Tieton

[fenderfour]

Heading to tieton this weekend. What do you recommend in the 5.8-5.10b range?

 

Which would be a better mutlipitch on Goose Egg, Ride the Lightning or Dirty Sanchez?

 

-thanks y'all.

[catbirdseat]

Go try First Blood, 5.8, at Royal Columns and tell me what you think. Bring some big gear. It shares a permanent anchor with Mushmaker, 5.7.

[Off_White]

The Bend has a raptor closure.

 

Royal Columns:

First Blood 5.8 fist

Jam Exam 5.9 hand & finger

Orange Sunshine 5.10b finger

Thriller Pillar 5.9 face

Render Us Weightless 5.8 roof

Inca Roads 5.9 wide to finger

Ball & Chain 5.10b finger

Oh, and do Mushmaker too, even though only 5.7 it's fun as hell.

 

Also went to The Oasis recently, right across the street from the Windy Point Campground. A very pleasant setting wtih some great face climbs there near King Tut, 5.10a to 5.10c. Rumor has it that the 5.11a feels easier than the 5.10c. The 5.8 climbs were merely okay, but enjoyable. Approach "trail" sucks though, steep and gravelly.

[TeleRoss]

Dirty Sanchez is a fun route, but beware of suspect rock in many places and poor rock in others. Ride the Lightning has better rock overall.

[MCash]

Remember that the best area, The Bend, is closed till August 1st.

 

Royal Columns has lots of good routes, just pick one and have fun.

 

Moon Rocks has a few good ones too, check that out. Bloody Knuckles (5.10b) is very nice. If you like fist cracks check out Straight Talk (5.10a). The long sustained 10b column stemming route (Sacrificial Calves) looked good too, but we ran out of time.

[LUCKY]

The Oasis has a huge really cool cave, good to step into when it gets hot. The cave area doesn't have much of a cave at all...waz up wit dat?

King tut's tomb 11-A is the best route at the Oasis , clean , steep start...might get harder, one of the key holds is loose.

The Columns...Mush Maker is way cool crack, seems a bit hard for a 5-7 even for the area, you might want to tape up for that one unless you have good crack technique, the exit move on Orange Sunshine is scary.

I like Lava Point for sport routes.

[andyf]

Moon Rocks has a few good ones too, check that out. Bloody Knuckles (5.10b) is very nice. If you like fist cracks check out Straight Talk (5.10a). The long sustained 10b column stemming route (Sacrificial Calves) looked good too, but we ran out of time.

 

Sacrificial Calves is very good. Moonstruck (.10a) is also a really nice V-dihedral. But almost all the crack routes there could use a cleaning. Ages of You has a big clump of mock orange growing out of it. The place needs more traffic!

 

Even if you're not up to leading them, Ages of You (.11c) and Lunar Rover (.12a) are long, sustained cracks that are great to toprope and very easy to rig. You can walk right around to the top, where there are bolts on the ledge to TR from.

 

On that subject: I stopped off at Moon Rocks yesterday on my way back from a work trip to Yakima. I put in new anchors on top of the Blue Moon and Moonstruck Pillar columns. (You start Bloody Knuckles and Moonstruck off these pillars).

 

I also started replacing the nearly 20-year old 5/16th inch buttonheads on Moonstruck Pillar (and mean to do the same for Blue Moon).

 

TWO WARNINGS:

 

1. I didn't have the right-sized wrench with me to tighten the nuts on the new anchor bolts. SO DON'T USE THEM UNLESS THEY'RE TIGHT. I'm trying to get back on Saturday to fix this, and rig them with chains.

 

2. A thunderstorm came in and I had to bail before I finished replacing the bolts on MP. I don't THINK I'd started pulling out the last old bolt yet, but in case I did...

[Toast]

While the Bend isn't open, a couple of easy routes that get a thumbs up are

 

Eat a Peach

Alar

People Places and Things

Ed's Jam (careful of rope eating crack)

 

The Fan Route at the Oasis has new chains to replace the swingset chain that was there last year.

 

Bring the route description and a helmet for Ride the Lightning

[slothrop]

The Fan Route is kinda fun because the rock is different, but watch out for Z-clipping.

 

At the Columns, Inca Roads is a must-do (as is everything else on Off's list ). Entrance Exam is a fun one, one stiff move of 5.7 into a cool little chimney. You can TR a couple harder face climbs from the top. Jam Exam also lets you access Solar King, a sweet thin corner to long handcrack.

[AlpineK]

If you hike up to Goose Egg and find somebody ahead of you on your chosen route run away or at least pick another route far from them.

[andyf]

I put in new anchors on top of the Blue Moon and Moonstruck Pillar columns.

 

I also started replacing the nearly 20-year old 5/16th inch buttonheads on Moonstruck Pillar.

 

TWO WARNINGS:

 

1. I didn't have the right-sized wrench with me to tighten the nuts on the new anchor bolts.

 

2. I had to bail before I finished replacing the bolts on MP.

 

Stopped by Moon Rocks today. Finished installing the new anchors above Moonstruck Pillar and Blue Moon. Finished swapping out old bolts for new on Moonstruck Pillar. Cleaned vegetation/dirt from Moonstruck, Comeback Crack, Bloody Knuckles, Lunar Rover, and Ages of You. Ages of You still needs a brushing to be a pleasant lead again.

Edited May 28, 2006 by andyf

[sobo]

Wow! Thanks for doing that, Andy.

[Alpinfox]

 

Thanks Andy!

 

First Blood 5.8 fist

 

5.8?

 

 

fist?

 

[AquamanJr]

Heads up for those of you heading to the Gooose Egg.

I have notice that there tends to be more loose rock in early season after a winter of melt/freeze. This is even more so on less traveled routes. Ride the Lighting, Dirty Sanchez, Commandho are cleaner than other routes.