Sinking Ship

Hiked with Gerry R, Jeff V, and George Z from the Buggeln picnic area over to the rim, then down to the saddle with Sinking Ship.

Gerry and I headed around to the SW side to explore the route in GCSS. Initially bypassed an easy-looking option and then we checked out a steeper, more difficult option a bit further along. Gerry continued even further to have a look while I went back to check out the first option. I scrambled up an easy initial section to the base of a solid-looking, south-facing slab/wall. I scrambled up this featured face, then got the gear out in case Gerry wanted a belay. Looking down this wall, it looked much steeper than it had seemed scrambling up it. Gerry climbed this solidly without a belay.

While Gerry was finishing up this initial wall, Jeff poked his head through a hole from the east side. I moved a short distance north on the west side, then went over a small saddle to the east side. There were two options to reach this point from the east. Jeff would eventually climb up to this point, but I couldn't convince him to go any higher.

Next up was a loose gully. Gerry did the initial move and continued up the gully to a chockstone. He tried the moves past the chockstone but requested a belay. I used some pockets on the wall on the left to get past this, then continued up loose dirt to a small saddle. Belayed Gerry up from the saddle.

The saddle put us on a ledge on the east side of the Sinking Ship. Worked our way up some ledges here. Gerry took another belay for one move here. We then continued up to a broad saddle and moved north toward the summit block.

Here I led up a wall on the left, then back right onto a platform. Next up was the crux moves up a steep, bulgy flare on the left. I dispatched this pretty quickly, then made a few more moves up to the summit area. Belayed Gerry from a seat down in some boulders. I would eventually have to lower a #1 Camalot to Gerry for him to place at the crux as an aid. Shortly, we were both on the summit.

We opted to go down the north side that I knew Sarah M, Courtney P, et al, had been up recently. Easy scrambling (down one steep wall) took us down to a ledge covered with loose rock. On the east side here was the wide chimney that Sarah's group had climbed. Was a bit more than I wanted to solo down. We ended up leaving a sling on a good boulder/pinch further west and rapping over a shorter, narrower chimney and face to a ledge maybe 20 feet down. We then rapped further, although it would've been possible to scramble down from the ledge.

While stowing the gear, Adam M and Pete K walked up. We gave them some beta, and they would end up climbing up what we rapped, ascending the narrow chimney.

Hiked back around the east side of the summit, found the metate, then hiked back out to the car. Stayed on higher ground on the return rather than crossing the gully which was a bit longer but much nicer walking; ie, less brushy.