Tatoosh, the best dirty 5.9 on the lower wall?

[lancegranite]

Looking thru my old Cummins guide to Index, Tatoosh stands out as a fun climb.

While the rest of the Lower town wall's easy climbs are busy, Tatoosh quietly waits for you...

[forrest_m]

not every abandoned route is a lost classic... some are abandoned because they suck. some routes deserve to be forgotten.

[flyingkiwi1]

I dunno. I started up Tatoosh once, but couldn't figure out how to protect the initial flare safely, so I bailed. Then, more recently, I TRed as much of Tatoosh as made sense from the Thin Fingers anchors. I thought the climbing was awesome. The initial flare, which I had tried unsuccessfully to imagine climbing from the inside, turned out to be a killer layback on the outside. Sadly, for me, the last move or two is probably too dicey for me to solo, which I think is pretty much what you'd have to do. Although you could bypass that flare. But that would kinda feel like cheating to me.

[Szyjakowski]

Daydreaming while gazing at my old Cummins guide to Index, Tatoosh stands out as a fun climb.

always wanted to do this one. i guess i should.

 

thanks for the inspiring reminder.

 

[forrest_m]

i recommend doing it on a hot day so that your sweat will help stabilze the dirt avalanches that sweep down from the dirty ledges above. (ok, i agree, clean it would be a decent route, but it's not clean and because of the way the slot is fed from the foliage above, it will never be clean)

[chucK]

More than you probably want to know about "Tatoosh". A climb at Index Lower Wall that is near and dear to me.

 

Tatoosh (a la Cummins, guide, "Free at Last" in others) is a fun route. It's not pristine and clean like many other lines at Index, but it's not near as horrible as forrest or the Cramer guide would have you believe.

 

The first pitchlet is alright. Exiting the "chimney" onto a grass hummock is good alpine training . It can be avoided via the first (10a) half of Thin Fingers.

 

The second part up to the big ledge system is great fun. Bouldery move into a ramp with finger crack, then into a squeeze chimney. Oh, I forgot, if you don't like squeeze chimneys then maybe this climb isn't for you.

 

The dirt ramp that Free at Last shares with Narrow Arrow standard is not fun, but there are variations to the left that could be cleaned (but that might piss people off on Thin Fingers) that would help it. Someday...

 

Above that there are some cool steep corners. Some slightly dirty, some clean. Straight up is pretty hard 10a (turning a roof on the right into an offwidth), or you can do a variation out right that's about 5.8 (hand crack to hand traverse). Both variations are capped with a sketchy lieback on a rounded corner .

 

There has been some cleaning done on the upper part apparently by someone working on a harder route above. However the last ramp still has a bit dirt to deal with.

 

Once at the "top" you can rap down off a large tree to the top of Sloe Children with a single 60m (barely, don't try it with 58 m rope). Bring some slingage. It's not like this anchor gets beefed up as often as some.

 

Can be done in three 60m pitches, but breaking into a few more might be recommended.

 

Anyway, a way to get in some pseudo alpine (i.e. "steep n dirty") for the 9+/10- leader. It's never crowded .

[Otto]

Ha ha, OK I won't try it with my 58m rope. We should look for the (new) 5.8 finish (or was it .9?) that appears in Daryl's guidebook some time. It's hard to imagine it goes, that wall is steep...

[DCramer]

I think you are speaking of the drawing on page 113. In the attached photo the 5.8 is the scruffy corner on the left. The red is a route that climbs up, traverses right and then up the face. The blue is a crack that to my knowledge has not yet be freed.

Edited July 14, 2005 by DCramer

[Szyjakowski]

the blue crack is what size?

[Otto]

Wow, thanks for the photo Daryl. That looks really good to me. I'm always looking for another "moderate" pitch at Index. Any idea of the rating of the one marked in red?

[chucK]

Yeah thanks for the pic Darryl. Last time I was up there (last year) there was obvious scrubbing/cleaning activity up in the area of those cracks. The tree left of center in the picture had had all it's lower branches nicely trimmed away, which transformed it from nasty prickly obstacle, to comfortable bomber anchor/handhold.