Two Thumbs Up

An alternative rock climbing route on the south face of Spit Thumb. This is a longer stepper objective then classic SE ridge. The route features great granite, with no loose rock! And a few awesome splitter cracks! There are no fixed belays. The route is roughly 600’ and climbs moderate terrain the entire way, with the crux being right off the glacier in a splitter crack.

We climbed this line in on mid September and encountered no bergschrund issues. It was easy to get off the glacier onto the rock. Through crampons were very necessary to cross and navigate the Lemmon glacier.

During pitch 2 and 3 we wandered around on the wall checking out the different crack systems. We recommend a more direct line discussed below and outlined with a dashed line in the route photo. 

1. (5.9) Climb the obvious splitter that starts as a finger crack and quickly widens to a hand crack. The crack has a zig zag pattern towards the top. At the top of the crack there is a ledge, walk right about 15 feet and start climbing the slab up and to the right. The slab has a unique juggy metamorphic texture that is easy climbing (5.6) but hard to protect. A 60m rope will be necessary to reach the obvious ledge below the shallow roof. A 50m rope will not get you to the ledge but there are still options for anchors both left and right bellow the roof.

For pitch 2 and 3 we climbed far left to go around the shallow roof system. Once around the roof system we trended back right. These two pitches should be linked for future reference. Trend right above the belayer which should bring you to a thin finger crack that is less than vertical.

4. (5.8) You should climb on the crack system that is above the first pitch. We left a pack with gear at the base, which made for a good reference point. Climb the thin finger crack. This will take you to the top were there are plenty of boulders to sling for a top belay.

Approach: While approaching Split Thumb’s south face, notice the obvious crack feature that runs down the middle of the face from top to bottom. Now notice the 70’, dark, off-width crack that is located left of the middle line mentioned above. Our line climbs in the middle of both of these obvious features. As you get closer to the wall you will see the splitter crack that we used to start our climb. There are other options for starting this pitch, to the left is left facing corner with a good looking crack, and to the right is thinner finger crack.

Single rack up to #3 with doubles in .2-1, nuts, and slings. Singe 60m rope.