[TR] Finger of Fate, Sawtooths, ID- Open Book Route 8/29/2004

[Coondog]

Climb: Finger of Fate, Sawtooths, ID-Open Book Route

 

Date of Climb: 8/29/2004

 

Trip Report:

After making our way out from climbing at Elephant's Perch

(TR @ http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB22&Number=399647#Post399657), Ascanio & I talked about what next on our road-trip.

 

Whilst in my cold/flu, sprained ankle and tired state I may have opted for continuing on to City of Rocks for a shot at climbing with my buddy Mark from Burley, Ascanio would hear nothing of it. "Dude, we're HERE -- when are we going to be HERE again? Finger is a (cue angels singing) "North American Classic" bro -- we GOTTA do it!!!" Well, okay, if it's a NA Classic and all, yeah, sure, we gotta do it.

 

So, we hit the road. The "road" to the Upper Hellroaring Lakes Trailhead barely being an almost truck-friendly boulder scramble straight out of a 4x4 commercial, which is apparently why Subaru's & Volvo's get to use the "Lower" trailhead and suck on a few more miles of trail dust instead.

 

Ascanio didn't sleep so well, so we didn't leave camp til around 11:30.

 

+Coondog at first of upper, small lakes under the Finger

 

We scrambled scree and walked by the numerous beautiful lakes, getting on route about 2:15. Climbing was pretty stellar: several pitches of pretty bomber corner/dihedral goodness

 

+Ascanio going thru the window, 3rd pitch

 

 

+Coondog finishing corner section (no posing whatsoever)

 

Ascanio tried to take us up directly above the corner, which ended up with him staring up at a 5.11-stout-ish section unable to figure a move out... I thought aloud "ain't NO way that is 5.8 NA Classic brah," and got him down, and swung way out right above the corner to the twin crack goodness.

 

+"Well sure, i mean, yeah, we -could- climb these cracks..."

 

This pitch was pretty awesome. When I got to top Ascanio asked "Holy Crap Dog, wha'd you do to your finger bro???"

"huh, what finger???" I looked down to notice i'd flappered the fingertip off my left ring-finger and was gushing some red, sticky stuff. Apparently the beautiful orange granity goodness can be fairly sharp as well, cause I didn't even feel it. Couple minutes tape work had me all good.

 

Topped out 5:30, chowed, made the obligatory "o' my god how amazing" remarks to each other you're supposed to make when surrounded by miles of clean rock, clear alpine lakes and only snafflehounds for company, then took off.

 

+Upper Hellroaring Lake on descent... Sawtooths umm, umm good

 

Apparently Finger of Fate - Open Book isn't an NA Classic... huh.

 

But it should be.

 

Gear Notes:

Half-set nuts

Mixed Camalots from .5 to 3.5"

 

Approach Notes:

Road to Upper Trailhead for Hellroaring Lakes -is- really as bad as all the warnings say; expect this couple miles of road to take an hour, unless you really don't care about your car.

[Dr_Crash]

Nice!

 

drC

[Ireneo_Funes]

That's a great picture of the upper lake.

 

The twin crack section is a lot of fun, but the exposure below is wild.

[AaronB]

I really enjoyed your trip reports.

[John Frieh]

Nice TR... and word up: the finger isn't an official NA classic... but it's better than many of them that are...

 

Did you see Brock Mayo's comment about his balls in the summit register? I think he summed up how good the finger is...

[Coondog]

Thanks for the comments all.

 

Yeah Nolse, did find out it's not an NA Classic, but agree it's better than many that are... and probably better it's not anyway. Didn't see Brock's comments in the summit register, guess we should have checked it out... darn, guess i need to go back next year...

 

Cheers-

--Cd.