Trad 5.6 rock climb with guide Mark Klassen and Kevin. Not many good pics as we were concentrating on the climb and I creased the mechanical lens cover on my best small camera last week so had my old small camera. A good climb with good positions on the rock . Lots of variety of type of climbing – friction, small edging or smearing, traversing and one pull up and over. Definitely a classic and well worth repeating. It was 11 or 12 pitches. I kind of lost track but my favorites were the rising traverse pitch to the right which was full value sustained 5.6, the pull up over the slight overhang pitch and the long slabby corner pitches near the top. I could see several opportunities to go off route complete with old pins to follow. Everything felt reasonable for the grade and was well within our abilities but I would not have wanted to lead it given how little actual rock climbing I have done recently. I wore my rock shoes but my toes hurt and I would have liked something for better edging. Both Mark and Kevin had approach shoes.
Early start worked out well as there were two groups that climbed below us and we topped out easily before they caught up.
pictures at Ha Ling NE Buttress 5.6
Mark’s website Alpinism
