It takes special conditions for this line to come fully in and have the snow stick to the glacial ice at the 55º crux. Climbing the line gives you the truest insight to snow conditions, so you can know that there are only 2-3 inches of snow on the ice in said crux. It’s hard to appreciate the grandness of scale of this line when you’re “a fly on the wall” so to speak, but the shots from across the valley bring it into perspective.
Climbing this line leads to some interesting exposure, as Kurt says: “Exposure below doesn’t bother me, exposure from above however requires attention”. That attention involves climbing 1000 vertical meters, breaking for a snack and to regain composure, then “sprinting” across the glacier with two axes and your crampons on to minimize time spent under the shopping mall size chunk of ice hanging in mid air above you.
This route overall was a real treat in utilizing all of the knowledge of travel and skiing that I brought with me and have learned here. Starting with traversing into the Pan and skiing the easy line of the day, to roped glacier travel, full on steep climbing and traversing, high skinning and the final push to the ridge. Crossing 5 schrunds along the way… Spectacular.
Then there’s the skiing part of it! Wonderful steep, deep turns above the glacier up high, followed by the double fall line journey under the exposure to the crux. Stay light and commit to the crux, then into Mario land on the glacier. Absolutely surreal.