Jump to content

5 Worst Routes in PNW


Dru

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 139
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

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

 

For me there are no 5 worst, just maybe 5 less fun, but still enjoyable because the worst day climbing is better than the best day working.

 

Also some of us don't climb as often as some of those more fortunate, so you have to make sure what you do get to climb is select. Hence that climb tends not to be "worst".

 

The only really bad experiences I've had were with steep powder snow approaches with snowshoes, so that's not really the climb's fault, just the conditions. Chair and Rainier in winter come to mind.

 

Some of the other not so enjoyable climbs were because of partner conflicts, again not the climb's fault.

 

Drawing a blank on any bad climbs per se, maybe I've done some and just can't remember, or just easily amused.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3. anything on hood after the summer's turned the snow to a slush-slog

Don't forget about I-rock in the summer. It's worth the slog, especially with lift assisted approaches. Solo the S. Chamber & climb over the skylights on the ridge for some excitement. There are also some 5.10 sport routes, if you're into carting your gear on a 2 hour approach.

4. broughton's classic crack...burnished slippery shitty basalt crack.

I call it Crisco Crack. I'm sure I'm not the first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some of these are from bad experiences. Or just from personal perception.

 

""Index-.....and zoom""

 

One of my faves at Index and first 10D gear lead. This climb does have sparse placements in the upper half especially if you've already used the needed sizes.

 

""3.NE Buttress of Sleese: Like triumph, vegetated and chossy. the worst part being the ability to see the clean granite on the north rib the entire time(next year)''

 

Another all time fave.

 

The upper half is chossy if you climb too far from the crest. Near the crest though is pretty sound.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New candidates for the choss pile:

 

1. N. Early Winter Spire – E Butt. That third lead is one of my all-time favorite places I didn’t fall: ~100 foot runout up a flaky slab above a belay anchored by a sketchy friend and a 1” thick pine already half uprooted. This route does have a nice crack up high - if you’re good with a trowel.

 

2. Boxtop (?) in ID Sawtooths. Guide offered “classic crack climbing”, but after tiptoeing up 500’ of delicately stacked blocks, the 30’ of 5.4 chimney wasn’t much of a reward.

 

3. Buckner –SE face. The 3,500’ talus slog was a breath of fresh air after the vertical jungle gym and bog climb getting out of Horseshoe Basin.

 

4. Bonanza Peak - NE Ridge. Attractive line, but the block-infested ledges were far preferable to the teetering ridge crest. Much relief escaping to the notorious standard route.

 

5. Blueberry Hill – N “Ridge”. Rapped down this vertical cedar forest before the multi-bolt rap anchors went in. And the old guide book listed this thing as a climb.

 

For those dumping on the Triumph and Baker ridge climbs – I’d like to spend more time on routes that are a lot BETTER than these!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my .02:

 

- that old snowy route in Nelson's vol. 1 -- loose scree when there is perfectly good trail to the top

 

- west ridge Lundin - too much hiking for some 3rd/4th class.... linking with Snoqualmie makes it a good outing for excercise

 

- N. face of Chair -- much hype and not much ice. NE BUTT is better

 

- Serpentine Arete - a good experience builder with good views to the lake but not that much quality climbing

 

- Ride the lightning - goose egg. dihedral pitch is cool. do that and then call it good because upper pitches are not quality

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

2) Cascadian Couloir on Stuart ( without any snow ) -- tedious, never-ending slog of despair

 

One has to question your sanity for even attempting such a thing. Descending the Cascadian is a "tedious, never-ending slog of despair" - let alone climbing up it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How could anyone nicknamed choss dog not like mt washington? Have to add Right Wing on the Squaw to the list although a gas powered weedwacker and flamethrower would do wonders for it.

 

Right Wing is as striking a line as Pipeline, don't know why it isn't climbed more. Well, yes I do.

 

Some climbs I've done had the ambience of long-abandoned junkyards, thinking of the Monte Cristo area in particular, but I love junkyard ambience. As in the Christian aphorism alluded to in Man in the High Castle: stones rejected by the builder, literally! and The Builder! There's just something about junk.

 

I got off trail a few days ago and crashed through the brush and found several rusting car bodies to climb over giving temporary relief from the brush. Car hulks are cool wherever they are, even along the sidestreets of Danbury CT or NYC, but fresh ones are unnerving.

 

The PNW climbs I like least are the THREE? side-by-side nonentities just off the highway up in Cheakamus. Whenever for partner reasons I find myself on those climbs a dark cloud of depression settles in my soul, it takes a superhuman effort to pay attention to what I'm doing, and a groundfall would be ludicrous but strangely welcome. Bring on the loose rock! It is far better than banality.

 

what/where is Right Wing???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...