East Face North Side/Seal Rock

Seal Rock is as good as Flatiron scrambling gets. Supposedly it's uncrowded, but the day I was there two groups of two were climbing this route. They were really friendly, and I tried to be, so it's all good.

Begin just up to the left of the lowpoint of the rock. Head up, following the path of least resistance. Maybe that should be 'follow the path of most assistance' as there isn't much on this rock to resist upward progress. I stayed pretty close to the right edge of the rock. After a couple/three pitches you will reach a nearly horizontal section of the ridge - this is the section of Seal Rock that gives it its distinctive shape. Walk left, and then engage the steeper upper third of the rock. A final two pitches wil bring you to the summit. Due to the climb-anywhere nature of the rock, describing the route in detail is difficult (or pointless). I didn't climb it, but there is a distinctive vertical crack that the other groups followed - about 40 feet left of the north edge.

To descend, I downclimbed the upper third of the rock to the elbow, walked down the ridge to a tree with a rap anchor, and cut back southwest and down a bit to an obvious wide crack that leads 10ft to the ground. It's very easy, but it's steep/overhanging.

Eds. Alternately, you can rappel off the north face 165 feet to the ground from a fixed anchor about 40 feet from the top.

Standard Flatiron rack. Several shoulder length and longer runners useful for slinging stuff.