Trip: Black spider wall new route - Fric-Amos

Date: 3/20/2010

Trip Report:
The 19th me and a Bill Amos went up to the Black Spider wall with the intentions of climbing the center drip and bivied a little ways below the face. When we got there we eventually decided that the unclimbed route looked like it was in way fat, so we tried it out.

The route is the couloir above the star shaped snow bowl.




We got up at 3:45 and headed out from the Schrund, there was some simuclimbing to reach the bottom of the couloir.





This is a view of the bottom of the couloir and Bill leading the first pitch





All of the pro was pretty much worthless and it was spitting rocks, ice and spindrift all over us. The second pitch was the crux and Bill has the other pictures he'll be posting them in a few days.

Here is Bill comming out of pitch 2 and then leading pitch 3.





The rest of the climb was 3 or so simuclimbed pitches to reach the summit ridge of steep snow, with one more step of 70-80 degree ice for about 15 feet. If you wanted to go up there at this little ice section you could go left to the next gully and climb a different finish with a pretty nice looking vertical had to protect chunk of ice, Bill might have a picture of it.



Over all the route was pretty awsome and speed was a definate must, if we were a little faster the other finish would have been a possibility. Glad we got on it. We decided to call it the Fric Amos route, After our names, Dustin Fric and Bill Amos.

Gear Notes:
Stubbies would be helpful

Approach Notes:
Further then it seems, bring a stove

Awesome!

great pictures! I was the guy who offered you a beer at the hogsback. Congratulations on the new route!

Well done Lads! Fine looking adventure !

Wow I've been looking for tr's on this wall forever...keep 'em coming!

Nice one Bill

Wow! That is hard core! You guys are animals! Can't wait to get up there and give her a go! What do you reccomend for gear? If your the Bill I met at Smith Rock, you are one bad ass dude! Rock on!

nice work, men.

Nice work!!!

No doubt it was the yellow hard man pad that made it all worthwhile!

Good work and get back to work! You're bartacking slowly!

that's some nice pack porn

It was a great route! Highly recommended, although I would probably try to find a window with a little colder temps or overcast skies as it is essentially a garbage chute and gets immediate morning sun.

This was my third attempt at climbing the Black Spider and Dustin's first time climbing Hood. Not bad! We approached via the Tilly Jane Trail and bivyed at 7,500', carried over, descended the South side and did the car shuttle thing.

Heck yeah, thanks for that Bill.

Now, Only 6 of the possible 12 routes have been done on the Spider.
I hope my project on the N side stays secret until the new guide "outs" it.

At least we can put both this and your recent FA's in the book at the same time! Nice too we have another month before final edits are over and everything gets sent off to the publisher.

We also have a project on the real N side of Hood to be done in a classical himalayan style but weather is not cooperating yet...

Dustin and Bill, here's my little write up.

Dustin! This is Chris Stroud. Its been forever! Looks like you've been tearing it up. You should hit me up! I'm living in Seattle. I'm on facebook, or you could email me stroud.chris@gmail.com.

Nice, Gents!