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[TR] Chiwawa Mtn.- NW Face 3/6/2005


Colin

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Climb: Chiwawa Mtn.-NW Face

 

Date of Climb: 3/6/2005

 

Trip Report:

Dave Burdick and I climbed a new route on Chiwawa Mtn this past weekend, after spotting the awesome-looking line in John Scurlock's new pictures.

 

On Saturday we snomobiled up the Chiwawa River Road (with a snowmobile generously lent by Phil), and then skied up the Chiwawa Basin Trail (lot's of dirt skiing involved).

 

We woke up early yesterday and hiked up to the Chiwawa-Fortress col, and then made a descending traverse to the base of the NW Face. Our route climbed the very obvious gully/chimney in the center of the face, starting mostly on ice, and gradually becoming more mixed. The climbing was fantastic although hard, and the route was the best mixed climb I've ever done. Our last pitch bailed out of the chimney onto the face on the right, but if some strong mixed climbers head in there they'll probably do the direct finish. Dave had his digital camera, so I expect we'll see some pictures soon.

 

Chiwawa Mtn, NW Face

New Route: "Intravenous" - IV, WI4, M6.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Reccomended Gear:

-60m rope

-5 knifeblades

-a few small nuts

-cams up to #1 camalot

-2 stubby, 2 17 cm screws

 

Approach Notes:

The Chiwawa River Road is starting to get bare, so snowmobiling won't be a good option soon. However, the route sees no sun, so it will probably be in for at least a few more weeks, and perhaps the road will be drivable by then.

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I got the M6 pitch, and actually I have a suspicion that it would be more like M5 a lot of the time, depending on the conditions. What made it really hard was that the chimney walls were coated in about 0.5-1 inch of verglass - too thin to swing into, but totally coating-over all the holds. I did a lot of slow picking away at the verglass to uncover holds.

 

As for getting caught up with school, well I'm not doing so hot in that respect. I just had a conference with my 'technical communication' professor:

"Yeah, so I don't have my paper with me, I didn't get around to it."

"Well, could I at least see your outline then?"

"Hmmm... I didn't really get around to that yet either."

"OK, let me see the sources you found."

"Yeah, about that... Ummm..."

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Really, when you are 83 years old which are you going to remember - the climb you made the FA of, or the B+ you got in Advanced Basket Weaving

 

You are going to remember the girl in the red top you saw in the parking lot last weekend. You are going to talk about her incessantly. Then you are going to steal a bunch of napkins from McDonalds and walk around with your fly open.

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[quote

You are going to remember the girl in the red top you saw in the parking lot last weekend. You are going to talk about her incessantly. Then you are going to steal a bunch of napkins from McDonalds and walk around with your fly open.

You should write a Biography! yelrotflmao.gif

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I have to hand it to Colin, I didn't think it would go looking at it from the base. Colin's comment, "but it would be rad if it did" was right on! His lead of the crux chimney was the most impressive lead I've ever seen in the mountains. thumbs_up.gif

 

Here's a few pics:

nw_face.jpg

the route

 

p1.jpg

first pitch

 

p3.jpg

getting into the narrow slot. sometimes a true squeeze chimney with ice at the back

 

p4_crux.jpg

 

p4_crux2.jpg

the crux

 

the pictures just don't do the crux justice. when I got to the bottom of it, it was dead vertical, nearly featureless, the exact width of my body and glass smooth on both sides!

 

trail_ski.jpg

welcome to marchtemper!

 

Definitely a fun route! Long day though, my alarm from sunday morning went off about 10 minutes after I fell asleep yellowsleep.gif

 

Thanks again Phil for the 'bile!

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