best of cc.com [TR] Early Winter Spire- The Passenger IV 5.11c 8/30/2006

[Sol]

Climb: SEWS-The Passenger IV 5.11c

 

Date of Climb: 8/30/2006

 

Trip Report:

Tyree and I climbed the Passenger route last Wednesday. We had an awesome time, and found the route to be steep, clean, well-engineered, and well-protected. The grades seemed a bit inflated. We thought the crux pitch felt a bit more like 11c, not 12a. And as far as length goes, we did the route in an easy 7 pitches, not the published 9. , Proabaly not a grade V, more like short grade IV. Either way, hats off to Bryan Burdo and crew, it is a fine route on some of the best stone i've touched at the pass.

 

The red Fred description of this route is a bit ambiguous. For those who want a bit more beta, here it is. The route starts towards the bottom of the south face on the left side of the lowest buttress. Scramble left on a ledge system for about 30 ft to a tree and a set of twin cracks.

 

P1: Climb up the twin cracks to a roof, undercling left. More crack, then face, leads to a bolted belay. 2 bolts. 5.10d, 165 ft.

 

Quality climbing on P1:

 

P2: Climb fingercrack to roof/bulge. Crank through bulge and continue up via steep corners. Belay beneath large roof at fixed pin. 1 bolt. 5.11b, 60ft.

 

Below the bulge:

 

Roof, Roof:

 

P3: Good moves crank throught the first roof. Continue up steepening thin crack to second roof. Awesome moves through second roof lead to a bolted belay. 5.11a, 70ft.

 

Loving it:

 

Get some Ty:

 

P4: Move left via difficult slab traverse. Continue up to bulge, crank through bulge and traverse right to wild finish. 8 bolts. 5.11c, 70ft.

 

P5: Chimney up right side of largest roof. Pull over roof into good handcrack. Belay at grassy stance. 2 fixed pins. 5.10c, 180ft.

 

P6: Climb mildy dirty, left-hand crack, without getting spit out into the abyss. At bulge below roof, traverse left on face to tree clump and belay. 5.10d, 90 ft.

 

P7:Continue trversing left to good crack, follow up to loose top out. 5.7+, 60ft.

 

Ty and his Doo-Doo Space Pistol:

 

The route is classic, if your up for the grade, go get it. 1 to 2 sets of cams to 3 inches, nuts.

 

 

[wayne]

Wow looks like fun, That is now on the list-07,

Thanks

[tyree]

Nice TR Sol. Good times! This route is mega classic. I dont know why it gets such little attention in the guide books? It s quality climbing, some of the best in the pass. Dont let Becky's little ambiguous paragraph scare you because it is all there! There is a couple sporty runouts on p.4 that falling would be bad news, but dont fall right?

Great exposure and quality sustained climbing on good rock make this route one of my favorites! **** go get some 0-0-0-0-

[DirtyHarry]

Been wanting to get on that fucker for a while. Guess I'll have to now. Nice work!

[BillA]

There's a really nice, really clean, HARD looking line to climbers right (I'm assuming) of this line, we thought it might be this route, but it looks quite a bit harder. It's got at least three sets of anchors visible from the ground. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[billcoe]

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

Uhhhhhhhhhh no, but I could definatively see doing this with Frosty!

 

Great pic dude!

[tyree]

There's a really nice, really clean, HARD looking line to climbers right (I'm assuming) of this line, we thought it might be this route, but it looks quite a bit harder. It's got at least three sets of anchors visible from the ground. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Not sure what you are talking about. The Inferno route is right next to it but I dont know if you can see the bolts from the ground. You can see almost all of the fixed belay anchors (3 of em) from the ground on the Passenger. Are you sure it wasnt the Passenger that you were looking at? Midnight ride is to the left. I dont remember seeing any bolts tho the right when I was up there. I dunno, go climb it and let us know Tyree

[layton]

Sounds like the "Slug Trail" route Leeland et all put up

[Sol]

There is a line in between the passenger and the leland bolt fest. On my first Passenger attempt with Isaac I mistakingly attempted the first pitch.

 

From the beginning of the leland route i traversed left about 25 ft to a left-facing, left-arching corner, guarded by a bulge. I cranked through the bulge at about 10c with crappy gear then continued up the corner until the looseness and grit convinced me that if i really was on route i didn't want anything to do with it. Somehow i downclimbed back to the belay where we realized our error. I swear i could see some white tat on it about 150ft off the deck.

 

It was not a clean looking line, i'm geussing it was either unclimbed and i imagined the white tator the white tat marked the highpoint of an attempt.

 

Was the clean line covered in bolts about 22 inches apart? If so, you were proabaly looking at the leland route, if not, proabaly the passenger.

[bwrts]

I heard today from MA that the line between passenger and leland may be another Burdo route... anyone confirm?

[Tony_Bentley]

Cascade Mall is the unofficial name to Leiland/Cotman.

[olyclimber]

is the 11c section slab climbing? 11c slab??

[Blake]

is the 11c section slab climbing? 11c slab??

 

 

 

Steep Finger cracks?

[Sol]

is the 11c section slab climbing? 11c slab??

 

 

 

Steep Finger cracks

 

it's actually not finger cracks. the 11c pitch starts out with some devious, thought provoking, 11a slab climbing. this moves into the well-protected crux: vertical face climbing which tackles a small bulge. then to finish you crank a wild traversing bulge to the belay. great pitch with 3 unique cruxes.

[dbb]

Just thought I'd add a few more pieces of beta to this great report:

 

On the crux 4th pitch, you can get a #0 C3 (green) in between the 2nd and 3rd bolt for the last couple moves up to the 3rd bolt. Not really needed, but doesn't hurt. Make sure to pull it after clipping the bolt due to drag. This pitch goes way left, then way back right (further right than the belay).

 

Burdo added a better final pitch a year or two ago. Just keep climbing up the crack system, past the traverse into some dirty rock up to the big roof. Step right onto flakes, then move back left past a bolt to a nice finger crack in a corner (5.10a). Makes for an easy and aesthetic finish to the route.