[TR] La Croupe du Poney 06/14/2025

[RobUSA]

On Saturday, June 14th, Kelly Ryan and I climbed a rock buttress in the Washington Pass area, based only on photographs I had taken of that rock buttress a couple of weeks prior.  It has 1000′ of mostly moderate and enjoyable granite climbing, with trees available for almost every belay station. The route is solidly Grade III in size. We swung leads for eight long pitches, where I led the odds and Kelly led the evens. We estimate that maybe one pitch was 5.9, and a number of others were 5.7 / 5.8, but there certainly were factors that could have led us to over-estimating difficulties at the time, so it's possible those difficulties will get downgraded upon the arrival of more opinions. There is a walk-off from the top, which returns to the route’s base.  We took a lot of extra time dealing with the details of the unknown here, but with the beta now known, I imagine par for the course could be 12 to 13 hours car-to-car for this moderate route.

It's hard to know if this is a new first ascent or not.  We definitely climbed it in the style of a first ascent; and despite a lot of searching, I've yet to find conclusive proof that the particular line we climbed has been previously climbed in its entirety.  Whatever the case may be, I'm rather proud of our little effort here!

More details in this write-up:  https://rocknropenw.com/2025/06/17/la-croupe-du-poney/

Edited June 24 by RobUSA

[wayne]

Likely  an FA. You give great detail in your trip report. Do you have something on mountain project yet? It  looks like a fine climb!

[olyclimber]

19 minutes ago, wayne said:

Likely  an FA. You give great detail in your trip report. Do you have something on mountain project yet? It  looks like a fine climb!

It’s not for everyone but appreciate those who share in non-corporate media!  How much do you think OnX paid REI for that site?  Gotta recoup.

[olyclimber]

Wayne would know better than most! Congrats regardless, it’s hard to find new territory these days!

[RobUSA]

Thanks so much!!

Yeah, I intend to post it on Mountain Project in the near future.  I was initially holding off on doing so for a little while, partially to see if the route had history so that I could report it accurately, and also partially in case I get a chance to go re-climb it myself to make sure it's really ready-to-recommend before I start advertising it more broadly.  (Doing one more lap myself would give me a chance to get a second take on the difficulty ratings, see if there's anything loose enough that should be trundled preemptively in case there were ever more than one party on route, maybe even add a bolt to the friction-slab section of the sixth pitch.)  It's unclear if I'll find the time re-climb it in the next few weeks though, so maybe I'll post it on Mountain Project before doing so after all.  I'll add it on Mountain Project within a month either way

[dberdinka]

You might try to track down a copy of Bryan Burdo's old WA-Pass guidebook.  He did several routes on that feature (if I'm recognizing it correctly as above the big waterfall east of the pass).  I know that a couple other CC users went up there a couple years ago and climbed something. 

[RobUSA]

Yeah, I've been trying to track down a copy of exactly that book.  I went to the Seattle Mountaineers Program Center in hopes that their library would be the best-bet, but the staff there does not know where the keys are kept to unlock their own glass covers over the bookcases, so I'm at a bit of a dead end there.  Does anyone here have a copy of that book?

[Michael Telstad]

34 minutes ago, dberdinka said:

You might try to track down a copy of Bryan Burdo's old WA-Pass guidebook.  He did several routes on that feature (if I'm recognizing it correctly as above the big waterfall east of the pass).  I know that a couple other CC users went up there a couple years ago and climbed something. 

I borrowed a copy from a friend several years ago and distinctly remember reference to several lines on that buttress. Regardless, It's great to see attention being paid to these lesser known features!

[RobUSA]

Thanks!

Yeah, I am already aware that a 1997 out-of-print guidebook mentions the overall buttress.  I have been able to find that one of the routes in it was named "Archer", and that route is completely distinct from what we climbed.   What I haven't been able to find are any specifics about what those other lines were.  Further details of my search so far are here:  https://rocknropenw.com/2025/06/17/la-croupe-du-poney/#further-efforts-to-determine-first-ascent-history  It certainly feels more likely than not that the prow of the buttress (what we climbed,) would be seen as the most likely line, and therefore is likely to have been climbed before.  What I'm having trouble with is getting past vague generalities and "probablies." Does anyone have a copy of that book that I could see?  Can anyone share a link to prior trip reports so that I could compare the details of the lines?  I'm doing my best to uncover some concrete details here.

[JasonG]

I bet Bryan could hook you up with a copy for the right quantity of raw beef.

[RobUSA]

Ha!!  Yeah, I have sent Bryan himself message, but quite recently though, so I'll give him some time to reply

[dberdinka]

Check with users Lunger and Sam Boyce.  They did something up there last summer?  And we’re at the time unaware of the BB lines as well.  They may have a copy.    Weird how that guidebook seems to have totally vanished.  Had all kinds of random Doorish routes and what not in it.

