Some friends and I bagged Middle Pal over the weekend. The weather was beautiful and mild, with no afternoon thundershowers. Lots of fun was had by all. The routefinding was easier than I expected. We took the Secor chute from the glacier. The snow bridge was in good shape. Nothing harder than class 3 after getting on the mountain, and plenty of fun exposure. I've heard lots of different ways to describe the chutes, but it seemed to me after traversing into the correct chute left of the unmistakable gendarme/fin structure, you just go up the very obvious chute above you, bearing left if anything, to the largest notch in the ridge with a rectangular block at the bottom of it. Once you near the ridge, traverse south under the summit, then head back north to the high point once reaching the actual ridge 10-20 feet south of the summit block. This avoids harder south-bound climbing on the actual ridge.
Favorite photos from the trip:
http://brentcoe.smugmug.com/gallery/9244279_BuF2GAll photos:
http://brentcoe.smugmug.com/gallery/9232086_h93PE
