best of cc.com [TR] Prusik Pk. - Solid Gold III 5.11a 6/14/2008

[Sol]

Trip: Prusik Pk. - Solid Gold III 5.11a

 

Date: 6/14/2008

 

Trip Report:

Wanting to get as far away from the sherpa glacier as possible and equally motivated by this, and this, this past saturday, Dave Elder and I climbed Solid Gold on the south face of Prusik Pk. We'd have to agree with first ascencionest Wayne Wallace when he describes the route as a "masterpeice" as we were truly amazed by the flawless rock and splitter climbing. The topo was great and so was the rack. We didn't use the 1/4 incher at the first belay, and we didn't nail because we missed the last pitch entirely. I started up what I thought was 5.8 cracks that led to the perfect 5.11a corner, and, before I had a chance to second geuss myself, was soon cranking out a 10c "changing corners" style variation that topped out on the ridge. Though the new variation is rad (right of the 5.11 corner), anything described as perfect on this route is worth another go, and i'm sure it won't be long until i'm slogging out there again...

 

Dave starting to feel the stoke:

 

 

 

One hell of a crag, the impeccable south face:

 

 

 

Holy crap, P1, the solid gold pitch:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's looking back down at P1, fingers in a corner, bad ass:

 

 

 

Myself seconding P2:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning P3, we easily linked P3 & 4:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The P4 "changing corners" variation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topped out on the west ridge:

 

 

 

The really cool thing about this climb, is that its actually just the hardman sit-start for the classic west ridge:

 

 

 

Insert monkey call here:

 

 

 

BOOM!

 

Gear Notes:

Double set to #2, single #3. One rope.

 

Approach Notes:

Mostly snow free to upper snow lake

[JoshK]

NICE!!!

 

[wayne]

Wow, Great job, That brings back some great memories. We slogged tons of gear in there to do a wall-type route , but the weather sucked so we did a free route instead, and what a route, again, Congratulations guys

[waterboy]

Sol, Great Job. Good to see you guys up there. You guys rocked. We were the party that summitted the same day via the West Ridge (the non hardman sit-start). We had approached the day before via Aasgard - what a great day! Sorry about mucking up the rappel in front of you - one of our ropes got stuck!

 

Here are some more photos:

 

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=344151213572637561/l=394847538/g=7172166/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

 

Again, Great job.

[olyclimber]

Nice! It would be sweet to see the all the south face routes on a pic like this:

 

 

maybe that has already been done, could someone post??

[Bug]

May I suggest using smaller dots?

 

Man what a sweeet looking route!

Nice work guys!

Edited June 16, 2008 by Bug

[Jens]

Sweet.

 

Where can I find a topo?

[wayne]

click on the tr inspirations above

[wayne]

Here it is too, I just updated my Alpine Lakes Page .

Jens Holsten has been asking me about Dragons of Eden.

[ZimZam]

Freakin' smokin' man.

[olyclimber]

May I suggest using smaller dots?

 

 

those dots are actual sized. i think a view of the peak from a little further west with all the known routes on it would be more ideal.

[strumpett]

Nice trip report. Great job!

[sweatinoutliquor]

 

That's a great pic. Well done guys!

[NoahT]

Was this only the second ascent? Not sure how many people would know the answer here, but what degree of nailing are we talking. Could it be avoided with the freakishly small cams of today? I've never had to pound a pin while clinging to 5.11, so I'm curious what kind of crux I'd be in for.

 

Thanks,

 

N

 

 

[Sol]

giv'er

[clintcummins]

Very nice photos and report - thanks for sharing.

 

Your photos seem clear enough to locate the route on porter's overlay photo (not sure of line on final pitch):

 

 

This should confirm it:

 

 

 

and here is a link to a slightly cleaned up version of Wayne's topo:

 

[olyclimber]

Nice! Jeff Hansel and I did something like the green line a year or two ago. We were trying to follow some route in the Beckey guide, but got off route. That rock has been well traveled, we saw gear and slings all over the place.

 

[wayne]

It was the roof at the start that I put in the only piton. The perfect dihedral finish was done on all rps. so the route has been done clean overall.

Thanks for the great photos/topos guys,

[Sol]

It was the roof at the start that I put in the only piton.

 

 

was that on the start of P2? that would make sense, as it was our only true spice on the route.

 

thanks again for drawing the lines in clint, way more evolved than me.

[Sol]

That rock has been well traveled, we saw gear and slings all over the place.

 

we didn't see anything.

 

there is an obvious and harder line in the dihedral to the right of solid gold. inbetween it and the '77 route. somebody should go get it.

[dberdinka]

Climbed this route Sunday 7/19 and just wanted to give a non-Sol thumbs up.

 

If Sols photos don't make it obvious, this route is absolutely stellar. Definitely one of the best rockclimbs in the range.

 

The 5.11 cruxes are delicate affairs but they are surrounded by plenty of sustained meaty 5.10 crack climbing. Gear is excellent throughout. Lacking Aliens I still managed to sew the hell out of the last pitch with TCUs and BD Micronuts.

 

Sols rack recommendation worked fine for us. On the first pitch save some small cams (blue & yellow TCUs) for the belay. We quickly downclimbed the start of the west ridge (easy 4th class) rather than get tangled up with the three rope teams that were climbing it.

[Winter]

We climbed Solid Gold yesterday - 6/27/10.

 

Conditions were sloppy from Snow Lake on. The bivy sites at Lake Viv are snow free and dry. We had sunny weather, stellar conditions and a full moon - a long awaited weekend of alpine rock.

 

I thought the first pitch was pretty physical with some awkward moves transitioning from the chimney into the stellar R facing finger crack - a good morning wake up. If you're not in a hurry, wait till the sun hits the route. We were thinking of the long hike out and ride back to PDX and were up early. Brrr. On p2, I got stymied by the crux move on the .11- roof and ended up resting on what felt like a questionable TCU at the lip. The moves aren't that hard - a little awkward - but the pro seemed a little sketchier then it actually was.

 

The last corner pitch was stellar, clean and super fun. Good stances make for some pretty straightforward TCU plugging and chugging. .11- seems a bit generous, but I've got tiny fingers and there are some pretty thin sections.

 

Overall, the climbing is sustained on clean rock with good pro at the cruxes. My P was kind of unimpressed with the line - the sit start to the west ridge sounds about right - but I definitely enjoyed it. Makes for a long two-day weekend from P-Town, but its worth it for even one night in such a great setting.

 

Oh yeah, and I thought the goats were a little too friendly, but it turns out the snaffles are worse. I woke up in the middle of the night with one of the little buggers cuddled up next to me in my sleeping bag.

 

Wayne's topo and Sol's rack rec are dead on.

[dberdinka]

One would have to be pretty jaded not to enjoy that route or any route on Prusik for that matter. I think general agreement is that it's more of 10+ than 11-.

[Winter]

Yeah I had a blast fer sure. 10+ sounds right to me.

[DavidW]

Chris Greyell and I climbed the green line in 1978 or 1979... hexes and stoppers, 1-rope, didn't leave anything behind.... Greyell traversed directly across the slab left of the gold dihedral... i remember it as being way hard for us at the time. We were camped near Prusik Pass and climbed 5 or 6 new two-pitch lines on the crags west of the pass too. In the early 80's I climbed it again with Steve Scott. -Cheers