[TR] Snow Creek Wall- Outerspace 9/23/2006

[ericb]

Climb: Snow Creek Wall-Outerspace

 

Date of Climb: 9/23/2006

 

Trip Report:

Brian and I had planned a climbing weekend for some time, and even flirted with taking Friday off, and doing a 3 day alpine trip. Work proved harder to escape on Friday than hoped, and with a required 5 p.m. Sunday return for Brian, we decided to head to Leavenworth for some cragging.

 

At 9pm, after a phenomenal Mexican meal in Leavenworth, we sat around a picnic table at the 8-mile campground flipping through our climbing guides and going back and forth between “going for it” on Outerspace, and lesser objectives in Icicle creek canyon. Brian looked at me and said “I think we should go for it”. We spent the rest of our waking hours assembling one of the biggest racks either of us had ever climbed with….doubles of everything from nuts to number 3 cams, including micros, and a couple big hexes thrown in for good measure. We set a 4:15 am wakeup time, knowing that we’d want to be at the base of the climb near dawn to avoid getting behind other groups on this very popular and long route.

 

Within 10 minutes of the alarm going off, I was dressed and pounding my canned Starbucks Double Shot, hoping to get things moving while the outhouse was an option – let’s just say my plan worked, and I made two stops before we departed the Snow Lake trailhead via headlamp at 0530. As hoped, we had usable light was upon us just in time to locate the climbers trail, and we were the first ones to scramble to the base of the route at about 7 am.

 

Base of route

 

Start of first pitch

 

We took our time scouting the start of the route, fiddling with gear, donning the harnesses, and were finally climbing at 8AM, and up the first pitch when company began arriving. As the events of the day unfolded, were very glad to have gotten an early start! We were just starting the second low/mid fifth class pitch when a team passed us simul-climbing. The leader was apparently the self-proclaimed “record holder” on the route. “For speed?” I asked…..”no….I’ve climbed it 50 times”. Lets just say that we saw them briefly on the next belay ledge, and never again.

 

Brian then took the lead for the first of the difficult pitches, and what is, at least, the mental crux, if not the technical crux of the climb. After a short 5.8 finger crack, and some more 5.6ish climbing, you plug a small cam around a blind corner and cheval out into a upward-slanting horizontal hand crack, and move about 15 feet up and right with jams and underclings for hands, and smearing for feet. Brian got pretty pumped out, but completed the crux with style.

 

Brian starting crux

 

Almost through crux

 

 

 

I then followed, and after tiring on the traverse, and with only a couple feet to the next cam, made a committing lunge for a bomber hand hold up and right….I missed….good times. Fortunately I was able to spot a hidden foot hold as I dangled from about 3 feet of rope, and was able to complete the traverse and join Brian at the belay.

 

Brian asked then asked me if I wanted to take a shot on lead. We looked at the route description.....5.6 run-out climbing finishing with a 5.8 corner.....hmmm....my arms were pretty shot from the crux…..I deferred. I joined him at the next ledge, and took the rack for the next 5.8 finger to hand crack....the “money pitch. I fiddled in a tri-cam, and then a medium nut higher up, found a finger jam, and went for it. After some fiddling and fatiguing in the first 15 feet, I got a couple more pieces in, and got onto some of the famous “chicken-heads” for a rest. Soon the crack widened, and I got a bomber hex in, and my fears of a ledge fall faded. I was then able to enjoy the rest of the pitch. I “stiched it up” quite nicely, hanging on to my #3 cams in case I need them higher on the pitch or for the belay, and finally reached the ledge with 2 #3 BDs. I built a gear belay with two small nuts, micro cam, and a tri-cam, and put Brian on belay with my legs dangling over the edge of the ledge....phew!.

 

view from belay

 

Brian near top of first Hand-crack pitch

 

Brian and I at the belay ledge

 

Before I knew it we were both snacking and drinking on the ledge debating whether to jump directly into the 5.9 finger crack above, or the unprotected 5.6 bypass around to the left…not to mention who would lead it.

 

I won, and Brian lead out, and used up 3 of his ~ 2” cams trying to protect a pendulum fall while moving from a subsidiary hand crack left of the main crack into the main crack....a big mistake! The bypass sucked as you could only marginally protect the move back to the crack, and you use up cam sizes you will need higher in the main crack. Next time, I’d give the 5.9 start a try as it looks like you could fiddle in some pro from below (sizes of which you won’t need later), and have only a couple hard moves before the blessed “chicken-heads” reappear. Brian had to run out this pitch beyond his level of comfort since he’d burned ~ 3 hand-sized cams doing the by-pass.

 

I was just joined on the belay ledge by the leader of the following party at ~ 5:15 when Brian shouted off-belay, and I pulled the anchor and made room. Apparently there were 3 groups below them lower on the route, with only 2 hours of daylight remaining...ouch.

 

I cleaned the pitch, and just kept going past Brian up the final 60 feet of chicken-head studded low fifth class rock where I topped out and put him on belay from a stance behind a boulder. He joined me on top at 5:40 where we quickly packed up to start the infamous descent. It went quite smoothly, and we were at the base at 6:40. We used up the last day-light to make it to the main trail at 7:15, and looked up to see three more parties still on the wall. By 8:30, we were enjoying a fine Italian meal in Leavenworth.

