Crown Point / Vista House rock

[JosephH]

I love choss as much as the next completely desperate addict, but even I have a certain choss-to-rock requirement which Crown Point fails miserably. Plus, I'm not sure it's not more of an art project when you can make all your own holds.

 

Last time I got on something like that I pulled a loose 1/2" x 6" x 3" sharp blade of rock out from under my right hand. Several tons of rock in a 10' diameter circle centered on my naval immediately cut loose. Uggh...

[fgw]

choss cascade waiting to happen:

 

[JosephH]

Maybe just make that some large chunks of rebar with bent eyeloops on one end.

[Joe_Poulton]

Maybe I'll throw in a few Flatiron style bolts....If I remember right, those are 1 inch diameter and maybe 24" long with an eye.

[billcoe]

(young me)

 

"We got us plenty of daylight lets leave the headlamps and other weight in in the backpacks right in camp. We can go light."

 

"Oh, I can crank that vertical headwall with a single ice axe, chop a stance and bring you up we'll summit and do a little hiking out in the dark...whats that you say, a storm brewin and we should head down and it will still be dark, no way dude, we got us some of that there vertical ice right here."

 

"Fuck this - I'm too warm, I'm tossing my down coat and we can pick it up when we get down off the wall. Looks like the ice is starting to melt now it's warming up. "

 

"Bullshit it's not gonna avalance and if it does we'll have a piton pounded into solid granite each pitch. We're here and were doing this by God "

 

"Move over bubba I'll lead the damn thing, just because no one has ever done it before don't mean I can't get up it right now. Shit, how runout can it be move outoftheway. "

 

"What do you mean we should head back now cause it getting dark soon? We have all kinds of time, and anyway, how dark can it get anyway?"

 

"Screw it, it might look like a big loose boulder: but shit, how loose could it be, bet I can pull right over that thing, it's going nowhere."

 

As always, your results may vary.

 

 

Man, it's only been a few years and I'd already forgotten most of those adventures I'd used as examples back in 2006! I just saw Bob (regular partner of 25 years who stopped climbing 8 years ago due to balance issues) the other day and someone came over as we were bs*ing and said to him, "You're Bob? Andrew says you're the guy to have next to you when the shit hits the fan". I said: as I flashed right back to that vertical ice example up above there and Bob stubbornly refusing to belay me until we discussed the whole thing: "He is, he always bailed my weak ass out!' That time Bob had talked me into turning around and of not getting on that one (I still don't understand the drive I had then to get up the thing so bad so many years later, but I do still remember the intensity of wanting to fire that pitch of ice right there even now, 30 years later). Bob's wisdom then undoubtedly saved us from an epic or worse. Shortly into what would be a long descent, the wind and the horizontal ice pellets and whiteout thing started up...then it got dark with many miles yet to go, even following the footsteps of the person right in front of you became difficult as they filled up so fast....

[billcoe]

choss cascade waiting to happen:

 

Very skillful stack job there FWG!

[Plaidman]

I did the West Chimney and stemmed all the way up just out of the dirt in the bottom. Tried to stay high. Then at the end of the slot on the south end tried to lead straight up. I rescued my gear I left up there when I had to bail. It took me two year to get back up there. The approach is much better in the winter.

[The Ospray]

I did the West Chimney and stemmed all the way up just out of the dirt in the bottom. Tried to stay high. Then at the end of the slot on the south end tried to lead straight up. I rescued my gear I left up there when I had to bail. It took me two year to get back up there. The approach is much better in the winter.

 

Saw your gear after an ascent of the chimney to the true summit of the Alpenjaeger this summer. Was wondering what the story of that was! Definatly the wrong way, next time top out on the true summit of the Alpenjaeger. Possibly one of the cooler summits in Oregon, just an awsome flat grassy perch. Not very hard but about 5.6/7 X to get on top due to dirtyness. I doubt anyone had climbed it in the past 15 years as the rap anchor had completly disintigrated in some spots. You should have scoped the line a little more, had you just walked back a little bit to the west you could have seen the blank overhanging wall above. Good on your for rescuing your gear, I'm sure it could have easily tempted other parties as it did my partner. But a little more inspection showed the summit of the Alpenjager as the true way to go. Either way a great place to spend the day doing some moderate "climbing" as the chimney is really just 4th class. But the pitch and a half to get up to it and the Alpenjaeger summit all have some moderate 5th class climbing.

 

Cheers

[E R I C]

New five pitch sport route on Crown Point developed top-down.

More details will be posted later on Mountain Project.

[E R I C]

On 2/5/2009 at 3:23 PM, eldiente said:

I'm not sure you could even get bolts to stick in that crap. I tried to free climb the first pitch of some route out there years ago and it was like ice climbing on mushy snow. You grab a hold and it would gradually start to compact and slide down until you quickly grabbed another hold and repeat. Too bad, as it is a nice looking wall.

Yes, it is an incredible looking wall and so is the climbing after peeling off the loose stuff.  From my experience, it’s the jointing or fracturing that makes the basalt at Crown Point notoriously loose and horrific.  The unfractured basalt is actually quit hard and solid.  On Belvedere, special bolts were not warranted.  Drill time for each bolt took about as long as any other solid Columbia River Basalt crag in the area.

[E R I C]

On 2/5/2009 at 6:48 PM, wayne said:

There was another route done on that face that is not in any book

Steve Elder and Tim Olson pioneered a rap bolted line

in the center of the wall somewhere.

Would mr.Ols chime in?

Dont be against an occasional good bolt/pin anchor.

There is no need to be pushing it.

I had a 25 foot grounder in one of my early goes at CG Choss(Pillars of Hercules 1978).

The chimney on Crown Point was a fond memory for young Wayne . Good luck and be safe as can be.

 

I checked out Steve's 1990s rap bolted route, Jewel in the Crown, last year.  The lower part of this one-pitch route is steep and high quality.  The upper part is less steep but pretty bad with slippery white lichen and mossy.  To my surprise, none of the holds broke off when I top-roped (and hangdogged) the climb.  This experience inspired me to explore other steep lines on the wall.

Edited October 6, 2023 by E R I C
shorten quote