Markhor Needle Traverse

We had done this traverse a couple of times before in August 2011. The first time was a gong show, the second time was better, but this time we really got it sorted out by taking the route marked in yellow.



Just beyond the top of the first slab, rather than thrashing up and left as we did on attempt #2, we instead followed a treed gully on the right up onto the ridge. It's steep and brushy but easy. Otherwise this was much the same as the previous time with lots of scrambling, avoiding the off-width crack by moving to skiers left, and a bit of rope work for peace of mind at crux #2.