[RobUSA]

Ah, thanks so much for pointing me in the direction of someone specific to reach out to, I'll send them a message!

Someone's gotta have a copy of that Bryan Burdo book somewhere, I'm looking forward to when one eventually turns up!

[Carbonj]

IMG_20250628_110739_4.heic

Edited June 28 by Carbonj
Image not downloading

[bpolagye]

I have a copy of that Burdo guide and it looks like the route you climbed follows a fair bit of "Pampas Drifter" (5.8, Grade III-IV). FA was by Pete Doorish and Alex Cudcowicz in 1990. Not the greatest pictures, but the topo and (brief) description are attached. That team also had the first ascent of "Archer", which Dale Farnham told me was named after a dog Pete had at the time. I think the main difference is that you jogged left under the "white headwall" and Pete and Alex kept to the right?

Regardless, I have been really curious about this route (and Archer) since I came across it in the old Burdo guide. Hope that your TR puts some more traffic on it.

Nice work! 

[bpolagye]

Duplicate post

Edited June 30 by bpolagye
Double posted?

[RobUSA]

Ah, fantastic, thank you so much for sharing these pictures of that book!!  I've been so curious, and I'm really glad to finally see it!!  I really appreciate you sharing this!!

Okay, so, Pampas Drifter.  Now that I know of it, I'm trying to make sense of how much our recent line does vs does-not overlap Pampas Drifter.  It's a route close to the prow of the buttress, and our route is pretty close to the prow of the buttress, so the chances for overlap do indeed seem probable.  Some initial thoughts:

• I'm so glad to see the pages of that book!  The book's detail is indeed a little sparse.  Man, where exactly the line of "Pampas Drifter" is relative to landmark features on the actual rock is still pretty darn vague.  "Corner system" and "white headwall" quite ambiguously could refer to a lot of different possible specific-locations on that buttress.
• Wow, there's even less out there on the internet when I google for more information on "Pampas Drifter" than there is about Black Horse Rock or Archer.  No wonder I was having a hard time finding information.  It looks like there is not a single internet trip report at all about that route.
• The "white headwall" --> Maybe that refers to the intimidating-large headwall with the leftward-arching clamshell crack/chimney that our pitch 6 goes left to get around.  Or maybe that refers to the next imposing white headwall that our pitch 7 easily skirted on the right.  If it is either, I somewhat think our pitch 7 is the more likely match, since there we indeed experienced that "a dramatic turn to the right of that feature led to easier ground."  But it also could be some completely other third white headwall elsewhere.  The text description in the book says "eventually angling right to a dihedral below the obvious white headwall."  Neither our pitch 6 or pitch 7 involved a dihedral below their respective headwalls.  Our pitch 8 did involve an obvious dihedral, but well above any white headwalls.  So I'm not quite able to make sense of where the specific "white headwall" in the Pampas Drifter diagram is.
• The "corner system" on Pampas Drifter's pitch 6 --> Our pitch 5 moves to the right and crosses a corner system.  Those things do rather feel like a match.  So was our pitch 5 the same as Pampas Drifter's pitch 6?   Maybe and I'm tempted to say yes…  but since I can't make sense of where the "white headwall" above is, and my best-guess is that it's white headwall along our pitch 7, making Pampas Drifter's pitch 7 and our pitch 7 the same pitch-number, then things don't add up with the corner system being diagramed as right below that as Pampas Drifter's pitch 6, yet being the same terrain as our pitch 5, with no accounting for the terrain that our pitch 6 represents.  Either the "white headwall" doesn't match, or the "corner system" doesn't match, but I don't know which.
• The "sustained 5.8 finger crack on rib" --> Oooo interesting!!  Well, I can say for sure that Pampas Drifter's pitch 3 is different than anything we climbed, since we were never on a sustained 5.8 finger crack.  Not that that gives us much information about how much overlap there may or may not be between the route on other pitches, it only conclusively tells me that pitch 3 is different.  But now I also want to go find this "sustained 5.8 finger crack", that sounds like it would be a really fun pitch to climb!

Eh, so I'm still left with open questions about how much or how little the two routes overlap.  Maybe what we climbed is the majority of Pampas Drifter??  But with quite a few details not quite adding up, maybe the routes are mostly separate and distinct after all?  I'm still trying to figure this out.  If anyone has more information on Pampas Drifter & its specifics (especially a link to an old trip report, or photos taken while actually on route,) I'd love to see it.

In any case though, clearly our pitch 6 (our crux pitch) is new and unique, at least!

Thanks again for sharing the photos of the book.  That really helps!!

