The Gargoyle Route

The Gargoyle Route tackles the first reasonable looking line to the left of the impressively blank west face. The route line as drawn in the SeKi Guide is way off - it starts in bottom of the gully between Little Spire and South Guard. No fixed pro, some runout face climbing, some munge and some gritty rock to round out the experience. A good adventure with only 3 ascents in 35 years. See topo

Downclimb to the east from the summit to start the descent. There is some exposed downclimbing/scrambling to get to a tree with tat for the first rappel. This lands you in the top of the glacially carved bowl, from where you continue up and skiers right onto what is now the East buttress of The Ax. A single 35M rappel from a bolt and piton gets you down safely to the notch and ground. A 30M rap and downclimbing worked out OK for us instead.

Doubles to 3", one 4" piece. Some tat for the rap anchors