Ryan Hoover

Trip: Darrington - Slab Daddy, Oso Rodeo and Illusion Wall Date: 7/3/2014 Trip Report: Finally got an opportunity to climb in the Squire Creek Area With Michal Rynkiewicz. It started as just Slab Daddy, then turned into me taking an extra day off work and our plans spreading to the rest of the routes in the area. We end up climbing 8 routes over 4 days. The climbing on Squire Creek Wall is phenomenal, our favorite being the Illusion Wall. It seems crazy people aren't climbing out here more. Steep slab, splitter cracks, and tons of knob action with a relatively short approach. We hiked in Wednesday night and camped at the river crossing going up to Slab Daddy and Oso Rodeo. We scouted the approach and ditched some water at the base of Slab Daddy. Thursday we linked up Slab Daddy and Oso Rodeo, offering 42 pitches of excellent slab climbing. We did each route in about 5 simul blocks each. Most of Slab Daddy was slightly damp and in the fog, giving the route a erie feel. It cleared up and gave us perfect overcast for Oso. Both routes were a ton of fun. Can you tell this is mid route on Slab Daddy? Fun Corner - Slab Daddy Stoked to top out Slab Daddy! Slabbin out on Oso Nearing the Top We slept in Friday after feeling a little drained from the day before. We hiked to the base of Illusion wall and went up The Engineers route and Dingbat. The Engineers route offered fun 5.9 climbing on some rusty 1/4" er's. It follows the far left hand skyline of the Illusion Wall. Dingbat is a amazing variation consisting of .10 crack, slab and climbing on steep knobs comparable to those of Iconoclast. Illusion Wall Top of Pitch 1 Engineers Pitch 2 Engineers Pitch 3 Engineers Looking down the amazing Dingbat On Saturday, we climbed the Page, Excalibur and The Holy Grail. Each route consistently surprising us with pitch after pitch of amazing climbing, protected well with either bomber new 3/8 stainless or splitter cracks. Illusion wall is much steeper and more featured then the Slab Daddy area. Looking up the crux pitch of The Page The Page Delivering More Goods Stellar finger crack on Excalibur Exposure on Excalibur Excalibur The Excalibur Flake! Three Finger in the Background Unbelievable Stemming Corner on Excalibur Excalibur Tips Layback on The Holy Grail Splitter Corner on The Holy Grail! The Holy Grail! More Steep Slab! Such Clean Rock I hope you don't hate amazing knobs The BEST pitch on Illusion Wall, The Holy Grail Just another view. One More Can't Hurt Come on, Really? More greatness? The Holy Grail All of the routes on Illusion follow very obvious paths, we never had any route finding issues having no topo's of each route. We felt the .10+ pitch on The Page to be the most difficult pitch on the wall, offering steep sustained slab and face. Sunday we headed up Schizophrenic, just another guidebook worthy route in the same location as 4 other classics. I'm not sure I could say the 11- felt any harder then the cruxes of the other routes. It feels like everything just stops at .10+ in Darrington. Gear Notes: Slab Daddy and Oso Rodeo - Gear Singles to 4". I think we only placed 4 or 5 pieces on Slab Daddy. Illusion Wall - A ton of water. This place is dry and the bivy gets hot. We found one glorious puddle to fill up on our last night. This wall can stay dry through a day of light drizzles. All routes do good with doubles to .75 and singles to 3" and a #4 for Schizophrenia. The only trace of water to be found at Illusion Approach Notes: From the town of Darrington, drive out Squire Creek Road and follow it until it ends. This will be the start of the Trailhead. These are both easy to follow, shortish hikes that will bring you to seas of amazing granite. Slab Daddy - Follow the road past the landslide and continue to pass two wash outs. Walk past the second, and after 150 or so feet there will be a well cut trail dropping into the forest and to the creek. Once your at the creek, walk 100' or so up and left and cross the creek at its lowest point. You will head left to a little rocky sand bar and a field of ferns. Find the boulder and start bush whacking toward the forest up and left and stay to the outside edge of the forest and then cut in. You will find a good trail that will lead you to the base of Slab Daddy. Oso Rodeo - Same as Slab Daddy, but continue up and right and follow the base of the cliff to a trail that eventually leads you to Oso Rodeo. Illusion Wall - Hike about 30-45 minutes to the start of the old trailhead. You will take the obvious right hand trail. Follow a well beaten path to the log crossing. Cross the river and head up a small talus path. Follow for a short distance and look for a cairn that will take you up right and into the woods. Follow a steep well beaten climber path until you reach a woods bivy. From here you will find a low angle slab that will take you up about a pitch worth. 4th + class slab leads you to the top. You can rappel this on the descent if you choose. Wander your way up and left through ledges until you reach the base of the wall that you can follow all the way to the base of Illusion Wall. The will be an obvious Bivy ledge at the base of the routes. Upper Ledge Climbs - Walk past the lowest bivy ledge and follow bolts up to a crack that leads the upper route ledge. The upper route ledge hosts routes in order, Excalibur, The Page, and the Engineer (W/ Dingbat Variation). Starting Up Engineers Pitch 1 The Page First Pitch of Excalibur, game on from the start Search for the Holy Grail - Heading straight up off the bivy ledge, follow easy slabs to a crack that will lead to the obvious roof above. The First Pitch of The Holy Grail Schizophrenic - From the bivy ledge, follow the trail back and past the first hump, drop down and look up. You will see bolts. This topo is all you really need for the Illusion Wall Routes. The dark blue line shows the excellent 5.8 approach pitch to the upper ledge routes. It is slabby 4th class between routes with traverse bolts. Illusion Wall Topo Slab Daddy and Oso Rodeo Topo's Slab Daddy Topo Oso Rodeo Topo Oso Rodeo Approach

