Preiss Route

In mid-July 1999 I was under the west peak of Mt Garfield, in the woods, trying to find the beginning of the rock wall. After traversing in from the trees, left of the rock wall, I gained the large ledge with a weak waterfall on its left side and an obvious stair stepped rock “gully” next to the waterfall. I then made a few difficult, (for me) un-roped moves just below and right of the obvious stair stepped rock. After approx. 70-100ft of climbing the easier “stairs”, I set up my first belay.

The belay was in the first crack I came too, on the right side of the “staircase”. After rappelling and retrieving my pack I re-climbed the pitch. At the belay and staying on self-belay I exited the stairs, moving slightly out right then strait up to a full pitch with some fun 5.8-9 slabby rock with a few good cracks/pockets to add solid protection.  I reached a shelf with a couple small pools of water on it and set up my rappel. After retrieving my pack and re-climbing the pitch I put away the rope and went up, angling left, climbing easier rock until I reached the base of the great slabs. I then climbed sub-par 4th-5.3 class rock un-roped, which seemed like awhile (6-700 feet?), eventually aiming for a small, thick stubby tree on the upper right side of the face.

From here I self-belayed out of the tree via a few fun moves and went on to the next small tree patch. After retrieving my pack I decided to bivi here. It was only around 6:30-7pm but I felt like resting some. The tree patch had a few small trees and sandy ground, but was tilted and not very comfortable. Looking back I should have went one more pitch and got to the large shelf below the upper head wall. But at the time I didn’t think of it and I can’t remember if I could even see it from where I was. I didn’t bring a stove so I ate my cold sandwich and tried to sleep.

I awoke at 4am and started climbing at 4:30. Un-belayed I climbed strait up the slabby rock and soon reached the large ledge under the steeper headwall.  I traversed it to its left side and self-belayed a fun (5.7) blocky corner which ended at a small sandy notch. I continued self- belayed up from the notch via a few difficult thin moves (5.9+) with a solid thin crack for protection. It turned into easy rock quickly. After a short rap to get my pack I went until I reached what looked like my last obstacle, a rock wall of maybe a half pitch. I tried it with the rope in my pack but I felt it was little to difficult for that so I broke out the rope again and self belayed up good 5.8/9 rock.

After retrieving my pack again, I walked a little bit down and left through a small gap in the trees and onto the gentle northern slope. I walked right 40-50 feet and climbed the back side of the final 20+ foot sub summit rock. It was about 12:20pm. It seemed I was only climbing a few hours but took almost 8 hours from my bivi to the summit!  little did I know I would miss work the next day as I had a mini epic descent, but that’s another story.  I belayed 4-5 harder pitches (5.7-9 all with good pro) out of approx 13-15(?) pitches.

Park a aprox a 1/3 mile once you turn right onto NF110. pick a line and hike basically strait up with taking a line of least resistance for 2,500 feet staying left of the steeper walls of the massif. Nearing the large shelf there is some class 3 rock. Take the pretty obvious traverse/shelf rightward towards the wall, a slight down climb will deposit you on the large ledge near waterfall streaks. the starting pitch is in the obvious stair stepped rock gully right of the weak (or dry) waterfall

I brought a single rope and a small/medium sized rack with a set of cams up to 3 inches, set of nuts, few small/med tricams and a few pins(which did not need) 8-10 runners. protection was very good on the 5+ self belayed pitches. those I would give a pg13