Dem Bones

An awesome route on some of the best Teton rock I've seen. A little much for a day (w/ the Avalanche approach), but perfect for a weekend combination with any of the other routes in the area (or possible new routes!). NOTE: We used a 70 meter rope (quickly becoming the new standard in the Tetons) and thus linked pitches and used different belay spots than described in the book.

P1- Start in flakes/cracks just left of the biggest roof system on the buttress. Continue up, traversing underneath a roof to the left and following a low-angle dihedral to the base of a perfect handcrack in a roof. Belay right underneath this. 5.8, 180'.

P2- Pull this roof on GREAT jams and continue up easier rock to a broad, talus covered ledge. Spot a pedestal with a left facing corner on its right side and set a belay beneath it. 5.9, 200'

P3- Climb the great 5.8 lieback crack to the top of the pedestal and set a belay. 5.8, 70'

p4- Continue up cracks to the large roof. Hand traverse underneath the roof, turn above it on its left side, and continue up the lefthand of two cracks that take off above. Set a belay beneath a wide flake/crack. 5.9+/.10a, 170'

P5- Climb up this wide crack and the faces on the outside, getting gear where you can. At a point where the rock becomes horizontally banded and fractured, look up and left at the headwall and spot the splitter crack. Angle hard left and slightly up to reach a spot beneath a left-trending ramp. Belay below the ramp. 5.7, 150'.

P6- Move up the ramp, getting great handjams in the back. Now comes the good stuff. Jam the hell out of the obvious short offset splitter! (not the corner to the right) Though it's short, it's one of the most splitter cracks in the range. Continue on easy ground to the top of the buttress. 5.10, 120'.

From Taminah Lake, locate the buttress on the west side of the broad, prominent gully. Spot a huge roof near the bottom. Dem Bones begins immediately left of this roof system.

Descent: Walk down slabs to the west to a point where a small snowpatch usually exists. It is easily rapped off of a fixed sling around a horn. No axe needed as of July 29 '07. Continue down the gully.

We took one set of nuts, a double set of cams from blue TCU-#2 camalot and one #3 camalot. Probably don't need the doubles in the blue/yellow TCU size, but they were nice. All natural belays.