Yarrow-East Ridge

A good fun alpine route with some fun exposure.



Head south of Twin Butte about 5 km(??) to Spread Eagle Road. Turn west until you come to a "Tee" junction and head south to the end of the road. Park here and hike the fence line south to the top to the hill and turn right (west) and head for the big hill in front of you trending slightly right. Once on top, just follow the ridge until the scrambling ends and the climbing begins. We took two ropes but all our climbing was done in 30m pitches to keep the rope drag down so it would be very feasable to do it with one rope. The rock was a little manky in a few places but the whole route took good protection with good belay stations. The whole route mostly followed the ridge or the left side of the ridge with one place staying right of the ridge ( it's pretty obvious once your there). The final summit pitch we climbed on the right side but you could walk around on the right side to the Yarrow/Spread Eagle col and scramble the final pitch. From the summit, we descended down to the col and then turned right and carefully headed down the north face picking our way through the cliff bands. As you get near the bottom you'll see a cattle trail. If you stay on this cattle trail it will take you around to the front side of the ridge to the ascent route. From there just follow your tracks back to the vehicle.
Dave has some good pictures on his website for those interested (www.dave-stephens.com)
We put it at an alpine 3 5.6.
The whole route went clean, no pins!!!
We used:
Three long slings
Two medium slings
Hex's (very useful)
Tri-cams
Nuts
#.5, #.75 and #1 cams
6-8 quick draws
Have fun........