Mt. Russell, Nelson-Pearson. Surprisingly, before this summer there were no reports of routes on Russell’s impressive north face, save a Beckey route on the far right side. On August 17 Lindsey Pearson and I approached the face from Cleaver Col. We chose a line right of Nate Ricklin’s and my recent route. Following moderate crack systems on smooth polished rock, we worked our way up the wall until a thin crack split the otherwise blank wall. Lindsey fired the pitch, one of the finest I have climbed in the Sierra. We continued up moderate ground and reached a large ledge system, which we traversed to the right. This led to another great pitch, finger cracks up an arête on perfect rock. From here a few hundred more feet of moderate ground leads to the East Ridge and the end of the Nelson-Pearson (11 pitches, III 5.8).

Scotty Nelson, Pullharder Alpine Club