The incident happened Saturday morning at Value Village. Climber was scrambling to the base of Pork and Beans when either a rock or a branch he was holding onto peeled off. The injury turned out to be a strange dislocation in his foot. He's doing well, but will, but is looking at a couple months out.

Here's some shots from 12/31/13. Was Rainbow still a shower when you climbed it? Taken from atop of Fearful Shot of our group from a party on Fearful Fearful from above Rainbow Fearful Taken 11/26/13

Yeah, buddy! Looks like the lower sections have thinned out since we were out there, but the top is FAT! I'll post a couple shots later. We were lucky enough to have Fearful in great shape also, was it still safe to climb? We had different techniques to stay warm, we climbed Rainbow in one pitch with a small amount of simuling.

In need of a midweek partner for Seattle Vertical World from 3-7ish a time or two a week. Looking to spend the majority of the time on the lead wall, but not limited to. Ryan

Just got a set of the PMI Verglass 70's. I'd highly recommend them. As far as length, if your planning on doing much up north, 70's can make climbs/rappels a lot quicker. I know I've appreciated the extra length!

Been to south ghost twice this week. Everything is in FAT. Saw Subaru Outbacks (Not that I'd want to bring one down there) at the Devil's Gap parking area. Most of the snow has blown away. North Ghost access is a bit iffy. The road's washed out less then a kilometer from the big hill. You can make it a little futher with clearance, but probably not worthwhile. I read it's an hour hike to GBU. Wanted to go back for Sorcerer, but from what I have gathered, North Ghost climbs aren't looking as healthy. Here's a recap of conditions of routes we've encountered: Wicked Wanda - 1st pitch fat and plastic, 2nd hard and techy and pretty much impossible to protect. Malignant Mushroom - Fat, protects well, easy shape. Sunshine - Super Fat Aquarius - Easy picked out ladder with good pro. Fearful Symmetry - Good gear, 4+/5- shape. Horizontal fracture midway but seemed solid enough. Rainbow Serpent - Scary, mushroomed, wet, chandeliered and hard to protect... 5+/6- ? Speculations: Weathered Heights and Anorexia - Said to be quite fat. Lacy Gibbets - No word yet, but may check it out this week. Big Drip - Well, it's big. Spoke with a couple guys who gave it a go. Apparently the M7 "approach" pitches are quite the sandbag. The Hooker, Joker, and Candlestick Maker are mentioned to be fat also. Tons of Avi-free fun to be had in South Ghost.

