Approach: Walk towards the north face of Pony, crossing a stream and a small moraine field. 15 minutes should see you at the base of the route.
Route: Follow a leftwards rising traverse under a series of rock buttresses on gradually steepening snow crossed by ice runnels (20º steepening to 60º). Danger of rockfall. This is followed by a pitch of excellent ice that rises between seracs and poor rock (70º-80º for 45m). Continue upwards along similarly angled snow until a large crevasse is reached. Poor snow conditions and the bullet-hard nature of the underlying ice may make this and the next pitch infeasible. From here traverse right until a snow arête is attained (50m, ~60º). Either follow this to the west summit or, in poor conditions, traverse onto the west face and follow 45º ice slopes capped by a III mixed step to the cornice of the west summit. Either surmount this or traverse under it and continue to the true summit. 500m. 10h on first ascent due to poor snow. In good conditions should not take longer than 5h.
Descent: Down scree slopes and the side of the Bird Glacier ~F. 1h on descent.
Route: Follow a leftwards rising traverse under a series of rock buttresses on gradually steepening snow crossed by ice runnels (20º steepening to 60º). Danger of rockfall. This is followed by a pitch of excellent ice that rises between seracs and poor rock (70º-80º for 45m). Continue upwards along similarly angled snow until a large crevasse is reached. Poor snow conditions and the bullet-hard nature of the underlying ice may make this and the next pitch infeasible. From here traverse right until a snow arête is attained (50m, ~60º). Either follow this to the west summit or, in poor conditions, traverse onto the west face and follow 45º ice slopes capped by a III mixed step to the cornice of the west summit. Either surmount this or traverse under it and continue to the true summit. 500m. 10h on first ascent due to poor snow. In good conditions should not take longer than 5h.
Descent: Down scree slopes and the side of the Bird Glacier ~F. 1h on descent.
Alek and Vladimir Zholobenko 21/Aug/2012.
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