The south face of Wolfshead is the sunniest and cleanest wall in the Cirque of the Towers. Armed with the experience of opening earlier routes on this wall, Brandon Gust and I packed a single rope, four steel and three nylon brushes, and the requisite load of hardware. A September storm with hail and snow was forecast, but after a long summer we thought the cloud cover might just cool us down, and we launched anyway. The storm blew up as we hiked toward the Continental Divide from Big Sandy Opening. Tentless, we were forced to seek shelter in the spacious Boulder Room in North Creek. In his usual minimalist style, Brandon, with a pack full of gear, did not include a sleeping bag. He made the best of it at 0°C.

We finished the approach the next morning, hiking directly to the project. Reconnaissance photos showed a beautiful, red-colored, spear-tip-shaped corner linked by thin cracks in the middle of Wolfshead’s steepest facet. This was our mission. We began by climbing a nice warm-up groove, then headed out right toward the spear. Here, we onsighted a clean, crackless, heady, and thin flake, the Broken Treaties (5.10 R). Next was the Red Spear, an overhanging tips corner. Lichen and hard climbing ended the onsight, and we spent the rest of the day scrubbing the corner for a redpoint. We sent the corner with difficulty the next morning (5.12-).

Above, lichen forced us to grab gear on a roof with a curious white spot, the Wasichu Roof, and then on a steep, red crack, Red Cloud (A1). Moderate free climbing led us to the east ridge. We descended the ascent line, drilling a bolt at each belay and exhausting the bristles on all of our brushes in hope of a future free burn on this incredible climb: Red Cloud (IV 5.12 A1).