[TR] Index- Green Dragon 9/27/2006

[mountainmatt]

Climb: Index-Green Dragon

 

Date of Climb: 9/27/2006

 

Trip Report:

OlympicMtnBoy and I took a leisurely drive to Index, making sure to stop at the bakery along the way, arriving at the base of Green Dragon around 8 AM or so. After taking time to rack up, we got started around 9 AM.

 

I took off on pitch one, and not having led aid in over a year, I didn’t set any speed records. Not big deal, neither of us was in any rush, we just wanted to have a nice day of aid. Hit the ledge in the sun and baked as OlyMtnBoy jugged the line. OlyMtnBoy led pitch 2, and made quick work of the first half. The second half was a little more challenging, but he pulled through to the chains. I led pitch 3, and was moving pretty slow. I made the mistake of not bringing a water bottle on the lead, so I was getting pretty dehydrated. My forearms were cramping as I looked through the rack for the next piece. OlyMtnBoy took off on pitch 4. At this point the wall went into the shade which we both welcomed. We were running low on water now, and neither of us had really eaten much all day. After getting about 15 meters out, I realized that OlyMtnBoy left the tag line with me. Not a horrible problem, but it did make jugging a little more of a pain. When I hit the anchors I was totally drained. I was supposed to lead pitch 5, but due to the time of day and my exhaustion, I passed the pitch to OlyMtnBoy. He made quick work of the lead, and we enjoyed the sunset from the top of the climb. We made 4 raps down and hiked out by headlamp. We touched down at 7:50 (again, we were not trying to set any records here). After getting down, we enjoyed some nice snacks at the Index store and headed home for a beer.

 

The beta:

All of the pitches go clean (no need for any pins or hammers as the Sky Valley guide book suggests). Make sure you are comfortable hanging in your harness, there are four hanging belays.

 

Pitch 1 – Straight forward. Starts with a little free climbing until you hit the crack. First section starts as very straight forward. The last portion of the pitch gets a little harder using some offset brassies and nuts and a cam hook or two.

 

Pitch 2 – Crux pitch. Starts out with a couple cams to a few bolts and moves into a crack system moving off to the left (away from town crier). There are several fixed pins on the pitch which appeared to be in good shape. Offsets and Lowe balls were helpful here.

 

Pitch 3 – An awkward pitch. Start up a big flake (the top of which is fragile). Move into a crack to a small roof. Mixture of cams and offsets were helpful. Move left into a seam that combines two fixed pins, offsets, a cam or two, and cam hooks. The second pin is complete crap (rusted out and creaks when you step on it). It will need to be replaced soon or bring a cheat stick to get the bolt (~10 feet away). Finish under a roof.

 

Pitch 4 – Fun. Move out from the roof with some cams, moving up the crack. Get a hook placement in and then hit the bolt ladder. Use one more hook to connect to the last bolt and the chains.

 

Pitch 5 – Dirty. Move up the bolts to a fixed head. The head is still there and in good shape. However, a cam or possibly a hook could be used when the head finally pulls. Move into a crack and then head left up a dirty corner to the chains.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Brought - Rack to 4”, small cams, offset nuts, offset brassies, cam hooks, hooks.

 

Wish list - More water, 2X10 board to stand on at the hanging belays

 

Approach Notes:

Descent – Rap pitch 5, combine pitches 3/4 and 1/2 with double 60m lines.

[Otto]

That must have been a lot of fun, good job on it! It's a fine route, indeed, for a mellow aid day. I like the laid-back style of the TR, too.

I think it is misleading to folks to say you needs hooks on this route, though. I climbed it years ago with no hooks or camhooks, hammerless, and it went fine. I think a lot of people see a requirement for hooks as a break-point in the decision to to a route or not, myself included. So, your gear list might act to keep the traffic down on the route. Anyway, it sure looks like fun, thanks for the good photos.

[mountainmatt]

Thanks for the complmets Otto, it was definitely a good outing.

 

As for the use of hooks, I can only speak for the pitches that I led (OlympicMtnBoy can add his own comments). I used cam hooks on both pitch 1 and 3, but if you are crafty with offsets and brassies, you could get away with no camhooks on these pitches. I personally like cam hooks (once weighted, they feel pretty secure to me) as long as its not on sandstone. I used the cam hooks partly because I like them, and partly because they are much faster than tinkering with a nut placement.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Otto,

No disagreements there. I only hooked twice and both could have been easily avoided. I just felt it was faster and safer to hook. One spot was just before the bolt ladder on P4 at that flake labeled expando on some topo or another. I didn't like the looks of it much so I highstepped (or whatever it's called with Russian Aiders on) on a good cam at right before the flake and was able to get a good hook on the top of the flake. There were other placements on the side of the flake that I'm sure would work fine, I just liked the hook option better. The second spot was a gap on the bolt ladder right before the belay. It looked like a 5.7? free move but I was lazy and the hardest part would have been getting my daisy off the bolt I was standing on. The hook was faster. Both moves were also protected by bolts so it would be a great spot for beginning hookers to try some easy moves too.

It was a fun route though, some fun placements, but nothing too scary or tricky. Thanks to Matt for a good day out, next time I take the bosuns chair though, my sides are still sore.

For the record, we didn't really watch sunset from the top, we skipped the 6th pitch (4th class dirty gully). I did that a couple years ago from Town Crier and it wasn't fun enough to bother with and it was getting dark. You can rap the route with two ropes in 3 raps from the very top (or from the top of P5) to top of P4, to top of P2, to the ground.

[pope]

Pitch 2 – Crux pitch. Starts out with a couple cams to a few bolts and moves into a crack system moving off to the left (away from town crier).

 

Couple more bolts next to that crack and we'll have to rename this climb: The Lime Lizard

[tyree]

Nice job. Good aid route to get things dialed on. I think that cam hooks make things go a little faster but not esential for this route. I Benson(sp) chair and a big wall bong make it a wee bit more comfy although not essential for this route either