by ClimbingCooneys » Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:20 pm
Looked up a written report we made of our climb of Taylor & Star in 1998. After summiting Taylor, we proceeded west along the long ridge that connects to Star. At the first major notch, we dropped off the ridge to the south to later avoid a difficult, pinnacled section of the same ridge. We contoured west through a rock-glacier filled basin and aimed for a saddle between the Star summit and a northern appendage (13,420) to the peak on the north ridge that turns east toward Taylor. We hiked up a snow-filled, east facing couloir toward this saddle. About half way up, we lost the snow and continued on over slick, wet, unstable rocks. About 100 feet below the saddle (13,260) we veered left and worked our way up parallel but below the ridge crest on the east side. (It had been raining and there was a threat of lightening, so we were trying to stay low.) Farther on, we gained the ridge crest and made it to the summit. Clouds prevented any significant viewing of virtually anything. I do not recall anything harder on this particular route than 2+ - but the wet, lichen covered rock was treacherous. On the way back down, we stayed more on the north ridge crest back down to the saddle. It was mostly just a rock-hopping climb.
Beaten paths are for beaten men.