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Directions: We left Pinkham Notch at about 7:00am. We hiked the Tuckerman Ravine Trail to the fireroad leading into Huntington Ravine. This took us to the Huntington Ravine Trail. We followed this into the talus before heading up and into Pinnacle Gully. From the base of Pinnacle, the climb starts on a left slanting ramp passing the dead tree. We started the climb about 9:30am, topped out around 1:00pm (I think). We then took the Alpine Garden Trail north to the Huntington Ravine Trail. We took this to the auto road which we then followed to the summit. We were surprised to find the summit buildings open. To avoid the snowy (and icy) trail down, we hiked the auto road to Old Jackson Carrige Road and back to Pinkham Notch. We arrived back in the parking lot about 6:30pm. Totals: 12 miles, 4256' elevation gain, 750' technical climbing, 11.5 hours, 3 beers.

This was my first experience with a disposable camera. I wasn't impressed. The exposure seemed alright (mostly). The focus really poor, anything farther than about 15 feet came out fuzzy. I'll have to look into a cheap point and shoot.

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Huntington Ravine and the back of J's head.

Pinnacle Buttress is in the center. Odell's gully is to the left of it. Central gully is on the buttress' right side. Pinnacle Gully is hidden behind the right edge of the buttress.

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J resting on the talus below Pinnacle Buttress.

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Pinnacle Buttress.

From here, you can make out most of the route. I'll draw it in later.

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Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle III 5.7

The route is in yellow, the belays are in red. The first four pitches are pretty clear. The fifth and sixth pitches climbed right to the edge of the ridge, then along the ridge to its end.

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J "climbing" to the second belay.

Note the snow :)

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The anchor for the second belay.

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J starting the third pitch (5.7).

If you look in the guidebook, there are several shots of this famous spot.

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J again, same spot.

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The 5.8 variation

The downclimb slab to the chimney of the 4th pitch was wet and unpleasant so we did the 5.8 variation instead. This was at least only wet.

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Greg at the second belay trying hard to keep his shoes dry.

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Greg on the third pitch.

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J scrambling up the end of the 5.8 pitch.

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Greg doing the same.

Everyone liked my choice of belay better this time, a spacious ledge without snowbanks. They even let me stop long enough to eat some lunch :)

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Greg on the fifth pitch.

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The view from our lunch ledge. No Jacubians here this time ;)

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Dave at the end of the fifth pitch.

The end of this pitch is a great 5.5 hand traverse with many feet of undercut exposure. Definately one of the highlights of the route.

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J wondering what Greg and I did.

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J finishing the pitch (almost).

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Dave and J on the huge ledge before the last little step on the ridge.

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Dave and J pretending they're real climbers (pretty cool shot).

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Dave just over the last step.

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Dave belayed J over the last step on a short rope.

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The Alpine Garden with Boot Spur in the background.

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Looking toward the summit.

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Looking north along the rim of Huntington Ravine.

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The backside of Pinnacle Buttress.

Last updated:
© 2001 David Crosby, Jason Lane, Greg Bell