aawait92

FA - Helms Deep - The Stairs of Cirith Ungol - 6 pitches, 5.11c Since I stumbled on Helms Deep back in 2021 I always wanted do a route up the most continuous section of the wall. In fact I was looking for a wall on which to establish a multi pitch when I found it, not necessarily steep single pitch sport climbing which is what HD seems to have gained the most traction with. A lack of experience, partners, and general sense of fear kept me from taking any action. Fast forward to August 2023 and I had worked up an extra bit of development experience establishing 4 easy multi pitch routes on the neighboring Spouse Wall and numerous single pitch routes in the Snoqualmie Valley. I also had some time off work. Day 1: I made plans known to my rock climbing / route-development group-text and Trevor agreed to come along, I think mostly because he felt bad for me. We met at the Pratt Balcony Trailhead each with two 60m+ ropes, a drill, 10+ bolts, and more in our packs. We made the 1.6mi/1500ft approach at the slowest pace of the summer but we were in good spirits. The climber's path to the base is beat in and, as usual, we saved some weight by filtering water at the creek crossing around 2000'. At the base of the wall we took a quick break then began a torturous shwack, contouring climbers right towards the top of the wall. Eventually, we hit the top of the rightmost end of the cliff-top, but given the shape of the outcrop we were really only ~1/3 of the way up. The ground is far from flat up there. We worked our way back climbers left, squirming up exposed 50+ degree Salal bushes. All with drilling gear and ropes on our backs. There were some moments fear and danger up there but we pushed through. We eventually cliffed-out and threw on our harnesses. I placed a bolt and started self belaying up and out on to the face. Once I got a few bolts ahead of Trevor he started jugging behind me. I think he spent a lot of time untangling the 3 additional ropes we had as well. I made it to a point where I was on the line I wanted to establish but about a pitch from the top. We decided to save topping-out for another day and began the process of rappelling, bolting, and fixing lines. Things from here went pretty smoothly, especially with Trevor handling tangled mess of ropes and passing me additional gear when I needed it. The rock ended up being relatively steep and overhanging places. I like steep climbing but cleaning and bolting is a bit more annoying when things are overhanging. The upper pitches were very clean already but there was a fair number of loose blocks hanging around lower down. We found ourselves back on the ledge earlier in the day than we thought we would, but too tired to climb so we hiked down. Days 2-6: Over the next few weeks I spent another 5 days jugging lines, bolting, and cleaning; all pretty much solo. On Day 2 I jugged to our high point and bolted what became pitches 4 and 5. Jugging 140 meters with bolting gear sucks but both pitches were mostly clean already and have great rock. On Day 3 I bolted p3 and p2. These pitches needed a bit more cleaning so I spent some time doing that as well. On day 4 I decided push the route to the top. The climbing up there is really easy but I wanted the satisfaction of topping out. This meant jugging 140 meters to our high point again with my heavy-ass bosch drill. Once at the high point I put on some climbing shoes and self-belayed with a gri gri as I made my way up what became p6. I hadn't really bolted from stances on lead before but it went well, kind of like placing ice screws 😜. Day 5 I spent cleaning the lower part of P3. I noticed one of the fixed lines had begun smelling like rodent feces and I dubbed it rat piss line. The lower part of p3 had some washing-machine-sized stacked blocks. Pulling on them with a hammer I couldn't get them to move but on Day 5 I brought a crow bar and was shocked at how easily these things slid with pressure in the right location. Fortunately, the climb is far enough left there really wasn't much risk to climbers doing the single pitch routes at HD but I put up flagging tape and a sign anyways. Sending these huge blocks down into the gully below HD was pretty awesome but as I rapped down at the end of the day I had a sort-of near miss. I was just about at the bottom of the route and was shouting over to some friends when suddenly the end of the rope was in my hand. The line had been cut a good 25 feet from the end by trundles. If I had been paying less attention I would have fallen into the gulley. Fortunately my feet had just touched bottom and I had been paying attention, but it was certainly sobering. Day 6 was spent bolting and cleaning P1 which I hadn't really figured out yet but finally seemed to come together. Day 7 (the actual "Free Climbing FA"): At this point it was late September. There was a long stretch of rain in the forecast and I convinced Trevor to climb the route with me, while Daniel wanted to jug the lines and shoot footage of us with his early 2000s camcorder. Conditions were overcast and cool as we started out. Myself leading odds and Trevor leading evens. P1 starts out with easy climbing up a corner but gradually gets harder (5.11-) near a roof. I realized I hadn't cleaned this pitch nearly well enough and got pretty flash pumped below the roof but managed to grunt my way out on to the face. P1 continues on the face above with some easier climbing and it was fun but it was like dancing on choss with all the loose stuff around. Trevor followed quickly behind and arrived at the belay looking like he'd been mildly inconvenienced. He charged up p2 (5.10) as I laughed about the fact I'd barely cleaned the pitch. I launched into p3 a bit nervously because I knew it was the crux. I'd removed the death blocks and cleaned the holds just enough for it to be climbable. The bottom climbs fun laybacks in a corner to another shallow roof with some cruxy smearing (5.11-). Above this I arrived at nice ledge where I took my sweatshirt off. From here the rock quality improves but the wall also gets steep. The next 4-5 bolts are the crux of the route (5.11c) and hold some fun pumpy climbing on pinches and positive edges. Staying on brand, I got super pumped and red-lined my way to the slab above. Trev followed with one quick fall then joined Dan and I at the belay. P4 might be the best on the route, Trevor led it, muttering about how it was some "index shit". I think that translates to technical face climbing. After I followed I linked P5 and P6 together. P5 is also fun technical climbing similar to P4 only a bit more short-lived. The fixed lines only went to the top of P5 but we had Daniel tie in on a bite so he could join us at the top. It felt pretty good to finally climb this thing after all the work we'd put in (and just before the rain). Day 8-10: While I had a great time climbing the route, the amount of loose rock and dirt on P1-P3 made it feel unlikely others would want to do as well. So in early 2024 I spent three more days with a wire brush, crow, bar and leaf blower cleaning up the bottom 3 pitches (also nourishing myself in the aura of rat piss line). P3 mostly just needed a leaf-blow, P2 ended up being pretty solid and really just need some light brushing. P1 took up a good chunk of time as there were some stubborn loose blocks, but I got it done. At some point I convinced my buddies Chris and Andrew to climb the route and I went ahead of them, TR soloing on the fixed lines. On this trip I made sure all the anchors had rappel hardware, and I added two stainless steel permas to the crux. We also removed all the fixed lines on the way down. Closing: I'm optimistic with a bit more traffic things will shape up nicely. If Heaven's Gate / Golden Road at Index UTW are in your wheelhouse then this climb is too. Consider checking this thing out for a unique adventure! Gear: At least 12 draws and a handful of runners, full 70m rope Links: - mountainproject: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/125001449/the-stairs-of-cirith-ungol - youtube video we made from Dan's footage: