telemarker Posted October 17, 2002 Posted October 17, 2002 Kyle Flick and I thought we'd brave the forecasted cold and climb NEWS's Northwest Corner. The temps hovered around freezing on the hike in, but didn't seem that bad. Once in the sun, it was almost hot. The first pitch was a crappy crack with bad gear, just as the beta suggests, both Beckey and Burdo's. Kyle led up this and the chimney to the tree ledge and continued to the first large, wide flake. Getting there, he had to use a couple large pieces he thought he'd need higher on the pitch, so he decided to set up a belay under the "heinous undercling" Beckey and Burdo mention. I followed and took the lead for the undercling/layback up to the base of the corner, where Kyle graciously allowed me to continue leading up the corner to the alcove and belay. The corner pitch starts out wide-5 inches with not a whole lof of feet for the left foot. However, by stuffing enough appendages in, it felt reasonably secure. I ended up scooching up a #4 camalot all the way to the belay. The corner narrows to perfect hand jams, though spots of verglas and snow kept my attention. After 90 feet or so, turn the corner and you're at the alcove and belay. The pitch from the undercling to the alcove was nearly a full rope length. The alcove belay takes small aliens really well. Kyle followed and led off towards the final roof pitch, which was thin and difficult as well. After the roof, it's a breeze to the top. Overall, the climbing was great, and didn't let up too much at all. We encountered a little verglas and a light dusting of snow, but nothing too sketchy. There's even a cool free rappell off the giant chockstone near the bottom. On a longer day, it'd be sweet to link up both west-side routes on NEWS. Quote
goatboy Posted October 20, 2002 Posted October 20, 2002 Yeah, the link-up would be good . . . I assume you're referring to the two routes in Nelson's book, the NW Corner and West Face. What are your thoughts on how you'd do the link up? What order would you do the routes in, and how would you get from the top of one to the other? Especially since they share the same first pitches... Seems like climbing one in its entirety, doing the long-ish descent, and then climbing the other route followed again by the standard descent, would be a lot of time. Is that plan your vision, or would you foresee rapping off one of the routes to access the other? Just curious, having done both routes but not linked them. Steve Quote
Uncle_Tricky Posted October 21, 2002 Posted October 21, 2002 That'd be a full day, though if you'd already done the routes, knew the descent (which is quick and easy) and what gear you needed, it wouldn't be that hard. I'd do the harder W. Face First. You can run the last long finger/hand crack pitch right up to the rap station for the descent. I'd descend the gulley, drop off most of the small gear, grab the large gear, and do the NW corner. Combined, there's really just a total of 6 pitches harder than 5.8. The linkup would mean pitches of 5.8, scramble, 5.7, 5.10, 5.11, 5.10, descent, 5.8, scramble, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, and scramble. It'd be fun to try sometime, though I'm more into taking my time and having a lazy herbal afternoon on a sunny summit. [ 10-20-2002, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Uncle Tricky ] Quote
bobinc Posted October 21, 2002 Posted October 21, 2002 We climbed these routes in an easy weekend last summer. On Sunday, when we did the NW Corner, we met a party on the rappel that simulclimbed the route behind us (in about 2.5 hrs, including rappel). They chatted with us at the base and started up the WFace doing more or less the same thing. By the time we were down in the basin, they were already at the crux. So much for our egos, I guess. Quote
telemarker Posted October 21, 2002 Author Posted October 21, 2002 I think having climbed the NW Corner, having it more or less wired, an efficient team could climb both routes mid-summer, from base to top on both. A long day in the summer. The rappel route isn't difficult if you had to do it at night. I don't know, just an obscure plan for next summer. Quote
erik Posted October 21, 2002 Posted October 21, 2002 I HAVE LINKED UP BOTH THOSE ROUTES TWICE.....GOOD TODO...IT MAKES IT FEEL LIKE YOU ARE CLIMBING SOMETHING..... I HAVE DONE IT TWICE BOTH WAYS....I DO NOT THINK ONE WAY IS BETTER THEN THE OTHER..... IT TOOK LIKE 6 HOURS RT FROM THE CAR...BOTH TIMES...... ADDTIONAL BETA UPON REQUEST Quote
Highlander Posted October 21, 2002 Posted October 21, 2002 Did both routes this Summer in a day and even added the Beckey Route at the end of the day for more fun. Quote
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