North America, United States, California—Sierra Nevada, North Guard, East Face, 1981

Publication Year: 1983.

North Guard, East Face, 1981. North Guard, near better-known Mount Brewer, has a provoking, craggy shape. There is a short but quite steep east face that looms above many acres of glacier-polished rock slab. In June 1981 Rick Nolting and I made the first climb of the challenging face. Steep, unroped climbing led to the crux about midway. Here we climbed an exposed edge, made a difficult rightward exit, then took to an outside comer that had a scarcity of holds and protection. The remainder of the climb was steep but well broken by good jointing in the granite. (Grade III 5.8.)

Fred Beckey