5 Worst Routes in PNW

[DirtyHarry]

How many people have repeated your dirty-ass routes, Dru?

[layton]

The repeat of Back of beyond was also by you though!

 

Actually Wayne and Lane did it last fall and froze their asses off.

[Dru]

Sounds like a glowing recommendation alright

[cman]

1-5. The Tooth - without a doubt the most boring route in WA. there are plenty of other bad routes, but no one is claiming them as classics. not to mention all the hoardes up there every summer weekend.

 

 

princely ambitions is a great climb. also why so down on bbq the pope, try using some footwork. and the beckey route is where people should be starting their alpine experience instead of the tooth.

[jordop]

Sounds like a glowing recommendation alright

Awright, I think it's time you acutally CLIMBED this thing before you continue to comment on it

[Dru]

I think you need to up the bribe.

[Off_White]

Didn't you get the memo? That would make it difficult for him to repeat that route, mmmkay?

[Squid]

and the beckey route is where people should be starting their alpine experience instead of the tooth.

 

There's gotta be something better than the Beckey route (Lib Bell) for getting started. The route is fine, but that approach gully is like walking through an ordnance field, especially since you're guaranteed to have 28 mounties descending on top of you, coming down from their epic bivy on the summit.

 

I'd steer folks to Prusik, or just link up Castle Rock's Catapult + Midway.

[eric8]

its funny how your impression of a route has just as much to do with you as it does with the route. For your skill level, goals, your partner, conditions, are all going to have an impact on any given route.

 

I saw someone list serpitine arete as being one of the worst and i might agree with that but I'm sure to aladsair and ade who climbed it in much different conditions it was awesome.

[Dru]

that just means they have lower standards

[Dru]

BTW, "the worst climbing in Washington is in Oregon"

[plexus]

BTW, "the worst climbing in Washington is in Oregon"

 

True is dat.

 

Somebody said it a year ago on this thread that its all about expectations. That being said:

 

1. Frisco Peak - traversing from the pass is on china dinner plates slopingly stacked. The route we did ended up being over the river and down the dale three times on shit rock (although on the "ridge" was the most solid. Got up to around 5.8 but was fearful to put any pro on and just dragged the rope up and belayed the wife using me as an anchor. The talus ankle-breaker back to the pass was almost as bad.

 

2. Ingalls - this is probably my fault and karma because it took three trips (one night of not sleeping at the trailhead for both of us) before getting it. Tagged it on the way back from a trip to the Midwest and doing the talus/snow approach in six-year-old sandals...the three pitches didn't make up for the misery that I put my feet through.

 

3. The Cockscomb on Baker - I really should have read the description in the Beckey Guide instead of only looking at the picture.

 

4. Baker River crags - On the east side of the flow from the Baker River trail. Imagine the approach to Mt Blum with more brush. Also the rock wasn't that good and you're wallowing in goat poop at every ledge. {Cadveat: it still was cool to be someplace where possibly no person would be stupid enough to travel to}.

 

That being said, I sometimes wonder why my wife is still married to me after all of the stuff I put her through. I know top of her list is:

 

N. Twin Sister

[Mos_Chillin]

Craggin'-wise: pick any 5 in the Feathers at Vantage.

[flyingkiwi1]

What were the 5 worst routes you've done in the PNW? Don't just make a list, tell us why they were bad.

 

...followed by five pages of route-dissing. I fail to see the point, unless you find that structured complaining is more satisfying than freeform. Would any of you have rather stayed home than do the routes you cite as "the worst"? Okay, my point of view is biased by the fact that a sprained knee is holding me hostage. But, really. I don't believe so much in luck, but I do feel lucky to be able to climb in the awesome, rugged landscape of the Pacific Northwest. To me, "worst" and "routes" don't belong in the same sentence. Climbing f*cking rocks. Although I can see how hiking up the Cascadian with no snow would suck. But can you really call that a climb?

[Dru]

Have you ever climbed at Vantage? I would DEFINITELY rather stay at home than climb at Vantage. In fact if you look up the definition of "Choss" on wikipedia it takes you directly to a page about Vantage. Whoa!

