Creighton-Korman Route

Location: Smuggler's Notch, VT

Grade: III, WI 5

Height: 260'

Directions: Take Rte. 108 South from Jeffersonville, or North from Stowe. The highway through the notch is closed during the winter months. The approach ski is about a mile from either side.

Season: The column of the third pitch is rarely

completely formed; but, the route's nature allows for mixed ascents under lean conditions as well.

Route Description: While a direct runnel has been known to form and needs no description, the following describes the ascent line in the huge right-facing corner made by the South face of Elephant's Head Buttress: P1(90') Climb up ice bulges angling left into the base of the corner to fixed pins. P2(70') Climb up moderate (yet often thin) ice smears in the corner to another fixed station. P3(100') Climb out right on ice bulges, and up the obvious crux column to the trees.

Gear: A modest rock and standard ice rack is advisable.

Descent: Rappel from trees then pins or bollards; or, make the bushwhack around either North or South and downclimb gullies.

First Ascent: While Rick Wilcox's guidebook, An Ice Climber's Guige to Northern New England, cites Geoff Creighton and Josh Korman (1/1985) as the first ascensionists, when I met Geoff at the quartzite crag behind Lake Louise, and made reference to this spectacular route, he replied, "Oh, I thought they gave that one to someone else..." It seems even the route's namesakes concur: certainly, this route was climbed by John Bouchard in the seventies.

Bob Otten on the last pitch. Photo by Doug Millen