We waffled over objectives, with weather, fires, and hiking vs. climbing ratio all playing into the decision. Eventually we settled on the north buttress of Merriam and the two new fine looking routes that Peter Croft and Lisa Rands had put up in 2011, aptly named the Croft-Rands Left and the Croft-Rands Right, two independent lines snaking up their respective side of the prow of the buttress, and both 6 pitches and 5.11.
What transpired was one leisurely half day hike up through a steep canyon to some beautiful sub alpine meadows and further up into a high alpine basin below several 13,000' peaks, followed by two days of climbing steep sick routes on beautiful alpine granite! Not bad at all for our first time climbing together.
I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story:
as a side note, after reviewing available info, and comparing pictures, it seems that Mark and I climbed a new two pitch variation to the Croft-Rands Right with the pitches going at 5.11- and 5.10+.
We managed to follow the Croft-Rands Left without any detours along the way.
