Traverse the gendarmes along the crest between Mt. Mills and Ruby Peak starting from the east and moving west.

The Gendarmes

East Arete

Billy from the Hills

Daphne

Wide Sargasso Sea

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

East Ridge Fins + Towers

East Ridge indirect

Don't Take Your Love to Town (Center Route)

Boom Town

Pteradon

Left East Arete

Up the shorter of the prominent buttresses on the lefthand side.

A direct ascent up the prominent crack system which leads to the diamond shaped headwall. The route goes left into the dihederal at the left side of the headwall.

The route ascends a ramp leading to a gully between Wide Sargasso Sea and the Central Route. Go straight up some discontinuous flakes to a broad ledge. Climb a wide crack from the center of the ledge (5.10), then move to follow flakes right past an overhang to a small ledge. Traverse to the right, underneath a flaring overhang, to a ledge with a detached pillar. Climb the pillar and move off of it (5.10), ascending cracks and dihedrals that are around the corner. Ascend the left arete of a dihedral and then traverse left to a ledge. Climb a hand crack on the gold wall to easier climbing and the top.

Follows cracks, flakes, and corners up to the large ramp below the spotted red Diamond Wall. Takes the prominent wide looking crack up the left side the vertical face and onto the summit. Crux is sustained but you can find good gear in flared pods that open up in the crack and create good holds. Beware of friable exfoliating rock and hollow flakes, if you can get over the rock quality the climbing is quite fun!

Several fun exciting 5th class sections on interesting granite fins and (seven?) towers.

The idea is to seek out interesting climbing on or close to the crest of the ridge, and up and

over

significant towers - (not to avoid the difficulties or to save time).

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see this route on Map

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. . Of course it could be done without any sequences as difficult as 5.5/5.6, but that's not the goal of this route. If want easier/quicker, do the 3rd/4th class route just left of this. (or some climbers might find more sequences harder than 5.6).

. . The lower part had lots of hiking/scrambling on talus or sand, but later the talus scrambling started feeling interesting enough.

. . Closer to the trailhead than some of the other fun scrambles in this region. And the Mono Pass trail approach is pleasant with pretty views (one of the best hikes in Sierra (or the United States?).

. . Gives access to interesting 5th class ridge traverse to north and perhaps more so to the south ("the Gendarmes") from the summit.

Reach one of the high points of the western rim of the Rock Creek / Little Lakes valley -- on top of notable standing block.

Most of the more difficult climbing not all that interesting. Much of the less difficult scrambling is talus and sand and scree -- but not too unfriendly, so at least useful as a descent route.

. . Closer to the trailhead than some of the other fun scrambles in this region. And the Mono Pass trail approach is pleasant with pretty views (one of the best hikes in Sierra (or the United States?).

. . Gives access to interesting 5th class ridge traverse to north and perhaps more so to the south ("the Gendarmes") from the summit.

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See approach + route on Map

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Hike and scramble up the ridge, then when the ridge gets difficult (and interesting) move off to the wide gully / face to the left (south) and go up that - gets steeper - to reach the summit.

. . (So this route might better be named "ESE gully" or "ESE face").

. . Older guidebooks say this way is 3rd class, and perhaps there is some weaving line which keeps that difficulty at all points, but likely it's simpler to just plan on including some 4th class sequences.

Starts beneath and slightly to the right of the two prominent dihedrals on the east face of Ruby Wall.

Climb a pair of cracks (5.10) thru a slot and belay under a roof.

Climb thru another roof to a flared corner (5 .10), then up and left to a belay ledge. Climb a smooth corner which curves left into a corner/chimney to some big ledges. Climb another overhanging arch and left onto some ledges. Climb a dihedral for one pitch to a class 4 ledge to the bottom of a gritty,

steep crack on the face. Climb the crack (5.1 0) then belay on some blocks. Finish up a 5.7 chimney and 200 feet of easy climbing to the summit.

Located on the far-right-hand wall (northern wall) in the cirque which is hidden from view while you are standing at Ruby Lake.

More info would be appreciated.

OK, so there is some loose rock on this one. It's not scary, just a lot of exfoliation flakes that need some traffic to clean up. If you willing to brave it though, you will be rewarded with 450' of splitter (mostly) hand cracks from the bottom to the top of the feature!

P1, 5.9, 160'- Blocky climbing off the ground gets you up to a solid flake with a nice hand crack behind it. Follow this into the main corner, then veer left and climb a nice (but flaky) hand crack to a nice ledge. There is a fixed station to the right, but it looked awkward to move to it for the first belay. Seemed better to just build our own station.

P2, 5.10+, 100'- Continue up the clean 3" crack until it's end. A reachy 5.9 traverse gets you into the main corner. Clip a bolt, then continue up steep, clean hand jams and lay backs to the two bolt station.

P3, 5.10, 110'- Continue up the corner. Build an anchor where the wide crack on the left face and the corner crack begin to diverge.

P4, 5.10+?, 90'- Continue up the corner crack. Looks like it goes at 10+, but we started to get stormed on, so I led an alternate pitch in the next corner to the right (see Alt 2 desc.)

P4, Alt. 1, 5.10?, 105'- Climb the ever widening crack from 5"-12+". You may need to downclimb to the top of the slung block rap to rap the route.

P4, Alt 2, 5.8- An airy traverse right into the next corner system leads to a big ledge. Climb a 5.8 corner crack into a chimney, then climb 4th and low 5th back left to the slung block rappel.

There is quite a bit of confusion regarding routes on the Ruby Wall - hopefully this sorts things out a little bit. When looking at the Ruby Wall from Ruby Lake, the Left East Arete is the prominent, narrowing rib of rock ~100yds left of the main Ruby Wall. This same line is labeled as the East Arete (Rowell/Wilson 84) in many guidebooks. The East Arete blends right into the more obvious Left East Arete when viewed from the Ruby Wall area - and some photo overlays of the route (AAJ, for example) show it starting on the right/East and then finishing on the left like it's one continuous piece of rock. Summitpost has an entry named "East Arete" showing a line which matches the "Left East Arete." Very confusing. It's entirely possible that these two routes are actually one in the same.

Left of the main Ruby Wall is a deep, dark recessed alcove/roof which marks the bottom of the gully splitting the two East Aretes. Just left of this, scramble up some 3rd/4th class ledges to reach a sandy belay stance. From here, climb cracks leading up and then left into a large left-facing corner system. Climb this awkward corner (squeeze/stem) and belay at a small stance/block with bail slings, 60M. Continue up the chimney above and then step left to a big sandy belay ledge at the base of the steepening arete, 40M. Climb cracks up the prow of the arete. At this point there are multiple cracks & corners to choose from - the goal is to stay as close to the edge as possible. The rock quality quickly deteriorates if you start to wander off the north side. 5 more long pitches up the narrowing, knife-edged arete land you on the summit ridge. Lots of exposure and short cruxes. Like other parties who have repeated this line, we also found a handful of short 5.10 sections, but it's totally possible that we were offroute or picked harder variations (original grade 5.9). Expect some flaky and grainy rock with bits of vegetation. The rock quality is pretty good on the lower pitches and up on the arete proper, so if it starts to get gross, look elsewhere for the line.

Description

Protection

Routes in Ruby Peak