BootsandPants Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 Trip: Mt. Garfield - Infinite Bliss Date: 7/4/2013 Trip Report: A little late, but thought I'd still share while I'm catching up on some TRs. Independence day; the 4th of July. Time to fire up the BBQ, grill up some tube meat, drink a bunch of beer, and blow stuff up. ‘MURICA! While drunkenly playing appendage roulette with gunpowder is certainly appealing, Sasha and I decided to abuse our phalanges in a different way; climbing. We searched for a worthy objective we could reasonably accomplish in one day and settled on Infinite Bliss, a fun little alpine romp close to home. Sasha had been skunked on the route a few weeks prior, it being at the top of his list for revenge. We met at a leisurely 530am. I was on my motorcycle and stated that I have a strict “no nuts to butt” rule on the bike unless dire emergency dictates otherwise. He agreed that it was indeed a good rule, and we were off in his car. After a brief stop for coffee, and another brief stop to deal with the after effects of said coffee, we found ourselves in the little pull-off used to access the climbers trail to the route. After a spirited debate on how many draws to bring, we settled on all of them, and were off. I had thought the approach was pretty short, and in terms of alpine climbs it is, but I’ve been focusing on improving my technical climbing this summer and let’s just say I’m not in the best approaching shape (at least that’s what I told Sasha, who believed me). 45 minutes of stairmaster root pulling later we were granted with a view of the route, or the half we could see that wasn’t in the clouds. ‘Holy shit, that’s a ton of vert’ I thought, but my mouth said ‘Holy shit, that’s a TON of slab’. We racked up with our plethora of quickdraws and a few heretical small cams and Sasha stole the first lead and took off flying up the slabs like he was levitating. The ropes eventually go taught with Sasha tugging on them telling me to get my ass moving. We simulclimb. Smearing up the slabs, I count endless bolts and pass 4 anchor stations, getting heavier and heavier the higher we climb. Eventually the unthinkable happens and Sasha runs out of quickdraws, forcing a belay after a scant 4 pitches. I reach the anchor, a quick fist bump is shared, then we launch into our regular routine as I set out on the next expanse of flowing granite. “You’re on belay” he says, “Alright, I’m out of here. Climbing” I reply, “Not for long” he retorts. This exchange never gets old, always smearing a grin on my face. I climb, picking my way up the expanse of granite spilling out from the upper mountain. The moves monotonous and uninteresting; smear, smear, smear, edge step, clip bolt, pause and look for the next one, find it, smear, smear, smear et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. Eventually the ropes go taut and it’s my turn to impatiently yank on them to tell Sasha he’s slow since he hasn’t cleaned the anchor in 3.2 seconds. “UP CLIMBER” I yell, no response (maybe a finger gesture). Time passes, we climb on. I stop once I run out of draws, luckily on a huge bouldery ledge. Greeting Sasha as he passes over the lip we check the time; 7 pitches in 90 minutes. Good time, although we pitch out the next few pitches as the grade goes into territory we don’t particularly feel like simuling after one 200 foot 5.5 pitch with one bolt on it. I draw the short straw and lead the first 5.10b crux. Sasha chatters away at how awesome it looks while I thrutch up vertical slab. Face climbing is a weakness, and it is being displayed for the Snoqualmie Valley to see here on pitch 11. I make it through and longingly look at a crack/flake system from the anchors while Sasha styles the thing. The climbing after is fairly fun for a little bit, going at 5.8 we start simuling again. Pitches pass us by and bolts become scarce. Finally we reach the point which I’d been silently dreading the whole climb. Pitch 16. Low 5th class. No bolts. No pro. Over a full rope length. This was the pitch that skunked Sasha earlier in the summer. Routefinding is difficult as everything looks the same; broken chossy rock with kitty litter spread about. My lead, and I’m TOTALLY AMPED ABOUT IT! At least that’s what I told myself. Off I go. 20m; rambling up a ramp type feature. 30m; straight up the face. 40m; consult the topo and continue to wander. 50m; place a tiny cam in a disintegrating crack to easy my mind and laugh at the thought of it holding a fall. 55m; start getting worried that I can’t find the anchors anywhere. Taut rope; fuck. I yell and ask Sasha if he’s OK simuling for a bit. “Did you find the anchors?” he asks? “Sure, they’re right up here” I lie. So here we are, simuling crumbly 5th with nothing holding us on the mountain but sheer force of will and C4 rubber, the rope a suicide pact between the two of us. Don’t look down. Don’t think about Sasha falling. I think about anchor chains and burritos instead; burritos are always good. After another 20m of fumbling around the anchor is finally spotted. With a sigh of relief I clip into the first hard point of pro in almost 80m. Sasha comes in and we share some words about that pitch, mostly profane. He sets out on another pitch of the same, however the anchors are clearly visible from our stance. After this last rambly chossy shitpitch; sphincters unpucker, we laugh and fist bump, the only things we can do to alleviate the stress. From here the bolts start picking up again. P19, the crux, comes up and Sasha gets the lead. Delicate face moves abound. His inner sporto is unleashed and he cruises it. Fun pitch even though I have to pull on the last draw since I’m short and couldn't reach the last hold in the sequence. From here, getting to the top is a formality. Some of the hardest 5.8-5.9 climbing I've ever done due to the exhaustion setting in. Both of us ready to be finished. I’ve been getting chills for a while now but dismiss it to climbing without a jacket. We finally top out, whooping and fist bumping while looking down at the massive hulking waterfall of granite we just climbed. We’re only halfway there; the descent taking us back down the route. 23 rappels now lay ahead of us. After the second rap, Sasha inquires if I have an extra belay device. In the spirit of the holiday, his decided it needed to taste the sweet freedom only America can provide and took off down the slab, pinging it’s laughter down 2000 feet. Fuck. I congratulate him on being the person I know who’s done the most munter hitch raps in a row, assuming we get off this wall that is. We develop a system that consisted of him rapping and twisting the ever-loving piss out of the ropes, then me following and straightening them out again through my device. After getting past the unprotectable kittylitter horrorshow on a bogus diagonal rap that was more assisted downclimbing, we begin simulrapping. This speeds things up a considerable amount and only twists up one rope at a time. Success! We make it to the base just as the twilight fades. Upon packing up, I start to worry that the reason I was feeling really cold on route (and still at the packs) was not due to the lack of jacket, but to a developing fever. Sasha dismisses my thoughts and diagnoses me an acute case of wussitis. Stating that I don’t need him to call a whambulance, we head out and make it back to Seattle sometime late. I spend the next 3 days in bed with a 104 degree fever. Wussitis my ass. My Conclusions: • Saying Infinite Bliss is a sport route is wrong. Infinite Bliss is NOT a sport route, it’s a full on alpine experience in which you must be comfortable with many alpine style techniques, route finding, and have excellent endurance. It just happens to be bolted. Your standard cragging sport climber will have a very hard time finishing this route. Much more to it than clipping bolts. • While I see the vision the first ascentionists were going for, I don’t really agree with it. It’s cool though and that’s the beauty of it; we don’t have to agree. I’m glad it’s there for the experience it provided, and there were definitely some fun pitches, but we won’t be going back anytime soon (or ever probably) • Doing Infinite Bliss with a fever makes it much harder • I suck at face climbing Top-down Sasha on the "summit" Obligatory over-under Stoke Gear Notes: All the quick draws you have. We took 25 to simul as much as possible without having to reset. Approach Notes: Follow the trail. Don't turn off too soon, you need to go above the lower waterfall Quote
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