[TR] Wasington Classics Tour- W Face NEWS, OuterSp

[willstrickland]

Climb: Wasington Classics Tour-W Face NEWS, OuterSpace, Total Soul, etc

 

Date of Climb: 9/1-7/2004

 

Trip Report:

Warning: Long winded TR.

 

Short Version: climbed sporto 32 stuff, OuterSpace, Another Roadside Attraction, W. Face NEWS, Total Soul, Rogers->BOC.

 

Long version:

 

 

Sometimes you don’t know how good you have it until it’s taken away. When I lived in Portland, I dreamed of Yosemite and sunny Cali granite. Now living in Alaska I frequently flip through Cascade Select and wonder “why the hell didn’t I climb that when I lived there?!”

 

After checking out all the road accessible rock within 6 hours of Fairbanks, and sucking forest fire smoke while fly-fishing all summer, I started plotting and scheming to get some cascade rock in before the summer passed me by. The only problem was, who the hell am I gonna climb with? A cc.com posting took care of the partner issue and quick.

 

It’s always interesting to climb stuff “off the couch”. I’d free soloed and TR soloed some choss around Fairbanks this summer, but the last trad pitch I’d led was almost a year ago in Yosemite. A year. Fuckin sad, that is. Even sadder was before that Yos trip I’d only gotten in maybe 5 pitches of trad the prior year. How I went from 40 pitch weeks in 2002 to this sorry state of affairs I still don’t understand…

 

I finagled a spot on a non-stop flight into Seattle and went straight from the airport to Feathered Friends. I don’t know what the dude’s problem was who was bitching about this shop earlier this year, because I got great service there from Todd and walked out a few minutes later with some pretty pink shoes. Soon after, Pax and I headed out to Little Si for some sporto pullin with IceIceBaby, Rocksanyone, Ken4ord, RuMR, Brett, and a few others. Rain moved in for a couple of days so I headed to the east side for some real estate investigation. By Friday it was on again.

 

I met up with Pax and Kim in 11worth and headed for the famed Outer Space. I’d never been up to the Snow Creek Wall, and the fire damage in the area is impressive. After a few minutes of hiking on the nicely switch-backed trail, the wall came into view.

 

 

Very nice! We soon crossed the creek

 

 

and noticed only one party on the wall. The leader was on the fearsome crux pitch and didn’t seem to be moving at all. I was intrigued. I lobbied to lead the crux pitch and Pax having done the route before was gracious enough to give me odd pitches We did the regular start and I headed up the non-descript first pitch. We used reversos and two ropes to allow following simultaneously. It soon became evident to me that managing the ropes in this set-up might be the crux of the route. As Pax and then Kim pulled into the belay, it looked like my skills needed a little help.

 

 

Nice and tidy rope mgmt eh?

Pax ran across the next pitch in about 20 seconds, which put us below the crux. It’s funny sometimes how you hear so much about a particular pitch and it turns out to be nothing at all like your mental image. This was a prime example. It looked like I could go either slightly left up a shallow diheral or slightly right up a splitter crack. I started up the crack on the right expecting to find a traverse with no feet, funky finger and thin hand jams, and wicked exposure. After spending a good minute figuring out a move below some fixed tat halfway up the crack below the traverse, I found myself trying to commit to the traverse. It looked short, and not bad at all. Leaving the security of the stance was the real crux of the pitch. I started across and wtf? There are huge feet all the way across the traverse. I found a single spot without good feet and after one move, it was back onto big feet again. I thought the crack below the traverse was quite a bit harder than the traverse itself. Pax again flew up the next pitch, cruising on chickenheads and then up and over the pedestal. We joined him and I now understood why this route got so much good press. The next 300 ft were a splitter thin handcrack through a sea of chickenheads, conveniently cleaved halfway with a bivy-sized ledge. I cruised up to library ledge on amazingly fun climbing. You could probably climb the headwall crack pitches without ever placing a jam by yarding on chickenheads. What an awesome pitch!

 

 

The six feet off library ledge are probably the crux of the route, involving a few 5.9 fingercrack moves with good pro. Soon we were on top gazing back toward 11worth.

 

 

The descent is a little tricky, but not too long and not bad. There is a crucial traverse on skiers left that puts you back at the base of Orbit which we missed. If you miss it, you’ll probably end up at a rap station on a tree. Rap and climb back up the hill a bit to the base where you will find…

 

 

Goats of course!

