Fourth time on this mountain. It took that many times to finally make it to the top. I've turned back three times due to snow conditions, white-out fog, and fear of the summit block. Even had a forced bivy on a SE Ridge descent.

This time we parked at the turnout below the Pratt Balcony. Started walking at 5:20 AM. Took the SE ridge. Mid Forks Rocks website details trail. Route finding is needed. Ridge has quite a bit of class 3 scrambling. Lots of sheer cliffs. The push from the ridge to the base of the ascent is choked with blueberries. Couple patches of snow for water. Didn't get to the summit block until around 1 PMish. The summit block is exposed. We went up the right side. Exposure. The rappel down was not awesome.

We didn't want to spend another night on the SE Ridge so we decided on the road route back. Connected with the road under South Bessemer at 6:30 P.M. Back to the truck at 10:00 P.M. 16.5 hours. 5K+