mountainmatt

Nice! The west face is a classic for sure! Its looking pretty dry up there now. Was the descent mostly snow free? Is there still snow in the boulder field just below the route? Hopefully I can get up there soon

I definitely thought that move was hard as well.

Trip: South Early Winters Spire - Direct East Buttress Date: 7/4/2009 Trip Report: Martha and I headed up to do a route that has been on the list for a long time, the direct east buttress of South Early Winters Spire (SEWS) 5.10 (A0) or 5.11. Although the forecast was for clear skies, it was sure to be hot up there with forecasts predicting temps in the 80s. On a last minute whim, we decided to throw in a little extra water (which was good since we ran out at the top). Before heading out, I found a wide variety of descriptions to this route, some accurate, some inaccurate. If you want to use a single description for the route, the Beckey guide is the most accurate (N&P is just vague, online guides are all over the place). Wanting to add to the confusion, here is my best description if you want to give the route a run: Approach: The description seemed pretty simple: Hike up from the hairpin up the main gully, traverse right, come up to the intersection between NEWS and SEWS, then head left to the base of the route. We headed up the snow (crampons helpful, but you could skip them by walking the dirt on the right side), head up to the tall tree in the center of the gully, traversed across the steep dirt and grass to the right, and headed up to the intersection of NEWS and SEWS. However, this takes you a little too far to the right, its better to take an earlier “ridge” that takes you further left of the intersection. Not wanting to back down that section of the approach, we started the climb… Pitch 0 (Matt): Having missed the correct ridge, we ended up doing a 30 foot 5.6 section to get to the right ledge system to get us to the true base of the route. After a short rest and baking in the heat, we launched up the real route. Pitch 1 (Martha): Rambling 5.6 pitch, go as far as you can until you see a reasonable tree to anchor off of. It was the usual alpine first pitch, some moss, loose rock, and vegetation. Reasonable gear along the way. Pitch 2 (Martha): 5.8 crack system with various ledges that brings you to the bottom of the large dihedral. Although the pitch is called 5.8, I had a hard time finding the 5.8 move where we went, it felt a lot like 5.6. The pitch definitely had some loose “kitty litter” rock on it which made things a little more interesting. Belay at the obvious tree. Pitch 3 (Matt): 5.9+ up the dihedral, through a roof, up to a tree. Standard “5.9+” pitch in the alpine, good gear the whole way, crux at the roof with good gear at your waist, step up, drop in a nice #4, ramble up to the tree belay. The heat started taking its toll on me at this point; sweating so bad that I slipped out of one of my jams, nearly taking a nice whipper. Pitch 3.5 (Martha): I was a little short on gear after the 9+ pitch, so Martha took over the next ~60 foot 5.8 section, good gear clean rock, up to a nice ledge with several trees. Pitch 4 (Matt): 5.10+ (or A0). After a 20 foot section of 5.8/9, you come to the first of ~14 bolts in the ladder (10+ / A0) and exit on a 15 foot section including some face moves and a finger crack (5.8/9). Contrary to the many descriptions out there, there are far more than two old bolts on this pitch (and the route). Only two of the old bolts require small width biners, but if you head up, prepare yourself for clipping into some real manky bolts alongside the good ones. I had originally planned on freeing this section, but the combination of the approach and heat, I found myself pulling on bolts pretty quickly. In cooler temperatures, it looked like a great set of slab terrain with good edges. At the last bolt, head out on some face moves to gain the finger crack. The pitch ends at a nice hanging belay on two solid bolts (super exposed!). Pitch 5 (Matt): 5.10-. After traversing over on one good and one crappy bolt, you hit a nice finger crack that takes solid jams and (despite what other descriptions say) good gear. After about 40 feet, the angle decreases and becomes about 5.7 to a small ledge. The Beckey guide describes there being a bush there, but now there is only a small stick. Pitch 6 (Matt): 5.11 (or A0). The pitch starts with mixed descriptions: 5.8 (Beckey), 5.9 (N&P), 10- (several online descriptions). I have to agree with the online descriptions. Head up a right leaning crack to some questionable gear followed by a bolt. Continue to an sloping ledge about 20 feet up with no gear on difficult terrain. From the ledge, head left to find the first of several bolts in the ladder. Tiredness getting the better of me, I pulled on through to the first mandatory free 5.9+ mantel (steeper with decent holds). Clip on to the next three bolts to the second mandatory free 5.9+ mantel (more slopy / balancy). Continue left up small ledges to a nice ledge with a single (old) bolt and a small crack. Pitch 7 (Martha): 5.6. After one tough move off the ledge, continue up a nice wandering series of cracks to one of many trees. Not a lot of gear, but Martha rocked it out, occasionally girth hitching trees that likely would only hold a falling poodle. Belay at one of many trees. Pitch 8 (Matt): Easy fifth. Head up rambling ledges, cracks, and trees to a large ledge. Straight above is a large mossy slab, instead of climbing that, head around the corner (left) to a crack and a final easy (unprotected) slab. Nice bolts at the anchor right on the edge of the east face. Definitely a fantastic top out. Pitch 9 (Matt): An intimidating 5.4 step down lead to easy terrain and the true summit. From the bolts, down climb about 10 feet and find a small ramp and a nice couple of holds to make the step down. Option: This move is scarier for the second, however if desired, you could put the second through the anchors, bring them down on TR, have them untie, pull the rope, and finish the easier terrain. We topped out with about a half liter of water each, with a nice descent still to go. We descended the standard south ridge, but by about the second rappel, we were inundated with mosquitoes. By the time we hit the ground, the mosquitoes were intolerable, with a mosquito coming into your mouth when you took a breath, and hundreds swarming around our heads and gear. Even though it was really hot, we put on our shell jackets, put up our hoods, and started booking it down (being followed by the standard pee loving mountain goats). We hit the parking lot and found it fairly empty, so we started our hitchhiking back to the hairpin. After about a half a mile, a nice couple picked us up and delivered us to the hairpin and the much need water, food, and a celebratory beer Thanks for the pics Martha Looking up from the hairpin, SEWS on the left, DEB goes up the center of the face: Hiking up the snow: Looking up pitch 1: Looking down at the hairpin: Matt coming up pitch 2: A little hot for freeing, so it was bolt pulling time p4: View from the summit: Matt traverses over to the true summit and the descent: Coming down the south ridge: Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons are nice in early season (not needed now). Rack doubles to 3", single #4, lots of draws for the bolt ladder. If you are going to try freeing the ladders, you might consider throwing in a screamer or two for the old manky bolts (small biners).