 

The next morning I met up with P & K in the Icicle again to hit “Another Roadside Attraction” before I drove up to Washington Pass. This is a really fun little 3 pitch number on the Icicle Buttress. It’s aptly named because it literally starts about 6 feet from the shoulder of the road. A little steep move, some slab, a diagonaling low angle crack, more slab…yeah! This thing is fun. The diagonal crack reminded me of an easier version of Mexican Crack in Little Cottonwood. I linked the first two with a 70m and Pax cruised the last pitch, putting us on the ground exactly on time. I bid them farewell and hopped into my trusty Chevy Cavalier rental and hit the road for Washington Pass and a rendezvous with The Surly Brunette.

 

The drive was pleasant enough, winding along the Columbia and taking me through the Methow Valley. After starting the morning in Leavenworth and it’s fake Bavaria theme, and ending it in Winthrop and it’s fake wild west theme…I was starting to wonder a little about Washingtonians. Driving up to the pass I was slack-jawed. That place is amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. The Surly Brunette was waiting for me. We both commented on how chilly it was and headed down to Winthrop and the pub. SB recognized our waitress from a party last year, while I recognized her from an Uncle Tricky trip report of Dreamer. Rain fell on the tent that night…hmmm, this could be interesting.

 

The short approaches at the Pass are a blessing, and maybe a curse if you’re doing something popular. This was Labor Day Weekend after all. Driving back to the Pass we noticed fresh snow on quite a few peaks. Pulling into the Blue Lake parking lot we both go “hey, there’s Caveman”. Things were looking pretty wet and Cavey and Sky were headed up to solo something. The SB and I hit the trail to “have a look”. After a leisurely 90 minutes or so, we arrived at the base of the West face of North Early Winter, it looked dry enough, but damn it was cold! The line is obvious and it looks awesome!

 

 

We started racking up and the SB earned instant hero points by producing shake-n-warms for our chalkbags. Now THAT is a quality partner! We decided I would take odds and she evens. About thirty feet off the ground I could no longer feel my fingers. At the top of the pitch I looked down and the SB had layered another jacket on which she wore the rest of the climb. As she followed the pitch, nice edges and cracks to a short and easy 5.8 chimney, some snowflakes began to fall. I was ready to bag it, but figured “what the hell, I won’t be getting back here anytime soon, let’s see what happens”.

 

SB ran up the next pitch, weaving through trees and bought me up. The description for the 3 rd pitch says “stop at the first convenient belay, short pitch”. They mean it. It’s a really really short pitch that ends on a flat 3ft x 3ft stance about 40ft off the belay. I kept going another 40ft to a marginal stance before I realized the next stance was the beginning of the pitch 4 wide lieback and I would have no way to build a belay. The Surly Brunette came up as a few more flakes fell between glimpses of sunshine. In this pic, she is right at the 3x3 stance, I am belaying from just below the wide lieback.

 

 

If the clouds would hold off, the sun would soon crest the shoulder and we would be able to feel our fingers again. The SB groped the lieback holds and started up…hmmmm…back down. Tried another method, down again. I offered to take the pitch. SB was not giving up yet. She took off up a crack system to the left on what looked like a fairly stiff finger crack. About 20 feet out she looked to traverse back onto the route above the unprotected wideness. The traverse was not yielding. SB put on an impressive display of downclimbing while keeping herself protected and handed over the rack. I grabbed the edge of the lieback and went “shit, this sucks! Wish I could feel my hands. Damn, this does not feel secure at all.” I cranked a couple of lieback moves and reached high to where the edge of the wide crack became a thin flake. Now I am not a tall dude, at 5’9” but I have quite a bit of reach on the Surly Brunette. This pitch would have definitely been harder for a short person with nothing to look forward to except hitting a ledge sideways if you greased off the lieback and bouncing off for another 6 foot drop. At the top of this flake is an ancient 1/4” rusty ass bolt. Don’t clip it. Look about 3 feet directly above it and there is a replacement 3/8” shiny stainless. The pitch finishes with some cool underclinging /liebacking and smearing up to the base of the crux fingercrack.

 

The next pitch, the crux, is short maybe 20-25 ft. One observation: when climbing finger cracks, it helps when you can actually feel your fingers. I pulled on a piece one move from the end of the crack before the traverse and found the traverse moves to be much easier than advertised (guide says .10, they are maybe .8?). The crack takes good pro, either nuts or small cams in the 00-1 tcu sizes and has decent locks and ok right foot, non existent left foot. The SB came one move from flashing as well and racked up for the last pitch. This, pitch 6, is the money pitch - a finger crack turning into a handcrack as the angle kicks back. SB walked up this, whooping it up along the way. It was a nice lead and I was all smiles following, this pitch was killer! If you do this route, make sure you get this one.

