[TR] South Early Winter Spire - SWRib 9/20/2008

[DPS]

Trip: South Early Winter Spire - SWRib

 

Date: 9/20/2008

 

Trip Report:

jesselillis and I climbed the SW Rib of South Early Winter Spire on Saturday. The route was excellent and the weather held. Jesse lead the akward and/or runout pitches. Afterward we went to Mazama and Jesse on sighted a bunch of hard sport climbs on Fun Rock. I belayed. We retired to our bivi site at the hairpin pullout but it started to rain. We figured it would rain on Sunday so we made the long drive back to Seattle. All in all a great day in the hills with a great climbing partner.

 

Gear Notes:

Mediumrackbigpieces4CamalotwouldbeusefulfortheBearHugpitch

 

Approach Notes:

Tennisshoes

[Braydon]

that looks like a pretty sweet climb...how "runout" are these pitches you speek of and how many are there of this type and what's the grade on them?

[DPS]

The runout pitches are slabby face, 5.6. They have protection but you end up climbing 20 -30 ft between pieces. There are a couple of these pitches. Also the first 5.8 pitch is a wide crack which can be run out if one does not have big pieces and the Bear Hug pitch is run out unless you have gear to 6". The climbing is pretty secure on both pitches.

[crimper]

my take from doing this climb 2 weeks ago as my first climb at WA Pass:

 

i led the slabby face into the bear hug as one long pitch.

 

i didn't like the obvious friction crux (it's a white smear from traffic) which is well above gear (for me, a slung horn and a decent cam) and after some up/down/up/down b.s. i realized i could traverse right about 10-12 feet to a crack system. i did just that and backcleaned on easy terrain so

that my second could climb the friction crux and not have to follow my traverse.

 

(then again, i'm used to oregon basalt and get spooked on runout friction granite, most WA climbers probably don't even blink at that sequence - also, my partner found the slab crux more like 5.8 on follow)

 

above, we had brought 2 numbers 5s for the bear hug pitch. in hindsight, one would be enough to keep things reasonable, though two made it downright comfy and way safe. and a 4 only fit at the start of the wideness, not really protecting you once you get higher..

 

finally, the 5-10 variation just below the slabby face is sweet, i was glad my partner led it straight on instead of sneaking around it, as it was a great dual crack system with great pro (assuming you're fit enough to place it) great into climb to WA Pass, not nearly as runout as other WA granite multis i've been on. (for which this dad of 2 young'uns was thankful)