Tony and I climbed a new route on the west face of Pernod Spire.

8 pitches of cracks and face lead to the summit ridge.

The face has a large wave like roof about a pitch up and we had thought that the line would go to the left of the roof.

We finally found a crack and corner sysem with solid granite and started up.

The first pitch (5.8) was nice hand cracks and a corner that led up to slabs below the roof

Tony led the second pitch (5.8) which climbed a thin crack and a slab up and right, right up to below the roof.

The third pitch was the crux. I traversed on slabs left around the roof and launched up an incredible corner with an off-fingers crack...steep, with a nice bulge, this led to some wild stemming moves and finished with a leftward move into a seam and grooves, a full 60m pitch at 5.10+

The 4th pitch (5.9) started with an interesting leftward step across a slab into more cracks. Intermittent finger cracks led up for a full pitch between a corner and a huge freestanding horn.

The fifth pitch (5.10) started with another interesting move right off the belay, and then up an arching corner with a thin finger crack under the lip and finished with a really cool move up and over the lip and up ~30' of face/slab on positive edges(5.9R face climbing)

Tony led the 6th (5.9) pitch up a broken face and through a little notch and then left on nice cracks.

the 7th pitch (5.9) was another nice crack that seamed out for a few moves and brought us up to the ridge crest, where I traversed the airy narrow ridge, until the ridge is blocked by a vertical block which we could not surmount, nor go around on the ridge, so we rapped down to benches below the summit and climbed to below the true summit via the 5.10 corner of the Nelson/Bale route, which is a fine pitch in itself. To reach the true summit there are two moves of aid off old bolts which at the time one had no hanger, and the other bolt was hanging halfway out the hole.

The summit block is A0.

There are no fixed anchors or bolts on this route except for the rap anchor on the summit ridge where we left a couple nuts, and the old aid bolts on the summit block.

Descend by rapping to the east down the gully to the Pernod/Chablis notch, then a couple more raps down steep slabs to the neve below.  Trend north around base of Chianti spire, and up to Burgundy Col.  From the col follow climbers path down to car.

Direct West Face

South Face

Gain the Chablis-Pernod notch and ascend the obvious weakness and only possible looking passage up to the bunny-ear notch at the base of the summit's west side. From the notch belay, climb good cracks with great pro trending up and left until in the main weakness of the right facing corner. The left facing corner seams on the right side slam shut, but the left side offers abundant pro that you can only really see well once you're within arms reach. Stay trending up and left changing cracks as you ascend. The upper half of the pitch is splitter thin hands, hands and fingers on amazing rock. Belay below the spire's FA 12 foot AO summit block on finger size pieces, a slung horn, and the first aid bolt. The first bolt is new and bomber, the second is the original quarter incher with old hanger, the bolt sticks out from the wall about an inch but does hold body weight still... repeat ascents may be happy to supplement this short bit with a second new aid bolt and maybe even 2 new summit bolts to rap off of. If the greater community is in support of this, I will return prepared to do this on a other trip. The summit anchor is 2 solid pitons equalized with fresh cord.

2 ropes to rap (a single 70m may work perfectly well, but a single 60m leaves you several meters above the notch), beware rope-eating cracks a few feet below the slung horn at the base of the aid section. It is best to set a  rap anchor as high as possible above the horn (summit or single bolt) to keep ropes out of the cracks and make pulling easier.

Description

Protection

Routes in Pernod Spire