[TR] Viennese- Derektissima 7/1/2006

[peas]

Climb: Viennese-Derektissima

 

Date of Climb: 7/1/2006

 

Trip Report:

While on the Viennese to Clarke traverse in the Chehalis last summer, the one feature that struck me the most was the summit slabs on Viennese. After checking in the Alpine Select, it looked as though Derektissima was the one climb that went right up the centre of the slabs. With that in mind, Derektissima was slotted in near the top of my list of things to do. This past weekend Mark (the guy with a truck that can get through the Chehalis tank traps) was free and wanted to go climbing, so we headed out for Derektissima.

 

The drive up was uneventful, but the FSR between Statlu Lakes and the Grainger/Nursery Pass trails is pretty gnarly. Not really surprising, but eye opening nonetheless. Anyone who doesn't value their paint job or trailer hitch should be able to make it up the road with a high clearance 4wd vehicle.

 

Finding Nursery Pass is very straightforward, but does involve some pretty thick shwacking between the end of the FSR and the beginning of the snow/talus that leads to the pass. Luckily for us it was mostly snow to the pass. We camped at the foot of the climb on Saturday night and got a good look at the route. The rock ring of the bivi site was just clear of snow, and water was easy to get from this site. Nursery Pass was also covered in snow, but there was no readily available running water there.

 

We were on the rock at around 5:30 on Sunday morning, but started a little to climbers left of an easier, more direct line, so spent some time faffing around on the first couple 4th/easy fifth pitches. After that, the climbing up the the first snowfield was straightforward, albeit a little dirty and a little runout, but at mid fifth, runouts weren't a huge problem. There was plenty of water flowing off of the bottom of the snowfield.

 

The initial pitches off of the snowfield are pretty easy to find and climb, but where Derektissima heads off from Variazioni, things start to get a little vague and loose. We climbed up to what looked like a nice left facing corner with juggy holds, but what it turned out to be was a left facing corner with death blocks stacked in it. After some more faffing, we avoided the loose blocks by climbing grooves to the right, then traversing over toward the top of the corner.

 

From here, the climbing gets steeper and scarier. We pretty much headed straight for the "incredible shrinking roofs". The roofs had been shrinking all day up until this point, but unfortunately, they began to grow again as we got closer. We climbed two pitches that felt like hard 5.9 to 10a. They probably could have been strung together, but I was a little sketched out from the shitty, sparse pro, so broke them up into two pitches.

 

The scariest pitch I've ever lead got us underneath the roofs. I found a rusty 1/4" bolt that didn't inspire much confidence and ended up traversing to the left for quite a way. Two more cams that felt like they'd fall out if you looked at them too hard, some wobbly, delicate climbing and a bit of runout and some victory cussing got me to a thankfully solid anchor underneath the roofs. We had brought a few pins along with us that I probably could have used to protect this pitch better, but I wasn't about to bust them out of my pack, mid sketch. In hindsight, I should have broght them out when the climbing got scary, and had a better time. Oh well, next time.

 

After that pitch I was quite frazzled and not looking forward to the roofs, but it turns out that they were a jug haul and really fun. This pitch also got us onto the summit slabs, which was quite a relief after the oppressing atomosphere under the roofs. I didn't ever find the fixed pin, semi-hanging belay described in the book.

 

The climbing on the summit slabs was great. 60m pitches of 5.6 to 5.7 cracks. And true enough, if they were in Squamish, they'd be grid bolted and crawling with climbers. After the 3rd slab pitch were some more roofs that I didn't want to deal with, so I exited to the right on some nice holds, did some face climbing to some more cracks that suited me more than overhangs. This 4th pitch lead to the ridge. A bit of mid 5th simulclimbing lead to the summit at a little after 6p.m.

 

The descent is pretty straightforward and the guidebook describes everything well. We were back at camp below the climb at a bit after 10p.m., about 17.5 hours after leaving camp.