[flyingkiwi1]

Yeah... And perhaps you would further account for the absence of a bottom end on my route-rating scale to the fact that I more or less learned to climb at Vantage. For a long time, even after I acquired the skills to make Index my home crag, a year wasn't complete until I'd climbed the face variation of Satan's Wagon in those horrible Feathers.

 

But the first couple years I climbed, there was nothing better in this world than getting up early on a cold, wet, winter morning, driving out of Seattle rain and into desert sunshine, climbing non-abrasive cracks, aretes, and faces in shorts all day long, making the return trip exhausted, satiated, and that much closer to leading a 5-whatever. I thought I was in Heaven. Okay, it's dangerous to run around the base of a Vantage crag sans helmet. But the worst? Come on.

[Cairns]

Yeah... And perhaps you would further account for the absence of a bottom end on my route-rating scale to the fact that I more or less learned to climb at Vantage. For a long time, even after I acquired the skills to make Index my home crag, a year wasn't complete until I'd climbed the face variation of Satan's Wagon in those horrible Feathers.

 

But the first couple years I climbed, there was nothing better in this world than getting up early on a cold, wet, winter morning, driving out of Seattle rain and into desert sunshine, climbing non-abrasive cracks, aretes, and faces in shorts all day long, making the return trip exhausted, satiated, and that much closer to leading a 5-whatever. I thought I was in Heaven. Okay, it's dangerous to run around the base of a Vantage crag sans helmet. But the worst? Come on.

 

You open yourself to the charge of being easily amused but I see a difference between the climate at Vantage and the climbing, which you seem to blur.

 

At times in my own career I have enjoyed climbing at Quincy Quarries, UW Rock, and even less imposing locations, so call me easily amused, too.

 

Since my last entry on this subject I have a new worst route to ponder - Bad Pants Party at Squamish. Unclean, ambiguous line, broken by ledges, an extremely hard move or two, and product of a broken relationship as if you needed to be told. According to the FA he did not want it put in the new guide.

[Mos_Chillin]

That reminds me, Mike and I tried Western Dihedral last year. That thing is terrible

[lancegranite]

Anything bolted by guys taller than 6'2"

[Drederek]

The old piton route above domestic dome. Low quality rock, mostly 3rd and 4th class and to top it off the old piton is missing as well as a crux!

[still_climbin]

Too bad this is limited to NW routes. I spent a year on business in Wash DC. My three outstanding climbing memories from there are the massive number of climbers per square foot on Carder Rocks (Beltway and the Potomic River), grabbing a jug on Seneca Rock and learning that it was a six foot black snake, and discovering poison ivy.

[Off_White]

Hey, don't let a thread topic get in the way of a good story!

[DirtyHarry]

Too bad this is limited to NW routes. I spent a year on business in Wash DC. My three outstanding climbing memories from there are the massive number of climbers per square foot on Carder Rocks (Beltway and the Potomic River), grabbing a jug on Seneca Rock and learning that it was a six foot black snake, and discovering poison ivy.

 

I did some time in D.C. too. Carderrock was, to say the least, interesting. The most slippery climbing I've ever done. Improved my footwork immensely though.

[willstrickland]

Carderrock is insanely greasy/slippery/polished/crowded, some kind of weird dark compact metamorphic rock something (some kinda schist I would guess?...Dru?). and Great Falls, the area on the other side of the P. river isn't really any better, although the routes seemed longer...by longer I mean more than the 35' boulder problems masquearding as "routes" at Carderrock....so maybe 50'.

 

That said, Seneca is spectacular. Highly recommended if you find yourself over there. The NRG is a much better area for quantity and variety, but Seneca has a setting that's hard to beat for the east and everything from unforgettable 5.easy adventure routes (e.g. Skyline traverse) to sandbagged eye opening trad lines to hard sport routes. The summit(s) are wild, perched as they are on the ridge of this huge fin of quartzite.

 

There are few areas as beautiful as Seneca in peak fall colors.

[layton]

hey will! what up? where ya been?