Trip: Overnighter at Harrison Bluffs -
Date: 4/13/2008
Trip Report:
So a few days ago me and a couple friends were out rock climbing at Harrison Bluffs and I got the idea to find an easy route to one of the highest sections of the cliffs. I scrambled top the top of the highest fixed line and found a way to traverse a 3rd class ledge to a mostly 4th class corner with a few moves to 5.4 or so. We belayed this section then scrambled more 3rd class terrain to the area called The Change room. There are four climbs here that were lichen covered and some had moss on them. But before going back down we found a huge flake had detatched from the rock forming a cave that looked really cool. On Friday I gave my friend a call and asked if he wanted to bring all our gear up to the cave and camp in it overnight then climb all day Saturday, he liked the idea but was busy until about 10:00 Friday night. I decided to go and bring all my gear and food (about 45 ibs in my bag) to the cave that afternoon and leave a fixed line up the corner for my friend to come up by headlamp that night. I flexed up fixed lines and then soloed the 5.4 corner while fixing a rope for my buddy until I reached the cave and set up our campsite. It was only 5:00 so I had 5 hours to explore the area and look at old routes I wanted to clean the next day. I got a fire going when it got dark and ate food. Lorne managed to climb to the cave by headlamp with his gear and we hung out in the cave for a while before going to sleep. Just as we were falling asleep we heard a bunch of twigs snapping and a rock rolled down the hill by the cave, alarmed we turned on the light to see who the culprit was but couldnt see anything. When we got up at first light and found deer prints around the cave! After breakfast we took a trail through the woods to the top of the cliffs and set a rappel down a climb called Friction Addiction (5.9+) and spent forever cleaning second growth moss and lichen off of it, I led it in its mostly clean state bt fell a couple times when I steeped on loose moss on the friction slab. Mt friend stared cleaning a 5.8 groove called root picker (he pulled about 300 ibs of dirt off this one) while I pulled a tick out of my shoulder and burned in the hot sun. After this we went down a ways to get water and climbed back up to the site so I could clean lichen off of a 5.10d arete that I toproped afterwards. We decided to pack up and rapped all the way to the base with our heavy bags and went home and fell asleep. Now its raining anf hopefully the rain will was all the loose moss and lichen off of the routes we cleaned so thay will be really nice the next time we go there.
Red circle shows the location of cave.
Gear Notes:
Bring a full rack.
Approach Notes:
Drive, Walk, climb.