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| Northeast Face   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Wyoming, United States, -- Lat/Lon: 42.77920°N / 109.2247°W Route Type: Backcountry technical rock Time Required: Most of a day Difficulty: IV 5.8
| Route Quality: | | | | Loading...
| Page By: brutus of wyde Created/Edited: Aug 16, 2005 / Nov 13, 2005 Object ID: 166336 Hits: 3322 Loading... Page Score: 88.01% - 8 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
From the usual climbers' camps located near the stream downcanyon from the South Buttress of Pingora, the easiest approach to the Northeast Face is to follow developed trail down to Lonesome Lake, then up the drainage to the north of Pingora, following a good and well-cairned climbers' trail. This approach is significantly easier and quicker than talus-hopping along the base of the East Face.
In the attached photo from Lonesome Lake, the easy grassy approach can be seen leading up to the right-hand edge of the face. The route lies very near the right skyline. The entire route is best viewed from the hillside north of Lonesome Lake: well worth the walk on a rest day if you're planning on climbing this line.
Route Description
See topo
Note that in the most recent guidebook topos, there is a problem with lengths of pitches and with the "rightward traverse on ledges" in the vicinity of pitch 5. Many parties traverse too low on the route, and too far right, resulting in encounters with long sections of steep, difficult ground, as evidenced with many bail slings on that section of the face.
Essential Gear
Nuts, cams from small to 3", a few larger pieces to 4" are also useful. We used a set of 50m twin ropes to facilitate descent in the event of a storm or descent off the South Buttress, which we had climbed a few days previous.
Descent via the South Face route can be made with a single 60m rope, with some exposed but doable downclimbing in a few places to reach the anchors for the next rap.
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.
Images
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Cirque of the Towers
