Super Troopers

Super Troopers, up and left of the toe which is Hogums Heart Break, up and right of Wires or Whippers. The quality of the rock on this route was great. With a tricky start and surprisingly fun finish. Topping out on a small peak with a very alive bush.

Pitch one starts in a right facing dihedral with a wide crack, to your right a face which may offer passage and minimal pro. However pulling up and to the left on a precarious block allowed me to reach the top of the arete in the left of the photo.  Once atop this visible starting point you climb a section of face and just when it seems there is nowhere else to go you traverse left on a series of small ledges to the other prominent and visible corner which hosts a hand crack and finishes pitch one. 60 meters 5.8, the belay was built with a small nut, .5 C4 and Brown tri-cam in a vertical crack with a sharp point to sit or stand on.

Pitch two starts up just to the right of the belay over some blocky terrain and then directly up the headwall for what is a spectacular finish, start with vertical face climbing and follow it to an obvious hand crack that eventually shoots left and leads you up to less then vertical terrain putting you right below the notch to the summit. Through the notch are a few moves using and protected by a sharp flake, pull over the lip and there you are just below the ridge. With plenty of options to build a belay, I used a smaller nut and two tri-cams in a horizontal crack. From there scramble just a few moves and your on the ridge proper. 35m 5.8

(Belay atop pitch one, yellow line shows the path of pitch two)

Our descent was made up of following the ridge back SE towards the head of Hogum Fork before dropping down a moderate snow slope and glissading near the bottom.

From the Meadow below Planet Rock contour around or drop down and climb directly up the other side heading toward Apprehension Buttress, from there continue hiking toward the toe of Hogums Heart Break and traverse up and left beneath a loose gully. The starting corner is rather obvious as is the corner hand crack higher on pitch one. We climbed snow to the start of pitch one then transitioned at the base. Rock fall during the spring and from the gully above is prominent, moving quickly is a must.

Full set of BD stoppers, handful of CAMP tri-cams and cams .5-3 with doubles in the 1-3 size (Black Diamond C4 Camalots / DMM Dragon 2)