[TR] W Face of Silver Star- Gato Negro revisited and revised 6/20/2004

[scott_johnston]

Climb: W Face of Silver Star-Gato Negro revisited and revised

 

Date of Climb: 6/20/2004

 

Trip Report:

After three years to the day I returned to Gato Negro on the W face of the W summit of Silver Star to do some route editing. Larry Goldie and I had originally put this route up in a long, adventurous day with no previous experience on this huge face.

 

It was just the kind of climbing experience we both really value. We simply followed the most logical line of weakness to the top of the Whine Spire which is a seperate summit standing away from the broad W face of SS, located below and to the S of the Wine Spire group. The route had given us everything we had sought and in retrospect we felt it was one of the better long routes in the WA Pass area so we decided to publicize the route. Except that we were not happy about the 2nd and 3rd pitches. We had been forced to climb some typical WA PA crappy, loose corners that went at scary 5.8 (you know the stuff, think of the S face of Kangaroo Temple, a true WAPA classic) to get around a nice looking but unprotectable face.

 

So yesterday I returned with Chris Clark (while Larry was pulling down at Skaha) and heavy packs to see if we could climb that clean face and create two pitches that were of the same quality and caliber as the rest of the route.

 

The bad news is that it took all day in the hot sun and my hands are still sore from climbing and reclimbing and cleaning of the options so many times.

 

The good news is that there are now 2 new pitches the make the original pitches 2 and 3 obsolete.

 

The route has seen some traffic in the last couple of years. Thanks Kevin (aka Bobby Peru) and others for the positive feedback. I still feel it offers a rare experience around WA Pass area; a solid and sustained long free climb on generally very good rock with several fantastic pitches and, in its new revied edition, no crappy climbing.

 

So if you have been waiting to get on Gato Negro, wait no more. Kevin, I recommend another climb of it now. I think you would love it.

 

From the sandy bench at the top of the first pitch you'll find a line of bolts going up the large face above. The face looks unlikley from below but offers up some really fun climbing. It is well protected to avoid a ground fall but then the bolts become more sportily spaced on moderate (5.8) climbing. The crux of the P2 is now a 5.10 mantle onto a hollow flake then some thin moves to nice ledge with a 2 bolt anchor. P3 steps left 20' with 5.7 lieback moves to a fun 5.7 corner to aledge and th ebase of the crux pitch on the route.

 

I have attached a revised topo and a photo of the whole W face of the SS massif.

 

Go have an adventure.

Scott

[Billygoat]

Thanks Scott! Excellent work. I can't wait to try it out

 

 

BTW, Where is the photo?

[bobbyperu]

scott, right on!!! my hats off yet again.... this route is amazing, and i'm planning on another go around real soon here, so checking out the new pitches is exciting. when uncle tricky and myself did the second a-sent, we avoided the 2/3 pitches as well, we got to the base of the money pitch in one long one but it too was crappy. good to know theres now even more variety of climbing and no junk.

 

sooo this route has seen some action in the last couple weeks, i have a friend who did it earlier, and noted some wettness and icy cracks, i imagine its dried off quite nicely by now...go and get cho selves some -bp

[bobbyperu]

i looked at the revised topo, and will mention the final solitary crack on the summit needle is worthy... steep, and airy splitter right up the front!!!

[rat]

never mind. i checked the updated topo.

Edited June 21, 2004 by rat

[bobbyperu]

i saw that...uh so i guess that means scott or larry would know somethin about it... did you guys have any fun, or was it just kinda lame how'd the de-send go...lotsa snow..?

[rat]

the verglas and light snow added a nice touch but didn't hamper the free-climbing. scuzzy rock and a lot of snow in the descent gully (melting fast).

[bobbyperu]

cool...you like the 4th pitch..? you think the ratings are accurate..? you guys take the final crack thing to the top..? feel free to tell me with all the questions, i'm just pesky like that, having the info here in the post may be beneficial to those liking instruction manuals, and up to the minute route conditions

[rat]

assume you mean the "crux" pitch? very nice, varied crack climbing.

accurate ratings? maybe a bit soft. though a bit of prior knowledge usually makes things seem a bit easier than during a ground-up fa.

final splitter? definitely the way to go.

more questions? fuck off.

[scott_johnston]

I am trying to attach a photo of the W face of SS here to make more clear where the route and Whine spire are hope it helps.

 

Kevin; Thanks for the input I think you'll find the new P2-3 WORTHY of the rest of the route.

