Merriam Peak — North Buttress

Merriam Peak — North Buttress
31 July 2020

This isn’t a trip report but just a simple plug to climb this route! It’s so good!

Paul had basically been the most solid partner of all time on our traverse of Thunderbolt to Sill last summer. So I jumped when he suggested we climb the North Buttress. It’s on the cover of Peter Croft’s guidebook after all!

Spraydown alert — we both onsighted the route, although credit where credit is due — the rock was so clean and splitter there are extended sections where it would be difficult to fall off. 

A few notes:

 

• Make sure you find the 5.9 finger crack for the first pitch, as there are some alternate subpar options. After scrambling up the right side of the toe, take a peek around the left side. Here be the finger crack, perched atop a few easier blocks. It leads up to a belay at a right-facing ear-shaped flake.

 

• We were able to climb the Supertopo pitches just fine with a skinny 50-meter rope (the same rope I had picked up for the Mt Stuart climb). Paul even linked the Supertopo pitches 7-8 to top out the route. It was nice to have a lightweight rope on the big approach hike.

 

• With respect to the eternal #4 cam debate — we were glad to have it. I placed it in the alcove belay atop the triple cracks pitch, and it protects the S-crack near the top of the route.

 

• While huffing and puffing up the triple cracks pitch, I swung my right leg/arm into the rightmost crack (OW size) and copped a beauty elbow lock rest. So surprised was I to pick up this rest amid the long stretch of steep handjams and fingerlocks that I unconsciously proclaimed, “This is the best mountain pitch I ever done !!!”

 

• Every single pitch on the climb has engaging climbing. The Third Pillar of Dana felt much more bouldery by comparison.

 

• Since we’re talking comparisons, Paul said he liked this route better than Mithril Dihedral on Mt Russell and Red Dihedral on the Hulk. For my money, while Third Pillar was insanely fun, I liked the North Buttress even more! Now that’s saying something! North Buttress gets the edge because the cracks run longer and of course you get the ridge traverse to reach Merriam’s summit.

 

• RE: the ridge traverse — we started off soloing it, but came to a mind-bending move — a semi-dynamic hop down and across the void to land on a little pedestal. We anchored in and belayed this move, then simul’d the last half of the ridge since the rope was out. Think we only had about 20 meters of rope between us since the scrambling was so wandery. Did I mention there’s a CRAZY hand and foot traverse across a mega-exposed ledge?

 

• The mountainproject page gives this route a PG13 rating but I can only assume this is a relic from when the route was littered with more loose rock, because it protects so well. Peter Croft relates in his guidebook the (much-appreciated) efforts of one intrepid climber to trundle all this junk just a few years ago. I suspect this effort helped turn the route into the gem it is today. So …… Get on it!