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[TR] Chimney Rock - East Face Direct + icefall 8/4/2011


Z-Man

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Trip: Chimney Rock - East Face Direct + icefall

 

Date: 8/4/2011

 

Trip Report:

Five or six years ago walked away under overcast skies after hiking into the EF of Chimney Rock with a marginal forecast.

 

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This time the view was much clearer.

 

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Despite the photos the crosscountry hiking is actually pretty straightforward and not real ugly thanks to gratuitous amounts of flagging and a fair amount of traffic. After spending the previous week climbing in California it felt like what the photos depict though.

 

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Bitchin bivy spot comes with a view, a roof over your head, and entertainment.

 

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It's a bit of a haul to take boots and steel crampons for two pitches of 60 degree ice, but it made the climb bigger, cooler, and more direct. Belaying while wedged in a shallow crevasse and sending tools down the rope saves on the weight of ice screws and extra axes, and you could climb most of it with one axe anyway.

 

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The face is covered in this stuff. My buddy left this here in 2007 and much to his chagrin it wound up in a "manky anchors" thread. There's worse in other spots on the face. We rapped off of it later.

 

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Some fun climbing, some not so fun climbing, and a soggy summit register awaits on top, good thing its an all-weather notebook. A couple sweet bivy spots right on the summit, move fast and skip the icefall and you should be able to make it up there in a day from the car. Then its time to rap and downclimb the route.

 

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Been thinking about a Chimney Rock ridge traverse since I was in there before, maybe continue it on to Lemah, anybody interested?

 

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Nice work!!

 

Yeah, that nut wasn't too bad once we got to looking at it (and setting it with an axe), we rapped off it also. Given the grade, I think we underestimated the EFD a bit- at least the lower, scrambly pitches. The last couple fifth class ones are pretty fun and protect well though.

 

How was getting onto the rock? That moat can be tricky, at least it was for us.

 

Cool summit, certainly a bit more rugged than you would expect given its location.

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