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| Hiking | 12.30 Miles |
2,487 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.30 Miles | 10 Hrs 40 Mns | | 1.61 mph |
| 2,487 ft AEG | 3 Hrs 1 Min Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Since my summit of Diana at the end of April, I have had Pollux Temple on my mind. A freak rainstorm cancelled a May attempt and then in June I was able to get a feel for the approach while visiting a prehistoric site in the area, which brings us to this warm and humid weekend at the Canyon.
We drove up Friday and in keeping with Grand Canyon tradition arrived to our campsite sometime around midnight. We slept in by Grand Canyon summer standards and started off for the summit at 5:22 a.m. the next morning.
As with past trips, we took a series of old roads to the Boundary Road, which we then took west before and turning right on the long-abandoned road to Jicarilla Point. We used a series of short kaibab shelves off the western side of the point and just before the arch to descend off the rim. Our first obstacle was an approximately ten foot kaibab shelf that we tied a line for. Although, others have been known to simply downclimb it with the aid of some stacked logs at the bottom. In June I used the line as a handline, but this time around we rapped it.
From there, we trended down and north as we contoured past the arch and to the point where we could see the obvious notch marking the beginning of our ridgeline/crest route to Pollux. We spotted a nice bighorn along the way. We gained the crest on the east side of the formation and then continued towards Pollux. The crest was a fun and engaging little scramble, with a couple of semi heads up down climbs. We favored the east side of the crest for most of our travel and to clear most of the obstacles.
After about a quarter of a mile along the crest, we descended to the west down a steep slope broken up by some down-climbable shorter shelves, with big exposure. We tied another line here and rapped down a chimney like feature and some low 5th class terrain. After reaching the bottom, we traversed north to the saddle below Pollux.
From the saddle, we traversed east around the southern slope of Pollux which is guarded by some craggy coconino cliff bands, we then took the path of least resistance up some steep class three terrain through the broken coconino. The summit block did not prove to be much of an obstacle and only amounted to a a couple of step ups. It was a little warm on the summit by that point, so we only spent a little amount of time taking in the surroundings, refueling and signing the register.
We returned the way we approached, with the only real obstacle being the ascent of the second line we tied and the heat.
This was a fun, engaging summit that I would rate somewhere around the moderate level for Grand Canyon summits. The archaeological sites along the way greatly enhanced the experience for me as well and proved to be some of the more thought-provoking sites that I have visited in the Grand Canyon. It felt a little warm and humid at times, so we took frequent breaks and deliberately made an effort to slow down and take in our surroundings along the way.
This was my 58th named Grand Canyon Summit. |
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