Wanted: Current beta for THE TALON

[yakimuchacho]

I want to hear from anybody that has climbed The Talon. Did you clip/trust those old rusty pins or did you find placements for gear? What size of gear I was up there this summer without gear (wah, wah, wah) and it looked rather interesting.

[sobo]

It goes at 5.6, it's in Beckey's guide, and Joe Puryear and Stony Richards climbed it, like, last summer, or summer before last. Approach from the NF Tieton River Road, not from US 12.

 

Joe posts here as joepuryear, or you can contact him at his homepage:

 

http://www.cascadeimages.com

 

BTW, Eric, you should consider coming out to the second meeting of the newly forming Yakima Climber's "Club" this Thursday. Joe was at the first meeting, and he'll prolly show up again this month. He's a really nice guy and I'm sure he'd tell ya anything you might want to know about the stuff he's done in the Tieton.

 

The meeting will be in the upstairs forum at Glenwood Square at Tieton and 51st-ish at 7:00 p.m. Local climber and attorney Rod Nelson is gonna show some slides of his Cho Oyo expedition.

[sobo]

Pictures of the Talon here.

[joepuryear]

Yeah you pretty much have to trust those first two pins. The climbing through there isn't bad - about 5.6. The crux comes just after the second pin. It may have been 5.6 at some point but after a few holds have probably broken off, I'd call it a solid 5.7. A green Alien and a #10 stopper can be placed in a small crack just before the moves. From there, traverse around the corner and belay at the tree. Its possible to make the summit in one pitch if you don't clip (or unclip) the second pin and use long runners to keep the rope drag down. Above the tree there is no pro to the summit. Besides the Alien and nut, bring 2 or 3 cams to 1". After the 5.7 crux, a direct route can be followed straight up the face to the rap anchor. Bring 5 extra quickdraws for that.

By the way my website has really suffered lately due to other projects - hope to work on it again this winter.