catbirdseat Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 OlympicMtnBoy and I arrived at Frenchman't Coulee at 10 am in fog. It was cold with some snow in the ground in shady places. We climbed awhile at the Feathers until the sun came our around noon and moved over to Sunshine Wall where we met about three of four other parties. It warmed up nicely and was quite pleasant. Altogether we climbed eight pitches or three leads each (2 sport and 1 trad). The most interesting routes proved to be Shady Chimney, which has an awkward start, but is rather fun afterwards. It was reputed to be "hard to protect", but turned out not to be so. You just need small wired stoppers. I only put my hand in fresh pigeon poop one time. I yelled "shit!" and my partner thought something was wrong, like a dropped piece. No, I was just being all too literal. We top roped Steel Grille, and found the off width portions to be challenging as neither of us had a lot of experience with offwidths. It was really fun. OlympicMtnBoy could probably lead that one, but I'm not quite there yet. It turned out to be quite a pleasant day- better than I expected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGowans Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 Nice stuff man! What happened to your Hood trip? I opted for some backcountry freshies adventures yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 9, 2004 Author Share Posted February 9, 2004 The weather was too unsettled and there was too much new snow for Leuthold's Couloir. It might have been fine, but we didn't want to risk driving 5.5 hours just to find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jopa Posted February 9, 2004 Share Posted February 9, 2004 what other pitches did you guys climb at sunshine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 9, 2004 Author Share Posted February 9, 2004 I led Ride 'Em Cowboy, 5.9 and OlympicMtnBoy led Party in Your Pants, 5.8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colt45 Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 I was there on Sunday too, I think we saw you near the right side of the Kingpins area. I even recall overhearing the 'pigeon poop' experience you mentioned above!! It was nice to actually climb in the sun after lurking in the gym the last couple weeks. The fog had me worried initially but the weather ended up being hard to beat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 11, 2004 Author Share Posted February 11, 2004 I have this horrible habit of making exclamations like "oh shit" and "oops" and "oh oh", even in response to fairly innocuous foibles. It really bothers people when I do it in the lab. Fortunately I don't have butter fingers, or I'd be dropping 4L bottles of acetonitrile and get the building evacuated. You don't want your brain surgeon using exclamations like "oops". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mothboy88 Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 I am considering going out there this weekend. My wife is not into being cold while rock climbing though. Could you give me some beta on the temperature in the sun? Was the rock cold enough that your fingers were getting numb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 13, 2004 Author Share Posted February 13, 2004 If you climb in the morning, your fingers WILL get numb. If it isn't cloudy and if you wait until noon on a south facing wall, you will be quite comfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlympicMtnBoy Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Yep, we started out on Don Quixote (5.8) in the feathers area as a warm up and it wasn't exactly warming yet. My fingers were numb after about 15 feet and I had to look at the holds to see what was going on with em. After that (11:00) it warmed up really nicely though. This weekend doesn't look too bad, thinking of heading over there again on Monday maybe. Just don't try to start too early and you should be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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