[TR] North Norwegian Buttress - Jötnar VI 5.9 A3 08/01/2020

[Sam Boyce]

Trip: North Norwegian Buttress - Jötnar VI 5.9 A3

Trip Date: 08/01/2020

Trip Report:

 

Whaddup maggots. The crew of vagrants and miscreants just got down yesterday from north Norwegian round 2. We completed our line to the top of the buttress. We spent 1 day fixing back to the high point then 6 days on the wall climbing in capsule style to complete the route. We are naming the line “Jötnar”, the race of god-like giants in Norse mythology. We unofficially started calling the Norwegian cirque Jötunheim, “the realm of the giants”. While only having one line up there might not give us “authority” to name something, I’m enamored with the zone and like the name, and no one else has to call it that... anywho, here’s a brief report of our experience, hopefully this inspires someone to follow in our footsteps, as it’s an incredible route.

In June, we made our first foray onto the wall and found soggy conditions as our route runs through a water streak for a good portion of the lower buttress. Poor weather lead to poor conditions, if you read my previous trip report, you’ll remember we did not get far. In 4 days of climbing we completed about 700’ of the line. We left gear stashed with the intent on returning. Our window of time off about 3 weeks away. Prep for the route started a few days before our departure date. I headed over to kyle’s studio (For his gear business “high mountain gear and repair”) in Ballard to make some various things. One of those being an inflatable big wall hammock that we had been discussing in recent weeks. Kyle would test it out on this wall, likely the secret weapon for big wall alpine routes in the cascades. Kyle came up with the name “Taco” as a mockery of conventional portaledges. 

After making various things for the wall we set out on our own errands the next day then reconvened to shuttle a load up to lake serene. Fetching water was considerably easier than last time, the moat had opened enough to walk inside, being a whiteout day we decided it was safe enough to brave for 15 min to get water (better than hiking back to the lake!!) 

 After unwrapping our gear stash we discovered a snafflehound gnawed on a rope! The backup lead line nonetheless. Another rope was needed, the volume of rope was becoming absurd. We told Lani to pick one up on her way down from Bellingham. Logistics here got weird. Kyle had commitments in the form of a bike packing trip during the start of the window we had to climb. So when Lani and I started climbing we would have to leave lines fixed to the ground for Kyle to use to join us two days into the climb! On the first day we got a ride to the trailhead early morning and moved with motivation all Day to fix lines the the high point on our route. The line climbed substantially better because of the cleaning we were able to do previously. Fixing high on the wall we descended to the base that evening to sleep on the ground and prep the load to haul. We woke up early again and started the manual labor. Moving faster that expected we were able to haul to the high point and get camp set up around mid afternoon. Plenty of time to start up new terrain. Lani started up the next pitch which would prove the steepest on route. She got about halfway up the pitch before deciding it was time for dinner. 

On day 3 she headed up the pitch and pulled through the massive steep band that blocked our view of the upper buttress. This would prove to be the only pitch that requires a fixed line for descent. I took over the lead on the next pitch and found cool expanding beak cracks that lead up to a surprise! We pulled into a band of bulletproof skagit gneiss that would run the whole middle part of the route, immaculate stone. 

I climbed up into a massive right facing corner and up an amazing #2 crack through the second massive roof on the route “the fang” as we had pre named it. Continuing up an easy flare I found a good stance at the base of a large slab. 

Lani was still feeling mega tired from the steep lead and told me to keep going, I quested upwards on the slab utilizing a mixture of hooks and rivets to reach a dike that proved discouragingly shitty. The dike however led to a good flake that rapidly turned not so good, the whole corner was a Jenga stack. Being on lead I reluctantly bat hooked the face around the choss. These bat hooks could maybe be avoided post cleaning, still chossy and expando in there though. I eventually put a bolt in to reach far and tension to the next small corner, which proved to be cruiser C1 to a good stance for a belay, post dirt removal this would likely be sweet 5.9-10. Here I called off belay while placing the anchor bolts and Lani zipped down to camp to start dinner. Meanwhile Kyle had started up the wall hauling the second half of the load solo, having to haul twice he only got to the bivy at pitch 3 and would camp here.

Day 4 started with shenanigans to situate the ropes where they needed to be in order to fix higher. After we were able to snag an independent rope Lani and I again began the commute up the fixed lines to push the line higher while Kyle hailed up to camp. From the high point, Lani led up Inobvious but moderate aid to the crest of “the dude”. The biggest roof on north Norwegian, and an intimidating mega overhang. Incipient and creative low angle A3 led up and left under the roof and around the bushy corner to a small ledge.

