[TR] Jupiter Tower- ne "face" 7/8/2006

[haireball]

Climb: Jupiter Tower-ne "face"

 

Date of Climb: 7/8/2006

 

Trip Report:

After 25 years, I finally found someone willing to accompany me on an exploration of Jupiter Tower. Tom Janisch and I ferried our gear across the Wenatchee just upstream from the mouth of Fall Creek an hour before sunrise Saturday morning. We were pleasantly surprised to find a boulder stream that provided a brush-free approach to the toe of the tower, and found ourselves roping up @ 0600. Starting at the lowest point of the wall, we climbed three pitches up heavily vegetated cracks & chimneys, then found ourselves traversing ledge systems to avoid Truly Difficult climbing. Seven pitches of wandering back and forth on ledges gained the spine of an arete which we followed for seven more pitches to a double summit level with the main ridge. Three rappels dropped us to a lively creek in the gully north of the tower, which we descended back to a pack we'd left at the rope-up point. The only sign we saw of previous traffic was one ancient piton which we passed on rappel, and two sling rappel anchors which looked as if they pre-dated the Big Bang. Of the Schmidts-Madsen route documented in Brooks / Carlstadt guidebook, we found no sign except for those we passed rappeling in the exit gully. We climbed seventeen roped pitches, up to a standard of about 5.10a, on high-quality, though sometimes heavily vegetated rock. IV,5.10a definitely worth the trip.

 

Gear Notes:

racked for the nose, and used it all! multiple of everything from brass micros to 4" cams. Pitch three (crux) required inventive rigging to protect -- several placements where multiple micros were equalized to create one solid clip...

2 60m ropes for belay/rappel

 

Approach Notes:

miraculously brush-free boulder stream approach- "rubber ducky" raft for Tumwater ferry - dependable drinking water in the exit gully

[telemarker]

Winter, summer, you just can't get enough of that place up there! Nice work. Glad to see the human lung joined you for the trip. Did you lead the whole thing?

[layton]

say. where did my post go?

heavy handed f'in moderators

[bwrts]

the dihedral is called recurve dihedral. if that is what you were asking before mr Layton.

[DirtyHarry]

Was that before or after Cottman called Layton a "fucking moron"?

[layton]

dang it i wished it checked this thread before it was ruined.

Hey, bwrts. Any more info on that dihedral? pm me if you don't want it public. looks cool, but also looks to have the potential for not being so coo.

[slaphappy]

before, and he is...

 

-

 

btw- there is only one "t"... thanks.

 

*It was originally called "Weigelt's Book", 10ish pitch 5.9. I did it 4 or so years ago, don't waste you're time. Dirty, inconsistent, and loose...

[rat]

it sounds like this shares some pitches with doorish's "king's indian" or "nimzo indian" and/or beckey's route? or am i confused about what aspect of jupiter rock you climbed?

[slaphappy]

Brad and I climbed a similar line to "haireball" a few years ago and we thought at least 80% had been climbed before. We removed tat and bail gear down low...

 

Gordon has done 4-5 routes over the last 20 years as well.

 

-

[rat]

my brother and i climbed a route from the toe in the late 80's thinking it was one of doorish's routes. yeah, gordon told me he's done a few routes up there as well.

 

nice to know the historic name for recurve. thanks. it's actually a pretty good route if you like dirt. cappellini and partner also did a route up the slabs left of the corner.

[slaphappy]

The feature is classic. I appreciate good dirt, the Recurve was just ho-hum in my opinion... slabs appear superior.

 

-

[Kyle_Flick]

Great job Curt and Tom!

Ron,

Curt and others have talked about doing the Recurve Dihedral for years, but in winter. Ugh.

[bwrts]

turf's up!!

[montypiton]

well damn - seems Haireball can't log in (again) so monty is back for awhile -- don't know nuthin' about Doorish's climbs, and never have been able to get comprehensible beta out of Gordon, so we were climbin' blind. Just started at the lowest point and wandered up, tryin to keep generally to the middle of the face w'out climbing anything particularly desperate. My thanks to Slaphappy for cleanin' up the place - prefer my climbs raw when possible. About the Recurve - had beta from Paul Myhre about the route he did up there in 70's, paralleling the corner. Have watched it ice up for several winters, and made an attempt with Sam Ernst in February a couple winters back. Ice was soft (pickets)& easy (WI3) but we were cautious and slow (used lotsa time excavating belay anchors), so only got up about halfway before running out of time. Tried to get Kyle up there last February, but he was too fixated on Drury to see reason. Ran into a Rolf Larson last December who said he'd soloed the first couple of pitches in winter, but I failed to get his phone number, and couldn't find him when it came into condition in February -- Rolf, you out there? I'm still gunning for it...

[bwrts]

rat a tat tat...

[rat]

you're confusing a nearby ice climb with recurve. however, a friend and i did bail off recurve a few winters ago due to time constraints. check your pm's, curt.

[MisterMo]

nice to know the historic name for recurve.

 

This is one hard-to-follow thread. Weigelt named the climb Recurve Dihedral at the time of the FA done by he and R (not P) Doorish. This was around 1970 or so. The name Weigelt's must have gotten adopted sometime later...if, in fact, it refers to the same climb.