Peak 12,450 (Throne Peak), The Scimitar. Approaching from the east, Jon Allen and I hiked into the Cathedral Peak area where we were met by James Garrett later that evening. After a morning of wet weather, James headed off and soloed the South Ridge (5.5) of Mount Chauvenet and Jon and I hiked up to Upper Cathedral Lake where we spotted our objective. There was an impressive diamond-like wall behind the lake that boasted a direct line up the center of the wall, following corner systems and grooves to the top (Point 12,450). It appeared to be a little bigger than 1000 feet. The next morning was rainy but the rain ended soon and we each (James, Jon and I) led a pitch and fixed our two 60-meter cords to wait for the next good day of weather. The next day James had to leave and John and I jugged our lines with bags, bivy sacks and enough food to kill a horse since we never trimmed out James' portion. After five or six pitches of good free climbing up to 5.10 we arrived at a huge ledge 200 feet below the top. This was an amazing bivy, so we decided to stop here and feast on all of our food and enjoy the big moon. As dawn broke Jon and I popped our heads out of our bivies to witness a socked-in valley and three inches of new wet snow plastering us. We realized that summer was close to being over here in the Wind Rivers. After two more pitches of mostly aid climbing (mostly or all free climbing if dry), the wet exit corners and grooves brought us to the top of the wall. From here we scrambled up snowy talus for 20 minutes to the summit. A walk-off descent back down the northeast face to a couloir dropped us back down close to the base. (V 5.10 C2+ A3)

Doug Hall