Correction to Secor, Clarence King to Cotter Traverse
by Craig Clarence
After an uneventful climb of the South Face of CK, we decided to try the
traverse south along the ridge to Mt. Cotter. This ridge looks very
dramatic from 60 Lakes Basin, with several deep notches, but we had the
rest of the afternoon and though it might go. By staying on or near the
ridge, we managed to summit both the N and S summits of Mt. Cotter. The
climbing was 90% 3/4th class, never got above the 5.3ish range, but was
hideously exposed the whole way. It also involved 2 short rappels to get
around the 2 largest notches on the ridge. We were back in camp by 4pm,
after starting that morning at 6:30am.
This traverse was extremely fun, quick, and the rock was good. It also
avoids the class 2 scree-fest of the easy route on the south side of Mt.
Cotter. The traverse and summit marked another of a remarkable string of
climbs done by Hiep Nguyen (he had walked in to climb with us for the
weekend), who climbs only in Teva sandals and in most cases refuses to use
a rope for climbing or rapelling. You have to see it to believe it.
The information in these pages is provided by
interested volunteers and has not been field checked.
R.J. Secor, The Mountaineers and the Sierra Club
are in no way responsible for the
accuracy of any route advice on this web site.
Safe climbers must be able to understand the terrain
and topography of the area they travel in, and they
must make wise route finding choices based on their
own knowledge, experience and observations.