In late July, Kate Mylan and I climbed the high-quality fall line of the east face of the east subsummit (~8,400’) of A Peak in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. Castor Sally, a route I climbed with Alex Marine in 2020, is to the right of this new line on the pillar that forms the lower right side of the subpeak. In the absence of another name, we’ve been calling this distinct subpeak “Gemini Point” to distinguish it from the main summit, of which it is almost a twin.

By following mostly dihedrals from bottom to top, we took advantage of the best rock and protection on the face. This was a direttissima, but the kind where a drop of water would linger on its way down. We lingered on the way up. The climb gets harder and more interesting higher up the beanstalk.

Three scruffy, moderate pitches off the ground (5.6–5.8) lead to 300’ of unroped climbing up darker, water-stained rock. Here, just right of a bomb-bay chimney at the center of the face, the fun climbing begins. Footholds on the compact, rippled features combine with occasional jams and good protection in corner cracks to make for lovely 5.9 climbing. Sections of the colorful rock appear lifted from a confectioner’s shop or sliced off an ice cream cake.

Easy pitches separate a committing chimney capped by a bell-shaped offwidth exit (5.10a) and two pitches with short roofs, one with excellent fingerlocks (5.10d), the other more awkward and a little loose (5.11a). Above the second roof and below a final tower, a long slab hosts a three-star bivy at its upper edge. From here you can stare down the central maw that separates A Peak’s main summit and the subpeak. We didn’t smell the blood of an Englishman here, but others may.

The regal final tower, home, perhaps, to one or another grumpy giant, has the steepest climbing, with three separate roofs guard- ing the central dihedral and good protection through each crux. We split it into three pitches (5.11, 5.11+, 5.11a). Thoughtful route-finding on the face to either side of the corner, with crimps hidden by white lichen, reduces the need to simply grunt up it. The crux roof required directionals to keep the rope from knocking off blocks. A small set of pins is recommended on this route.

A deep notch separates the subpeak from the main summit, with roped and scrambling options to the top. A pleasant walk-off to the south, with one mandatory 80’ rappel halfway down, follows mountain goat trails and the edge of snowfields through lush hanging valleys across from the remnants of Blackwell Glacier.

A car-to-car ascent of Feefyefoh (2,000’ vertical, 14 pitches, 5.11+) would be doable, but the mandatory two- to three-hour bushwhack from Granite Lake to the small snowfields at the base would make it a bruiser.

— Spencer Gray