"No mushrooms to step on. I had to talk myself through on the relentless, pumpy sections." If by talk your self through you mean muttering profanities in 3 different languages! It was definitely STEEP! Nice write up and great trip! With that list, might just have to join you in February!

I think my buddy may have, funny enough. He said he found a helmet on Sloan 2ish years ago on the corkscrew. What's kind of helmet was it? I'll ask him.

Philonius - Yes, sir they are. The trail is freakin' littered with them! Riley - Ancient Melodies was a hoot. Definitely the "boss hog" pitch. It was the steepest climbing I've done in D-town.

Trip: Sloan Peak - Fire on the Mountain Date: 9/12/2013 Trip Report: Headed out to Sloan's Southwest face to get on a route thats been on the list for awhile. Fire on the Mountain was a fun route that flowed smooth. The approach and descent are both super mellow, and have easy route finding. Make sure to use both Rad and Sol's route descriptions. We only had Rad's and got off track on the last pitch. A little more beta that may be helpful: - From the twin hand cracks on p2/3 (linked), veer mostly straight up and right until you see the big roof overhead. Traverse left under the roof and belay at the start of a right facing corner. A short pitch then brings you to the heather ledge. - P5 goes up the big left facing dihedral off of the heather ledge. - The missing pin on P6 is not at all a problem, it protects great with small cams. - Not having Sol's description, we traversed low fifth around the gendarme on p8. Apparently it goes straight up the gendarme. - We made a cozy bivy for 2 next to a water source a couple hundred feet below the face. This route can be easily done car to car. We hiked in after work (2 hrs to base) on Wednesday, climbed Fire on Thursday (5 ish hours up, 2 ish down back to bivy) and were considering doing Diamond in the Rough on Friday. I forgot the route description, and had to be at the Esmerelda trailhead Friday for Stuarts North Ridge Saturday, so we decided to do Ancient Melodies on Exfo to avoid getting out to late. I would highly recommend Ancient Melodies as well! First Pitch Splitter start of Pitch 2 Steep! Amazing features! Back country necessities You trust this bro on belay? Gear Notes: Doubles to 3 and a single 4, offsets, set of stoppers. Approach Notes: Take exit 208 off I-5 and drive 4 miles east on SR 530 to Arlington. Continue on SR 530 for 28 miles more to Darrington. At a three way stop turn right (south) onto Mountain Loop Highway, and continue 17.2 miles (not sure how accurate this mileage is as we were not looking at the odometer) turning left on FR 4096 which is about a mile past Bedal campground. Continue on FR 4096 for 3 more miles to the trailhead! If approaching in the dark, the trail hides about 30 ft back from where the road ends. The trail ends in a boulder field below the NW face. Looking up and left, head for the notch which will bring you to the SW face. Photo by Rad Descent From where the route meets the corkscrew, follow a gully below the South face to a ramp that leads down to the glacier. Either down climb or rappel. Follow the glacier to a pass that leads back to the base. Taken from where the route meets the corkscrew.

Scratch on Forbidden, weather looks iffy. Still open to other options.

Or something similar. Looking for a car to car alpine with some good climbing. Gotta keep it moderate, as I have some fresh-ish stitches in a finger. Ryan.m.hoover.5@gmail.com 4253307336 Ryan

Found

Looking to get out and climb either East Face of Lexington or some Darrington slab (Dark Rythm, Total Soul, Ancient Melodies, or something similar) . Would also be interested in Rampage on Paisano or First Amendment on Le Petit. Will not be looking for to early of a start, I will be at McCartney the night prior. Not to late either though, maybe meet around 6-7? Open to suggestions, just looking to get out! Being able to swap leads is a plus, though I don't mind leading. I'll bring gear. Feel free to email or text. Ryan. m. hoover. 5 @ gmail. com (4 two 5) three 3 zero - 7 three 3 six

Hey crazedmaniac. Honestly, if it's been climbed before, it wouldn't bother me a bit. Just trying to spread the good word on some fun climbing. At Inacan - It gets some gooood sun.

