[TR] Whine Spire - El Gato Sucio 7/19/2009

[telemarker]

Trip: Whine Spire - El Gato Sucio

 

Date: 7/19/2009

 

Trip Report:

Pat Sullivan (spiderman) and Kyle Flick (Kyle Flick) and I climbed this bad boy. We surmised the route name Gato Negro came from the abundant lichen on the route, especially the thick shag carpet on the false summit. I don't have much to add as there was a recent report from Alford. I do have to say that it would take a lot more ascents to get this route clean. There are many sections of good climbing, with equal parts kitty litter. If you've climbed the "rotten block" pitch of Liberty Crack, then you know what kitty litter is.

 

Also, it should be stated that the descent is just as serious as the climbing, perhaps even more so. There is a lot of committing downclimbing involved, on time-bomb rock, impossible to do in the dark if you were unlucky enough to top out in fading light. This took us 16 hours car-to-car in a team of three, climbing efficiently.

 

Descent Beta: Downclimb 20 feet from the summit/false summit notch, and turn skier's left to locate slingage. One double rope rap got us to the downclimbing. No falling allowed. About 300 feet lower, amongst the choss and hanging boulders, locate slingage skier's left. We beefed it up a bit, so it should be easier to locate. Another double-rope rap and we were able to sketch to the bottom of the gully from there.

 

Overall, decent climb. Horrendous descent, which may be out of proportion to the climbing.

 

First Pitch Mantel:

 

3rd Pitch Money Pitch:

 

Kitty Litter Stoke:

 

Sharing the Descent Stoke:

 

U Could Be Here:

 

Last But Not Least, Colchuck Lake:

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Doubles up to #2 Camalot. Single #3, #4 Camalot

 

Approach Notes:

Nice Approach!

Edited July 21, 2009 by telemarker

[AlpineMonkey]

Does continental drift explain the Wine Spires, Colchuck Lake, and this thread in the Alpine Lakes section. I'm confused. But if you were up in the Wine Spires it sounds like we just missed you guys.

[telemarker]

Oops! Thanks Craig. Where were you? Can the moderator fix this??

[cbcbd]

Love the view of Colchuck lake from Burgundy col

 

You guys are rippin' it, eh? Nice going

[telemarker]

Love the view of Colchuck lake from Burgundy col

 

You guys are rippin' it, eh? Nice going

 

Thanks! What good is a TR if it doesn't have a pic of Colchuck Lake?? At least I got the region correct...

[olyclimber]

Thanks for the shot of Colchuck lake. I prefer it when you can see a little of that lovely pass they have up there though.

[Dirtyleaf]

I'm gonna have to agree with Mr. Porter on this one. At least 2/3 of the pass should be in the photograph with some blood and F'ed up knees from multiple parties. I'm glad you survived the descent. It sounds bitchin.

[Off_White]

I've posted alternate descent beta from the Whine Spire before, but here it is:

 

From the top of the spire, a short bit of downclimbing on black cornflakes leads to the notch with the main wall. A simul block on solid rock leads to the summit ridge, traverse over to the West Summit of Silver Star (some low angle snow schooching, a little grotty 3rd class), and pick up the descent gully on the far side of the summit. Head down the (obvious) gully, watching for a giant cairn on the right hand bounding ridge. Pass that cairn and hike down the shoulder until you can peer over into the basin you started from, and head down the casual talus. 1-1/2 safe and casual hours tops, probably less for all ya'll fast and hard peeps.

[lunger]

nice tr, complete w/ non-sequitur pics. That 3rd pitch does look cool.

 

love the kitty litter 'round there, odious & odiferous. Ross and I climbed a route between El Gato and Stellar Eclipse that was so good, we gave it 2 names: Sphincter-the-Shits (sounds like the latter route we sought and missed) and Menage a Choss--the latter more acceptable for public consumption.

 

thanks for the alt descent info., Off, sounds nicer than that gully.

[Kyle_Flick]

I'll second the vote on Off White's descent over the frightening one we did. Also for gear notes bring larger gear--4"-5" (the new #4 BD Cam is too small, the newer #5 would work better). On the third pitch (chimney to double corner), poor Pat had to finagle smaller pro low on the face, tension back into the chimney and work a tipped out #4 up the wide crack section to avoid bad runout. Following the pitch sent shivers down my spine, especially considering that we left bigger pro down at the car.

Edited July 21, 2009 by Kyle_Flick

[Tokogirl]

Wow, was wondering what could be kicking up the clouds of dust over by Silver Star as we were enjoying lunch on top of Lexington. Must of been you guys skree surfing the downclimb. In pics, you and Pat sure looked excited.....

 

Way to get after it!

[Sol]

that descent does blow.

[spiderman]

Definetly bring gear to 5 inches to avoid really big runouts and serious fall potential on the money pitch. I love the photo's of John and I clowning around in the bowling alley after down climbing a little bit of 5th class choss....classic.

[scott_johnston]

Great trip report. It looks like you had fun.

 

I thought folks had forgotten about this route. Larry and I climbed the first ascent in June 2001 and the descent gully had snow in it. I don't recall anything scary or dangerous at all about the descent so maybe it would be nicer to climb it earlier in the summer.

 

We called it the Whine Spire because we were whining so badly in our rock shoes by the time we go to the base again.

 

As Spiderman above notes: Bring a #5 for the crux pitch. we didn't have anything more than a #4 and wished we did.

 

The first photo in this post is actually on the second pitch. This is the 10a pitch that I went back and bolted a couple of years later to avoid the nasty 5.8 original 2nd pitch. When Larry and I scoped the route from the ground we saw the clean arching left facing corner to the right of the now bolted line. We had visions of us heroically stemming and liebacking up that cool feature. We were more than a bit dismayed when we go there and found that is a mere seam and beyond our abilities to either protect or climb. The face to the left looked great but would not take pro (till I later drilled holes in it) so we took the first ascenscionist way out and opted for a the mungy 5.8 grovel to the left.

 

Later we recognized the over all quality and uniqueness of the route and that this was spoiled but the second pitch.

 

 

[Kyle_Flick]

Thanks for the hard work putting up the route and note about considering climbing it earlier.