Index and Snow Creek Wall (Leavenworth)

[ania]

Sat May 3

On our way to Leavenworth, Ian and I stopped at Index and climbed Godzilla.

Sun May 2

Sunday, we climbed Outer Space, followed by Mary Jane (the variation on Orbit).

 

7am - 10:30pm car-to-car.

~9am - start climbing Outer Space

~3pm - return to base of Snow Creek wall, discuss what now

~9pm - return to base of Snow Creek wall.

 

Ania's favorite quote of the day:

A: "Whhhaaaaahhhhh!!!"

I: [incredulous stare. We're standing on a trail. What could possibly have upset her so?]

A: It was a tick! I felt something tickling me!"

I: "Good pun."

A: "What.... oh? oh."

 

Ian's favorite quote of the day:

A: "So there are cracks up there, eh?"

 

Ania's total tick count: 5. First: see above. Second: bashed to death with a biner. I did apologize to Ian for banging his biner on a rock. Third and fourth: found in my hair while showering that night. Fifth: on my toothbrush the next morning (gross!)

 

Godzilla: Sat night, 7pm, over an hour of daylight left, and NOT A SOUL ON THE GREAT NORTHERN SLAB. I'd never climbed Godzilla, so Ian lead and I followed. I can see why people like this climb so much. Very nice.

 

Outer Space: Sunday morning, 7am, and NOT A SINGLE CAR AT THE SNOW CREEK TRAILHEAD. Too bad I didn't bring my camera.

 

We started climbing around 9am. Ian lead up the Remorse variation, which if I recall correctly is 5.8. It's three pitches. He lead 60m and we simul-climbed the rest to 2-Tree Ledge. Then I lead the crux pitch, with that famous 5.9 step out onto a face. It was a very enjoyable lead. Then Ian lead a pitch up to a pedestal, which has a fabulous belay ledge, and where I cleaned a "Chouinard" bail biner someone had left. Retro, dude. We hoped to simul-climb the remaining two pitches of 5.7 and 5.8 hand crack lined with chicken heads, but I ran out of pro at Library Ledge. I wasn't over-protecting, but I wasn't running it out either. The crack is just stays the same size (hand size). Since Ian now had all the hand-size pieces on him, and since we were in a hurry, he lead the last pitch.

 

We got back to the base of the wall at 3pm. We had a brief discussion of whether to go up MJD and risk a descent in the dark or do something else, quick lunch, and ...

 

Mary Jane:

The weather was perfect: cloudy but not stormy. We ended up with more gear than when we started. And Mary Jane is really fun. I don't see why more people don't climb it. Ian was saying that it's just not as talked about, and that the pro isn't great (it does gets sparser and sparser as you ascend)... but gosh darn, it's such a nice climb.

 

Towards the top, the dihedral gets rather mossy. There's a shiny new bolt at that point. Ian clipped a long sling to the bolt, descended a couple of feet, and traversed left to a crack. The traverse looks really sparse, and admittedly handholds are really poor so you mostly rely on your feet, but the moves were actually much more solid than I expected. And the bolt is above, so the consequences of the fall would at worst be swinging into the dihedral. We returned to the dihedral just past the mossy section (10-15ft of moss). The dihedral ends with a cool boulder move to get over a roof/block. From there on up, it's mostly fun easy climbing on very sparsely protected chicken heads.

 

We did not rap on either descent. Thanks to this trip, Ian has now avoided rappelling on just more than half his descents from Snow Creek Wall. I'm 2/2.

 

My crack climbing skills are still not up to my face-climbing skills. I thought the 5.9 crux on Outer Space and the Mary Jane dihedral were both easier than the final 5.8 hand crack pitch of Outer Space. Gym rat I be.

[Bug]

Nice TR. Good to have a rock like that so close.

[Szyjakowski]

Mary Jane is really fun. I don't see why more people don't climb it.....

Towards the top, the dihedral gets rather mossy.

 

something about the dirt and rattly holds near the start of the dihedral is my guess....

eating dirt is fun!

way to go kidz. MJ is sweeeet!