Beta on Colchuck Balanced Rock

[kamatz]

Anyone have any info on the west face of Colchuck balanced rock?

 

Thanks

[Dru]

I believe if you do a search here you might find reference to drytooling, a windshirt, or even Neutrinos in addition to CBR.

[specialed]

The beta is wait until the rock is dryer.

[layton]

what do you want to know?

specialed is right, that 5.11 crack is wet at top in the driest of times, so it'd suck ass right now.

 

the chinmney pitch is a "tad" harder than 5.8

[kamatz]

So, end of July might be a good time to give it a go? I was up there last week and there really is not much snow up there.

[layton]

yup

[Szyjakowski]

I was up there last week and there really is not much snow up there.

As everyone else says no go this time of year....and

your pic of CBR (as nice as it looks) shows enough snow on the top and various pitches that it would suck despite there not being much.

[Matt_Anderson]

Re: time of year - Yes, It'll be wet for a good long while, but there is also a huge advantage to descending on snow all the way to the lake.

 

With snow, the descent to the lake took about 30 minutes. Without, it would take longer and be a lot less pleasant. Also the approach was pretty nice in the snow.

 

The only part of the climb that the wetness effects is the long crack in the corner and the traverse under the roof. The long crack has only partial wetness, and is so positive that it's pretty easy to deal with. The traverse did suck - I hung and I think my partner did also. If you aren't going to free the traverse, I'd probably rather do it in semi wet conditions with the easy descent.

 

I think it's a bit of a toss up even if you are freeing it - just depends on how much you hate wet rock. The traverse will be soaked.

 

Also, if it is wet up there, do everything you can to not belay under the roof. It's really cool up there, but the cold and wet sucked the life right out of me. Better to link those pitches if possible.