[TR] index- town crier 8/7/2005

[corvallisclimb]

Climb: index-town crier

 

Date of Climb: 8/7/2005

 

Trip Report:

Pete (mtnhigh) and I had been wanting to hook up for some time to do some aid climbing, we finally shared the same free time so we decided to head up to index for town crier. On friday I picked Pete up in portland just in time to fight traffic out of town to start heading up north. A while later we arrived at index to quickly fall asleep aided by a few beers and the erie, horror film sounds of the trains. We awoke a bit later than expected so the plan to do the route faded away after a trip to the store for some coffe. We finally headed up to the base of the route where Pete styled pitch one. I cleaned the pitch then moved the belay and fixed the rope so Pete could practice jugging as this was his first aid climbing experince. He quickly got the hang of it so we both jugged up and Pete again led the 5.9 pitch taking the free portion of the route and leaving the rest of the aid pitches to me. He set the belay on smoke out ledge ready for me to lead off in the morning. We rapped off, left the lines fixed and heded down to the car. I hadnt drank enough water during the day and by this time I was really feeling the effects. I feel asleep quickly and awoke even prior to my alarm going off. We hit the trail by about 6:15, as this was to be my big day of leading I hoped to climb as much as I could in the cool morning temps. I jugged up to the ledge to sort gear, and by the time I was ready Pete was up and ready to give me a belay. Pitch 4 I found to be pretty easy and short, I think I found it to be easier for Pete if I back cleaned every peice in the left hand crack so he didnt have to clean the pitch like a like I belive most people do. Pitch 5 I think took me about 30 min to lead due to all the fixed gear, I think a lot of that fixed gear could be taken out and clean gear could be used, this pitch also turned out to be another quick lead/haul/clean.

Some pictures of pitch 5:

Pitch 6 was where the action started for us... This pitch was a lot more fun for me than the two below, really awkward aid trying to hold your body out of the flaring cracks. Also it was longer and more varied. The fun all started after the last bolt on the bolt ladder. I had cruised up the bolt ladder finally stopping to clip the last bolt in the ladder before moving on. I eased up in my aiders and noticed the anchors quite a bit out of reach. Hmm thats odd I thought to my self didnt that topo not mention any more free? Well I guess it showed there was a bolt ladder on pitch 5 I never noticed either. So as I thought about what to do I figured I'd look around for more aid options, mabey a hook or something. I eased up high into my aiders to where I got in what appeard to be a solid blue alien. Moved onto that and unclipped from the bolt, I hung around on that for minnute or two while I thought about what to do. I looked down at Pete who was cleaning up the belay getting ready to move out of the heat. I shrugged to my self and again moved up in my steps to hopefully be within reach of the anchors again, nope I was out of luck. So this time I finally decided I might have to step a foot or two out and above my aiders before I could clip the anchors. As I was easing up into the top step holding onto the edged aboved my and all of a sudden POP! There goes my trusty blue ailen. In an instant I reach to grab the rope tied to my harness but as luck would have it I snagged the rope traveling upwards, having back cleaned every peice on the bolt ladder except for the first and the last, there was nothing to pop my hand off the rope. I kept falling and kept holding onto the rope till I finally came to a stop... paralell with the first bolt in the bolt ladder I had fallen about 30 ft in all and slid probably 25 feet down the rope with my hands. So there was a lot of slack in the system, but what aid climber hasnt made that mistake before. Instantly the pain set in, puss began to form on my finger tips. I let out a few yelps and tryed to communicate with Pete about what I should do next... 1. Should I toughen up and finish the pitch with what felt to be a severly fucked up hand. 2. Should I try and build a belay on the bolt ladder and have to coach Pete up his first aid lead to haul my ass out of there. As my luck would have it neither of those had to take place, two guys where in the process of the last pitch of lovin arms heard the sounds of the distress and offerd to rescue my lame ass. The dropped a rope directly to me and I immediatly slapped my jugs on the rope and got my self up the fixed rope. Passed the top of pitch 6 and fixed my lead line and left the haul like. One of the guys graciously rapped down to help Pete haul the last pitch, and the where both quickly out of there. I'd like to send a very big thank you to Joel and your friend you definatly helped me out in a huge way that day, though we could have self rescued, you guys saved us that pain in the ass that I deserved.

Pictures of pitch 6:

Me in the awkwardness.

 

The two guys rapped off and Pete and I opted to find the walk off. No more than 5 minnutes walking we stumbled accross two jeeps on an off roading adventure up that road, they offerd us a free ride directly to our car, we declined. I think I had used up my free ride for the day.

 

Gear Notes:

Nothing special, standard clean aid rack. The biggest peice I used was a #3 camalot once. I think I made 3 cam hook moves total, and didnt need any other hooks.

 

Approach Notes:

Easy and enjoyable.

[JAFO]

Nice pics

It sounds like you didn't even need to haul. you did everyting in one dy after the initial fixing right? anything you would have done differently next time?

[mec]

great TR, hope your hand is feeling better...

I want to get up on that route.

[layton]

nice guys!

[corvallisclimb]

It sounds like you didn't even need to haul.

 

Our initial plan was to not haul and that Pete would jug with a small pack, with water and pop-tarts. Turns out our pack was a bit heavy and a pain in the ass for Pete to jug with, luckly I had thrown a hauling device in the bag and was able to easily foot haul the pack after my lead. This didnt slow us down and only made it better.

[Buckaroo]

Sounds like ya had fun in spite of the fall, and that just added to the adventure.

 

Rope soloed this a few years back on the longest day of the year. Think the place where you fell is some mandatory free climbing. One of the more psychologically difficult things about long aid pitches, steeping out of the aiders to free climb.

 

Remember the upper bolt ladder being some total mank original bolts with homemade hangers. One of them looked like a 3/16" dia bolt. That was the crux being near the top and wondering how I would get up if one of the manky bolts broke. Talk about easing onto a placement. Topped out in twilight and walked off in the dark. Took a wrong turn on the descent trail and wandered around for a while, making it to the car by 2AM.

 

Agree though someone could remove some pins to make the pin ladder pitch more interesting. It looked like most of them would be good nut placements with the pins removed.

[MtnHigh]

I had an awesome time. Ty was a great coach, treating me with soft gloves (no screaming, you dumb ass!) cause I knew nothing about the aid world going into this. Hanging with Ty is always a blast.

 

Although I'll I did on day two was jug, jug, jug, and jug some more, I learned a bunch of stuff. Like:

- How to piss off of a hanging belay while managing two ropes and not getting a drop on any gear.

- The beauty of the GriGri. Allows you to f around at the belay while the leader puts up a pitch.

- Carry a hammer or some other heavy object. There are lots of bugs to smash on walls.....and for pounding out stuck nuts.

- Index is a laid back cool place.

Edited August 10, 2005 by MtnHigh