Icicle Buttress - R&D 5/4/2008
Posted By: KaskadskyjKozak in Alpine Lakes
Trip: Icicle Buttress - R&D
Date: 5/4/2008
Trip Report:I know this is ho-hum for must rock-jocks here, but my TR to Spray ratio sucks.
I drove up from the Eastside and met two guys at the Snow Creek TH Sunday at about 9. They had been top-roping all day the day before up to 5.10b, but still considered themselves "newbies". I suggested we do an easy multipitch and we drove up to Icicle Buttress to take a look. We saw two parties en route - the second was about halfway through the 2nd pitch, so we hiked up to the base of the climb and geared up.
I've never been up R&D and was going by a route description from SummitPost. The description mentioned heading up to some easy cracks and a slab with bolts. I saw some shiny bolts over an awkward bulging start and no cracks, and some older bolts next to a "gash". We opted for the latter. The slab had some lichen and my footing was a little sketchy, but that eased off and I seemed to be on route. I ran the rope out to close to 200 feet and belayed the two followers (the middle guy dragged a second rope).
The second pitch went well too, with mostly easy terrain and a few moves. I ran the rope up close to the chimney, but I think I ended up too far up, and had to set up a belay from a smallish ledge.
This freaked out my 2nd especially when he saw a biner was caught on the runner on one of the anchors and was almost coming off (I looped a flake with one runner and girth-hitched a separate chock with a second, so we were good with a back-up).
Third pitch was short and super easy. The few moves in the chimney were hella fun. One thing worth noting: as I placed my first piece below the chimney I saw a small snake slither in a horizontal crack. I don't know if it was a rattler or not. I moved above it quickly.
The fourth pitch started with a near fall. A few moves into the right crack (5.7) I stepped up and somehow caught some of my pieces and/or a runner from my rack harness on the piece I had just placed. I couldn't move up, and couldn't clear the problem directly, so I just unclipped a piece and a runner and shook them loose and moved up.
My follower moving up the right-most crack on the fourth pitch.
At this point I saw a tree and thought that was the spot to belay from (as per the route description). So I belayed my followers, and then looked for the walk-off. Ooops. We weren't done. So we did a fifth pitch to make it interesting. I zipped up the crack with about 6 cams and topped out quickly.
KK ready to walk off.
The walk-off sucked, and I think I put some permanent scratches on my climbing shoes on the way down. We got off the trail somehow. We only carried up some water and food (the 2nd did) and not shoes.
Temps were in the 70's, sunny, PERFECT. We enjoyed a beer at the car and drove home.
View up the route after our descent - time for a beer!
It took way too long (5 hours?) but we didn't hold anybody up. One party almost caught up to use on the "5th" pitch.
Gear Notes:Nuts, Hexes, Cams up C4 #4, green and yellow alien.
Approach Notes:Walk off sucks.
