mountainsloth

... wicked!

Oh yeah p5 of Holy Grail!, I remove my initial P2 statement...oh wait, man its all good yea, easily my favorite climb in Darrington and probably in my top ten of all time.

Pitch 3, 4, & 5 of Holy Grail on the Illusion Wall. Pitch 5 might be my all time favorite. Crazy flake leads to a ridiculous knob traverse then up to a great right facing hand-crack to a perfect ledge. 180' of stunning climbing. I have climbed it twice just to be sure Pitches 5,6 & 8 of Excalibur, Illusion Wall. 2 pitches of interesting 5.9 including the "Excalibur" flake pitch. 8 is the technical crux. Finger crack, traverse, to a lower percentage steep edge/smear problem. Good topic!!!

that was the best ad for Zion climbing I have ever seen. SOLD! thanks!

I second, "do you have a job?" impressive list of what must have been a great season. I like your "onsight solo" on spontaneity. Can you red point a solo?

fall is certainly the time to take more relaxing trips and spend time wandering. Such a wonderful time of year, especially in the Enchantments!

one of my favorite places on Earth nice job enjoying it so late in the season.

i too have been eyeing this route for a couple years. Thanks for giving some insight. Sounds like one to add to the list. PS Lightning is bad for you

problem solved! thank you Water!

yea, I uploaded and attached my photos as I usually do, but they show up as a link for some reason. I am not smart enough to fix this on my own so I sent a message to you cc.com'ers but got no response. Help?

excellent read!

killer position. rock quality looks good, no?

Trip: Darrington - 2nd Comb Buttress - Psalms 61 Date: 10/8/2012 Trip Report: Finally found someone willing to explore some of the neglected routes up on the Comb in Darrington. Psalms 61 Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The biblical quote seemed to fit the day, especially the approach. The climbing was great, but the approach, although short distance-wise, was a battle of bushwacking. Whitelaw's description of the approach said 20 minutes with 2 different paths, one to the 1st and 2nd teeth and one to the 3rd and 4th teeth. We followed what we thought was the trail up to the 1st and 2nd teeth but realized half way through a flagged, old growth forest that we were headed up the wrong trail. Either way, the trail and the flagging vanished and we ended up amidst vine maple hell under the 2nd tooth. Thrashing and wandering, we ended up on ledges underneath "Desire", the other long 5.10 up the 2nd tooth. we rappelled from this ledge back into the vine maple and scrambled up to the ledge underneath Psalms. FINALLY! What was supposed to take 20 minutes took an hour! Once on route, we found fun varied climbing typical of many routes in Darrington. Friction, edges, knobs, flakes and even straight in jamming! knobs knobs and slab The flake on pitch 2 The Autumn colors and the gorgeous valley made for stunning backdrops. Good times This was probably one of the first routes in Darrington where I experienced the rumors of runout slab. Some pitches had estimated 25 feet between bolts on 5.9 terrain. Quite puckering! It was quite obvious that no one had climbed the route to its completion in years. Although all the bolts were in really great shape, the anchor on one of the upper pitches consisted of ancient webbing on two bolts. I replaced this and added a piece of webbing off a tree at the edge of picnic ledge to start the rappels since the bolt anchors are in a strange place for rappelling. Once off the route we attempted to descend the 1st and 2nd teeth approach and found much easier travel through a dried up drainage but when it ended so did our path. The last 10 minutes were wandering through mostly open forest. We still never found the start of the trail up to the 1st and 2nd teeth. It was great to take a new friend and climbing partner who has never been to Darrington out. Looking back, I probably should have chosen a route that had more traffic as an intro to a newbie to D-town but in the end she is excited to go back. All and all, a great route, but bring your route finding skills and extra gear just in case. Gear Notes: Single cams .3-3 with doubles .5-2. Nuts were VERY useful. Could have used some larger cams but not really necessary. NOT ALL ANCHORS ARE BOLTED!! Bring necessary cord, webbing, etc. Approach Notes: Read up on Rattle and Slime or PM me. The cues to the start of the approach trails (hub cap and webbing on trees) were never found. Bring your route finding skills and notes from rattle and slime.

crazy formations!

that looks like a beautiful area. Great outing!

