[TR] Snow Creek Wall- Mary Jane 10/16/2006

[korrigan]

Climb: Snow Creek Wall-Mary Jane

 

Date of Climb: 10/16/2006

 

Trip Report:

Brad and I did Mary Jane this weekend.

 

It took us 5 1/2 hours to do. We should beat ourselves up for being slow.

 

Middle pitch of the dihedral is kinda spooky above the two bolts. I'd belay down on the slabby crack below that so you're not climbing right above the belayers head through that funky rock.

 

I think I screwed up on that pitch because I went down and left to a delicate flake after clipping the button head. I think I was supposed to go straight up, but after too many years being involved with mary jane I got my signals mixed up about which pitch one was supposed to look left for a crack. That pitch BTW is the last one in the corner which is cool but unusual. It doesn't look like continuing up the corner gets done much if at all.

 

Going over the roofs is cool and well protected. They are not as hard as they look.

 

Now get back to work.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

I'd bring up to a 3 1/2 friend. Just a standard rack is all you really need. And of course not falling in many areas would be wise.

[telemarker]

No, I think you did it right. Climb left (you must have not seen the newer 3/8" bolt right by the buttonhead) to that flake, around the corner almost, then back right to the base of the final roof. We've always carried that pitch a full 60m to the Orbit alcove. Great pitch! Climbing straight up the corner from the belay looked quite pinched off to me. Good job. It actually looked busy on that route saturday. Sheesh!

[mattp]

I was in the party right behind you. Are you asking about the first bolt-protected move where we stepped down and out, away from the corner, onto a sloper left foot? Or the second move, right off that hanging belay? Might there be a "straight up" possiblity at the first one?

 

We didn't take any info, and upon getting home I've looked at several old guidebooks and have found nothing that shows any detail. Here's my sketch.

 

[korrigan]

I did that manuever on two pitches. The first one to a truly delicate flake, like too delicate to bother putting gear in. That particular bolt is a new button head just after the spooky rock in the middle of the dihedral. My buddy says you go up past that bolt not down and left. Going down and left isn't too smart cause if the flake blows or you fall you'll slam hard back into the dihedral. I really don't recomend doing it that way although it is pretty easy about 5.7 or 8.

 

The last pitch of the dihedral we belayed in the guano then out left past a bolt a #1 cam and to the flake. I didn't put any gear in that flake to avoid rope drag, but climbed up to a very long chord hanging off the top which I clipped then right to another flake, stuck gear in that one then down and right to a foothold and then up and back into the dihedral. From thence over the roofs. Belayed just above the second roof/corner cause I was outa gear.

[korrigan]

I went down and left from the bolt just above where you've marked bad belay and it says 10a. I'd been told to look left for a crack after clipping a bolt but I'd expected that to be on the next pitch. I got a'fused. I agree with your pitch two belay location. The bad belay is spooky cause the bolts aren't good and it's backed up by a cam in a flake wedged in the corner that seems good. Above that the rock isn't very good and the only pro is an old pin. A fall would land you on the belayers head if you're at the bad belay. Needless to say that's a 'bad belay'.

[mattp]

I'm not sure I'm following you. Are you saying that at the first pro bolt, you can move straight up instead of doing a dangerous 5.7 move down and left? We stepped down and moved left on friction knobs, and I thought it was .10a. You must have some very sticky shoes!!!

 

I followed it, but I didn't think it seemed as if the lead at that point would have been particularly scary. I think I would have been happy to have that good bolt after some sketchy pro in chockstones and flakes.

 

Anyway, it is a cool climb. Definitely worthy, though there is a reason Outer Space and Orbit are more popular.

 

Here, I've cleaned up the drawing and changed it to GIF format. I've also added that additional belay and bolt (I was thinking it might be a good plan to try skipping station #3, but probably a better idea would be to skip what I show here as #4 - that is what we did on Saturday and what Telemarker recommends):

[korrigan]

yes according to the person who put that first bolt there you go straight up not down and left. It could be just shock that keeps me from thinking it was harder. I felt pretty secure after I clipped that bolt and the rest of the climb seemed casual in comparison to that 15 feet or so above the bad belay.

[telemarker]

Once Kyle and I hit the sno crik trail, looking back up it looked like you guys had "dueling leads" coming out of that alcove belay, a bit crowded it was.

[mattp]

Dueling leads on easy terrain is one man's crowd, another man's party. I have always enjoyed sharing belay ledges and climbing with other parties where the terrain makes this comfortable - as is the case at the top of Orbit/Mary Jane.

[bwrts]

If I understand the description by korrigan correctly, then yes one may climb up through the very thin crack moves with dirt,moss, flowers...near the 1st bolt. I have done both ways and first did this "straight" up Dave recommended way years ago w/DC however, we also had a third companion named MJ and she stuck with us from house to house. Regardless, I remember the fear in my heart as I did the dynamic finger lock moves around the vegetated micro placements. good times! This has definitely been done numerous times prior bolt retro-placement based on amount of visible cleaning (ie. my nut tool was not needed very much to get gear or fingers in the crack).

