South Face Cutoff

The description below, found in NMSU archives, was created by the legendary Southwest Mountaineers. It is at a minimum twenty years old, but likely dates as far back as 1970’s. The rock itself may have changed since that time. The rating system certainly has. You will want to add at least a point to it. For comparison, the Normal Route, considered by many to be seriously sandbagged at 5.6, is listed in the same document as 5.5, the West Face as 5.6. So please treat what follows as a rough guide to an adventure, not as a solid and current info. If you do climb the route, sharing of what you learn would be appreciated.

"Descend the SRE-MRE gully on the east side quite far until an obvious way leads into the great bowl of this little-visited face. This is about at the level of the first pitch on the East Ridge, not higher. Wind through heavy brush well to the right, then up easy broken rock, then back left over a fairly steep pitch (5.4) to the center of the face. At this point about 3 possible ways open up. A steep chimney system to the left has not been explored to date. Directly in the middle, a steep, water-smoothed dihedral leads up all the way to the summit (see South Face Central). To the right, a dihedral starting vertical then sloping off, leads over to the upper part of the East Ridge. Go up this, using a sling or two in the good crack. Then scamper up forth class rock on the East Ridge to the summit."

Note: With access from the east now available, better approach is to start up the gully between South and Middle Rabbit Ears and turn off before reaching the saddle rather than going down it from the saddle.

Unknown but no warnings given. Also, rating labeled as "easy aid" along with the 5.4 rating.