And this picture excludes the gallon of beer Mike managed to haul up!

Hell, I'm sure there is a couple climbs named gullotine in Icicle. We just got lazy with the names, and with the death block it seemed fitting. There is a lot of truly great looking climbing in the area, including the bigger and badder Great Polish Towers. We will surely be back for more.

Trip: Icicle Creek - The Trudge Wall - New Routes - Red Mamba - Afro Blue Date: 5/26/2013 Trip Report: It all started as a weekend trip up to Value Village. We hiked in Saturday and climbed as many routes as we could manage, the place is splitter central. Full Boar alone is well worth the hike! Full Boar The Indicator Mike on his Full Boar Onsight Cruiser Cracks During this time, we both noticed a steep crack on a reddish wall NW of us, so on Sunday, we decided to take a look. What we found, was endless potential. The wall alone will host as many routes as you can squeeze out of it, not to mention everything bigger and better around it. Everything from thin broken cracks, to overhanging off width, the wall has a bit of everything. The first route we tackled was The Great Divide (#3). We went ground up on the obvious weakness, only to find we were not the first. There was a mangy old bolt that was oddly placed about three quarters the way up. Oh well. The route went at .10-, and was dirty, but still a lot of fun! The Great Divide We set some fixed lines over the steeper side of the crag and started cleaning, top roped some variations, and the routes were stellar! They needed some work, so we decided to head back up for the long weekend. Mike Working on Afro Blue Unfortunately, the weather was lousy, leading to us get less work done then we had hoped. But we came out with a couple of gems. I don't expect these routes to ever get any traffic, but Red Mamba (#1) and Afro Blue (#2) are hands down 5 star .11+ climbs, and were likely the only routes we did that have not been previously climbed. I am not sure who worked here in the past, but given the lack of any development and the approach, we figured we would name the wall and routes. If someone has any other info, let me know. So, I pulled all the moves, but have yet to snag a clean lead on either Red Mamba or Afro Blue. Mike made easy work of both routes. As a heads up, you can expect short but safe run outs and burly moves with gear below your feet. These are definite classics, but you will have to work for em! A mix between tips-thin crack and excellent slab and face climbing. Guillotine L and R are also great solid .10 climbing. Not many lead pics, but hey, we were climbing in between rain the whole weekend. Oh, and Rafael, thanks for the guest appearance! The Trudge Wall (1) Red Mamba 5.11+ PG ***** - FA Michal Rynkiewicz, Ryan Hoover (2) Afro Blue 5.11+ PG FA ***** - FA Michal Rynkiewicz, Ryan Hoover (3) The Great Divide 5.10- *** - FA Unknown (4/5) The Guillotine L/R 5.10 **** - FA Unknown Looking down Red Mamba The Cave Bivy/Belay Gear Notes: There is a water source, and the cave will keep 2 dry. Red Mamba and Afro Blue are 35 Meter Pitches, be EXTRA careful while lowering, The Guillotine routes are not far off. All routes can be topped out with easier climbing. Either rap the tree to Red Mamba's anchors, or walk off. 70 Meter Rope (1) Red Mamba 5.11+ PG ***** Gear: (2 Each) 00 TCU -.75 C4, Full set of Nuts and Micros. 3 Bolts At the undercling, you may feel there is no hope for gear, reach out right and place a perfect #7 BD Nut. (2) Afro Blue 5.11+ PG ***** Gear: (2 Each) 00 TCU -.75 C4 (1 Each) #1 and 3 C4, full set of stoppers and micros. 1 bolt, 4 KB's. Save 2 of your smallest cams for the top! (3) The Great Divide 5.10- *** Gear: Doubles to 3 inch's, 1 #4 and 5, full set of stoppers. (4/5) The Guillotine L/R 5.10 **** Gear: Doubles to 3 inch's, 1 #4 and 5, full set of stoppers. *Tread lightly around the Death Block, I tried to set it free with no luck, there fore the left line was only TR'd. We will take care of it the next time we are up there. Approach Notes: We took a "new approach" following the creek more or less straight up from the wash out just past 8 mile campground. This was hell,I ended up with bruised ribs. The correct approach (which we descended) is to park at 8 Mile Rock, head up past Secret Dome, follow cairns staying on the shoulder left of the creek until you hit a overhanging slabby crag. Cross the stream when it seems appropriate and follow to "The Trudge Wall". 3 hours if you are motivated. The other option, which is likely the best, is to spend one day shredding at Value Village, and take a day trip over to this lovely new crag the next day. 1 hour from Value Village.

