Layback Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Trip: The Tooth - SW Face (5.6 PG) - Date: 9/26/2007 Trip Report: TR on my Website Steve, Greg, Dale and I met at the Snow Lake TH parking lot at 7:00 am. After going over some last minute details, we headed up the trail at 7:30. We quickly worked our way up through the trees, admiring the trail work as we went. Once we popped out of the trees, we were treated to some pretty views of the as the fog in the valley was slowly burning off. Shortly thereafter, we left the Snow Lake trail and continued on towards Source Lake. We paused briefly to take in the views yet again before working our way up the gulley that leads to the basin just below The Tooth. About half way up the gulley, we encountered a hidden Yellow Jacket's nest. The others had managed to make just enough noise and commotion to sufficiently piss off the Yellow Jackets in time for me to pass over the nest. What followed looked like a scene from "Black Sheep" as I flailed my arms and sprinted towards them yelling, "Bees!!!!" It is incredibly ironic that on Monday I picked up a couple of Epi-Pens for an upcoming trip to Nepal. (A few years ago, while riding my bike on the Burke-Gilman Trail, I was stung by a Yellow Jacket in the temple and had a mild itchy reaction throughout my entire body). In any case, this was the first trip that I had ever carried the pen. Greg, who is an ER Doc, was carrying some Zyrtec, which is an antihystamine stronger than Claratin, but not as strong as Benedryl so it won't give you the sleepies. I took some of the Zyrtec preemptively and we waited for about 30 minutes to see if I'd have a reaction requiring the use of the Epi-Pen (necessitating us to head back down). 30 minutes came and went and no reaction so we carried on. To get to the SW Face, you ascend through Pineapple Pass just as you would for the incredibly popular S Face Route. After reaching the top of Pineapple Pass, you head down and right, passing the S Face route as you go. Beckey describes the start to the SW Face as a series of three open books. Beware, there is a sucker quasi-open book. DO NOT count this as one of the three. We chose the northern-most open book, the base of which is pictured below (P1 Photos). P1: Climb up the ramp working right into a chimney (not visible from below) or onto the face continuing up towards the tree with rap slings. (5.5 PG) P2: Start up (staying left at first )and then traverse across the face towards a vertical crack in the face (good pro in the crack) and then continue traversing right towards the large crack along the right side of the face. Continue up the crack and build a hanging belay after it ends where ever you can find a good series of cracks worthy of a belay station. (5.6 PG) P3: From the hanging belay move up staying right. Your target is a small evergreen on a ;edge to the right, where you will meet the standard S Face Route and continue up from there. (5.4 G). At the top, we soaked in the views and took some pics before rappelling and retreating all the way to the cars. Gear Notes: Moderate-sized rack of cams, nuts and tri-cams. Small to mid sized Aliens and a a #3 or a #3.5 Camalot particularly helpful. Approach Notes: Beckey calls it a 5.5. The Mountaineers call it a 5.7. I think it's more like a hard-to-protect and exposed (at times) 5.6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 It looks s.... fun. Good post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddpeterson Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Hey, lookin' good Joe. Nice going! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Layback Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 Fancy seeing you here Drew! Thanks for the kind words. I sent you a long overdue email... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macson Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Joe, are you wearing shorts over polypro? I thought we talked about that!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
octopuswithafez Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Das Toof w/ the insect hazard. Nice work guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Layback Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 Joe, are you wearing shorts over polypro? I thought we talked about that!!! John - It's okay b/c I didn't wear gators too (or shoes for that matter). That makes all right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlag Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 That's funny, we went through the same yellowjacket nest 2 weekends ago. Letsroll got stung 3 times. good TR JL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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