Southeast Buttress

High quality climbing in a neglected area. Neglected, clearly, due to the grueling approach. Many feet (~550)of elevation are lost near the end of the approach, 6 miles or so from the car (~5000 vert total). Follow the Roaring Fork Trail (located on the far side of Lake Granby) up, down, across, back up over and down to Stone Lake. Just before getting to Stone Lake, cut across a lush meadow and start up the obvious talus gully at the bottom of the tower. Amble past the large chockstones over slippery rock near the top of this gully. This plops you at the bottom of a fine wall. We did 5 longish pitches on bomber rock taking a fairly direct line up the series of three buttresses. For comfort, it seemed you should feel comfy leading 5.7, although much easier lines are wanderable no doubt. Trickier lines may also be confronted with smirks. Follow your nose to obtain the best fun for you.

P1. Atop the grassy ramp, follow nice corners and then wander left up through a dish (200' plus some soloing).

P2. Cross the ledge, then climb the glorious ramp to some cracks and on to a ledge (200'). You could also climb the white dihedral here, looks fun, if you have gear.

P3. Cimb a series of two cracks for a rope length. After the first crack- step right 15' into a second (200').

P4. Step up a slab and climb a widish crack for a bit to a ledge (150').

P5-8. climb the obvious fist crack (100'), or head left to a cool traverse on knobs across a big block to a splitter, then up through steep 5.8 cracks to the summit (225').

MANY variations are possible. Gerry Roach has a good description and photo in his Indian Peaks Guidebook.

Depends how hard you want to climb. There are 5.8-5.9 variations possible, so bring some cams, otherwise at 5.7- a #1, #2, and a light set of nuts should do. Note: for this rack, feel comfy runnin' it out.