Don's Crack

Sustained meat and potatoes crack climbing--with a couple of cruxy forays onto the face--up the most obvious line on Babo. The three-star rating is somewhat aspirational as the crack is very dirty (and when we did it, running with water the whole way). Nevertheless as the guidebook says, there is a lot of fun climbing on this route and the rock, once unearthed, is good. If it got a lot of traffic, this route might resemble a classic, but I can't imagine that happening. Still, it's very enjoyable with the right mindset, and it does get better the higher you go. I would say you want to be at least a solid 5.9 climber to do this route.I'm guessing the best time to do this route might be late fall before the first snow, as it is most likely to be dry at that time. Or perhaps late spring just before it gets too hot.The easy snow rating is seasonal :)Kerry's description is accurate, bearing in mind that the route does join the SE Arete at the notch.

See Kerry's description. Obvious crack/chimney on the left side of the east face. The route starts with face climbing about 100' right of the crack system, which does not reach the ground. Locate the bolts and you will be in the right spot; just don't make the mistake of continuing up into Moonscape, which shares the first 40 feet and then continues up on more bolted, but runout 5.10 climbing.

We had a single set of nuts & cams to a #3 camalot, plus some small to medium tricams. This was adequate, but doubles of .5-2 or 3 camalot would not go unused. 4 is not necessary but would get used. The tricams were quite useful in spots. Leader should have a nut tool to clean the crack.