TR: E. Face Minuteman

[Uncle_Tricky]

I tried climbing this as as party of 3 a couple years ago, but we bailed after we unwittingly and unsucessfully attempted to climb the rotten (offroute) left facing corner that leads up to a pine tree and a dead end under the big roof - about 50 feet left of the official .10 crux pitch. By the time we figured out where we needed to be, one of my partners was already late for work in Twisp, so we went down instead of up.

 

A couple days ago a friend and I actually climbed the thing. I wonder why this route is not done more often?

 

There is some loose rock and ambiguous, traversing, indifferently-protected climbing in the middle, but the first couple and last couple pitches are much fun.

 

The descent is a bit tedious, with multiple loose scrambling/stacked unstable blocky downclimbing/small shrubbery rapping options-each of which is flawed in differently annoying ways.

 

My partner had some intestinal issues on the climb. I apologize in advance for her unintentional (but ultimatly fertilizing) contributions to the landscape.

[layton]

yeah the route is fun! good climb to do if you have to leave from b'ham or seattle that day and can't climb till noon or later. i've got some photos of that route somewhere in the recesses of my gallery on this site.

 

glad you finally did it! fun fun fun

[Alex]

maybe she ate the same burrito NOLSe did?

[goatboy]

There is a pitch near the top which pulls through a huge roof on big holds, then soars up a long beautiful handcrack -- very unique for the WA Pass area -- the route is worth it for that pitch alone, practically -- plus, the approach is cake.

 

Some of the loose gully pitches below are unpleasant, however...

[nolanr]

Did it a couple years ago, I think we were slightly off route part of the time. Another plus is the great views of EF of Liberty Bell you get during part of the climb.

[telemarker]

This is the view we had of Minuteman headwall from Liberty Crack last Saturday. Flick and I attempted this two years ago. Unfinished business.

 

[telemarker]

Shit. How do you put a picture in a post, dammit?

[forrest_m]

picture must be on a web server, then put web address inbetween tags. try uploading pic to gallery on cc.com, then right click and open "properties", cut location out and past into image tags.

[telemarker]

[Szyjakowski]

[layton]

hey great photo!

is that the loose flake everyone complained about last year that i didn't even notice at the very bottom of the picture? jeessshhh!

[telemarker]

Ben, how were you able to put the picture in the post?

[Blake]

right click on the image itself, and go to "properties" then the pic's URL, which ends with ".jpg" is what you stick between two image tags.

[fgw]

this is a bit late but..

the "famous" loose flake (or maybe there's another more famous loose flake that I missed) is visible at bottom of photo inside the hand crack (looks like it splits the handcrack into two finger cracks). Kinda wiggly but held my weight.

I guess there's another thin flake below and just out of photo as well.

[jmace]

almost man

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/1280Minuteman.JPG

 

not

 

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/1280Minuteman

[telemarker]

Does this route go up the chimney to the right, or the flake/crack that angles out left?

[bwrts]

I recall going left...stellar hands to the roof. Then up and over to more money hands. One may bypass the roof by sneaking around to the right and then connecting back with the money hands section.

[russ]

Does this route go up the chimney to the right, or the flake/crack that angles out left?

 

Sounds like you're describing the close up rock in the center of the photo. Minute Man (if my memory is correct) is on the buttress on the left in the background.

 

Route starts on the slab to the left of the larger snow field. I barely made out what I think is the 10b crack, but the roof isn't visible from the photo's angle. With really good imagination (and more than one sip of my beer), I think you barely see the "money hands crack" above the roof that bwrts refers to (lighter grey shield near to top).