The Minaret, Reinhold Pussycat; Flattop Peak, Sibling Rivalry. On July 28 Bruce Miller and I completed the first ascent of the west face of The Minaret in 18 hours round trip from the East Creek Basin. Reinhold Pussycat (V 5.10+ A2) follows a natural crack system from bottom to top, including a prominent right-facing dihedral, offering 600m of steep and mostly solid granite. This beautiful and obvious line had been attempted several times over the last 20 years but never finished.

On August 2, in marginal weather, Bruce and I made the first ascent of the southwest ridge of Flattop Peak. We gained the col between Flattop and Crossed Fish Peak via 55° ice and snow, then followed the ridge, usually staying to the right, over two unnamed, unclimbed summits to the top. We encountered mostly low 5th class climbing, with a couple of pitches of steep 5.8 below the summit of Flat- top. We highly recommend this alpine ridge, which can easily be done with mountain boots and a light rack in a short day from a camp in East Creek. We dubbed the route Sibling Rivalry (III 5.8), naming the lower subsummit “Uli Tooth” and the higher “Satchel Spire.”

Chris Weidner, AAC