TR - Karma Crags

[Drederek]

Tuesday afternoon seemed pretty hot in the Icicle so the wife and I decided to hit the Karma crags to get some relief. The trail started out nice but deteriorated to a faint animal track about halfway up to the first crag. As we could see the crag we pressed on, lured by the well shaded face above us. We picked up the trail traversing left and then back right to the crag with only one large tree to detour around. The belay area seemed pretty standard for one of these out of the way spots and the somewhat steep line of Instant Karma looked good. 7 bolts later I was at the anchor on a nice flat ledge enjoying the view of midnite rock across Tumwater canyon. Even scruffy I think its a two star climb. A wide variety of moves including liebacking, underclinging and sidepulling with some balancey stuff on great footholds made it worth the somewhat brushy hike. Then we thought we'd go up Karmathon. (sound of faroff thunder) "It's not so bad" I said as I soloed up the first 10 feet. "I'm sure the moss isn't growing where the holds are" (I was lieing) "looks like good pro higher up" (marginal I now believe) "This pillar looks solid" (I didn't pull up on it and it wiggled when I stood on it) But the holds kept coming and I did step off route about halfway up to put a bomber #4 camalot in a different crack (about two slings off route) Slammed a #1 Met tcu (bodyweight i'm sure) under a block and came face to face with a downed tree between me and the anchor. A few tentative tugs confirmed that it wasn't bomber (LOL) and that I'd better hurdle it on my dash to the finish. Clipped the anchor seconds later and travered over the IK anchors, retrieved the sling and bail biner I'd added to that faded sling then "fixed up" the anchor. The bolts were bomber.

On rappel I decided some of the gear I got in wasn't that bad. Oh and the wife didn't want to follow. Loose rock, dirt and debris make Karmathon at least a one skull route but a lot of scrubbing and a crowbar could make it worthwhile. We didn't check out any other climbs as we were ready to swim. In summary: Its abit scruffy. IK = great. K = a bomb. Cool on a hot day after 1 or so. Good swimming hole at the parking lot.

[Otto]

Thanks for the interesting report! I'll have to go there some time, perhaps with crowbar...

[Szyjakowski]

Thanks for the interesting report! I'll have to go there some time, perhaps with crowbar...

and a helmet. that place is a pile of (ultramafic) dunite or more specifically not granite. coooool climbing though.