 

Pix

 

http://ericbakke.spaces.msn.com/photos/?_c02_owner=1

 

 

Gear Notes:

Double cams from 0.5 to 3...coulda used 4 x #2 BDs

Edited September 26, 2006 by ericb

[catbirdseat]

It took you about 11 hours to do Outer Space? Is that right?

[ericb]

more like 9.5, but not sure...I took my watch off at the begging of the climb, and didn't look at it again until the top. Before any spray about our speed (who you???), please note that we took the time we were given by the team behind us.

[fenderfour]

"Gear Notes:

Double cams from 0.5 to 3...shouda had 4 x #2 BDs"

 

When in doubt, run it out.

[goatboy]

I place a fair amount of gear when leading 5.8 or 5.9 sustained cracks like this, but disagree about needing 4 #2's.

 

I think it's reasonable to do this climb with a few #2's and a #3, plus smaller sizes...

 

Anyway, great TR with very honest details. Sounds like you got up and down the things safely and in daylight, which is more than the other parties could probably say!!! Not super-fun to locate and navigate the walk-off in the dark....

[ericb]

curious...what's the difference between a few #2s and four?...not being an ass, just asking for the benefit of the thread.

 

Also, the definition of "running it out" varies from individual to individual. Would running it out be a piece every 20 feet, or 10 feet. I personally would not want to take any amount of lead fall on these pitches given the chicken heads.

[goatboy]

A fair question -- I guess it's the difference between what gear you COULD use versus what I believe an average party NEEDS TO TAKE at minimum.

 

If I had four #2's, I'm sure I could find places for them. Same with six #2's. But I wouldn't recommend that someone take six #2's up there....I would suggest that people take 2. Choosing to take more may be personal preference.

 

I agree that I wouldn't want to fall on any of those chicken heads....though their very presence makes it less likely to take said fall, too....kind of a double-edged sword.

[G-spotter]

Four #2 Camalots? Is this now Indian Crick not Snow Creek?

[fenderfour]

My response was meant as humor, not to get anybody riled up.

 

But...

 

There is a point where you need to sack up and go, pro or no.

 

More gear does not mean more safety. It does mean more slowly.

[Cobra_Commander]

It means you're (in for) a night of camalot.

[DPS]

Nice job. Despite having climbed Outer Space half a dozen times, including linking up OS and Orbit with each of the Haley boys, I could not climb Outer Space today, regardless of how much gear I took. I'm jealous.

[chucK]

I seriously doubt a larger rack is going to significantly slow people down on a crag climb like Outer Space. However, a leader sketching and searching way too long to find a placement that just ain't there is a real good way to seriously slow down a team. Plus, if a leader is sketching, there may actually be a nontrivial probability of the climber falling. Thus, I posit that, in this case, more gear may mean less slowly AND more safety.

[ericb]

For the record, I'm not trying to save face here with my rack recommendations. I'm admittedly a cautious leader, but am hoping to at least redeem our unimpressive speed with some descent Beta for those that are interested. Based on my recollection, there's about 80 feet of the crack on pitch 7 that was too small for #3s and too big for #1s, and relatively parallel. So a leader's level of comfort/prowess would dictate how many cams in the 2" range to take. If you are comfortable with 30' run-outs, take 2 cams. I do recall a stretch of the crack (~20 feet) with no real chicken heads, so if someone wasn't bomber on hand-jams, they might want an extra.....

[Blake]

whatever happend to slinging chickheads? I think that just takes a runner and a carabiner.

[telemarker]

To the dudes who epic'd on top, douse your fire next time before heading down Even though the fire danger is low now (I think), it's still bad form to just leave it burning.

[ericb]

as far as slinging chickenheads, I don't recall if there were that many on the upper pitch that had a enough of a nice mushroom top that would give me a high level of comfort as pro....nice foot rests though. There were some on the lower pitch though.

[Roscoe_M]

I think a text book hand jam on an 80 degree slab with slung chicken headed foot holds is worth at least one #2

[Alpinfox]

Hey Ericb,

First off, thanks for posting the trip report. I enjoyed reading it and I'm glad that you and your partner "went for it" and safely climbed a great route. Hopefully you had a great time (sounds like you did) and hopefully you learned a lot and gained some skills that will allow you to more more efficiently on longish routes in the future. Although you weren't the slowest party on the wall that day, 10 hrs for a 4-6 pitch route is pretty slow. Odds are, if you climb that slowly on a popular route on a weekend, you can expect to irritate some people. I'd urge you to choose some more modest/less busy objectives in the future to avoid confrontations. That might sound pompous of me (I've been accused of that after giving the same recommendation before), but I think it is the best way to avoid this whole conflict. It's no fun to be the slow party with an angry party breathing down your neck and it's no fun to be stuck behind a slow party.

 

You certainly don't have to take my advice, I'm just a random jackass on teh internut, but I think it will be more fun for everyone involved if you do.