Trip: Banks Lake - Various Date: 10/10/2012 Trip Report: Another trip to Banks lake without seeing a single other climber or human-powered boater. Paradise is a lonely place After my last visit, there was one climb that continued to linger in my mind... PRIME CUT! taken 2011. We made a quick visit to this classic and it was just as lovely as I remember. Thank you Mr Whitelaw and Brooks. We tried a mixed line to the left of Prime Cut but found it much harder than expected. Anyone know what it goes at and who put it up? Also, these two climbs deserve a bolted 2nd pitch through hueco'ed roofs. Next mission of the day, find a camp. We aimed our canoe West figuring we would find something nice closer to the more remote walls. Within 30 minutes we found this... Exploration of the beachy saddle gave us a sweet camp, great climbing, and the obvious name of our home for 2 nights... Camp Wind Puke! It was apparent that many drunken teens made this their home as well. When the wind picked up in the afternoon we put two and two together making sure to watch were we stepped The cliff in our camp had some obvious lines. The one right above our tent and the wind puke sign showed signs of being climbed via top-rope with spots for gear above that had been cleaned out. The route has some pretty great moves with some hidden holds and tricky sequences on slightly overhung rock. Should probably be named Wind Puke, no? Figuring out the sequence on TR I only TR'ed it because it needed a bolt half way up to protect the 5.11 crux. The other two lines we climbed were new and took about 30 minutes of cleaning each before we sent them on lead. 5.9ish 5.7ish Brother making a lap on the 5.9 FYI, none of the climbs have any hardware. The next morning was leisurely with another lap on Wind Puke and then packed up the canoe for a trip to the Post Modern Wall. We had our eyes set on a 2 pitch 5.9 called Seam-iotics linked up with a 3rd pitch called Sky's the Limit. The obvious chimney, center photo ends the first pitch. my bro coming up through the chimney The book boasted the 2nd pitch as the best crack climb in Banks and I might have to agree. 60 ft of a perfect 1 inch crack with occasional features for feet! Brossif enjoying lovely fingers The 3rd pitch was a bolted slab following small edges. Fantastic! After tagging the summit, we began setting up for a rappel. The "Rock Climbs of Central Washington" guide does not mention the descent off "Sky's the limit" but we assumed you could rappel it with a 70M rope since the lower two pitches stated you could. We were wrong. I found a single bolt with very old tat that I removed and began to replace. The bolt looked solid but upon further inspection the hanger and bolt both wiggled in the bolt hole!! F that! Plan B... I slung a horizontal horn and made sure to angle my rappel in the proper direction. We thought about climbing the adjacent 10b but the heat had kicked in so we defaulted to Banks Lake's other amazing pastime, swimming and cliff diving! On the way back to camp we checked out some of the other cliffs around. We found this block perched precariously and quickly skedaddled. Back at camp, more silliness, laps on our camp crag, and dinner convinced us to crawl into the tent early. Day 3 dawned bright and sunny like every day this Summer. Feeling beat with the climbing canoeing combo, we decided to take a leisurely canoe around the islands east of us, West of HWY rock. The water was near glass and made for very pleasant paddling. camp entering the canyon between islands Steamboat rock! The canyon The potential for possible first ascents is pretty staggering. lets play a game of pick your line! There is always next time Banks is certainly a Washington climbing gem. If you haven't made it out to Banks yet, then your either missing a boat or you prefer the crowds. Gear Notes: Full rack of cams and nuts. Doubles were helpful on quite a few climbs. Approach Notes: 4+ hrs from Seattle to the Boat launch just North of Steamboat rock state park. Don't forget your Discover Pass! Canoe to the islands in the middle of the upper lake and pick your camp and route. The bigger walls (up to 5 pitches) are to the West.

yea, we walked on it only after checking out the snow tunnel. We actually approached the buttress the correct way but we were just playing around on the snow. I too heard plenty of snow breaking off it in the afternoon.

wow, looks like a grand adventure!

