catbirdseat Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 I've walked by this lichen-covered, north-facing wall many times on my way to Sunshine Wall. On this trip to Vantage to get some sun, it was a bit warmer than we bargained for, so we were looking to climb in the shade. My understanding was that Middle East Wall was closed due to raptor nesting, so that cool spot was out. I'd already climb a lot at Zig Zag wall. How about Green Wall? This wall has about 20 climbs in the guide book, the vast majority of which had probably seen only one ascent, mostly by Bill Robins and friends in 1998. His bottom up style didn't involve much, if any, cleaning, so we knew it was going to be messy. We started with Hand Jive, 5.8, the only route that has a star in the guide book. It was the first route climbed at Green Wall in 1987 by Russ Johnson and to appearances one can see why he picked it. It's a nice hand crack set in a dihedral. Kevin led the route nicely and I followed. There was some loose rock and a lot of lichen but it wasn't too bad. The column top was of course littered with loose plates, but Kevin found a place to anchor. No bolts up there that we could see. Next it was my turn to lead something. I picked a double crack a few routes to the left of Hand Jive. We believe it is the route No Buckets, 5.7. It looked pretty good from the ground, but looks are deceiving. The bottom ten feet was too chossy to take pro so when I did get to a place that would take gear, I put in three pieces! The cracks were chossier inside than I had believed and wider, but I had enough gear. The top part was so loose it was like climbing over a stack of dinner plates. Fortunately, I didn't break any holds or make any slips. It seems to me that perhaps at least a handful of those routes might clean up to be okay. It's nice to have cool places to do easy trad leads on hot days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 So that's where you guys went Pulling up to the Sunshine Wall parking area at about 8:45am, I was amazed and the lack of campers and cars. We were hiking to the wall shortly afterwards. Whidbey had not been climbing at the Coulee before and was in for a treat when we came to the approach chimney. We chose to see what the crowds were like by the King Pins and made our way around and to the right, below the Near End pillars. We saw a pair of climbers top roping a bolted arête a few cracks to the right of Party in Your Pants, but no one was on the twin cracks. I took the first lead up the fun stemming route and threw in a few chimney moves near the top and was happy to see chains near the top. Coulee top outs via the notorious gravelly mantle are not one of my favorite things to do and having to build top rope anchors is always nice, too. Mike cleaned the pitch on top rope and sailed up it, and Whidbey grunted up it just like I did on lead. He cleaned the anchor and walked off back around through the approach chimney. Making our way over to the King Pins, we found another party of four below Air Guitar, working on Whipsaw and Pony Keg. We set up ourselves below Throbbing Gristle and Mike lead it with no problems and we pulled the rope so I could pink point it. Whidbey, who is used to run out 5.9 slabs at Mt Erie quickly found out 5.9 steep face climbing does not translate well. He got himself a good pump and we lowered him down. Mike took another lap up to the directional we placed at the last bolt and I did another to the anchors and cleaned it a rapped. Fortunately, by this time the party of four had moved on, so we shuttled our gear over to the base of Air Guitar. Whidbey picked Clip ‘em or Skip ‘em for his first Coulee lead and made it most of the way before his flash pump from Throbbing Gristle returned. I finished to the anchors and Mike took a lap and cleaned it and rapped. By this time I was not feeling like leading anything much harder than a 5.9 crack, even though I was talking about giving Air Guitar a go on the drive out. Mike stepped up and said he’ll lead it if I’ll top rope it and clean the anchors. I agreed and away he went on a smooth lead in great style up to the chains, he was now Whidbey’s new hero. Now on top rope, I worked my way up grunting a bit here and there having fun the whole way. I got to the small ledge near the top, marking where the off-fist 4-inch crack starts and tried every way to slam my arms into the thing. With no respite, I flailed for a bit and finally fell off. I hung and took a rest for a bit, not really pumped, but realizing that I had just used muscles I hadn’t used for climbing in a while. I worked my way up the few feet of rope stretch that I had fallen and back onto the ledge. I tried a few moves and then I mentally gave up on it. I grabbed the rope and hang-dogged the last 5 or 10 feet to the chains. I obviously need to work on my crack climbing skills. Index this week instead of the highway pull out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whidbey Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 What a kick ass day! Blustery's for burgers in Vantage wasn't all that bad either on the way home. Thanx for the fun day Scott and Mike! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 You're going to have to show me around Mt Erie sometime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eerie Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 If Whidbey is only used to 5.6 slab climbs at Mt.Erie then you are wasting your time having he/she showing you around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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