Edited June 30 by RobUSA

[RobUSA]

After having thought about this more (and having gone and climbed La Croupe du Poney a second time to make it a little more "ready" for other climbers,) this is, to the best of my understanding, my best guess about where the route Pampas Drifter is relative to La Croupe du Poney:

• I think Pampas Drifter made a direct-start from the toe of the buttress, starting climbing about 100' lower than La Croupe du Poney (whereas we started La Croupe by scrambling up the easier right side of the buttress to a big larch.)  The bottom of the drawn line in the guidebook has a rightward-arching shape that appears to match the shape of a rightward-arch on the friction slab at the very bottom of the buttress.  So Pampas Drifter's first pitch starts lower than La Croupe du Poney's first pitch starts, which leads to pitch numbers being half-offset the remainder of the way up.
• Shared segment: Although the 1st pitches of the two routes start in different spots, likely the majority of the middle of those first pitches are the same.
• A divergence:  Pampas Drifter describes "a long, sustained 5.8 finger crack on the third pitch".  Wherever that is, it is definitely unique from La Croupe du Poney.  My best guess as to where that "long, sustained 5.8 finger crack" could possibly be is a clean section of rock with a number of vertical cracks that's 50ish feet to the right of La Croupe du Poney, and in terms of height, lines up with La Croupe's upper-half of our 2nd pitch plus the lower-half of our 3rd pitch.
• Since Pitch 3 of Pampas Drifter is definitely unique from La Croupe du Poney, it somewhat suggests that Pampas Drifter's pitch 2 and pitch 4 are also unique from La Croupe du Poney, since Pampas Drifter's route diagram doesn't show any sudden jogs to get to or from it's pitch 3; the route diagram implies that the pitches before & after pitch 3 are roughly vertically in line.
• Coming back together: I believe that La Croupe du Poney's pitches 3 & 4 and Pampas Drifter's pitches 4 & 5 are close neighbors, which slowly come back together and probably eventually share the same line at some point; most likely near the end of La Croupe's P4 and Pampas Drifter's P5.  It's quite plausible that those pitches end at the same belay location.
• Shared segment:  I guess the corner system marked in Pampas Drifter's diagram on their P6 has to be the same as the small right-facing-corners that La Croupe du Poney's P5 climbs through.  So La Croupe's P5 and Pampas Drifter's P6 are mostly the same thing.
• A divergence again: Depending on where exactly Pampas Drifter's "dramatic turn on the right" is, it's likely the routes diverge again near the end of La Croupe's P5 & Pampas Drifter's P6.  It's unclear to me if Pampas Drifter the huge chimney with a giant chockstone that's directly above Shish Kabob Tree, or if the "dramatic turn" is indeed further right, since further right does indeed look more likely to "lead to easier ground" out there.  In either case though, it's clear that Pampas Drifter's P7 goes somewhere very different, and La Croupe du Poney's P6 & P7 are definitely new and unique.
• Another coming back together:  Unfortunately, Pampas Drifter gives effectively no information at all about where its pitch 8 happens to be.  If it had been my brain planning the route for Pampas Drifter back in the 1990's, I know I would have chosen to go for the "Incredible Dihedral" that's also La Croupe du Poney's pitch 8.  So I'm guessing they made that decision??  But I'm surprised they didn't make at least some even small note at all about this striking last dihedral in their route diagram or description.  It seems like if they had climbed it, they would have made at least a little mention of such a striking feature, so maybe they didn't climb it and went some other way??  But I'm going to assume they did climb it, even though they didn't say so, just because it is a probable way they might have gone.  Based on that assumption, that would make pitch 8 of both La Croupe du Poney and Pampas Drifter the same.

In summary:  These two eight-pitch-routes would appear to have three pitches that overlap (some of the P1, some of La Croupe's P5 is the same as Pampas Drifter's P6, and to make an assumption: all of P8,) leaving each route with its other 5 pitches of climbing being unique and separate from the other.

Considering that:

1. The routes have more pitches that are separate than they do that are shared…
2. And that I went out and climbed La Croupe du Poney as if it were a first ascent, with no beta at all except some of my own photos I had taken a few weeks prior, as there wasn't a single shred of information available about other routes on this buttress at the time that I climbed it…
3. And that these older routes seem like they had been forgotten to time long before I got here… (I can't find any internet-evidence of anyone having climbed Pampas Drifter at all in the last 25 years)

…the combination of all those things (especially point #1) makes me feel pretty good about saying "La Croupe du Poney is indeed a new first ascent" here!

I've posted La Croupe du Poney to Mountian Project:  https://www.mountainproject.com/route/201307606/la-croupe-du-poney

If anyone has more-conclusive information / better beta about those historic routes, Archer and Pampas Drifter, it would be cool if you posted those to Mountain Project too, so that they aren't totally lost to time!

 

Edited July 13 by RobUSA

[Sam Boyce]

Eric and I did do something up there a couple years ago. I added a very rough photo of where I think we went. Kind of a blur though. We found some nice cracks and a lot of moss. Observed tat all over the place on various trees. I do remember we descended via the le petit cheval gully.