Reaching this ledge we figured we were far enough up to move camp, and thus Lani went down to assist Kyle in starting to haul while I started soloing the next pitch to the intended next camp. About halfway up my pitch I got a call saying there were technical difficulties at camp, we decided to reestablish camp and fix to the top my pitch. 

Day 5 would start super early with the big move. Myself and Lani would double counterbalance sky haul the pigs while Kyle cleaned the line below and brought up fixed lines. A few hours of hot manual labor brought us to the high point ledge. A grassy inset which seemed suboptimal for two portaledges, we spotted a good spot left of the buttress crest and concocted a creative plan to swing the bags over. I free climbed up to the top of a flake and put a good bolt in and lowered down (clipping the haul line to the bolt) to the intended spot. I drilled while Kyle and Lani prepped the bags. Once ready I took tight on the haul line with my gri gri and they kicked the bags over top rope style to me where I lowered them in place and docked them at the anchor. Shenanigans. After setting camp up I hugged up to my high point on the pitch and continued my lead. “The head wall” proved to be wicked exposed but I had to fight the features pulling us left into the chossy chasm and drill my way to a stunning corner on the buttress crest. 

Kyle and Lani came up to join me and Kyle started up the next pitch. Moderate free and aid led up through a tree to a roof. An inobvious ramp cut out left through some chossy bush. Kyle bulldozed his way up eventually running out of patience and drilling around some dangerous choss. Running low on daylight Kyle threw in a belay and called it a day. 

Day 6 started with a poor decision, only one gallon of water came up the wall... after jugging we were already dehydrated but didn’t think too much of it. We started on the e face and got good afternoon shade but the upper part of the route climbs the crest of the se ridge, and gets blazing sun all day. I got the the high point first and in the spirit of decluttering the tight stance I started free climbing. 50 ft up I hit an awesome ledge too good to pass up, so I added an anchor and moved the team up. Kyle in the mean time cleaned the previous bit to a state of being semi pleasant climbing!! At this belay our peril became evident, we were already spiraling into gnarly dehydration. Kyle was getting loopy, Lani unstoked, and myself crankerous. I would continue up with inobvious route finding. A long circuitous pitch of steep 5.9 led to another good albeit sun exposed ledge. We were closing on the summit, Lani encouraged me to keep leading while Kyle cleaned the route. 

A blueberry filled corner provided passage to the next tier, a pitch likened to the tree climbing on j berg!!

One more mega ledge and we could smell it! A casual pitch of 5.7 led up to a short bit of heather clawing onto the summit of the buttress.

We had read that it was easy climbing to the summit of middle index from here and it looked so. It also looked like a bunch of cascadian bush mank that seemed like it would taint our experience in our state of dehydrated madness. We descended to camp to smoke the joint we found in the parking lot and contemplate our descent. 

One or two puffs in I had this idea to lower Kyle with the bags down the whole face. We all became (mostly) convinced it would work and put wheels in the motion the next day. After wranglin the bags back to fall line we descended two pitches to the intended “drop zone”. We delicately stacked 1000’ of rope joined with edk’s, we would would bump em all through a munter. Kyle and the bags were probably closing on 400 lbs, we needed a gri and munter to control the load. The lower went smooth, and we were amazed! Bags were down!!!! So myself and Lani dropped all but two ropes down the face and Kyle started managing the clusterfuck. Our new friend River had responded to a Facebook call for porter help and met Kyle at the lake to take down 50-60 lbs of our load while me and Lani rapped the face and cleaned our gear. We touched down not too long after and started the soul crushing hike down, we had about 70-80 lbs a piece. I had called my parents again as it seems like all our friends are busy this time of year, they met us at the parking lot with a cooler of cold bubbly, fucking great climb. Shoutout to Lani for stoke, Kyle for his undying willingness to suffer and commitment to the manual labor and route creation, and River! For being willing to come up and help total strangers hump our stinky clusterfuck around. This route was certainly the effort of a village, and a wonderful big wall line that I hope people enjoy. 

 

 

Gear Notes:
Double Rack micro to #4, Single 5, Single set of offset nuts (didn’t use rp’s), 4-5 each beaks, 2 small lost arrows, 10 rivet hangers. All bolts and rivets are stainless, one or two bolts didn’t take well in the wet mud, but could potentially be reset with a funk and tightented (all anchors have at least 2 good bolts). Some may need to be tightened up again after initial loading. No ledges big enough even for 1 to sleep, good portaledges camps at the top of pitch 3,6,9, and 12. Do not haul above 12. Bivies at 3,6, and side of 11 take 2 ledges well. Rap the route, some directionals need to be placed on a handful of pitches to get down, pitch 7 needs to remain fixed with an extra 35-40M rope (it could be possible to down aid the roof on rappel to get back to the previous anchor)

Approach Notes:
Scamper to Lake Serene while the tourons ask about your “paraglide” or “boats”. Easy talus walking to near the waterfall between the buttresses. Enjoy your stay in Jötunheim!

