Notes on the route:
Perhaps the grandest of the "Big Trade Routes" Mescalito
features great location, good rock, and plenty of pitches for
all. When we did the route we had a 3 man team and spent 3 nights
on the wall. I think we fixed the first 4 pitches and then did
one long haul from the Alcove. I remember hearing about the Seagull
pitch as being expando and "once you go past the Seagull,
you can't get back down". BS on both of those. The Seagull
is nothing to worry about. The rivet ladders have pretty good
rivets but are spaced really far apart. Hugh Burton is a huge
man and used this to his advantage while placing these on the
FA. If you are vertically challenged, take an equilizer (not cheater)
stick to get you over the wide ones. The Bismark bivy is one of
the finest anywhere. It is flat, long, level, and pretty wide.
We rolled onto the Bismark with enough time to fix the easy A1
corner to the top of the Biz. The top 12 feet is awkward and off-width
so beware. Having this pitch fixed will give you some extra time
to sleep-in and still top out the next day. Topping out on the
summit is clean and fairly straight forward. Those Canadian boys
(Burton/Sutton) sure did nice work on this one.
Info provided by: Russ Walling