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Howdy friends, it's my pleasure to present you all with the newest Washington classic - Negligence located off the Hannegan pass trail. This is a stellar line that links up several crack systems to access a shield about halfway up the large buttress seen across the valley. We spent most of the spring/summer of 2025 developing and cleaning this line and would like nothing more than people to get out there and climb the thing. Approach - From the Hannegan Pass Trailhead, hike Hannegan Pass Trail past the first two switchbacks about halfway to the campsites. Shortly after the second switchback, drop down the open talus field on your right. Continue down the talus almost to the creek, cut right into the woods, then make your way down to the creek from there. Jump from a large log across the first narrow creek band and you’ve found the tunnel through the slide alder. Be bear aware here, we found multiple fresh signs of them (probably due to the golfball sized salmon berries). Follow this until the major creek crossing, then cross the creek. After crossing, head through the trees directly towards the nose of the buttress, hopping another small creek braid before entering into the talus for the final approach. Follow cairns up the talus, then follow the path (likely overgrown) through the underbrush to the base of the wall. The route is located a couple hundred feet to the right of the nose. In total, the approach is around 2 miles, but tends to take around 45 minutes, give or take. Climb - This route takes a series of remarkable crack systems 400 feet up the Hannegan Buttress over four pitches. Protection is traditional, styles vary from off-width to tips, and all anchors are bolted for ease of descent (316SS all around). Each pitch ends at a conferable belay ledge. Pitch 1 - Depending on snowpack, either hop right into the offwidth start, or cross a deep snowfield to dig right into the rest of the pitch. A long continuous crack system varies from tight fingers to the wide stuff, favoring tight hands and good feet. This pitch reminds me of a steeper version of the Apron with lots of flared hands, sustained 5.9 climbing with several good rests. The bottom wide bit is a little dirty and will probably remain so since it gets buried under the snow pack, but it quickly cleans up. This pitch would be a classic all on its own. (5.9+) Pitch 2 - Amble up from the belay towards a notch gully in the leftward wall, clipping in a pin down low, then placing a bit of gear before firing a few fun moves to gain the gully. Make your way up the 4th class to a great ledge to top out this short pitch. (5.8) Pitch 3 - Step left from the belay and begin climbing up a wide box. Tread lightly on the red stone before pulling into the right-facing dihedral towards the alcove. Exit the alcove on thin tips, and continue upwards until bomber hands placements allow you the confidence to trend left in the flake system. Follow the flakes until the roof, then brace yourself for a thin, thoughtful, arching crux protected by small gear as you pull out onto the Shield. Save a .2 and your smallest cam for the business. The crux of this pitch is short and sweet. Its probably easier for folks with thin fingers or long arms and can easily be pulled through on gear. (5.10d) Pitch 4 - This one's in the money for best pitch in all of Washington! Climb the stupendous splitter to the top of the Shield. It is as good as it looks. Some finger crack moves will take you past a loose book size rock (never fear, that thing isn't coming out) to glorious hand jams. It gets a little steeper at the top so be sure to take in the scenery and catch your breath a bit. Top out on a large ledge. (5.10b) Descent: Rap with a single 70m rope. Use the intermediate anchor on the ledge climbers left between the P1 anchor and the ground. Otherwise, just rap the route. Gear - 70m rope Double rack .2 - 3. Singles of 4, .1, and a purple c3 (or equivalent tiny cam, or trango gold ballnut… the best option) to protect the crux. Wires, all sizes. Consider triples in .4 and .5 for the long first pitch and a 5 if offwidths make you shake. Background - The vision and much of the labor for this route came from Nate Fearer with additional help from myself, Neil Miller, Spencer Moore and Alex Pederson. The route name comes from the fact that Nate started this project while on paternity leave and completed it within the first four months of his son's life (he really is a good father and loving husband). The route was established ground up as an aid line, then dug, cleaned, and scrubbed. Then scrubbed, then scrubbed, then scrubbed. Further ascents will clean it even more. Also, we found some evidence of prior development out there including a bolted (2 pitch?) line left of the nose. If anyone has information on this route please let me know.

