climbing the lose stuff that is just to the right of the edge of the ridge. The brush isn't as bad as it looks. We stayed on the left side of the little gully or low area while climbing the ridge. 5,600', 9:05 am, we cut over to the right, frolicking thru waist-high to shoulder- high, thick manzanita, to the center of the ridge that extends down from the S/E Ridge, hitting it at 5,720'. Our starting point at 4,200' was merely the lower extremity of the ridge. It wouldn't make a whole lot of difference where one cut over, possibly a little higher might be better; however, our route went quite well. It doesn't matter where you go on the ridge at that general elevation, there's manzanita. We looked the East Face route over from our vantage point at 5,720' but decided to continue up our ridge to the S/E Ridge because of the required elevation loss to the starting point of the East Face route and the uncertain spots that couldn't be seen. 6,800', big, flat, sheltered camping areas but no water. The main stream at 4,200' was our last stream water. 6,970', 11:10 am, hit the S/E Ridge in a saddle. We concurred that this is the best spot to hit the S/E Ridge from Canon Providencia. 7,720', 12:45 pm, lunch break on S/E Ridge. Magnificent view. 8,740', 3 pm,. S/E Ridge, wide spot with plenty of wood & sheltered from wind. Snack break. I left pack & hiked up ridge for 5 minutes or so looking for a better camping spot but couldn't find one as the ridge narrowed down & was stacked with boulders. We camped at 8,740'. Ed found a bucket in a rock that contained about 6 gal of good drinking water. There were several small buckets along the ridge that provided sipping water after the ice was removed. Dec. 31- The barometric pressure had dropped over night causing my altimeter to read about 80' higher in the morning. I set it back for consistent recordings. 7:45 am, we departed camp & Don's fire. Windy at night but beautiful in the am. 9,000', good vantage point to study ridge ahead. We decided to by-pass forthcoming outcroppings by going along the bottom of the slabs on the south or left side of the ridge and then to get back up on the ridge at the obvious saddle just after the ridge swings a little to the south. We dropped to 8,800', which was a little below the bottom of the slabs, climbed back up to the bottom of the slabs below the saddle but couldn't get up there. Doug & Dave found a 6-8' wide ledge at a gentle slope that led right up to the ridge just beyond a point under the saddle, 200~3OO'. It doesn't matter where one get's back up. The whole S/E Ridge from 6,970' to the summit was fairly easy going, relatively speaking. Although we dropped off of the top & went around some of the high points. The Ridge requires skillful route finding in spots & provides one with plenty of opportunity to practice friction-walking, up- down & across slabs; bouldering & scrambling; but unfortunately, very little bushwhacking. From our vantage point at 9,000', we could see a wash coming up from the S/E that hits the Pinnacle Ridge at the summit area. We considered making our way over to it but decided to take the more scenic ridge route. We walked over from the summit and looked down the wash. It looked as though it would be fairly easy going and would be a good way to top out of Canon Teledo.

Page Index	Prev	Page 16	Next	Issue Index