why are the pinnacles deserted?

[ZONK]

At Peshastin One does Have to Climb. I have climbed more there then most anyone else is willing to admit and have done most all the routes more then once. With Many slides and a few down right scary down climbs I have more respect for the place then most. I have had days there I will never forget and stories that would take a half rack to tell. I still enjoy My two or three visits a year there. For a time Vantage was good, until it became nothing more then a outdoor gym, And yes I have many climbs there and several I like to do often. Having grown up near by it use to be a play ground, and I can remember being a young lad with a .22 hunting rabbits with Dad and watching climbers pounding in pins and asking what they where doing. I wounder if that is when I wanted te become a CLIMBER ?

[telemarker]

Vertigo is about the coolest damn climb out there. I followed Butter Brickle and found the huge flake to be quite hollow sounding, and the hueco climbing up higher quite fun. There is an initial step-out to the off-width that makes that clmib fun...

 

Kyle Flick on an after-work lead of BB.

[lancegranite]

I believe that both Beckey and Tabor have reported that Mt. Higgins near Darrington is made of the same stone as Peshastin. I've never been up there, but from the road it looks like there are lots of vertical corners in addition to a massive tilt-up slab.

I am planning a fossil hunting trip up on the back side of Higgens this spring, will look for other rocks as well.

[monkeyboy]

If you wish to seriously maim or kill yourself or your belayer climb Skyline on Dinasaur Tower. I will stick to routes with a star if I ever go climb there again.

[G-spotter]

I have the impression that Nirvana Ridge was pretty badass back in the day as one of the hardest free routes in WA when it was freed?

[mvs]

Markwebster, you might like Offline at Static Point. I remember some decent runouts there, it's granite slab climbing.

[Raindawg]

I have the impression that Nirvana Ridge was pretty badass back in the day as one of the hardest free routes in WA when it was freed?

 

You're probably thinking of "Bomb Shelter" which was first climbed free by "Hot" Henry Barber in the mid-1970's. At 11.a, I think at one time it was the hardest free rock climb in Washington...for awhile. It's quite a wild thang and overhangs sufficiently so that it can climbed in the rain. It follows a crack of varying size and the crux is near the bottom. If you fall while cleaning it, or on top-rope, you'll go for a wild free-hanging swing. Beware of the bird-droppings on the sloping ledges and the spooky looking rap-anchors in the little cave near the top. Most people don't seem to climb the extra ten or 15 vertical feet to the summit ridge...it's not hard but it's loose and if I recall, you have to do some goofy straddling or such to reach the good rappel anchors on top of Vertigo.

 

Nirvana Ridge? That's a route on the skyline of Grand Central Tower to the left of Bomb Shelter....5.9 face and friction although you might find the climb easier or harder depending on which holds have sluffed off or appeared. It's an adventure!

[G-spotter]

Hey Don, I'm not talking about the 70s, Nirvana Ridge was one of the first 5.9's in Washington in the early 60's

 

I have an account in a VOC Journal of the 2nd or 3rd free ascent. Of note, the climber was a European student at UBC who had originally learned to climb in the Elbesandstein and Czech sandstone areas.

[markwebster]

Nirvana ridge is one of those climbs you only do once. I have vague memories of some sketchy climbing on crumbling flakes past rusty one quarter inch bolts. It was fun, but not one to repeat.

 

Once climb that hasn't been talked about here is 'Cajin Queen'. I remember looking up at it and thinking that a lot of people were falling off it for only being 5.8.

 

Rain Dawg was there a lot back then and told me that once I led Cajin, I'd be a true 5.8 leader. I think Victors new book calls it a 10b?

Looking forward to getting back on that. There used be a one quarter inch bolt for that move. Half of it was sticking out of the sandstone, but people took whippers on that all day. It's been replaced. I think you can place a bunch of cams on Cajin to supplement the bolts. Especially up top. I think up to 2 inches.

[Peter_Puget]

You're probably thinking of "Bomb Shelter" which was first climbed free by "Hot" Henry Barber in the mid-1970's. At 11.a, I think at one time it was the hardest free rock climb in Washington...for awhile. It's quite a wild thang and overhangs sufficiently so that it can climbed in the rain. It follows a crack of varying size and the crux is near the bottom.

 

The crux is a face climbing move on jugs past two (?)aid bolts. After that a couple of pins protected a lieback section. Place a nut or two and then easy ground led a few feet to the place where most people belayed. I think it was freed by Don Harder a year or two before Henry Barber climbed it.

 

The Cajun Queen rating changed so much because the rock kept breaking.

[Skeezix]

If you started climbing at PP in '77, you beat me there by two years. I grew up climbing there and in the Icicle. Cro-Magnon requires you to tuck your knees up by your ears as you scrunch across a friction slab with a roof constricting over your head. I remember wishing I was a smaller person. And of course ...there's rattlesnakes there.

 

I'll see if I can locate my trigger finger picture and upload it.

 

[counterfeitfake]

The Cajun Queen rating changed so much because the rock kept breaking.

 

Why are the pinnacles deserted??

[rat]

because most climbers are motherfucking dilettantes?

[bwrts]

I believe that both Beckey and Tabor have reported that Mt. Higgins near Darrington is made of the same stone as Peshastin. I've never been up there, but from the road it looks like there are lots of vertical corners in addition to a massive tilt-up slab.

I am planning a fossil hunting trip up on the back side of Higgens this spring, will look for other rocks as well.

a pebble count of the stone lithologies in each seperate area would be better evidence. Fossils will only point to them being of the same age.

[MarkMcJizzy]

I was on the first post-Kurt Cobain ascent of Nirvana Ridge

[MarkMcJizzy]

I believe that both Beckey and Tabor have reported that Mt. Higgins near Darrington is made of the same stone as Peshastin. I've never been up there, but from the road it looks like there are lots of vertical corners in addition to a massive tilt-up slab.

I don't think that this is correct. From my reading of their work (Tabor, Booth, Vance, and Ford, 2002) RW Tabor places Mt. Higgins in the Swauk. Work to the south of this (Heath, 1970) also recognizes the Swauk.

 

The Pinnacles are commonly recognized to be in the Chumstick (Tabor, Bentley, and others 1982; Tabor and others 1987), which is thought to overlie the Swauk (Bentley, Per comm.)

 

Since I'm old, Benny might have a better recollection of the Tertiary stratigraphy than I.

[markwebster]

this is triggerfinger in 1977. The photo has been hanging on my wall since then and is faded. The guy was free soloing. Was that you?

Regarding the comment about cagin queen flakes breaking off (for the rating change), I remember it being mostly friction with nothing to break but I could be wrong. I'll go up and check it out next time I'm over.

[Peter_Puget]

Regarding the comment about cagin queen flakes breaking off (for the rating change), I remember it being mostly friction with nothing to break but I could be wrong. I'll go up and check it out next time I'm over.

 

The entire slab is mostly friction. Don Brooks wrote in one of his guides:

Another difficulty is rating climbs when their features change. Cajun Queen on Austrian Slab is a prime example of this phenomenon. At various times in its climbing history, its ratings have fluctuated between 5.8 and 5.10.

 

I do wonder how given the nature of the rock, by examining the route today, you can come to the conclusion that critical holds (small flakes) now long gone did not exist in the past.

 

One comment about Bomb Shelter, Victor Kramar gives the route a skull. Since the route was pretty darn close to being a sport route (only a couple non fixed pieces after the crux) I am guessing that the skull is due to the poor quality of the fixed gear. I have been told that the fixed pins might be missing. Also, the anchor at the normal end of the route was full length slings threaded through the sandstone.