if you're leading this final pitch to over place gear and test everything before you torque, pull, and grab. I set loose a 50 pound boulder when I was climbing it because I decided to grab and pull with my hand. I would advise climbing this final pitch with tools and avoid grabbing anything with your hands. Stem before you grab and torque with tools before you stem. Once you reach the top of this final pitch, you should be able to set up a bomber anchor (anchor 5). I took a fall on it and it didn't budge. After you both reach the top, take a picture on the obvious platform and traverse left up the snow ridge. I would advise keeping belay on as you traverse this snow ridge, the snow here was very slushy and didn't inspire confidence. If you decide to keep belay on via anchor 5, once you reach the top of the bowl go for the big obvious tree, sling it for anchor 6 and belay your partner. Congrats, you're both on top of the bowl with about 600 feet or so to the summit.

Gear placement and anchors on the route is pretty good over all. With the exception of the final pitch everything is a solid PG rating. Treat anchor 4 as a PG-13 maybe R until your partner places a few pieces in.

Named it Bifurcate from the fact that this route is forked (primarily) into two disciplines of climbing: trad and mixed.

This route climbs the rock formation directly in the middle of the Hourglass and Girly Man Chute.

Totems black-orange, C4 #1-3 (one of each), offset nuts 1-11, several slings 30 cm - 240 cm, 6-7 alpine quickdraws, 60m rope