Trip: Cutthroat Wall - One Piece at a Time, 5.10d Trip Date: 09/20/2020 Trip Report: This past weekend (9/20) Tim Foster and I wrapped up what may be a new route on Cutthroat Wall, climbing a bit left of the two established lines on the face. We enjoyed 5 pitches of fun climbing on good stone, with difficulties up to 5.10d. There were no signs of previous traffic on route, but it’s possible that someone (maybe one of you?) climbed the thing back in the day. Our first foray up the wall was over Labor Day weekend. We originally planned to climb an obscure route in the area, but after about 30 seconds of walking from the Cutthroat Lake trailhead, our eyes were drawn to nice looking corners on the left side of Cutthroat Wall. Tim ran back to his truck to grab the bail rack (a set of nuts and a couple rigid-stem cams) plus some gardening implements, and we tromped up the valley. On our first go, we climbed the route in 6 pitches, bypassing the two best corners because the gear looked tricky and the climbing looked hard. The initial line we took goes in the mid-5.10 range, and offers a decent, slightly mellower variation to the crux pitch two, described below. While we were excited about the climb, we clearly had to come back for the money pitches $. We returned the following weekend to discover that the direct corner on pitch two does in fact take small gear (these placements were inadvertently tested with a couple whips—our only falls on route). We climbed to the top and scrubbed/trundled our way back down to prepare for a “clean” ascent the following weekend. On Sunday, we finished the job with a party send by Tim, me, and our friends Milk and Conrad. Pitch by pitch breakdown: P 1: 5.8, 55 meters. Start just left of the main buttress of the wall, ~ 150 yards left and a bit uphill of Easy Getaway. Climb a short, broken corner right for 30 feet, then follow the obvious twin-crack system to a belay below the flare of pitch 2. P 2: 5.10d, 25 meters. Climb to the treed ledge, then move up and left into the flare. Get gear where you can as it’s small (.1's and rp's) and can be finicky to place. Some granite trickery required. There is a chockstone block at the top of this pitch that feels solid enough, but shouldn’t be pulled on, and may need to go at some point. Belay from a tree on the ledge above. Alternatively near the beginning of the pitch, you can climb straight up the narrowing crack from the treed ledge, past a slightly committing 5.10 boulder problem, then cut left up a hidden ramp to rejoin the corner and bypass the pitch's hardest climbing. P 3: 5.9, 40 meters. Climb up the wide hand crack to a treed ledge, battling a few bushes along the way. Continue up and right on the featured face and in the thin corner to a mossy ledge out right. P 4: 5.10, 25 meters. Move left, back into the corner system, and launch up the perfect tips crack (visible from the parking lot!). Pull a juggy bulge and exit right through a short layback section to a good tree belay. P 5: 5.9, 45 meters. Walk right, past a tree, to the awesome splitter hand crack/layback corner that traverses right. Continue up and over a bulge, then move up and right through blocky terrain until the angle eases. From here, scramble up 4th – very low 5th class terrain to the top of the wall. Descend via the gulley described in Cascade Rock, or head down the route with a little down climbing and three full 60m rappels from trees. Tim and I both think the climbing is pretty darn fun, and it’s certainly worth the hike in. The ledgey nature of the wall does make for some shorter pitches and a lack of great exposure up high, but the movement is enjoyable and unique. It could be a worthy linkup with other climbs on the face. While the rock is generally quite good, there is certainly some looseness and lichen remaining. Be careful, as the standard approach sits in the line of fire of anything coming off the wall. As for the name, we figured we would stick with the crime theme (ahem, Johnny Cash), and the route took a few iterations to get just right. If any of you get up to the climb, let us know what you think! Gear Notes: Doubles from tips (bd .1) to wide hands (bd #3), and a set of nuts. Small offset nuts/RP’s are handy for pitch 2. Approach Notes: We never took the same route twice. If you keep walking, you can do it in ~ 1 hour.

Normandy 5.12 (a/b?) 10-12 quick draws w/Chain Anchor. #1 Camalot optional after 5th or 6th draw Starts off obvious block on left side of the Beach ledge just to the left of Between the Cheeks and Heavens Rear Entry Vehicle. Follow bolts. Steep, bouldery face climbing and two roofs lead to an airy, narrow, stemming finish.