Edited August 1, 2020 by Sam Boyce
Grammer

[Rad]

Wow! Thanks for posting here

 

[Kposaune]

I beat the ever living fuck out of that route to get it clean. I have never bled from so many places, nor inhaled so much dirt, or heaved that many blocks in such a short period of time. I don’t think Sam mentioned that all of the bolts, hangers, and rivets are 3/8” STAINLESS STEEL. We did this climb with the intention that others should and will repeat it. There are nicely placed portaledge bolts at camps, and there is in fact genuine Unobtainium around pitch 13, if you are looking for it. You’ll find an SDS bit sticking out of the rock.

 

Most memorable was ripping car engine sized blocks off and watching them hit the moat. The moat would explode and drop pieces the size of a house. Also memorable was riding the pigs 1000 ft down the face. Would not have trusted any other climbers to do that for me.

River was also very cool about helping, and has cool dogs! He is interested in dry tooling and ice climbing if you’re looking for a partner!

 

picture 1 Sam leading crux A3+ pitch

picture 2 Rainy day on first push at DT’s Golden Shower Room

Picture 3 Me drilling a rivet after digging out sticky mud and rocks to find a shattered crack. Dry, the section probably goes at 5.9ish but the gear mostly iron. 

[ivan]

amazeballs

[Alisse]

Congratulations!!!! 

[Michael Telstad]

Congrats! I'm curious how the Taco held up on the wall. It looks a little soft 

[Kposaune]

It’s a little hard to tell sometimes, like making food for yourself you’ll eat whatever and not think too much of it. It needs some product testing by normal people. One of my positive attributes is being able to make do with whatever i have. 
 

I am the only person who has used it, and I didn’t have it adjusted correctly at the time. I slept well enough, but I also could sleep on a bed of talus. There are a few design modifications that we believe can make it successful and way more comfortable and adjustable. The effort at which it takes to setup in general is quite simple.

[kukuzka1]

Awesome! finally something gets done on that thing. Just for shits and giggles is possible to draw a rough line of the Doorish route? I cannot quite see it 

[Sam Boyce]

49 minutes ago, kukuzka1 said:

Awesome! finally something gets done on that thing. Just for shits and giggles is possible to draw a rough line of the Doorish route? I cannot quite see it 

As far as I can tell this is it. A couple fxed lines over there gave some clues on features.

[kukuzka1]

Okay Thanks

[pgowdy]

This is super wicked! Thanks for all the effort and the in-depth TR. Am going to love getting up this thing at some point.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Nice work, so cool to see some action up there!  Great work getting this to the top!

[stillcrankin]

Maggots? MAGGOTS? Hahahaha 😂! I would prefer to think of myself as some kind of blood sucking parasite, like a tick or maybe a botfly. 

What a great trip report about an ambitious line up an ominous buttress. Not a lot of people are doing that kind of stuff these days. Did you really fix a thousand feet of line or was I reading that wrong? WTF? That must have weighed a ton, carrying all that up there. The thought of having someone lower me that far WITH HAULBAGS gives me the he-bee gee-bees. There IS a better way to descend with heavy bags....

That must have been amazing, being up there in quiet solitude for six days. That’s what wall climbing is all about. 

I like the name, Jotnar. Very fitting. When some friends and I tried to first climb this buttress in the early 70’s, I was thinking of calling it The Balrog Buttress, after one of the scary creatures from Lord of the Rings, which had just come out. 

My hat’s off to you!!

Don Harder

Edited November 18, 2020 by stillcrankin

[Sol]

Looking at all that pretty grey stone, incut edges, and beefy flakes reminds me that that beautiful chunk of stone needs a free route up it...!
 

Nice work you three, it’s cool to see a big ol aid route go up in the Cascades again!

[kukuzka1]

On 12/8/2020 at 8:35 AM, Sol said:

Looking at all that pretty grey stone, incut edges, and beefy flakes reminds me that that beautiful chunk of stone needs a free route up it...!
 

Nice work you three, it’s cool to see a big ol aid route go up in the Cascades again!

Don't give the rape bolters any ideas