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Gothics South Face (Original Route 5.4)

Posted by Kevin MacKenzie,
North Country explorer from
August 23, 2014

Another adventure. We began the day at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at Pyramid Mtn. summit at 9:30 playing a game of hurry up and wait. When we arrived there was no view...none. The clouds lifted and revealed a rather gloomy wet face on Gothics.

After waiting 2 hours with Karen Stolz and watching some juvenile dark-eyed juncos play, we descended to the base of Gothics' South Face. Our original target, Gothic Arch, was a no-go so we played around near the Original Route which is a considerably safer route when the slab is soaked (think rivulets 1/2 inch deep in some areas). By 4:00 p.m., we had sunlight. We left the summit at 7:00 to arrive back at the trailhead at 11:00 p.m. -- 17.5 hours in total.

An added bonus-Mike Tomaselli and I climbed this route in June and my nut tool (hold the jokes) was torn from his waist. I found it high on the face...a long way to go for a small piece of metal!