One hell of a link up there Sol and Tyree! Wow, no bugs for you guys eh? It was hard to inhale yesterday without them coming into your mouth!

Everyone is familiar with the classic routes in the Enchantments: Prussik - west ridge, south face Dragontail - serpentine, backbone w/fin Stuart - north ridge, girth pillar CBR - west face ...and basically anything written up in Nelson and Potterfield. What are some other great routes up there that deserve some traffic?

Your only real concern will be rock fall, bring a helmet, skip the rope.

Wow, nice week in the enchantments for sure! The chimney pitch on the south face of Prussik can be protected using the small crack on the face to the left, but the start you did is way more fun for sure! Nice to see that you got on Sunchips as well (we called it 3 short pitches at 5.8, but pitches definitely could be linked and the 5.8 cruxes are really short). Is the route pretty clean? Are the tree anchors still there?

Thanks! I made the map up in Illustrator. I think people should definitely check the area out, so I made a little map to make sure people found it. I would do some of the hand drawn topos, but alas I would like to keep my day job. We definitely did some brush clearing up there, but more could still be done. If you are heading up and you have some small clippers or a mini hand saw, you might throw them in the pack. Lots of route potential up there if you are looking to put up some FAs...

Here is a little map to help you get there if you are interested...

I didn't take any pics, but I can say that the rock is WAY cleaner than shown in this picture (that pitch is basically moss free except the last 5 feet or so).

Hey CBS, Yeah that was us over on the other side of the tracks. Nice to see some other people checking out the lines up there. After doing the first route, we knew we would be back, so we spent a little time making it easier / possible to walk around. Not perfect, but its a start. We will have to chat next time I see you up there

Hells yeah guys! Way to get on it! How is the descent coming down the backside?

Headed up there today to check out the new area (even though there was some guy blocking the road a mile and half from the trailhead). Not getting an early start, we did "the other side of the tracks." Although the first pitch was a little mossy, p2 and p3 were very clean and offered spectacular climbing. The last two pitches had a little moss, but were mostly clean as well. Some of the other lines are looking like they are getting some travel as well and there is definitely a lot of route potential up there still. Go check it out! Thanks everyone that found the new area and put up some fun lines

Sweet! Time to go get on the dome again. Was the sidewalk mostly dry and pebble free?

Congrats on the summit and the engagement!

Looks like a sweet day out! Never did the Great arch, but it looks a little like Diedre at Squamish.

I doubt there was anyone to our left, as the next routes over are the death chimneys (additionally we never saw or heard another person up there all day, however there were lots of people over by Thin fingers). If there was someone there that we somehow didn't see, the rock fall was in no way intentional and we are sorry if it came close to you (I sure as hell didn't like it coming withing feet of me!)

That was most likely us up on the quarry. We were a team of three and when my friend was seconding he pulled a huge block out that came very close to hitting me down below. We were all ok, but if you are doing any of the routes over the quarry, be careful, there is a lot of loose rock over there.

Although I learned a lot about poodle shaving from your image, this might be a little more helpful.

There is a long running post in the Access section, but here is the short of it: 3 O'clock - road clear to TH, hike is mostly clear Green Giant - road clear till 4WD required section, saw people hiking up there, but I am not sure about trail conditions Exfoliation - road blocked after the campground, clearing will require a saw

Now that is a series of leads to string together! 12b, 13a, 13c, 12b, 12d, 13c, 14a/b, 13c, 13d, 13d, 12d, 14, 14a, 14a, 13c/d, 13+, 12b, 11, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12

We camped at the second campground on the way to Exfoliation dome. When walking out of camp on the way uphill, you hit trees of varying sizes fairly quickly. Would love to see the Exfoliation dome road cleaned up as well, lots of unfinished business up there Thanks to everyone who is helping in the effort!

Six of us headed up on Saturday armed with multiple saws (thanks to alpinefox for the extra saw) and a chainsaw (thanks to cfire for trusting me with his skis, I mean chainsaw). The Forest service (or someone else) cleared through to the 3 O'clock TH for the most part. Since we had already had all the tools and planned on not climbing on Saturday, we went and took most of the trees out on the way to Green giant buttress (others remain once the road becomes 4WD required). The downside? We did not have a chance to clear all the way up to Exfoliation dome. There is still a large amount of dead fall there including several chainsaw required trees. The routes on 3 O'clock are starting to get a descent amount of travel and are cleaning up nicely. Go and get your fill!

Way to get after it! Walking down through the avy debris to the boulder field was certainly not fun though. Glad the it finally was a go for you

Found a nice pair of recently resoled rock shoes at 3 O'clock rock (06/07/09). Drop me a PM if they are yours.