 

 

We are barely visible in the white streak in the background of this pic from Lib Bell:

 

 

We read some register entries and watched the circus on the Beckey route on Lib Bell. We counted 16 people on the top section. We also watched a party on the Direct E Butt of SEWS…it looks awesome. Next time for sure ya! The views from the summit are stunning, a fine reward after a fine route.

 

 

The raps went pretty quick with a single rope…I’d actually recommend a single rather than doubles, there is a lot of loose shit in parts of the gully system. I kicked off a small thumb sized piece that scored a direct hit on a belayer at the base of SEWS. I yelled and he saw it coming, realized it was small and just took it in the shoulder and a party rapping behind us dislodged a grapefruit sized piece that would have drilled him again if the Surly one hadn't given him a loud warning. I was happy to have my helmet on during the raps. SB raps the last overhanging section:

 

 

At the base we ran into another family of…

 

 

Goats of course. We also ran into the PDX contingent of cc.comer’s…rbw1966, MtnHigh, Shredmaximus in the parking lot afterwards.

 

After deciding that we wanted no part of another freezing ass day at the Pass, we decided on Darrington for the next day. I had designs on one of the quality Washington slab routes on this trip and since the SB had done Dreamer, I suggested Total Soul. She was game. The approach to 3 o’clock rock is not as long as the beta suggests…I think it took us maybe 40 minutes total and we were really taking our time. At first glance, the route seems ho-hum. Don’t let smooth taste fool ya! This thing is rad. So much variety for a slab climb. There is pure friction Jedi mind control shit (which the Surly one led in fine style) a weird crack, overlap/roofs, and a cool dike. There are some thought provoking runouts and well protected cruxes. The SB ran the first two pitches together with our 70m rope and about 15 ft of simulclimbing, after that we pitched it all out as per the topo. The Brunette approaching the end of the first pitch…

 

 

Highly recommended!

You get nice views of Exfoliation Dome across the valley

 

 

and other climbers on the adjacent popular route Silent Running. (see MattP’s page for more details).

 

We capped the day with a Mexican food feast and some brews and headed to Index. We awoke to another beautiful day but were feeling a little “high gravity”. Index is not really the place to go at the end of a trip after several days “on”. After a HUGE breakfast at the Index café we lumbered to the lower wall. Not feeling particularly motivated we wandered around a bit and finally decided we had to log at least a few pitches. A quick trip up Rogers Corner and BOC and we decided the most important thing on our agenda was…ice cream!! Damn that was some good ice cream.

 

We rallied through rush hour back into Seattle and tossed our kit down at a generous cc.comer’s place. After putting in an appearance at the PubClub, the Surly one set off the next morning to tackle Das Toof while I spent an awesome day enjoying the company of a new friend and checking out some of Seattle including a visit to the Van Gogh exhibit at SAM and Pike Place Mkt.

 

I wish I could have tossed the plane ticket in the trash and stayed, but until that winning lotto ticket comes through, work calls. Big thanks to everyone who offered to partner, those I did have a chance to climb with, and to everyone else who was so gracious with beer, couch space, beta etc. You’re welcome at my place anytime and the beer’s on me.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Perfect OuterSpace rack= set nuts, set of cams to 3 camalot with double #1, #2.

 

WF NEWS=set nuts, single set cams tiny tcu through #3 camalot, add a 5" piece if you want to pro the short wide crack. One rope.

 

Total Soul= set nuts, 9 draws including some alpine draws, single set cams TCU to #2 camalot, TWO ROPES to rap.

 

Approach Notes:

Short, easy, trails.

 

edited to fix picture links

Edited March 13, 2006 by chucK

[slothrop]

Right on! Sounds like a great way to spend a few days.

[ken4ord]

Hey Will, nice TR. It was good to see all the pictures to all the climbs you did. Next time it will be good to get out and climb with ya besides at 32, but it was a good time still.

[John Frieh]

Great TR Will. The pitches on the w. face route of NEWS are super short. With a 60 m rope one can link:

- 1 and 2

- 3 and 4 at least... with a 70 m could easily link 3, 4 and 5... you might be able to link 3, 4, and 5 with a 60 m but it would be close... if you link them with a 70 it makes for an awesome pitch! Highly recommended!

- 6 and 7 (unlikely to link with a 60 m though I expect most will free solo 7 as it goes at 5.0).

 

Linking them up will save you some time to sample the wideness of the NW corner.

[Matt_Anderson]

Nice TR will . . . Missed your request for partners, to bad. Give me a jingle next time you're interested in climbing around here and I'll return the Tallulah favor.

 

matt

[Rad]

"I thought the crack below the traverse was quite a bit harder than the traverse itself."

