The Foil
Date: July 4, 2024 (Thu)Trip Report #: 708Partner: Nate Arganbright
Route: South Face (5.9, 7p)
An adventure route to one of the smallest summits in RMNP.
Intro
The Foil is a narrow spire right of The Petit Grepon and The Saber. It holds one of the best and narrowest summits in the park. Routes on The Foil tend to be adventurous and far less traveled than the routes on nearby spires. At 5.9, the South Face is the easiest route up The Foil. The South Face of The Foil starts out a bit lose and licheny, but the upper half offers some great alpine climbing. The route is rated "5.9 R" in the Rossier guidebook, but the "R" section on the 4th pitch is 5.7/8 and felt more PG-13 than R. That said, the "5.9" crack above this feels more like 5.9+/10-, but protects quite well.
Nate and I first attempted to climb the Foil on a bluebird late-spring day in June 2022. But when we arrived at the top of Pitch 3, a peregrine falcon was circling above, a bit anxious by our presence. We were on a good ledge, knew we could rappel onto the Saber rappel route leaving only a single sling, and felt that continuing upward committed us to the summit or leaving significantly more gear. We conservatively descided to bail, hoping to return at a later date.
Two years later, we decided to spend the first half of 4th of July long weekend at Sky Pond and climb a couple of routes. We climbed the South Face (5.9, 7p) of The Foil and the South Prow (5.7, 7p) of The Sharkstooth.
The following page provides a trip report for our climb ot The Foil. We thought this was a fun adventure route with some good climbing on the upper pitches and a unique summit. Our descent using the Southeast Descent gully made it a nice loop back to Sky Pond. Enjoy!
Route Overlay
Pitch-by-Pitch Photos
Approach
2nd-3rd
From the Sky Pond area, scramble up talus past the bottom of The Saber and into a long gully that climbs below the east side of The Foil. The gully continues all the way to the ridge crest. Begin at the bottom of a large right-facing corner at the lower right aspect of the tower.
Pitch 1
5.7
Climb the dihedral and belay at a flake.
Pitch 2
5.7
Continue up the corner, negotiating a wide crack and an airy chimney, and belay on a ledge with three fixed pins.
Pitch 3
5.6
Follow a left-facing corner past some large blocks and a short chimney to a ledge below a long, left-facing dihedral that is capped by a big roof.
Pitch 4
5.9
Climb the dihedral to a point short of the big roof, then exit right and negotiate a bulge (this bulge is the "R" part in the Rossiter guidebook, but seemed more like PG13 and 5.7/8). Climb straight up a crack and belay on a ledge in the middle of the south face (we could not find this ledge so we continued and linked with Pitch 5).
Pitch 5
5.9
Climb a short corner and a flake/crack, then step right and belay in a large dihedral at the right edge of the face.
Pitch 6
5.9
Move back left and follow discontinuous cracks to a ledge.
Pitch 7
5.8
Work up and left along a corner and climb a four-inch crack to the top.
Top
12,046 ft
One of the narrowest summits in RMNP!
Descent
Rappel and Southeast Descent Gully
There are a few ways to descend (see guidebook or mountainproject for details). One involves scrambling up (5.5) and over a spire to the northeast and scrambling out via the Gash or Southeast Descent Gully and another involves making double rope rappels into the approach gully. We opted to scramble out via the Southeast Descent Gully.
other photos
For the first half of 4th of July long weekend, we secured a bivy permit for Sky Pond (need to be climbing a route that is at least 4 pitches to qualify for a bivy permit), and we bivied up there for one night below the towering crags of the Sharkstooth, Petit Grepon, Saber, and Foil. It is always special to spend a night in the mountains.
Our bivy
Wildlife
Flowers
Other
