Alex Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 Trip: Mountaineers Creek - Various Date: 2/4/2007 Trip Report: Drawn by the recent reports and great pic, Scott and I visited Mountaineers Creek on Sunday. We left Seattle at 5:30am and were gearing up in the Icicle just a short time later. Heh. The approach is mellow up the road, then down the beaten donkey trail to the ice. Thanks to Eric, Jason, Jeff, and co. we were able to locate lots of the recently reported climbs. At the trailhead, I discovered one of my crampons was missing a bail. Ah well, Scotts new Bionics would just have to serve both of us today. Our warm up started just left of "Nametag on Helmet", a really great pillar in a corner just out of sight. This might be "The Ten Essentials", I don't know, it had a thin move at the top before the trees, and red sling on one of the trees. Fun! Scott lead a nice line just left of that, stemming between two pillars lower down. Great moderate. Next, we explored rightwards. A party had gottten on "Shorts Over Polypro", and it looked classic and fun! They were TR-ing the thin pillar just to its right, too, with direct finish up the rock! Stellar mixed! But my eye was drawn to the route just left of "Shorts..", and I geared up with some rock pro for a go. I climbed some technical ice to a rest at the roof, then tenuous rock moves including a desperately needed handjam, to a secure but awkward chimney exit. Some snow leads to trees, or you can just traverse right a little to the tree on top of "Shorts...". Classic! Dial "M" For Mountie. WI3 M4, 30m. Stubbies, cams from 1-3 inches, 1 long KB or an LA. To wind down the day we explored rightwards again. Scott started up a nice flow, but things went rapidly downhill. First he dropped a screw, then dropped a tool from higher up. I lowered him and completed the lead, but not before dropping a draw. At the top, because the lead was around 40m, I decided to toss the crampons down to Scott. I took one off and hucked it.....straight into a tree branch 50 feet off the ground, and 20 feet out from the wall. Holy crap!! It was Scotts brand-spanking-new Bionic, so I spent the next 20 minutes throwing large snowballs and ice chunks at the tree branch, and eventually with several hits was able to shake the crampon free! Talk about Gumb-o-rama!! The route is WI2+, but considerably more difficult if you happen to drop all your gear like us. Not yet named. Here is an overview pic of the lower drainage: A: "The Ten Essentials" WI3 M2, really nice pillar, classic! B: "Nametag on Helmet" WI3, classic! C: "Dial 'M' For Mountie" WI3 M4, classic! D: "Shorts Over PolyPro" WI3+, classic! There's alot more to climb here, and the area receives little sun and the ice was dry. Have fun!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrogdortheBurninator Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 You are right, that first one is "Ten Essentials". Dial M for Mountie looks cool. We looked at that one too, but there is only so much time in a day. That last photo is a great overview. Fun, fun, fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n1madman Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 It was an exceptional day climbing and with all of the ice in, I almost thought I was in Canada. Great job on Dial M for Mountie; it was fun just watching you guys go up. A buddy of mine (verticalwanderer) was disappointed at not getting some first ascents that he could name after his favorite group. His suggestions were "Duct tape your adze" and "Sorry I can't rap, I forgot my belay gloves". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 Here's my take on thing: Alex was running late....we were supposed to leave the house at 5:00 not 5:30. So, sensing my irratation Alex decided to throw a few more curveballs in the day by "trying out some new crampons", which one by pure conincidence was missing a toe bail. This was all a plot to test my level-headedness, but I vowed not to give in. With a non-functional crampon, now he has to grovel to borrow my new crampons so he can send his FA's On the hike in, he takes off ahead while I'm snapping photos and subsequently I take two wrong turns near the creek and lose the trail. A few loud whistles from me later, and I hear Alex hollering a few hundreds yards down stream. I finally catch up to him. Alex proceeds to lead a nice route called "The Ten Essentials", which I TR, and then gives me the sharp end to lead an ice chimney. Next we swing over to the unclimbed line "Dial 'M' for Mounties" and Alex decides to borrow my rock gear too. The nerve of this guy. He leads it in fine style and I do a lap on TR. By this time my frustration was beginning to get the better of me, so I decided to leave his slings in situ as payment Next we walk up stream a bit to another nice pillar, and Alex convinces me to lead it. While climbing I decided, "screw this guy I'm gonna start dropping gear on him." I drop an ice screw, this misses him, I try a tool as well, failure. My scheme isn't working, so I lower off to see if I can enact my revenge from the belayer end of the rope. By this time Alex is keen to my intentions, so he leads up past the middle of the rope so I will have to second the pitch. Since we only have one pair of crampons between us he proceeds to convince me to "catch" my crampons from 40m above. As the first pair comes flying down I think to myself, "Those are going to hit me right in the hea........". Swish, a branch catches the pon and Alex breaks into an insidous laughter. For the next 20 minutes, he proceeds to throw chunks of ice at me as revenge for trying to harpoon him with my tool. Fortunately, I am able to move around enough to where one chunk hits the branch containing my pon and it nearly impales me as it comes crashing down. By this time, we both had beaten each other up pretty bad, so we called it a day. Lots of fun :tup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted February 5, 2007 Author Share Posted February 5, 2007 :battlecage: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtom Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 Quite the gumby fest on Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric8 Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 Good job on "dialed" I was looking at that one, too. We didn't seem to have enough daylight though. The OW just left of the chimney looks cool as well. I should add that I went back in there with Ade the weekend after Jason and I climbed there. Ade lead a grade 3 pillar on the right side of the upper tier. Its not mentioned in the book. While looking for the next route to climb we set off 3 avalaches and therefore decided to climb elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstreet Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 What an incredible play ground! Nice pics everyone! Nice job on "Dial 'M' for Mountie" Alex! What were the temps like up there up Sunday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jens Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 What is the area testpiece? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 What is the area testpiece? Unclimbed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted February 6, 2007 Author Share Posted February 6, 2007 I am looking at this pic and thinking of that traverse off to the left and up onto the hangers, and out the hanging curtain left of "Snake Bite" (the left TR in the pic)...if there is pro in the roof it would be rad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 What is the area testpiece? how about linking a sit-start into a girlde traverse of the crag!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted October 25, 2007 Author Share Posted October 25, 2007 I can't WAIT to go ice climbing this year!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingsMM Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 is this ice in Washington Ice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrogdortheBurninator Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 it is in a small bavarian sub-country within washington state Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingsMM Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 ah zae Leavenworth eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted October 26, 2007 Author Share Posted October 26, 2007 I'll be adding an up-to-date section on Mountaineers Creek to the website complete with pics in the next week http://www.wastateice.net/Guide.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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