 

We had some awesome glissading down from Nursery Pass the next day, and came across some really fresh bear tracks in the snow. When we got to the truck, we caught up to Todd and Derek and gave them a lift down to the Statlu Lake trailhead. On the Chehalis FSR, we ran into some friends who had done the Tuning Fork on Sunday. They didn't quite find their campsite on Sunday night, so hadn't had much sleep and looked pretty destroyed when we caught up with them. Some ice cream seemed to raise their spirits quite a bit.

 

All in all, Derektissima was a great climb and I'd recommend it with a few reservations about scariness.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

- 1 set of nuts

- double cams from yellow Metolius to yellow camalot (yeah yeah, heavy rack)

- a couple kbs and some las that we didn't use.

- we both had ice axes that were comforting, but not necessary. The snow was still pretty soft.

[layton]

sweet!

I tried that line 3 times, twice got fogged/rained out, 3rd time got 1/2way up the face and lost in a sea of cracklessness. Way to push through regardless and get the route!

Pics?

 

I've heard that the NF Direct route got beefed up a bit with some extra pins/bolts.

[Ponzini]

Wonderful climb, guys! Thanks for the Viennese Clarke traverse info and extra thanks for the ride down the road

[G-spotter]

[halibut]

Not only is Mark the "the guy with a truck that can get through the Chehalis tank traps," but a damn fine 2nd'er who can "catch a lead fall." Next time I drive that road I'm going to lead some pitches!

Edited July 6, 2006 by halibut

[DirtyHarry]

The crux of anything in that range is that fucking road. Next time I'm just going to bring a bike.

 

Nice work on the climb!

[luwayo]

nice one guys. tx for the report.

 

currently the road is easy 4x4. a few weeks ago, we drove to the condemned "looking" bridge in a Ford Ranger & Cherokee, both stock. the front vehicle driver cared enough about his paint job, that two sets of arms hung out of the windows to lop branches along the way.

 

this was another Gerry Kollmuss trail maintenance & climbing special.

Edited July 6, 2006 by luwayo

[jordop]

Wicked, rad, and cool Please provide pics of scary and nasty rock

[peas]

sweet!

I tried that line 3 times, twice got fogged/rained out, 3rd time got 1/2way up the face and lost in a sea of cracklessness. Way to push through regardless and get the route!

We noticed a few rap slings below the roofs and some looked pretty new. Perhaps yours? I ended up doing a lot of traversing back and forth in the crackless section in order to find the lines with the most pro. I also set decent anchors where I could get them just to ensure that I wouldn't come to the end of the rope without gear or anchor in sight. Probably why we ended up doing the harder part in three pitches rather than two.

 

currently the road is easy 4x4. a few weeks ago, we drove to the condemned "looking" bridge in a Ford Ranger & Cherokee, both stock. the front vehicle driver cared enough about his paint job, that two sets of arms hung out of the windows to lop branches along the way.

I don't remember a condemned looking bridge anywhere along the way. Or is that the foot bridge across the stream at the end of the road?

 

I'll put the few pics that I took up when I get my camera back from a friend. I don't think that I took any pics of the scary stuff, since I had other things on my mind.

[luwayo]

currently the road is easy 4x4. a few weeks ago, we drove to the condemned "looking" bridge in a Ford Ranger & Cherokee, both stock. the front vehicle driver cared enough about his paint job, that two sets of arms hung out of the windows to lop branches along the way.

I don't remember a condemned looking bridge anywhere along the way. Or is that the foot bridge across the stream at the end of the road?

 

I'll put the few pics that I took up when I get my camera back from a friend. I don't think that I took any pics of the scary stuff, since I had other things on my mind.

 

i'd best clarify that we headed north along eagle creek, but sharing the same initial driving approach.

[peas]

None of the pictures turned out all that well, but for what it's worth.

This is a shot of the North Face of Viennese from near Nursery Pass.

 

This is a shot of Viennese from the bivi site. Derektissima climbs the right hand side of the buttress, then follows the textured rock up over the roofs and onto the slabs.

 

Mark climbing a few pitches above the snowfield, just where the climbing started to get a little more serious.