North Ridge

The route is mostly 4th and low 5th class with a 5.7 start and a few short 5.5 – 5.6 moves here and there.

p1: climb up the open book (5.7, crux of route) continue up and eventually a bit left until you run out of rope/find a good belay spot.

p2: climb up easier terrain eventually ending with a cool but spooky ridge walk on black, loose blocks and belay on the other side, full 200’ pitch.

p3: continue up and slightly left ending at a large sandy ledge, 150’.

p4: climb up 5.5 cracks and move around headwall on left side with some cool exposure (the cracks on the headwall and to the right were quite grainy). Climb on top of the tower and walk across the blunt arête and find a belay stance. 180’.

p5: Climb up a 4th class slab and either exit to the right through the obvious notch in the NW ridge or continue up and left on 5.6ish climbing until you reach the NW ridge, 200’ pitch.

From this point you can unrope and follow a 2nd class use trail up along the south side of the NW ridge until you can easily cross over to the north side. Continue up until you cross back to the south side of the NW ridge and climb the final bit to the northern most summit of Hurd. The summit register is on the southern most of the three summits, the one with dark grey rock.

Descents:

Down the east face on class 2 sand with a few short class 3 bands to negotiate. Continue on to northern shore of Long Lake and the trail – recommended.

Down the west face to Treasure Lakes and the trail

Approaches:

from South Lake trailhead hike to Long Lake, cross on the northern side and x-country to the base of the route.  A little over 3 miles and 1700 ft of gain

from South Lake trailhead take the Treasure Lakes split and at the 2nd drainage you pass hike x-country directly up to the base of the climb

3rd class slabs lead to several belay stances just below the open book which marks the start of the route

Single to 2”, a few extra medium size pieces may come in handy. There are blocks to sling as anchors on most pitches.