thebrowze

don't know what your climbing skills are but there is a decently long (20'-25') overhanging rappel off the end of the second pitch of 'The Plank' at the Lost Boys at the Far Side of Exit 38. Does require a pitches of 5.9 and 5.10a first though.

Thanks for the replies. I guess built into my question was whether redundant personal anchors are necessary when sport climbing. Personally, I used to use two shoulder length slings (on separate bolts), but found they were too short to be comfortable, so I would end up girth hitching them together in some cases to make a longer one, but the length would be too much sometimes. Now I use a loop chain girth hitched to my belay loop with a locking 'biner on one of the anchor bolts (or a third bolt, if present). I found this is much easier for adjusting the length, but without the cross-clipping danger of a daisy chain. I only have one, so I was wondering if people thought that was enough, or if I should back it up either with the rope (when continuing up) or with another sling (when rappelling).

Want to get the opinion of the hive mind here: when sport climbing, especially multi-pitch should one always use two personal anchors and clip to both anchor bolts at the top of pitches, or is one generally sufficient? I guess you could always clove hitch the climbing rope to act as a backup personal anchor rather than use two slings or loop chains? How about when rappelling when you wouldn't have the rope to use as backup?

You can access the areas via Snow Lake -> Rock Creek trails from Alpental, but it adds a lot of miles of hiking. Might be decent for overnights once those trails melt out more. Wouldn't want to descend the Rock Creek trail with all the snow up there right now.

Was up there last weekend. Didn't have snowshoes and was post holing up to my hips in some places. The avy gully had slid relatively recently (fresh debris) but it didn't stop some brave (foolish?) folks from walking straight up the bottom of the gully. I stayed out of it so can't attest to its solidity. Once you got up above the treeline things got a little more solid.