 

Rat;

Those must have been your tracks we saw in the snow at the base of the route. Sorry you didn't wait a few days to climb it in its new state.

You make an interesting point when replying to Kevin's question about ratings especially P4.

Larry and I will not be offended to hear people's opinion of the rating. It is not cast in stone. As you pointed out; onsight pionneering is very different than having fore knowledge of what lies ahead on a route: Can I down climb this if I can't do the moves? Do I have enough gear left? Is the a spot for a belay somewhere above?

We didn't have a very big rack on that climb and P4 was full value climbing as Larry leap frogged gear up the wide cracks. One climbs with a good deal more circumspection when leading out into uncharted terrain. I think it best to let concensus dictate what the true rating is so subsequent climbers of the route can help with feedback in this area.

We just wanted to present our initial rating impressions to give an overall feel for the topo and not sandbag anyone. If we were going to publisize the climb we wanted to do it in a realistic way.

Hope you enjoyed the climb.

 

Same goes for Sisyphus on Goat Wall A climb Larry and I put up a few years ago. In the last two years the crux pitch has become much cleaner and hence may be ready to be down graded. We'll wait for more input.

 

That is a perfect use for a forum like this.

Scott

[bobbyperu]

scott...beauty picture by the way! i think the ratings are good for the onsight leader, and consistent with the area. :tup

[jordop]

Thanks for the photo, I have remained too lazy all this time to interpret the exact locale. Can anyone comment on where OffWhite's route on the W face lies in relation to Gegro Nato? O/W you there?

[jordop]

.

Edited June 7, 2021 by jordop

[rat]

scott,

i thought it was 5.10 (not hard 5.10) when we did it. so my comment about the grade is really pretty insignificant, but bp asked.... a highly recommended route overall. someone should continue it to the top of silver star. see ya out there.

[Off_White]

Here's a pic from Uncle Tricky in the Gallery, original supplied by Dru. Gato Negro on the right. Scott, UT wasn't sure about the line, does this look correct?

[bobbyperu]

the blu line doesn't look right to me, if thats supposed to be gato negro...i looked for the left line once(red), but couldn't see straight thanx to horrendous bugs, and the cloud of ex-girlfriend woes socking me in, in my own head, but thats neither here nor there, i want to repeat the off-white route soon anyone game..? alpinfox..? rematch..?

[chucK]

The RED line looks like it matches up more with Scott's photo. Did you mix your left and right's up Off? Why not just use the colors in your description, so much less likely to get mixed up.

[Off_White]

Because I thought my line was pink, and I didn't want to get into some kind of pink and blue gender embarassment.

 

Mine is definitely the, umm, err, red line. The angle of the photo Scott used, similar to the picture in the CAG, compresses the width of the face. The other photo is more like what you see on approach.

[scott_johnston]

Guys; I am not sure I am helping but I have tried to attach another photo from the approach to the W face of SS. The black line indicates pretty closely the location of Gato Negro. If you look hard you can just make out that the Whine Spire is a seperate summit standing out from the main W face massif.

The blue line on Uncle Tricky's photo actually shows the route going off of the Whine spire and crossing the descent gully and climbing more or less up the main W summit block (non of which it does). I think his error is just do to the merging of all the features in the photo and hence loosing track of where the route would have to go. I admit to sometimes having a hard time picking it out. The original photo I posted shows the Whine Spire outlined by the descent gully. That is why I used it, although it is certainly not the view you get while approaching.

How do you guys get a photo included in the actual post? When I attach mine they come up as a link or some such and don't show with my text.

Thanks, Scott

Edited June 23, 2004 by scott_johnston

[Billygoat]

Go to where the image is being hosted, right click on the image, click on properties, copy the address, come back, post a reply, click on image over by the font color, paste the address in the window that appears in the upper left, then finish the reply

[Uncle_Tricky]

Thanks again scott and larry for sharing an adventurous line up a unique feature--a good contribution to known options up at wapass. My attempt to draw the approximate gato negro line was an exercise in late night incoherent scribbling, so pay it no attention. I do remember the individual pitches (and also the descent) though. Hopefully people are enjoying rapping off the orange cordelette I hitched to a chockstone in the obvious descent gully after watching senor peru puzzle through downclimbing that section. I look forward to getting up there and checking out the new versions of p. 2 and 3.

 

New copies of the gato topo are pinned to the NCMG bulletin board next to the Mazama store.