 

In any case, I'm glad you've taken the virtual tonguelashing you've gotten from all the Monday morning quarterbacks (myself included) in stride and are still posting here.

 

[ericb]

Thanks...and to clarify, we could have climbed faster, but didn't need to thanks to the guys behind us. We set a pace necessary to stay in front of them, and we were successful. We lost ~ 20-30 minutes overshooting the crack to the first belay anchor, took fifteen minute breaks at the belay after p4, another 15 minutes after P5, and another 20 minutes after p6. We also took our time starting p7, because we contemplated the unprotected 5.6 bypass for some time before committing. If we would have had someone hot on our tails, we would, and could have climbed faster. Don't assume that everyone else out there is just like you, trying to climb it as fast as possible....some of us like to enjoy the experience as well, and if you say speed is safety, then it's important to note that we made it back to the car without headlamps and were enjoying a Halibut dinner at 8:30.

 

I did SW Rib of SEWS in 4 hours, and Cutthroat South Buttress C2C in 9 hours a month ago, so I've shown that I can climb fast when I want to. The reason we got up at 4:00 am is so we could enjoy the climb...and we did.

[pope]

CatBirdShite said:

It took you about 11 hours to do Outer Space? Is that right?

 

Ericb responds:

Before any spray about our speed (who you???), please note that we took the time we were given by the team behind us

 

 

Ericb, the parenthetical reply was priceless! Dude, I'm really embarrassed for some of the turkeys who are smugly reviewing your TR. Anybody who climbs Outerspace on a Saturday will either have to adjust to somebody's pace, gain permission to pass or just retreat. Anybody who doesn't know this is pretty damn green. Anybody who is unwilling to select one of these three options should not climb Outerspace on Saturday. Anybody who can't observe from the climb's base that such a situation is developing is a 'tard. Anybody who is stupid enough to start the climb at 9 a.m. with several parties in front, and then get on cc.com and bitch about something that is completely predictable....that is surely the behavior of a wanker.

 

To the pretenders who offered their critical reviews, on everything from rack selection to pacing to whether Ericb and friends should have attempted this climb, I think you lack judgement, class, imagination and civility.To Ericb and party, my advice is .... I don't have any. I'm glad you had a rewarding day on the stone.

[fern]

maybe you know this already ericb, and it doesn't apply here, but I feel it is worth mentioning. Sometimes a following party that isn't aiming to pass will wait until the party above has cleared the belays before continuing themselves, for example to not have to share gear belay stances. Just because they were a ways behind you all day doesn't mean that you were climbing faster than them and absolved of responsibility for any traffic jams lower on the route. If you had climbed faster they also may have climbed faster but still deliberately kept a separation so as not to crowd you.

[minx]

fern makes an excellent point. i'm not fast but not too slow. i like to leave a little room at the belay. if i'm not going to pass for one reason or another, i'll try and time things so that i'm not ending up at the belay while the party in front is still there.

 

for example we had the 6+ hour epic on R&D one day. OK-- it wasn't an epic but it did take 6+ hours. we were behind a party of 3 including one super newbie and a nervous leader. it was an absolutely lovely day so we decided just to take it slow and enjoy the sun. we purposely avoided setting up belays right by them and did our best to wait until the last of them was well up the the pitch before starting.

 

belay cluster fks are only made worse or happen in the first place by the addition of a second party.

 

don't assume b/c you're ahead of them and they're not gaining, that they wouldn't like to be passing.

[sampco]

Well said Fern and Minx. When we started the route, the parties up above were already on pitch 3. I still can't believe these groups took this long to finish 3 more pitches. There is something to be said about speed equals safety. The groups ahead were in no hurry at all. In fact, the group behind ERic B's was taking a half hour break sitting on Library Ledge (at 5:30), while two other groups were waiting for them to move on. Definitely a sign of lack of experience in the mountains. I always wait for room on the belay above before the leader starts out. In hindsight, we should have rapped off, but bailing off of a climb can be risky as well- shitty slings and leaving gear is often a last resort.

[goatboy]

maybe you know this already ericb, and it doesn't apply here, but I feel it is worth mentioning. Sometimes a following party that isn't aiming to pass will wait until the party above has cleared the belays before continuing themselves, for example to not have to share gear belay stances. Just because they were a ways behind you all day doesn't mean that you were climbing faster than them and absolved of responsibility for any traffic jams lower on the route. If you had climbed faster they also may have climbed faster but still deliberately kept a separation so as not to crowd you.

 

Super good point by Fern. I've been in this same situation a bunch of times.

[chucK]

In fact, the group behind ERic B's was taking a half hour break sitting on Library Ledge (at 5:30), while two other groups were waiting for them to move on.

 

Shouldn't this be in the ClusterF... thread?

 

Anyway...with parties stacked up behind, taking a 1/2 hour break at a route constriction would seem to be blowing it.

 

However, it is conceivable that they may have been trying to let people pass. Library Ledge is not really a route constriction. In fact, it seems like a perfect place to pass. It's a nice big ledge with room for many people, and it's below a pitch that has two alternate starts. How come nobody passed them when they were just sitting there?

 

The plot thickens...

Edited September 27, 2006 by chucK