South Face

P1, (160 feet) Start in a corner with a nice, steep 5.8 double crack system to get you to a sloping ledge 15-20 feet up on your right. Walk up the ledge to another corner that goes left, with a chimney above that. Start out face climbing and stemming nice rock with fun moves, then commit higher up to the squeeze chimney, eventually opening to bombay at the top. Prepare to feel stuck, get dirty climbing through ferns, and wish you had a bit more pro. A strenuous pitch. 5.8

P2, (100 feet) You need to feel solid on the first 50 feet, cause you don't get much (a slung horn) for pro. A Big Bro should adequately protect the short crux move on this pitch, though I didn't have one.

Start off the belay with a short 5.7 move to gain easier ground. Possible to sling a horn here. Move up to a ledge and develop a strategy. Ahead of you is a gaping crack, (which would swallow your #5 C4 whole). Face climb right of the crack on secure knobs and in cuts, then through the crux by reaching for a hold on the left side of the crack, then higher right on more solid knobs to your first good pro at a horizontal crack. Easy climbing leads up to a big ledge covered in loose rocks. 5.8R

edit: maybe the crux move on this pitch is closer to 5.7R . Definitely a no fall situation, though.

P3, (120 feet) From here you can see the gem of this route, the HUGE right facing dihedral on beautiful rock. To get there, climb up a low angled slab at the back of the ledge to its top. Traverse left over loose blocky terrain and belay at the base of the dihedral. 5.5

P4 (200 feet) Dihedral up! Great jamming! 5.8

P5 (200 feet) Finish the dihedral, passing a steep 5.8 crux move. Shortly after, the angle eases and run out on easy terrain as far as you can. 5.8

P6 (200 feet) We went up fun 5.6 terrain here to a false summit, had to sling a block and rap back down onto the route. Instead, traverse across the blocky terrain a full rope length toward the saddle. 5.4?

edit: From Richard Shore's posting below, Fred B.'s first accent account, I believe we followed his route up the dogleg. We didn't summit from just below the summit, as the day was turning to night our quick glance at the summit prompted us to rappel down for the easy traverse back to the saddle.

P7 By this point you can go for the summit or the saddle. We traversed to the saddle to finish. 5.6 and 5.10 options to the summit are possible, though I don't know where they are. Once at the saddle, we used the low angle north face to reach the summit. There was at least one good bolt to rap from the summit to the saddle. We put a sling through the bolt(s?). The rap is a full 30 meters.

From the approach saddle, decend the west gulley to the base of the Hermit. Go through dense forest to an opening. Look up and left to the start of the route. Scramble up to get to the base.

First pitch belay anchor was a #4 and #5 C4. (Useful higher up as well.) Doubles from .75 to 3 is highly recommended. I would've used triple #3 and #2 C4's on first pitch if I had them, but made it through without incident.