catbirdseat Posted August 8, 2005 Posted August 8, 2005 Climb: Tumwater Buttress-Groundhog Day Date of Climb: 8/6/2005 Trip Report: This route is a 3 pitch climb on Tumwater Buttress. It is an excellent beginner's route. The approach is short, route finding is easy and it protects well. The climbing is even easier than R & D Route. Park on Hwy 2 at the first pull out north of Icicle Canyon Road on the left (river side). Cross the highway and walk back towards town until you see the trail which starts between two Ponderosa Pines. The first pitch is the hardest, but not very hard, 5.6 with maybe one or two 5.7 moves. It starts out with two bolts and finished with a bolt. Second pitch is easiest at about 5.4. Third pitch is 5.5 or 5.6. All three pitches have bolted belay/rappel anchors. In summer, go early because it get's really hot. Take two ropes you need them to rap off. We had only one rope and climbed another one more pitch and scrambled another half pitch before walking off on sandy slopes to the east. It's would be more pleasant and much better for the environment to rappel. I'd heard reports about there being a lot of lichen on the route, but I think they were overstated. It's not a problem. Gear Notes: A set of medium to large nuts and a few medium cams. About 8 slings. Approach Notes: It's worth it to walk a little further down the road to the real trail than to scramble up the bank.
slaphappy Posted August 9, 2005 Posted August 9, 2005 The real start of the route is 25ft. to the belayers right up good cracks, it's far better than the half bolted thingy to the left.
catbirdseat Posted August 9, 2005 Author Posted August 9, 2005 We almost went for that. It was a toss up. The bolted section looked a little more challenging.
roboboy Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 The left side start with 2 bolts is "Aint Misbehavin". Both 1st pitch options are about 5.7 and join at the second pitch. After the 3rd pitch you can climb 1 1/2 pitches of dirty, vegetated class 4 and walk off either left or right, both very bad and not recommended. Better to enjoy 3 long fun rapps down the 3 good pitches. Congrats to ams on her first ever multipitch trad climb yesterday and thanks for being cool on our rainy & windy mini-epic down martian slab at peshastin last night.
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