On August 8, my wife, Giselle Field, and I established a lovely camp by Crocker Lake and the following morning started up the north pillar of Mt. Crocker (12,457’). This imposing feature sees little to no sunlight, so we were freezing cold the entire time. At the top of the second pitch, just below the hardest climbing, we cleaned an old bail anchor. The pitch above was a difficult finger crack on a steep face (5.11a). From there, continuous 5.10 cracks led to a notch in the pillar, at which point darkness forced us to retreat.

On August 10, we regained our high point and continued up the pillar on 5.9 cracks to the final overhanging prow, split dramatically by a perfect two- to four-inch crack (5.10d). At last, sunshine! We called our route Crocks ’n’ Socks (1,200’, 11 pitches, IV 5.11a).

From the top of the pillar, we scrambled directly to the summit and descended the west ridge to the west col. Descending the north-facing couloir turned out to be the most dangerous part of the day: The ice was bulletproof and we had only sharp rocks for tools.

– Derek Field, Canada