“Wolf Peak, Howling Ridge.” This route is located on the north ridge of the minor summit between Sperry and Vesper peaks. Viktoria Stepitova and I approached the climb via the Headlee Pass trail, then over the pass between Sperry and Vesper into the Copper Lake basin. We followed fourth class gullies to the north (right) up to the col between our summit and Big Four Mountain, where the climb begins. (Alternatively, one could approach directly from Copper Lake basin, ascend above the lake until it is possible to cut north to the start of the route. This is likely the fastest approach.) The peak has a substantial unclimbed north face with perhaps 800 feet of vanishing cracks, brush, and questionable blocks. After inspecting the face, we chose to attempt the obvious curving ridge bordering the face on the west and pointing directly at Big Four Mountain. The route is for the most part quite obvious, following the knife-edge ridge for about 8 to 10 pitches. We passed several towers on their west sides. The climbing is mostly quite moderate (5.6 or 5.7) and enjoyable. The route is solid, protects easily with nuts, and has wonderfully exposed belay stances. Towards the summit some minor brush and several short sections of more difficult climbing (5.8 to 5.9) were encountered. (However, we feel it is likely that these more difficult sections could be avoided by future parties.) Climbing time was about 5 or 6 hours; the descent was an obvious walk-off. (III, 5.8.)

Dan Jaffe