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| Looking up Slot Wash from 100 yards beyond Teapot, showing rocky prominence that divides wash. Bernhard Route follows up left fork. Jones' party took right fork, climbed up ridge dividing forks, and rejoined standard route just below pinnacles near top. |
goes up the left fork.
15 minutes up the south fork we ascended the ridge to the north (this ridge of which the rocky prominence was a part) and saw a pinnacle on the skyline ridge with the north summit of Cerro de la Encantada visible to the left, and the south summit hidden behind the pinnacle. This was the first time since before Cedar Camp that we saw these peaks. The pinnacle is mentioned in the Bernhard route description, and one is supposed to climb around it to either side and then on to the peak. We followed the ridge between the two forks of the Slot Wash and one hour and tem minutes later crossed in back of the pinnacle, from the south, at an elevation of 9840 feet. A few minutes later the seven of us were on the south summit, the first party to ascend since April 17, 1962. Including ourseleves, there has been a total of 162 ascents recorded in the register since 1932. It took three hours and 40 minutes of climbing to gain the south summit from Cedar Camp.
After making a 30 minute traverse of the ridge between the south and north summits, and negotiating several nice third class pitches en route, six of us stood on the north summit, which is 20 inches higher than the south. We left one man in the saddle between the summits. The north summit has last been climbed January 28, 1964 by a party of three. The register on the north summit was damaged by ice and water several years ago and now is not as complete as the register on the south summit.