Trip: Leavenworth - FA: The Goatee

Date: 12/5/2009

Trip Report:

Today Aaron Zabriskie and I made the first ascent of a route we named, "The Goatee." It's located directly across from the descent off of Snow Creek Wall. We climbed the route in exactly three 70 meter pitches. WI3, 700 feet of ice! It was a great day out.

Pitch 1: WI2+ (70 m)
Pitch 2: WI 2 (70 m)
Pitch 3: WI 3 (70 m)

From the top we were able to walk down by following easy ramps, climbers left.

The Route:



Aaron on Pitch 2:



Pitch 3, the crux. WI3



The top, walk over to that big tree in the pic for an easy descent. (walk down)



Approach Notes:
1.5 hours from car to climbing. It's just past and up the hill from Millennium Wall.

it may be low angle but that is some sketchy looking ice. nice job.

worthleavin': the promised land of wi2-3.

nice job rooting around.

Nice!

Nice work..... hope there's more of that ahead.

shit, cool views of scw if nuthang else!

beautiful!!!

is that on the 1st switchback before the trail steepens just past SCW?

Way before the switch back. It's just after where you cut off the main trail to walk up to Snow Creek Wall.

PS No one wants to go out climbing tomorrow? Theres more ice to be had and it would be depressing not to get on it while its good...Was planning on doing something with the wife but she told me shes got to work on some otherstuff tomorrow instead.

How thick is the ice? What did you use for pro, screws, or rock pro?

We brought:

3 16 cm screws
3 13 cm screws
1 10 cm screw

No rock gear. One 70 m rope.

That was it. I was able to place every screw at one point or another all the way into the ice. Did a half hanging belay off three screws in good ice on the top of pitch 1 when I ran out of rope.

Thanks for the beta. Great pics, and i hope to be able to get on it in the next couple days. Solid work guys!

Sweet! Totally heading up there this week. Was actually around on the 2nd doing a recon but everything had water running underneath it.

with hh looking like that, the chimney/gully a couple hundred feet to the left is probably in good shape right now (fills with snow later).

Way to make me jealous! Thanks for the post

Just for reference, for anyone who wants to get on this thing, here is a map of the general location. It's not exact as I really didn't GPS it or anything. But, just walk past the Millennium Walls and start looking up on your left, you'll see it, it's pretty obvious.

Nice work dudes!

word word. nice TR, congrats!

Craig - thanks for the quick report. It sounds like I may have a partner for it Tuesday or Wednesday...

-Curt

Climbed it yesterday - was a fun day out despite the unpleasant wind. I like the third pitch... BTW, better don't follow our descent tracks. I'm sure there is a much better way down!

Thanks for getting this TR up so fast. My climbing partner saw this Saturday evening, and we were able to make it out there on Sunday to climb it. Fun Route!

For once I’ve done a route that’s gotten a repeat!, kind of makes me feel all fuzzy and warm inside.

I’m glad you guys liked it! We also thought it was a neat route and it is at a grade which we are all capable of climbing. Washington ice comes one day and is gone the next so it is extremely important to spill the beans ASAP. The more we all know, the less wasted time and the more fun/climbing we all get.

Thanks for all the compliments on the route.

Is that third pitch any fatter? It was really wet when we were on it? I would be interested in seeing a pic if it was any different.

Thanks for telling us about it. I'm still sad that it's not snowing, but starting to feel better knowing there's ice. Hafta find my own flow since probably all of cc.com will be on yours -- it looks pretty fun and a great early season warmup!!

Here's a link to my TR on the UWCC forum. It looks like the ice did thicken up a bit overnight.

http://students.washington.edu/climb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=5248