Otto

Thanks for cluing him in, js. Lucky, even better would be to pick up a copy of Rattle & Slime, the Darrington guidebook CD. It has pictures and topos of the new routes in the Squire Creek drainage. Be sure to get the new 2010 version.

Congratulations! Nice to see a full TR of this route.

Good question, I noticed the same thing years ago. A partner who showed me around Index called it Free at Last, this was in the mid-1980s. I hope you get an answer!

Wow! Adventurous stuff there. Way to go! Takes balls to rap off down the Witchdoctor; just looking down it makes me shiver...

What to do with all those curvy bits of metal? Wind Chimes!

Thanks for your comments! It sounds like you had a great time. Not sure I agree with you about the top two pitches being dirty; they can be done without actually touching the dirt. But yeah, it's not like the white waves of granite below... Good on you for doing the Daddy! Otto

Sounds good. My bad, I was reminded by my partner that we were also there earlier in the month, on July 4th, which is when we thought there was no sign of earlier passage through the ferns. What do you think of the crack pitches 19, 21 and 22? How hard have you tried to free pitch 20? Did you take any pictures? Can we expect a TR soon? Interested!

Hi jshamster - I understand that you were there on Tuesday, July 6 and climbed the route. We passed through the following Friday, July 9 and saw a pristine fern field just above the creek. So, I have to conclude you use a different start up from The Beach, just after the creek crossing, to get into the forest. I'm interested in finding any braided trails in there. It seems awfully dense with brush. Do you plunge into the ferns at a big, white boulder? Like this:

Very nice, that's a cool spire. Thanks for the good TR. Under the snow on the steep approach gully is a mine shaft you can look down into, with yellow tailings all around.

We took a look at the bottom of the Slab Daddy route on Squire Creek Wall on Friday. It is completely snow-free and ready for action! We couldn't help noticing we were the first party through the fern forest at the start of the wall approach. We bashed a very nice tunnel through it, good to go. We also scraped away fallen branches, etc, from the boot-track up through the forest - it's in the best shape it's ever been.

We did the first pitch of Flies 'n Bees, as recommended in Rattle & Slime. Fun pitch; those flakes seem solid to me. Sloth, you say you whipped "off the bolt under the overlap" - is that like the second bolt on the pitch, the one with some old back-off slings attached?

Great pictures and TR. Thanks!

Good stoke for more slab pitches, thanks!

mattp, it looks to me like he is to the left of Revolver, on Penny Lane. It looks like the second pitch, which is 5.8, not the fourth pitch. (Remember not to include the initial "approach pitch" up to the first chain anchor in the numbering. Nor the first pitch of Silent Running if you approach it that way). It is possible there is an old route up the brushy cracks in the middle, possibly called Picadilly Circus, but DavidW doesn't show it in his guide. Anyway, he would probably know.

I agree with gene. Even further, it's bad form to lower off of chain links, as it wears down the chain and eventually someone has to replace it. (It may not be difficult to replace, what with quicklinks, but still, someone has to go to the trouble). I was once chastised for lowering off chain at Red Rocks, at one of the over-popular crags. A local made a snide comment, I thought about it, decided he was right.

I haven't done it up high, that looked impossible. Done it twice down low, with a hook in the midway bolt (or was it a pin?) both times, where it is fun! Can't imagine the athletics involved with less rope out.

Trip: Three O'Clock Rock - Revolver, The Rash Date: 6/23/2010 Climb: Three O'Clock Rock, Revolver, The Rash Trip Report: Yale and I took off yesterday and went up to Darrington on that fine and cloudy day. I tried to do the fifth pitch of Revolver but failed. We rapped off, went over and did The Rash. Yale at the start of Revolver's approach pitch. Got wrench? On the second pitch Yale on the fourth pitch Cool features up here Yale pulling the overlap directly as there is a wet streak blocking the way around to the next bolt He floated it Yale led the first pitch of The Rash with its cool flakes. Otto got the amazing Rash Then we did Dirt Circus, more on that later. We saw only one other party, on Luke. Another fine day on Darrington granite.

I went back up with partner Yale and added some chain to the second pitch belay anchor. Previously, had a fun conversation with my physicist buddy Steve Z. from Albuquerque. In which I was reminded of the trig function by which you can calculate the force on a bolt in a two-bolt anchor. X = a bolt Y = the other bolt, horizontal with X w = the weight of the climber plus rope, etc. F = the force on the bolt X t = the angle between XY and force vector F w and XY form a right triangle. So, from trig: Fsin(t) = w ...switching it around: F = w / sin(t) Remembering that the sin of 0 is zero, as t gets smaller the denominator approaches zero - infinity! = big bad force on the bolts. Conversely, the longer the chains, the denominator approaches 1 and the force on the bolt is just the weight of the climber. So, we brought up some chain for the second pitch anchor.

To finish my Revolver rebolting blog, I offer this tableau

It was a really good slide show last night. I can't believe nobody else has reviewed it here, so here goes. There were wonderful photos and stories of the upper Squire Creek climbs by Chris Greyell. jmclimber and I resolved then and there to get up to Salish Peak this summer. There were background stories about all the Clear Creek crags by David Whitelaw, complete with historical photos. And a trip down memory lane for me with the photos and stories of Slab Daddy. Memorably, I got a chance to meet one of my heros, Don Brooks. I followed his white guidebook around the crags for several years, in the beginning. I showed him his bolt from the original first pitch of Silent Running he placed in 1973. If you're interested, there is a closeup of it over in the Revolver TR in the North Cascades section. It's the Leeper hanger with the little crack from the edge to the bolt hole. We had a laugh over that; he said there were nice SMC hangers available then, but not as cheaply! Whitelaw showed a great photo of Don pulling the initial overlap on that pitch on the FA. Thanks, David and the crew at Marmot Mountain Works, for an informative and enjoyable evening!

A goofy camera angle, an amused afterthought in the midst of a day of constant activity... [video:youtube]

I'm getting ready to go to Bellevue, Marmot Mountain Works, for the pictures and stories about Darrington! If you're a fellow frictioneer, I hope you are, too! Starts at 7:00 tonight!

Off_White, yes that's right, I'd wanted to try that for a long time. The trick is to always pull through enough slack, while on a good stance, to get you up to the next good stance. I was a little disappointed at how much force it took to pull the rope through the Soloist. But on easy friction pitches, there is always a knob or wave to stand on and pull rope with one hand. And yes, it would have been good to leave two chain sections on that anchor. I have them; I'll bring them to Marmot tonight to DavidW's slide show. If you're there, Off, I'll give them to you to send back up! Thanks, hope to see you (all) there! Darrington Rock slide show, Marmot in Bellevue, 7:00 tonight!

hanman, those are good notes, thanks. And of course Thanks for doing the original re-work! I know about Till Broad Daylight; I've been wanting to redo that anchor right above the Great Arch (top of third pitch) for a long time. And it's funny you should mention Magic Bus' second pitch - my partner chucK looked up at that, his turn to lead, and said No way I'm climbing that! (I went back later and climbed it to check it out, you're right, they all need replacing!) When I mentioned this to DavidW, he suggested a route even more in need of some love is Dirt Circus' second pitch. Skeptical of the anchors on that. So, that's my next objective for cleanup. Thanks for the nice comments, all!

mountainsloth, great comments, thanks! Good picture - I remember staying off that wet streak on pitch 4, I believe. Revolver, like many a beauty with an even temperment, has many suitors.