chucK Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Climb: Mt. Hubris-Cosmic Wall Date of Climb: 9/12/2006 Trip Report: Cosmic Wall - "Das Toof of Dunsmuir" Last week I needed to make a spur of the moment drive down to CA. I decided to break up the drive and check out Castle Crags, just off of I-5 in northern California. Armed with beta from summitpost.org, and mountainproject.com I thought I'd try checking out the Cosmic Wall (5.6). Left Seattle around 6am, arrived at Castle Crags State Park (exit #724) around 2:30 pm, was hiking by 3 and when I checked my watch upon arrival at the base of the climb it was exactly 4:20 . It was hot as hell there, but I guess I timed it right and got shade for much of the hike and the climb. The climb turned out to be easy enough, though it appears you might be sketching if you wanted gear very often. The rock is clean, well-featured and solid. All that black stuff in the pictures is not lichen. The crux of the climb may be a short traverse over onto a nice bolted belay ledge (top of p2) and then back off of it. But since I wasn't needing no stinkin' belay ledge I was able to bypass those moves! Apparently the original route skirts the summit arete on the left then smears up a groove, but I went straight up the highly featured arete. Many giant holds. No good gear perhaps, but way more aesthetic than the chimney/groove looked (plus I didn't see much in the way of gear that way either). Beautiful pointy summit. Looking out on all those other craggy crags and Mt. Shasta. The summit register contents were all wadded up like used snotrags, but one piece of notepaper had a nice sketch of a mountain and a poem: We sit together The mountain and me Until only the mountain remains -Li Po Cosmic! Gear Notes: Rock shoes, running shoes for approach. Single 60m rope for rappel off backside. Approach Notes: Great trail until 1/4 mile of manzanita at end. To find the good but windy path through the manzanita, head up and just over ridge between Castle Dome and Mt. Hubris. Look upridge for the path. It travels directly beneath obvious 30-foot high snag. looking up pitch 2 from top of pillar (middle of pitch 1) pitch 2: steep but with amazing features looking up the final summit arete pitch summit register contents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothrop Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Oh yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
layton Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 nice! isn't it funny how big Mt Hubris (aka the Ogre) looks from the trail, until you see climbers on it. They look like giants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancegranite Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 Cosmic wall is an I-5 must do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwrts Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Now that would make a great guidebook.....I-5 must doS! too late: already taken mr Layton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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