[rocksnowsun]

That was a crowded but comfortable belay, as my partner and I were coming up Orbit. I watched you guys start that pitch from our line and thought it must have been a bit tricky. I'll try that dihedral next!

[Gary_Yngve]

Aaron Zabriskie and I climbed the route on Sunday. At the single bolt by the 3, about 20m above the single bolt w/ bypass to the left on the flake, and 30m above the two crappy bolts, there were two options:

 

1) head left to two old bolts, see more bolts about 30 feet up and left, looked like "Carla's Traverse"

 

2) continue straight up the dihedral

 

For the second option, we encountered a section where the dihedral was pretty much a seam. There were a few face holds and a couple key pockets, one which I excavated a little more with my finger. After a few tenuous moves, I was able to yard on some shrubbery to mantle a ledge and happily sink in an alien, probably about fifteen feet above an uninspiring fixed micronut, the only other piece separating me from the belay. Higher up a well-protected roof provided one final challenge, before relenting to chickenheads and the last bulge/roof where Orbit merges.

 

The topo here is confusing me a little, because we gained the dihedral again probably no more than 20 feet above the first single bolt.

[catbirdseat]

"We are the knights who say 'Ni!'. Bring me a shrubbery!"

[Kat_Roslyn]

Very fun route, I am suprised it doesn't get climbed more often. I remember Pete at first trying to go straight instead of going a little left and up that flake. And that roof looked a lot more intimidating than it actually was, which was pure fun. Good Job, good clambering.

 

 

[catbirdseat]

Is it really as run out as Gary says or was he off route?

[TeleRoss]

I don't remember it being that run out. I went out left on the face where the corner got all mossy and seamed out. Then back into the corner above the shrubbery.

Good route.

[Gary_Yngve]

Maybe ten feet above the shitty nut then. I think it was more of an issue of where our belay was. Had I already climbed fifty feet and had a few pieces in, the runout wouldn't have bothered me as much.

 

Kramar notes that the pro gets sparser the higher you go and gives the climb two stars and an R rating. I'd have to agree. Fun in hindsight, with some attention-getting leads.

 

 

[mattp]

The way I've drawn it, there were not any really long runouts and the pro was adequate - though I was having a bad day and let Mr. E. lead what I show as pitch 4 which should have been my lead so all I really know is that it seemed maybe a tad bid spookier than lots of "standard" climbs but it certainly didn't seem like any horror show. I don't know about Carla's traverse, either, but it sounds as if Gary may have id'd the bolts we used for the third belay as the traverse but I think it is higher, after looking at old guidebooks. Anyway, there was a long sling hanging on a flake 25 feet above there, just above where I gave a 5.9 rating, indicating our "detour" was part of what many climbers consider to be the route, and this is what Telemarker describes as "the route."

 

This version of the climb lies completely out of the corner system, at least 30 feet to the left, for 75 feet or so and as noted above rejoins below the (fun) roof. The corner did look unfriendly in the portion that we avoided and it sounds as if this is the part Gary found poorly protected and scary.

 

I drew that topo from memory, and I'd need to field check it to be more confident I've got the details right. I've checked two Whitelaw guides, three Kramer books, and two by Smoot and none of them show this route in significant detail. For those who don't want to have to sniff it out, it would be nice to have a topo for this climb.

[spiderman]

I climbed this route the first weekend of April after warming up on Outerspace. I was quite glad to have this topo in my pocket on the crux pitch, or else the routefinding wouldn't have been as straight forward as I would've liked. So I did take the "detour" route too. The crux pitch, and pitch right before it were great. The rest of the route was mediocre.

 

After pulling the roofs I plugged in the belay and looked over to my right at two gals starting out on the first 10c crux pitch of Iconoclast. When we got to the base of Snow Creek Wall in the morning, there were three parties at the base, two groups of two heading up Outerspace, and one party of two gals heading up Orbit. I found it a little odd that these two girls would eventually change their minds to climb a much harder route in hang dog style.

 

Gal yelled to me, "What route you on?"

My reply "MJ Dihedral"

 

Although I've climbed Iconoclast and knew exactly what route they were on, it only seemed appropriate to ask and reply.

 

Me "What route are you on???????????"

Gal replied "Orbit"

Me "No you're not.....you're on Iconoclast....5.10c....."

Gal "We thought this seemed to hard"

 

To make a long story short, we straightened them out and they began to rapp. They were still rapping when we scrambled along the base of the climb heading home for the day. They were very thankfull and offered us beer and dinner as we yelled our goodbye's, but my friend and I both had to work early in the morning.