[TR] Cedar Creek Wall - 8/1/2007

[512dude]

Trip: Cedar Creek Wall - ?

 

Date: 8/1/2007

 

Trip Report:

I was wanting a few days of back country camping coupled with some climbing so I looked up a few options for remote climbing areas that offered longer routes and came across the Cedar Creek Wall. Never having heard of anyone else climbing in the area I thought it would prove interesting and adventurous to go see what the wall offered. I hooked up with Kevin for round two and this time a 3 day excursion involving a longer approach, camping and climbing.

 

After a bit of discussion we opted to approach via Twisp and the Twisp River Road which brought us to the North Creek trail head ~3680'. From the trail head we took TR413 for ~3.25 miles (~1.5 hours) to the intersection with Cedar Creek Trail #476, ~5200'. From here the trail climbed up to Abernathy Pass (~6400') in a short 0.5 mile which took 45 minutes at a good clip. Then we continued another mile or so down the other side until we reached Cedar Creek ~4900' and good camping in another 45 minutes.

 

The next morning we departed camp around 7:00am and followed a faint trail that paralleled Cedar Creek on its' north side (I was surprised at how cool the temperatures were, about 39F at night after seeing highs of 91F in the day time). The wall itself is in the sun in the morning but gets shade for most of the remainder of the day due to its' NE exposure.

 

The line we took was thru a weakness on the left of the slabs and eventually trended over to the larger crack/chimney system on the right via a large treed ledge and some traversing. What we found in the crack/chimney system was very little gear and some loose and rotting sections of rock - typical kitty litter granite decomposition. Most of the pitches had marginal gear and long runouts. Neither one of us thought the route was that stellar and agreed that we wouldn't recommend it very highly.

 

At the end of the day we meandered our way back to camp. The thoughts of freeze dried food wasn't that appetizing but to our surprise we discovered that we had neighbours. From the looks of their camp they were either some burly dudes or they got packed in by horses. These guys had huge tents, cabinets, booze, coolers, lanterns, tables, chairs, you name it! So we went over and introduced ourselves asking them if they had brought extra steak for us - jokingly! They ended up being very friendly fishermen and had many questions for us about the climbing. Before long we ended up with cold drinks and were eating steak, salad and rice for dinner.

 

On the way out we encountered 4 younger hunters - bear season opened Aug 1st - who had spent the night camping at Abernathy pass. Looking like a group of militia wannabes in full fatigues I was disgusted to see that they decided to defecate and leave their paper remains on the trail and not even clean-up. When we questioned them about it they claimed that they didn't notice it and it must have been one of their buddies. Further down the trail we came upon the shit-head himself who had once again purged his bowels right on the trail and left his paper behind. I'm sure he respects his prey as much as the wilderness he hunts in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

100' out and do you see any gear?

 

 

Cold rewards at the end of a long day...maybe that is why those packs were so heavy?!?

 

Approach Notes:

Recommended: Park at Cedar Creek/Cedar Falls Trail Head off of SR20. Hike ~2000' and 7.5 miles to Cedar Creek camping area. From the camp area follow a trail paralleling Cedar Creek on the N side until below the wall. Head up thru the forest and boulders to the base at ~5300' in ~30 minutes

Edited August 8, 2007 by 512dude

[curtveld]

I backpacked into that area from the Cedar Creek side once and thought that wall looked appealing. Bummer that the climbing sucks, but thanks for letting us know.

[needtoclimb]

Chris was way too nice in his trip report. I was cursing, crying, and praying to Jesus, Allah and Buddha all at the same time on that wall.

 

Chris and I made good time heading in and it was almost dark so as we made it down to the creek where we knew there would be water, and as it turned out a beautiful campsite.

 

Out of camp we followed a faint trail up Cedar Creek for about 30 minutes, then bushwhacked a quarter mile to the base of the wall. That is where the fun started.

 

The first pitch was my lead and went straight up the dike/crack in the pictures. The dike was a full 200 feet of climbing with a few decent gear placements, a few 5.6 moves, but mostly 4th class.

 

Then it was Chris' lead. His book stated "traverse unprotected slab rightward." Boy was that correct! From the top of the dike to the next nearest protection was about 80 feet of solid but unprotected 5.7 slab. Instead, Chris went up a little higher, finding a dirty, wet crack below a roof to place some gear in before traversing a 50 foot section of unprotected slab. He cound't quite make it to a belay, so we simuclimbed 20 feet until he reached a tree, and I followed across the slab traverse. It went 5.7 on good rock, but absolutely nothing would have prevented a huge sliding whipper if either one of us slipped.

 

An hour later, I would have given Chris' left foot for 50 feet of runout solid slab. The next pitches involved kitty litter rock with nothing but Jesus to hang onto. I was 60 feet above the belay when I placed my first piece, after I dug the plant and dirt out of a tiny, shallow crack. The cam was as trustworthy as a pedophiliac Cub Scout leader, with the next move being one hand on a crumbling jug with the other hand on a smaller crumbling jug. With a sphincter so tight that if swallowed a piece of coal I'd crap out a diamond, I let loose a flury of expletives and climbed another 60 feet before reaching a belay tree. 120 feet: 1 piece of useless pro. I've seen better rock in a sandbox.

 

The next pitch was the same. Chris led 100 feet with one piece of pro. He reached a horn, and we decided enough was enough. He rapped the horn back down to me, and we rapped from tree to tree (10 raps total) until back on solid ground. One of the trees was the size of my wrist and looked as strong as a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We slung the tree and downclimbed, using it only as backup.

 

If you looking for a fun, decent climb on good rock, go climb the Liberty group. But if you are looking for a religion-inducing pile of choss the constancy ball-bearings and axle grease, then this is the climb for you.