eldiente Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 Trip: Index - Davis-Holland to Lovin' Arms Date: 6/23/2009 Trip Report: I've heard a lot of things about this route, some true some untrue. Here is what we found. Micah an I drove up from PDX late Friday and stayed in Seattle Friday night. We slept in and were generally lazy, I think we started up the route at 10:30ish. The apprach beta in the guide book is fine, steep easy hike through the woods. Pitch 1: 5.9 Micah leads. First few jams felt damp and a bit greasy. The hot sun didn't help matters. Perfect crack for 50 feet takes you to some low 5th class moves and a anchor. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_002.jpg[/img] Pitch 2: 5.10Bish. (maybe combine with the first if you use long slings?) I lead. One of the better pitches on the route. Really good jams, crux for me was a section of .75s (tight hands) Sort of an awkward little flared crack the end that takes fist stacks. If your bad at .75 (green BD) sized cracks you might want to bring some extra in that size. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_007.jpg[/img] Pitch 3: 5.10C Micha leads. I heard there was a hard under-cling move right off the belay. There indeed is a roof/undercling move you have to make but it is trival. Try not to put any gear while moving left over this roof. Rope drag. The other crux is a thin little layback move to a jug in the middle of the pitch. Micha places a micro nut and slips reaching for the jug, the only fall of the day. Doh! I've got a long reach and am able to bump up to the jug without too much fuss. Maybe a 5.10C move but not sustained. Above this there is really cool flared finger locks taking you to a plush belay ledge. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_011.jpg[/img] Pitch 4/5: 10Cish ( I combine pitch 4 and 5, about 190 feet total) This is where the route gets rad. Not sure why people stop at that hanging stance below the chimmney, any thoughts on this? The start of pitch 4 right off the belay is the crux of the route for me. Sort off angle flared jams, really fun though. The hard jamming only last for 30-40 feet before it gets into bomber jams and moves into a wide flaky chimney. This pitch looks like ass from the belay (dirty) but is actually clean where it needs to be. I clip the chains for the top of pitch 4 and continue on up into the chimney on pitch 5. The chimney is steep but no wide skills are required ( I would know, I suck at OW climbing) There is flakes and cracks you can yard on, mellow. 20 feet above the chimney there is this crazy horizontal flake that takes you right into a another crack system. If your linking these pitches, try not to put any gear in before the traverse, you might have horrible drag later on. The traverse looks wild and it is, very airy and committing climbing but not difficult. The rail traverse takes a .75, use long slings if linking. The rest of the pitch is very airy face with some crack moves, feels a lot like Red Rocks. 60M of climbing with a lot of variety. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_017.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_018.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_020.jpg[/img] Pitch 5 (or 6 from the guide) 5.9 I lead. Rumored to be "R." I find the climbing to be safe, a bolt and some small gear in flakes is all you need. Climbing is very gym like, steep face climbing on good holds. Short pitch ends at the tree and a chain belay. Summit! [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_021.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_024.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_0187.jpg[/img] Gear: Double Cams, Green Alien to #2 BD. One #3 (optional) Maybe tipple on the .75 size. Small nuts needed to protect thin crux on Pitch 3. All belays are bolted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRbetaFlash Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 eff yes. I need to finally get up there and give this a whirl. You make it sound like quite a party, which I'm sure it is. Good beta on the rope drag stuff too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianmoore Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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