Correction to Secor, Mount Thompson
by Steve Eckert
The Southwest Face route on Thompson involves dropping 200' below some
cliffs according to the book. I think it's more like 300-400', because you
wind up near the head of the cirque before clearing the cliffs and
traversing in a boulder field. It's possible there is a route THROUGH the
cliffs which stays just 200' below the saddle cliffs (mentioned above as the
left chute), but it would not be worth the effort to find it and bounce up
and down through sandy slabs.
The description of the Southwest Face route on Thompson includes mention of
two chutes which lead to the "col" between Thompson and Powell. I'd call
this a saddle, not a col, and there are actually THREE chutes. The
right-most chute is the Northeast Chute route described for Powell, the
middle chute is the correct way over the saddle, and the very broad left
chute leads to 300' cliffs. It might be possible to climb from this saddle
to the middle chute as class 3-4, but it's not an obvious option.
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