Elevation Gain: 7,389m
Distance: 80km
Total Time: 12 days
Date: June 30th to July 12th, 2025
Our break on the col of Sharks Teeth Peaks was short lived. Some rainy clouds were starting to loom overhead, but we had a good section of daylight ahead of us to get up and over Peak 6600. Mark had described a prominent gully from the col in his original report of the area and sure enough we spotted it with ease. We hiked a ways along the col through idyllic tarns and heather meadows and eventually up to the base of the gully. From afar it had looked quite steep, but in person it was a short section of seasonal snow and then loose scree and talus above.
We swapped to crampons and then ascended up without much fuss. At the top we contoured around a steep roll and bypassed a false summit of Peak 6600. This took us to a flat section in the ridge with just 300m of ascent to go. Unfortunately to the west we could see rain coming in. Neither of us wanted to be on the technical crux of the trip while it rained. We hemmed and hawed for a bit, waiting to see if the rain might dissipate, but it never did. With that we switched plans to find a suitable camp site and we’d tackle the crux in the morning.
For once there were a number of options and we found a perfect sandy spot near the base of the final slope. The rain never lasted long so we took our time making dinner and hanging out.
On the following morning we awoke to glorious sunshine! Clouds filled the valley below, but we were high above it all. Our choice to postpone the crux had paid off. After a sunny breakfast we headed up the slope and topped out on Peak 6600 without further adieu. From the top we rolled over to the other side and spotted the infamous crux. To our delight it was a not a long multi-pitch affair, but a deep notch with perhaps one pitch of climbing at most. As we neared the end of the ridge we could see Mark and Mike’s 20 year old anchor still clinging on. We cleaned it up and sussed out the options. It looked like a rappel down the west side to a dirt gully looked best. From there we could ascend the gully and traverse around the east side and up a short vertical section of rock.
Andrea fixed up a new rappel anchor for us and then I lowered in. I tried to find somewhere to build a gear anchor lower down but the rock was devoid of any protect-able cracks. Nevertheless, the gully was low enough angle so Andrea rappelled in to and then I ran the rope up to the top. I could see a few options to get out of the notch and so Andrea scrambled up to me and I set about traversing the east side to find a route out. A large snow wall gave us a nice guard from the exposure below and I wrapped around easily to a short 5.4 section of climbing. I returned to Andrea with the news and this time continued back with my heavy pack. With a bit of heaving I pulled myself through the steep section and was back out onto the ridge. I ran the up above Andrea and said high to her below. From there I belayed Andrea up and we had a nice lunch break in the sun.
With such good weather we were excited about the rest of the day. Two the west were two unclimbed summits that necessitated a visit and Peak 7400 to the north that we’d have to scramble up and over to get to them. After our nice lunch break it was off to 7400.