mountainmatt

Thanks I made it up in Illustrator. Evan and I both independently made sketches of the route and took a lot of photos. Then I spent an evening with a couple of beers making it. If anyone finds any corrections or has suggestions on how to make it more accurate, please let me know and I can update it.

Actually, we had to cut about 20 small branches off of there using my tiny climbing knife. The original lead through the trees was really "fun". If you look at my hands in the Sunchips picture, you can actually see all of the sap on my hands (hot!)

Trip: Colchuck Lake - Sunchips 5.8 - FA Date: 7/26/2008 Trip Report: A while back, Evan and I headed in for four days of climbing in the Enchantments. On the first day, we searched around for potential new lines in the area. On day two, we climbed the west face of CBR (which is a fantastic line, no TR for this one since I think the subject has been covered pretty well). On Saturday, we headed over to look at one of the potential new lines we found right near the south side of Colchuck Lake. After a short hike up the hill, we found what looked like a nice 3 pitch line following a series of cracks and ledges. The route appeared to be a new line (that or it hasn’t been climbed in at least a decade or two). The climbing was excellent, easily protectable, and made up of mostly 5.6 moves. Each pitch contains a short 5.8 crux, but is well protected. Each pitch is ~25m long ending with a large ledge and a good-sized tree. On the descent, we started cleaning, brushing, and removing some branches from a tree that blocked the route. The next day, we climbed the route again; switching leads around to make sure we agreed with the gear suggestions and ratings. We also spent a descent amount of time cleaning the route, trundling rocks, removing vegetation, brushing off the moss, and establishing three belays around the trees. This route should be a nice day out for new alpine climbers, for a rest day, or people looking for something short to do as a warm up for the longer routes on Dragontail and Colchuck. Enjoy! The appraoch: Building carins on the way up: Looking up at the approach, Sunchips in the background: Where the route goes roughly: Looking up from the base: Evan on P1: Matt on P2: Evan on P3: Sunchips always taste great after a day of route cleaning: Topo (I have a much larger one, but cannot get it to post that way, PM me if you would like a copy): Gear Notes: Rack to 4", Single 60m rope, a few longrunners Approach Notes: Hike to the south side of Colchuck lake then see pictures and map above

Nice work there Tim and Ben! As always, I love the photos of Tim and the sweet backdrops. Sounds like we need to meet up sometime at the Sloop so I can hear all the details

Glad to see that you are Alive with Pleasure Dave.

Sweeeeeeeet! I can't wait to see her send Meltdown

Nice work guys! Looks like a fun route (except the chimney) Glad you got some good OW practice in for this weekend Stewart

Nice work wbk and Tim! Sweet pictures as well. Nice stokey for sure!

Did the route for the first time yesterday. The direct start is the best part of the entire route, and I thought the bolt was well placed. Thanks for cleaning a great start to the route!

Nice work! We ran into you after coming off the west face. Glad to hear that you finished the linkup

Not sure if this is already up somewhere... http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?auto_band=x&rf=sv&fr_story=e240fe22092f7b24a1565e0efb4e9bc93faa8ca3

Nice TR, and a great climb for sure Way to avoid the rock fall as well. Since Maroon Bells are basically rotting chunks of rock, so you are lucky that you weren't hit on your way down. Hopefully you can go and get the traverse some other time, its a really fun exposed hike/climb.

Awesome pics! How does one get sponsored by Walmart?

Way to get back there! After all that work it must have been hard to turn around. Were you finding it easier to travel early in the morning? Or were the temps such that you got to swim your way up no matter what?

Strong work guys! Looks like some pretty hairy sections up high there.

http://www.seanet.com/~mattp/Darr/

Sweet job Stewart! Glad the weather worked out for you

Yes, Jungle Warfare was pretty dirty. I did clean a lot of the cracks out with my nut tool, so maybe its a little better now? Another party was getting off of a route that was further to the left and they reported some dirty and wet conditions as well. My guess is that its just early season and it will clean up nicely with a few more ascents. There were several parties on Snake, but the 5.9 traverse is a bit harder right now since its wet. The forecast made it look like it rained up there some this last week, so I would assume that it is still a bit wet. I did not see Up Esc, but its on the list for the season for sure. The nice thing about that area is you can combine parts of UE and Up Esc if you want. Let me know how Up Esc is

As of last weekend... The right side of the Squaw was wet and pretty dirty. Snake was seeping. UE has 3 wet pitches (one is the 5.7 slab) Most of the Smoke Bluffs are dry as well as the right side of the Apron.

I tried calling around to find out the same information. So far all I get are a bunch of recordings that don't really provide any information. The best I can determine right now, White river campground will be open on Saturday, but they didn't say when etc. Anyone have the inside scoop?

http://mapper.acme.com/

Wow! Wow! Wow! Totally crazy! I wonder what is on the tic list next?

V 5.12+, 11 pitches TOPO Is this really true? Or is this another "puddy nuts" posting? If true, damn!

Exactly. Come on people, a climbing company is going to produce something that looks like used chewing gum on a cable? They would at least be made from a mold. This is right up there with the friction hook

I would also leave a trail of bread crumbs along the way...