That's not the crux pitch, he's right before where you top out. I just ran a super long pitch from the base of the crux to there and wasn't sure I could run it to the top. The slab finish up left was dripping water, so we just switched cracks.

By the way Matt, I think Rafael and I snagged the first of the year on March 30th. It was in great shape except the wet first two pitches and the icy/snowy finish. I probably won't put up a report, pictures didn't turn out to great.

Tick-less you say?! I ripped about 20 of those dreadful scumbugs off me last month up there. I found one leaching on me two days later. Nice work on Iconoclast!

Trip: NEWS, Le Petit Cheval, Goat Wall - West Face, Spontaneity Arete, Prime Rib Date: 5/4/2013 Trip Report: After missing the last mid week weather window, it was time to make it up to Washington Pass. The plan to be was: Saturday - Spontaneity Arete followed by Paul Revere on La Petit Actual - Spontaneity followed by Prime Rib (No Pics) Sunday - West Face Direct of SEWS Actual - West Face of NEWS Left Arlington about 4:15 Saturday and headed to the pass. Parked at milepost 165 and started up. I'm not sure if we took the easiest approach, but we went right of the waterfall under the obvious objective. After a few tree hopping shenanigans, we were at the base of the ridge. From here we simul'd to the notch where the ridge starts to get steeper. Not realizing the toughest ground lay behind us, we ran two 70 meter stretchers, unroped and finished the last bit to top. We found this to be a super enjoyable route, especially in boots... We ended up rappelling the route to stick off the snow as much as possible, the thunder of slides all day did not inspire confidence. This act took longer than the climb... Our thought was to then rappel from the notch to the base of the NW Face, traverse over and climb Paul Revere. After eyeing what was left and our watches, we opted for some cragging down in town. I've heard of Prime Rib for awhile now, and it has been on my list. So we decided to give it a quick go. We ran it to the last pitch, simul-climbing as much as drag would allow, and decided to bail and save daylight, we left the lamps in the car. That, and the route was uneventful and the thought of arriving in town too late to buy beer was not an option! Do not bring your good rock shoes, this climb involves a lot of walking. After running into Larry Goldie at Goats Beard Mountain Supplies, we decided to change up our route on Sunday to the West Face of NEWS instead of The West Face Direct Start on SEWS, per his recommendation with current conditions. For some reason, we decided against snow shoes on the approach. Stupid choice. We post holed our way to the base to the spire and noticed the chimney was filled with snow. Oh well. We threw the boots in the pack and headed up. We ended up bypassing the chimney with a fun crack just right of it. Jacob set up a belay at the top, but the fun didn't end there, some thigh deep powder protected us from the next wall. Then to top that off, the undercling traverse was wet and dripping! We were able to link from the top of the chimney to the base of the crux. Icy Chimney Rock Shoe Snow Slog From there we were greeted with fantastic dry climbing to the top (minus the 5.6 crack)! We easily followed the bolted rap stations down the soaking wet couloir. A great way to kick off the season! Oh, and thanks Jacob for carry the pack through the hard stuff! :-)

Thanks for the update!

Looking to get out on weeknights. Could be there by 3 or meet up in Everett around 2:20 or anywhere along the way. Looking to climb mostly .9's - .11- and follow/TR harder. Tuesday's and Thursday's are best, but if weather strikes, I can usually make myself available.