The Saber
1.
Date: July 19, 2018 (Thu)Trip Report #: 303Partner: Dow Williams2.
Date: June 11, 2022 (Sat)Trip Report #: 546Partner: Nate ArganbrightRoute: Southwest Corner (5.10, 9p)
Excellent climbing on excellent rock with excellent position.
I've climbed it twice and it's worth climbing again.
Route Overlay
(Also shows overlays for the Southeast Corner and the Kor Route.)
Trip Report #1 (July 2018)
(first time climbing the Southwest Corner of The Saber)
Trip Report #2 (June 2022)
(second time climbing the Southwest Corner of The Saber, and first time bivying overnight at Sky Pond)
Intro
Nate and I decided to kick off our alpine climbing season with an overnight trip up to Sky Pond. The plan was to hike up Friday evening, secure a bivy site, climb a route Saturday, climb a route Sunday, and then hike out. The Southwest Corner of Saber was Saturday's objective. The Southwest Corner is a great route which ascends the arete formed by the junction of the west and south faces. I had climbed the Southwest Corner of the Saber four years previous (during my climbing road trip to Colorado that inspired me to move to Colorado within the year) and found it excellent, yet Nate had not yet climbed this route, so I was eager to return and climb it again.
We had an enjoyable climb of The Saber. With Nate in the lead, we cruised up it in under 4 hours. We were back to our bivy site by noon, so we spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun reading, doing logic puzzles, watching climbing parties on the Petit Grepon, napping, and exploring around the lake.
This page gives a trip report and photos from our climb of the Southwest Corner. I also include photos from our overnight at Sky Pond.
(As a side note, on Sunday we tried to climb The Foil, but the combination of choss and a concerned bird encouraged us to bail halfway up.)
Time Stats
Glacier Gorge Trailhead to Sky Pond (overnight packs & some snow): 2 hours
Sky Pond to base of route: 12 minutes
Climb route: 3 hours 40 minutes
Descend via East Face rappel route to camp at Sky Pond: 1 hour 13 minutes
Total camp-to-camp: 5 hours 20 minutes
Pitch-by-Pitch Photos
Approach
3rd
From Glacier Gorge Trailhead, hike the Loch Vale Trail to Sky Pond. We had a bivy permit so we established camp on the west shore of Sky Pond (see end of the trip report for camp photos). From Sky Pond, hike up talus to bottom of south buttress.
Approach Pitches (via Snively-Harlin)
5.6-5.8, 2 pitches
We chose to do the Snively-Harlen start, which takes a direct line up the lower section, down and left of the regular approach pitch start I had used with Dow on our July 2018 climb of The Saber. The Rossiter guidebook is a bit ambiguous about the difficulty of this start (seems to suggest 10b) but reading the route description a bit closer and actually doing the start, the start seems to be about 5.6. The fact that you don't have to scramble as far up the gully makes this my preferred start.
For the Snively-Harlen start, begin at the southeast corner of the buttress, right of a roof, and left of a "thumb-shaped" formation. Follow cracks and corners up and slightly left, then merge with the regular start.
The Snively-Harlen start to the base of the Southwest Corner took us 2 long pitches with about 20 feet of simulclimbing on each pitch.
Pitch 1
5.10a, 130'
Climb a small left-facing corner to a roof, then veer left and continue up the corner for about 80 feet. Traverse left to a good ledge at the west edge of the face.
Pitch 2
5.8, 120'
Climb a left-facing dihedral system past the left side of a blocky roof, and continue to a ledge atop a pillar.
Pitch 3
5.9, 120'
Traverse straight left, then follow thin cracks to the left end of a roof. Climb a left-facing dihedral along the left side of a hanging pillar and belay on a good stance at its top.
Pitch 4
5.9, 160'
Aim for a notch in the left edge of the face. Step around and climb the left of two conspicuous dihedrals to a good belay on the right.
Pitch 5
5.9, 150'
Climb up and a bit right and join with the upper stretch of the right dihedral. Belay on the crest of the ridge.
Pitch 6
5.5, 100'
Scramble up the ridge crest to a little summit above a notch. Find the bolted anchor of the East Face Rappel Route and belay here.
Top!
12,300'
The route ends on a little summit above a notch. The East Face Rappel Route (bolted anchor) starts here. The true summit requires a downlclimb and a bit of 5.5 to get there. We just finished at the little summit and began the rappels.
Descent
5 rappels
Either downclimb off the true summit (this requires climbing to the true summit which we did not) or take the East Face Rappel Route from the subsummit where the route officially ends. As of July 2020, the East Face Rappel Route has bolted rap stations that are very close to the original slung block locations I had used when I climbed The Saber in 2018. This involved 5 double-rope rappels as follows.
Rap 1 (110 feet). Start behind the summit block on the initial sub summit, and rappel trending about 30 feet to the right.
Rap 2 (120 feet). The bolts are on a left-facing slab close to the edge of the ledge.
Rap 3 (130 feet). Continue down to a ledge system.
Rap 4 (200 feet). Do a rope stretcher rappel to a huge, sloping ledge/chockstone.
Rap 5 (180 feet). Rappel free hanging down to the grassy or snowy approach gully.
Note that climbers have reported to have rappelled the East Face Rappel route with a single 70. However, this would involve several non-bolted intermediate anchors and some scrambling. We were pretty satisfied with our choice to use double ropes, since the rappel descent went without a hitch, and easy rope pulls, and only took us 45 minutes to get to the descent gully. I did not spot a good intermediate anchor for the final hanging 180 foot rappel.
Camp photos
It is always special to spend a night up high in the mountains, and Sky Pond is a great place to do that. There are two good bivy sites (no tent allowed) located about 100 feet apart. For variety, we stayed in one the first night and the other the second night. No one else was up there bivying.
