[TR] Tieton River Update- 4/2/2005

[sobo]

Climb: Tieton River Update

 

Date of Climb: 4/2/2005

 

Trip Report:

Not really a trip report per se, but hey, WTF!

 

After being shut down on locating a partner for Saturday, I decided to leave my gear and just grab my shoes and tour the canyon to see what was up. The good news: The raptor closure has been lifted at all areas throughout the Tieton. The bad news: No eaglets this year. And all the campgrounds are still closed.

 

Saw the folks at Royal Columns, about two hours before the accident there.

 

Saw a few more small groups at The Bend.

 

Moon Rocks: empty.

 

Windy Point, The Cave, and The Oasis: No evidence of climbers.

 

Couldn’t tell about Rainbow Rocks, but no cars were at the typical parking spot.

 

Goose Egg: Still a little snow on top, but all routes were dry except Gangsta Rap. Started to snow and hail while I was there. Quit pretty quickly, tho.

 

Wildcat Creek Road is easily passable to all but the dopest low-riders, but mushy the higher you get. Watch out for winter’s “trundle” debris. I kicked off everything smaller than a basketball on the road up, but stuff is still actively calving off. Wildcat Wall is dry, Beehive is, too. Honeycomb Buttress is wet on the road side of the slab from snowmelt dripping through the munge up top.

 

Headed over to The Caldera and finally broke out the shoes. It was my first time there, and I found Nakedness, Broken Glass, The Cube, and Balance of Power, and what I think was Dead Deer Boulder. The “map” in the guide is horribly out of scale, but general enough in nature to find the biggest stones. I lucked onto Balance of Power on the way back to the truck. It actually is probably the closest rock to the parking area, but it is hidden by some brush and pines. Head straight off the road end about 100 yards and you’ll fall right over it. Since I don’t boulder much (at all), I can’t confirm any of the ratings, but they seem to fall in line in a “relative difficulty” way (Nakedness Boulder easy, Broken Glass Boulder harder).

 

Lastly, touched on Lava Point. Road’s clear, a little mushy up top. Couldn’t find the descent for Dream Wall, but scoped a few lines on Deadheads and Lava Wall. Crikey! That place looks pumpy!

 

It was getting right dark by then, so I headed for the barn. The mess at Royal Columns had been cleaned up long before I drove back through.

 

Ice Climbers: Believe it or not, the recent dump at White Pass looks to have brought new life to Strobach! At least three (maybe four) climbs to the right of Separation Gully are still touching down, and appear to go all the way up to the brush anchors. However, I would suspect that the ice is probably quite aerated. And I was looking at this from three miles away with a 12X spotting scope, so YMMV if you go in. Snow level was about 4k this past weekend.

 

Lastly, your Finger on the Pulse of the Tieton will be leaving town soon. We bought a spread in the Dry-Shitties and will be out of the Palm Springs of Washington in about two months. Why I ever let myself go for this I’ll never know. I guess I still want to be married to her and see my boy.

 

Get on over here and get some while there’s still snow in the hills and the temps are cool. It’s really neat climbing on the dry rock and looking around at all the snow-capped moun-tains!

 

 

Gear Notes:

Y/F guide, shoes

coulda used a partner

 

Approach Notes:

Everything's open

[catbirdseat]

What are you climbing options in the Tri Cities area? Hope you have a reliable set of wheels, because you are going to be putting on some miles.

[sobo]

Actually worse than where I am right now, but there are some bright spots.

 

Vantage is about the same distance from Yakivegas as it is from the Dry-Shitties, but add about 10 minutes longer for the drive because there won't be interstate highway access.

 

Spring Mountain is across the border in Oregon.

 

Lightning Dome will be 1.5 hours closer for the weekend car camp/climb outing (my favorite spot in the PNW).

 

And I'll be 1.5 hours closer to the Selkirks, Chimney Rock, and ice climbing in BC and Alberta.

 

All in all, not bad, but nothing will be in my own back yard quite like it is in Crackima.

 

And I keep all my transportation options in top operating order at all times. It is critical to my livelihood.

[goatboy]

Saw the folks at Royal Columns, about two hours before the accident there.

 

 

What's the story with the accident? Is there a separate post about this? Thanks.

Edited April 5, 2005 by goatboy

[sobo]

Only info I have is from AlpineK's post on the first page of the "What Did You Do This Weekend" thread in Spray, and some info I picked up locally that indicated three different Fire Departments showed up to the fracus.

[selkirk]

Last thing I heard was it was one of the poor guys first trad leads. He was several pieces up and pitched (I think it was on the route just right of Nimrod's Nemesis? (The big roof on the climbers left at Royal Columns, which goes 5.5 I think)). From word of mouth it wasn't a spectacularly bad fallm just more than bad enough. Probably 10 or 12 ft, no ground fall, and his pro held. But he must have caught his foot on something during the fall. Sounds like a combination of newness to leading and bad luck while falling. A good reminder that even if you don't hit the ground you can hurt yourself.

[sobo]

...I think it was on the route just right of Nimrod's Nemesis? (The big roof on the climbers left at Royal Columns, which goes 5.5 I think)...

 

Nimrod's is indeed the 5.5 roof at the left end of the wall. The adjacent route is Nimble Novice, also a 5.5.

 

The wall there is nothing close to vertical, so a fall (even a short one) can easily place one into a position to catch an appendage on the voyage down and tweak it pretty hard. Sometimes shit just happens.

 

Bummer the guy got hurt. I hope he heals up soon.