My wife and I made it out there about a month ago to visit sweet lady Martha. She took very nice care of us for a night. We also climbed the first 3 pitches of the buttress. the valley the buttress the giant pile of snow at the base the 3rd pitch variation another vote for at least one of the top 3 best places to climb in the PNW

cool, thanks for the info. The lookout idea makes more sense than mining but I did also see steel wiring and wooden 2x4s down low on the shoulder as well. Judging from my position, NE rib sounds about right Tyson.

Trip: Crater Mountain - Standard Date: 9/6/2012 Trip Report: I had another mid-week break with no one to climb with so I was looking for a mellow outing to a summit that offered a great bivy. Crater Mountain did not disappoint. There is basically a trail going all the way to the top of this sucker with maybe 2 moves of class 3. The route looks improbable but goes quite easily aside from the long uphill slog through a ridiculous amount of switchbacks. Aside from a few backpackers, I had the place to myself. The hike in was long but traveled through a surprisingly varied forest. Dougie Fresh with a nut Frilled Fungi Pearly Everlasting? cool mushroom/plant growth All of my favorite aspects of solo travel through the mountains presented themselves in these two days of Summmer fun. Looking south along the trail The trail brought me to a tiny and very shallow lake at the base of the south face. The trail continues West up the shoulder but I had ideas of camping near Jerry Lakes so I went right around the lake aiming for the pass between the two peaks of Crater. First views of the Jerry Glacier and the South side of Jack Mountain. That South face sure looks like sketchy crap! Since it was later in the day than I had hoped I scratched my idea of heading to Jerry Lakes and cut across the snowfield below Crater's South face back over to the West shoulder where I met up with the trail. The geology was quite interesting along the way with very unique stones. I found the trail, set up my bivy and ate an early dinner. With about 1.5 hrs of daylight left I set my eyes on Crater's summit for some golden hour time up high. Jack with Hozomeen in the background Its amazing how much mining evidence I found up there! Jack with a lonely alpine tree The alpine foliage was at times, stunning The views of Jack and the Ross Lake peaks were pretty As was the HWY 20 valley heading east. It was cool to see the contrast of dry, glacier free peaks to the NE to the heavily glaciated peaks SW of the valley. I enjoyed the summit with dessert and quickly headed back down. I rolled into "camp" just as the Sunset was hitting its peak. From my bivy I had 270 degree views of the North Cascades. Pasayaten Wilderness Mt Baker and the Picket Range area and the mind-blowing sunset West The view South was a bit washed out but included everything from Black Peak through Goode/Logan to Colonial Peak area. The next morning I packed up, and headed out, whistling goodbye to my marmot friends and smelling the butterscotch smells of the Ponderosa Pines all the way back down. Side note, anyone know what this amazing squarish rock face is S/SE of the Colonial Complex? I couldn't seem to pick it out on the N. Cascades Nat'l Geo Map. Gear Notes: quads of cams up to 6, a full rack of iron, and a lot of guts Approach Notes: Devils Dome Loop to an unlabeled spur trail that brings you underneath the S face of Crater Mtn. follow the trail up the W shoulder and follow the spray-painted signs up high (yup, I said spray-paint)

What a great day romp. Climbing in the snow is not too bad. Exposed at times, but completely doable.

nice work Andrew! Looks fun.

looks like my TR was helpful. Glad for that. I have a nack for being an easy critic. That place just makes me smile, dirty cracks or clean. Glad you guys had such great luck and good times!

every time i see photos of this place it blows my mind. it looks like Washington's own mini Bugaboos. Thanks for sharing, it looked like a great adventure.