[TR] Mt. Garfield- Infinite Bliss 4/30/2006

[tivoli_mike]

Climb: Mt. Garfield-Infinite Bliss

 

Date of Climb: 4/30/2006

 

Trip Report:

Well, OlympicMtnBoy and I had a leisurely start to the day and rolled into the trailhead around 12. Found the trail and headed for the approach. Trail crossed the creek and then got steep, almost Mailbox Peak level of suffering. Finally broke out of the trees and onto the slab. We scouted around and finally found a set of anchors (actually the top of the first pitch) and headed up, swinging leads. The 1st four pitches quick, and in retrospect we should have simul-climbed.

The fifth pitch (sixth according to topo) had us go over the small head wall. Walking over to pitch seven ( our sixth) we started up again and reached another ledge system which had us walk over to the eight pitch and the beginning of the "Gully of Minor Annoyances". I led this pitch up and into the gully, after some runout up the gully finally found the third bolt and then a little higher placed a TCU. Probably didn't need it ( the gully is around 5.4) but made me feel a little better :-). The ninth pitch ( our eighth) had my partner come out the gully and onto a 5.9 face. Some water on the face made for a tricky traverse at one section, especially since as I followed I wanted to go over to the nice flake system on right.

The other party that was ahead of us was coming down by time we had topped out on this pitch and plus it was getting late in the day, so we decided to rap down from here.

Double rope raps down to the base where we ended up going to the right (facing the mtn) at around the top of the third pitch where we found another set of anchors not connected to any of the pitches. This proved to be good to dropping us off by our packs in the trees.

 

Time up from trailhead 45 minutes

Eight pitches 3 hours 15 minutes

Rapping down 1 hour 45 minutes

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

16 draws

single runners to extend the draws

nuts,small cams

 

Approach Notes:

road is open and passable

Edited May 1, 2006 by tivoli_mike

[runoutjunkie]

Climb: Mt. Garfield-Infinite Bliss

 

Date of Climb: 4/30/2006

 

We were the party ahead of you on the climb.

 

After getting to the base of the climb, and peering through the occasional break of the clouds at 8am, we (Brent and I) were somewhat daunted by the snow/ice on or about pitch 8 deposited by the previous day's storm. We headed off anyway at just after 8am, figuring to rap out at any point we could gain no more ground. The first four simul-climb pitches went very quickly just under an hour, and the real wetness started where pitch 5 exits the slab. My partner led up the section, and we started trading leads at this point. Once we reached the 5.4 gully base, a minor stream at this point, we stopped for a while and took in the rainy views, with a rainbow chasing toward us from the southwest threatening to cut the day short. It held off, only giving us enough rain to make us think about it, but the rock was dry enough to climb, so we continued on. My partner led the gully, placing in that same cam spot. I came up and took the next lead on the 5.9 section and ran into the same water you described nearing the chains, and opted for a right tending avoidance of the water. It was only a bit runout, and though the rock was not great quality, it was mostly solid. There appeared to be a somewhat loose columnar boulder only 2-3 feet to my right, stay away. Finally, up from here, the rock was very dry, and the climbing was good. We quickly traded leads on 10-11-12. The weather was still breezy and cold, so we decided to rap out then. We saw your final rappel, and also used those stray anchor chains, depositing us right on the trail. Nice.

 

All in all, it was a good day of climbing. The wetness was a time sink. On rappel, we noticed the gully was completely dry, as well as the slab exit, though the snowfield to the right of the gully was still feeding the 'creek' at it's base, and will be for a while judging by the snow depth.

 

Also, sorry for the occasional small rock we set free on the descent. Rapping with people underneath...

 

12 pitches: 6.5 hours

All total: 1 hour hanging admiring the spring nw weather

Rapping down: 2.5 hours (simul rapping the slab)

 

Gear Notes:

23 draws, 1/3rd extendable

rack to 1", 4-5 cams, stoppers and a couple of tri-cams

[tivoli_mike]

 

I was the one waving back at you. The rocks you sent down weren't a problem , they fell off to our right.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Hey Mike, what am I? The partner who is not to be named? You ashamed to be out doing alpine sport with me. Hehehe, it was a fun half day though. No prob runout, we saw you coming down and figured it was a good enough time to turn around. We were far enough ahead of you to miss your rocks (fortunately no one was under US). It sounds like the gully had dried out significantly in the few hours between when you did it and we did it. I climbed the wet 5.9 face on the bolt line and it wasn't really too bad by then either, just a little tricky with cold wet fingers.

 

Next time I think I'm gonna climb the first 6 pitches of 5.easy with a pack and bivy gear, then make the rest a more liesurely second day. Of course there are probably better climbs, but the alpine sport aspect was fun up to there. I took a couple pics but with my film camera they might not see the light of day for a while.