[TR] Index UTW - Green Drag-On and Wateray P1 9/14/2009

[fenderfour]

Trip: Index UTW - Green Drag-On and Wateray P1

 

Date: 9/14/2009

 

Trip Report:

Green Drag-on

 

Argus and I took a quick trip up the Drag-on on Saturday. It was hot as balls. The heat was shocking.

 

 

I started on the first pitch of Town Crier. This is a fun start that adds a pitch of sustained aid climbing. IMO, it's a much better way to get off the ground on the Drag-on

 

 

Argus sent the second pitch in about 45 minutes. For not having done a ton of aid, he moved very quickly.

 

As I was cleaning the pitch, I came across a very new bashie in the C1 corner. It was chumming a nice cam hook or small brass placement. Leave the bashies and pins at home when you are climbing this route. There is no reason to add any fixed gear. I would have removed the offending nug of aluminum, but it was set deeply and I left the funkness and chisel in the car. On a side note, there are ways to place bashies that do not involve beating the crap out of the surrounding rock.

 

P3 was fun even though I took a short fall. A yellow/red Alien caught me. I should have died.

 

Argus got on P4 (the roof) and was moving very well again. After a while, I heard "Ah, ah aaaaaaahahhhhh!" and I was jerked out of my heat-induced slumber. Argus got to tick "Aid fall" off his list of things to do for the weekend. It was a 20 footer.

 

 

I was right there when Argus rudely woke me up.

 

We stopped after P4 to reclaim our tallboys hiding in the shade at the base of the wall.

 

Waterway P1

This is a good pitch. I haven't gotten above it on the Waterway because I had alternate agendas both times I've climbed it. The guide calls this pitch A3, but it didn't seem that hard. Granted, I haven't climbed a whole lot of A3, but it didn't feel any more difficult than the third pitch of Green Drag-on which I had climbed the day before C2+F maybe?

 

Start

 

You need to do some 5.6 ish free climbing on dirty slopers to get to the first piece. Not a big deal, but kinda sketchy.

 

From there, it's up and over a roof-like feature into a groove

 

 

You could place a lot of Lost Arrows and Angles on this pitch. Offset Aliens and the two smallest ballnuts made this unnecessary.

 

I don't want to destroy too much of the mystery. Let's just say it goes from there. Bring a big hook (ring angle size) and a couple of cams in the #2 territory to sort it out and be prepared for some sketchy free climbing to the anchor.

 

Once complete, Counterfeitfake cleaned the pitch and helped me replace the anchor at the beginning of Abraxus P3 and Golden Arch P3.

 

There was one 1.5" long buttonhead, one 1" long threaded spring bolt, and one 1/4" unknown stainless bolt (it snapped).

 

We pulled all three, redrilled one of them to 1/2" and made a new 1/2" hole a bit further out. We thought about re-drilling one of the other holes, but it was only about 6" away from the first.

 

CFF getting all crazy:

 

 

The plan was to replace the anchor, then investigate the "rotten bolt ladder" on the Golden Arch's lower pitches. After a rappel into the wrong area and subsequent jugging back to the anchor, we were too gassed to get any more work done. We got the hell out of the sun and drank some beer in the shade.

 

FF doing the piggy dance

 

 

Go donate some money to the ASCA. They provided the bolts and hangers for this project. http://www.safeclimbing.org/

 

It was a good weekend on the UTW.

[StevenSeagal]

Hey cool report!

But I always thought the first pitch you did IS the official first pitch of the Drag On, while the first pitch of Davis-Holland is also the first pitch of Town Crier?

And thanks for the anchor replacement community service-