 

Yes, I totally agree, and wondered if I wasn't supposed to have climbed the dihedral left of the lower crack.

 

Good TR, nice pics.

[willstrickland]

Great TR Will. The pitches on the w. face route of NEWS are super short. With a 60 m rope one can link:

- 1 and 2

- 3 and 4 at least... with a 70 m could easily link 3, 4 and 5... you might be able to link 3, 4, and 5 with a 60 m but it would be close... if you link them with a 70 it makes for an awesome pitch! Highly recommended!

- 6 and 7 (unlikely to link with a 60 m though I expect most will free solo 7 as it goes at 5.0).

 

Yeah, the pitches are definitely short, particularly 3 and 5. 6 is the only pitch longer than about 100ft. We only linked the last 2 pitches (well I guess I also inadverdently linked part of 4 with 3 too). We were climbing on a 70m cord. I wouldn't chose to link 1 & 2 because 2 is basically moving the belay up through a section of 3rd class trees and ledges and you have the potential of raining shit down on your partner. Pulling rope through that while belaying might not be the best idea, although it isn't super loose or scree filled or anything. 3 and 4 would make a good link and would easily link with a 60m. I wouldn't link 3,4, and 5 into one because of rope drag around the undercling/lieback but you could do it with a 70m. 5 and 6 will link with a 60m and would make a stellar single pitch (sounds like ya'll did it that way). If I were doing it again I'd do it in 4 pitches pitching out 1, scrambling up 2 and linking 3/4 and 5/6. The top of 6 where we ended it is basically a highly featured low angle slab followed by a short scramble to the true summit. You are very close to the raps where we ended the last pitch and we left the rope there and scrambled up to the top.

 

Saw your entry in the register up there NOLSe. Great route, if it were a little warmer I'd have liked to check out the NW Corner as well, definitely recommend doing both while you're up there.

[John Frieh]

Link em up!

 

Did you find 6 the easiest 5.10- you have ever done? Becky calls it 10b and Nelson says 10- but I swear it wasn't harder then 5.9... thoughts? Its weird too as NW corner has always felt sandbagged to me…

[willstrickland]

It's hard to say because I was basically coming off the couch and I think it's hard to grade something without a recent frame of reference. My partner would be better qualified to judge, especially since she led 6. I do remember her saying it felt easy for the grade.

 

I was just happy that the chimney was easy. You never know what you're going to get with a 5.8 chimney.

 

Can you pro the wideness on the NW corner or is it just a flare?

[John Frieh]

You can protect the first 40ish feet of NW corner (the widest part) with a 4 and a 4.5 camalot. Others might claim one needs doubles or even # 5 camalot, but if you plan you placements prior to launching off from the belay station (you can see most of the wideness from there) you can get by with a singles in 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.5 camalots (and is kinda sewing it up). The 5.8 pitch prior to that (3 I believe) has an excellent flake that takes the 4.5 so take it with you... don’t assume the only pitch you need it on is #4. For other beta you can see this TR (sorry about the hijack/chest beat). A truly awesome climb and pitch in its own right... and you can link pitches!

 

Also the NW corner is an excellent prerequisite for the wideness of the east face of Lexington… another stellar route at the pass.

[fern]

It's hard to say because I was basically coming off the couch and I think it's hard to grade something without a recent frame of reference. My partner would be better qualified to judge, especially since she led 6. I do remember her saying it felt easy for the grade.

 

on the FMWB scale it is a 111 - just for comparison the pitch below it is a 100, and the pitch below that is 011. All the pitches of Total Soul are either 101 or 111 except the top which is 110.

 

I think the kearney description for WFNEWS is good - not as intimidating as you might think and goes easily at 5.9 A1.

 

It was a quality climbing trip. thanks Will

[John Frieh]

I agree: Kearney's description is the best one out there though I think he rates it 5.10- A1... I think pitch 6 is 5.9 at best (maybe perhaps a 5.10a move but you'll miss it if you blink) but the undercling on 4 is 5.10- for sure... just my two cents...

[Alpinfox]

Will,

Great TR and pictures! It was fun climbing with you; I hope you get to move back to the PNW very soon and we can climb together again.

 

Will preparing for the traverse on Outer Space:

 

Will strolling along "Another Roadside Attraction":

This is a really fun route! Bring a handful of TCUs.

 

Cheers!

[Billygoat]

Oh, that "Surly Brunette"

 

[Pandora]

We started racking up and the SB earned instant hero points by producing shake-n-warms for our chalkbags.

 

The need to pre-warm your chalk seems like a pretty sporto ritual for a bolt-chopping maniac such as yourself .