On Friday, Phillippe and I climbed a route called Solid Gold (III, 5.11a) on Prusik Peak in the Enchantments. Prusik may be one of the most beautiful peaks in Washington. It has that perfect symmetrical triangular shape and is surrounded by beautiful alpine lakes. It is known to have some of the best alpine granite and we were both impressed with the rock quality. Although I still found myself dusting of the lichen and chalking up the footholds on the crucial spears and edges. We both thought the ratings were a little soft and the route could have been climbed in 3 or 4 pitches but we did it in 5 as the topo suggested. The climbing was interesting with lots of cracks and a couple techy face climbing moves as well The route tops out at the base of the west ridge, which is also a super classic moderate alpine rock ridge. It was a nice way to finish the climb.
The only drawback is that it is a 10 mile walk and 6000 feet of elevation gain, ONE WAY!!! We did it car to car in about 16 hours and by the last 2000 feet of the descent the balls of my feet hurt so much! My legs were very sore the next day! Treking poles were a must. I'm still not sure if it is worth it to hike that much for so little climbing, relatively speaking but nonetheless, it is an amazing alpine playground. Unfortunately my camera broke so I don't have any climbing photos :(
This is the topo that we used that I found on CascadeClimbers.com
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