Silver Horn - Less Sprayin\', More Playin\' - III 5.10 8/31/2008
Trip:Silver Horn - Playin' Not Sprayin' - III 5.10 Date: 8/31/2008
Trip Report:
Armed with the prospect of cold and stormy weather on an August weekend, myself an David Trippett (AviTripp) headed east to a beautiful valley on the forgotten side of Silver Star Peak with thoughts of unclimbed granite and storm avoidance.
The objective was a clean-looking spire known as The Silver Horn, an apt name given the white granite on its flanks. Red arrow marks the spot.
We woke up on the morning of the 31st to ice and frosty conditions, a theme that would continue throughout the day. After some steep alpine travel to get the blood pumping, we reached the base of the wall. From the base we climbed 8 pitches of cracks, flakes, and corners, with the occasional loose funk. A ledge splits the face at mid-height. Below the ledge we were to the left of "
The Chalice" (Berdinka/Thibault '05) and it looks like we started off the halfway ledge to the right of their climb. The finishes were certainly separate, but we may have shared some ground around p7.
P1 Begins with a big clean flake, before moving right to the base of a long corner.
P2 & P3 Follow the corner on nice cracks.
P4 Avoids the chossy roof with flakes and splitters off to the right. Snow and ice began to fall on us during this pitch, and frosty white flakes continued for much of the day.
P5 From the ledge, David drew the lead, and embarked on a really nice pitch sustained at 5.10. This involved some roofs, mantles, and a long corner crack.
P6 Stayed through the corner, before moving out right to a pedestal belay.
The man in black rockin' the white CiloGear Pack...
P7 Began with some loose funkiness before a great stemming corner and steep crux moves.
P8 We finished straight up the chimney to the summit. Pictures don't do it a whole lot of good, but the climbing was really fun, solid, and hard to the finish.
From what felt like a cave in the middle of the summit, a frozen-fingered pullup and mantle move around a little roof landed us on the top of the spire.
Overall this was a fun time in a beautiful and less-frequented corner of the Washington Pass. Thanks to Darin for the trip suggestion!
Gear Notes:Doubles of cams and a set of nuts. Bring Rappel stuff or be prepared to use what was probably Fred Beckey's shoe string...
Approach Notes:Up The Cedar Creek trail - turn right at the creek crossing draining the objective face.
