I started this trip with a slight backache, and ended up with a very big backache; I twisted my back while descending the L-Couloir, not by falling, but by trying to look back uphill.  It was still a very useful experience; I learned that I can still descend a few miles down an intense boulder-hopping route, while in intense pain.

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This is an “interesting” way to get to the L-couloir. While one does avoid the Palisade Glacier, the backpack in to Elinore Lake is very rough, with faint use trails, huge talus blocks, and significant stream crossings. If you do plan to stay at Elinore Lake, get an early start, and keep the pack weight as low as you can (both in lbs and position), as you will likely be in a position of precarious balance quite often.

On the descent from Elinore, we found the use trail most of the way; we screwed up only near the bottom of the descent from the lake. A combination of the up and down GPS tracks will give a good compromise.  The combo gpx file is here. (Do NOT open this file in the browser; save it to your desktop/computer. Right click on the link and pick "save as" or something similar from the menu. Use this gpx file AT YOUR OWN RISK!)

The route from Elinore to the base of the L-couloir is straight-forward, with one significant exception. At the unnamed lake in the bowl east of the couloir (~3730m), one should cut to the N side of the lake.  There is a seemingly easy wall on the R, and a steep gully straight ahead (W to WNW). We chose to climb the wall on the R.  Depending on where you climb the wall, it is reasonable 3^rd class, to uncertain 4^th class. The easiest way up the wall seems to be: go almost to the gully at the end of the valley, but instead of ascending the gully, cut sharp R (NE) up a bouldery ramp, then climb the class 3 wall to the top.

There was very little snow this year, and the L-couloir was deeply sun-cupped and was turning to ice near the top; these conditions could be surprises for people planning on a relatively safe crampon trip.  The L-couloir averages ~40 degrees; shallower at the bottom, steeper up near the split.  In good snow that slope is not bad. I used Al 12-point crampons and a whippet instead of an ax, but if the couloir gets icier, it would be wise to have stiffer gear, ot to avoid the snow entirely by climbing the rocks on the R side.

The catwalk (ledge south of Apex Peak, at the base of the big cliff) and 4^th class were a lot easier than I expected. There is one place where one has to creep around a rock blocking the catwalk, but overall, it feels very safe. The 4^th class section is very short, and with sticky rubber shoes (which I did NOT have), one can cut left and back on what seems more like 3^rd-class terrain.  I took 50’ of 15 mm webbing, which I double over through a sling with carabiner (already up there), and that protection was more than adequate for the return (and such gear weighs less than 1 lb).  You might also have ~12’ of webbing in case the existing slings look ratty.

Mount Sill was named after Rowland Sill, the poet who wrote “Truth at Last.” That poem refers to the guide Brennen, who was killed in an avalanche in a gentle couloir of the Haut de Cry in the Alps.