South Early Winter Spire, Southeast Face. In July, 1977 Duane Constantino and I completed in a single day a route which I had begun a year earlier on the southeast face of South Early Winter Spire. The route begins just right of the center of the broad southeast face and for four leads follows a shallow corner dividing dark lichened rock on the left from steeper white rock on the right to a ledge underneath a yellow block. We ascended the right side of the block and up an obvious steep gully for several more pitches into a dirty gully just below the ridge. We rappelled right to a sandy ledge at the end of the fourth pitch where we found a bong half buried in sand. However, our route did not match the description of the route from the late 1950s. NCCS III or IV, F9, A2. (The aid consisted of 45 feet of aid from 4? to 5½? tube chocks on the fifth pitch.) There are several bolts in place for belays and the route goes clean. The second ascent was done solo in two days during July by Quin Koenig.

David Whitelaw