This weekend the team assembled, with difficulty, for some scrappy chossaineering on new-to-us objectives on Sneffels. I grabbed Amy in Montrose, Jonny in Ridgway, and Ryan and Alex up YBB before blasting to the upper trailhead to minimize walking. Alex split at Blue Lakes Pass to head up Sneffels while we four contoured over to The Monolith and Blue Needle.

"The Monolith" East Chimney, 5.6 [LoJ]

This neat but unimpressive (as far as monoliths go) tower was first climbed in 1934 by Giesecke and Long. A classic San Juan Mountaineers summit, this peak had been missing from LoJ and was added in late 2024. I had scouted it last October and deemed it ropeworthy. This morning, Ryan launched the rope up the tight chimney and topped out in short order. I followed, finding it enjoyable and solid, and he and I then continued over to Blue Needle while Amy and Jonny did rope shenanigans.

"Blue Needle" East Ridge, Class 4 [LoJ]

A photo of The Monolith and Blue Needle in the 1932 San Juan Mountaineers guide proved the old pin on LoJ was in the wrong spot, which was corrected in late 2024. Blue Needle sits just west of The Monolith and was first climbed by Jack Seerly and Robert Thallon days before The Monolith in 1934. Its east ridge/south face is a mess of blocky orange choss, and I had previously turned around just below the summit, averse to the downclimb. Ryan and I scrambled up (a rope would make this climb dangerous), waved to Amy and Jonny on The Monolith, and managed a surprisingly clean rappel down the south face.

Unfortunately, in the process of clearing debris I core shot Amy's skinny rope 10 feet from the end. Fortunately, we needed that cordage for later rappels. After Amy and Jonny completed Blue Needle, we all continued north into uncharted territory along a prominent ledge system bisecting the west face of Sneffels.

"Purgatory Point" East Ledge, 5.10 [LoJ]

This peak also was formerly in the wrong location on LoJ, as suggested by its description in the 1932 guide as well as subsequent reports of reconnaissance and finally its first ascent in 1958 by the McClintock brothers. And for good reason. Around Purgatory Point the terrain becomes quite involved, and after much chossy rambling it was determined the best way to access the likely path of least resistance was to rappel into a gully leading up to its saddle. At this point Ryan had to depart to catch a flight, but he graciously left us with his rack to finish the climb. We rappelled and--leaving that rope fixed--scrambled back up to the saddle. I took the improbably easy lead to the comfortable ridge between the two imposing summits. Then Jonny set off up the short but difficult summit headwall, employing all manner of techniques to access and traverse a shallow pocket and ledge, replete with a hand-forged ring piton circa 1950's. He was soon up, and with a secure belay and beta flowing freely, I followed clean, as did Amy. On the summit we found a single well-aged pin, hammered into a seam vertically for rappel. Three rappels, two pins, and a stretch of downclimbing later we were back down the gully, where rather than jugging our fixed line Jonny led a traverse to the anchor.

We retraced our steps across the west face of Sneffels to Blue Lakes Pass and cruised down to the trailhead, where we interrupted someone's engrossing Nat Geo wildlife photoshoot of marmots ravaging my truck.