[TR] Shuksan-NW Arayete - 8/5/2009

[wayne]

Trip: Shuksan-NW Arayete -

 

Date: 8/5/2009

 

Trip Report:

Last weekend Lane and I were both in a state of exasperation with our respective personal lives. We needed a climb that was interesting yet not too killer of approach or commitment. We found such a route done a couple of years ago by our own Dberdinka and Matt,

"The Arayete" was immediatly placed on my hot list as soon as I saw it. It appeared to offer steep, quality climbing, and positioned nicely on one of the great mountains in our country.

We took our time getting up to Winnies slide via Fisher Chimneys. We missed the upper trail in the talus part of the trail. Note: Look for large cairn.

 

Glacier view on approach.

We were glad we were up there early. We got needed rest and watched the good sites fill up fast. We ended up in good company to camp with. We all laughed and enjoyed an amazing sunset.

 

 

 

 

It was great to see across the glacier right over to the route. It is quite a ridge! about a thousand feet tall, and generally steep for a climbable mountain ridge.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

h's were used to space the photos. No consonants were harmed during this report.

 

Letting the Hells Hwy folk get up early was a luxury , we set off at the late hour of 7:30 and crossed the glacier to the right hand start of the route. It was very simple to for the non-moat. we belayed at the first good ledge 20' past the moat and kicked into the strainer pitch. I call it that because it will allow only people who can deal with significant run-out. Things would tame out a bunch with a couple of bolts, but the route has sustained a half dozen ascents without any complaints. It is very sweet to work up the rippled and small friction holds. In general it was a little difficult with the chaos of some sections. I am a rhythm climber. This type of route throws me off a bit with the randomness of the some of the moves.

Each pitch was earned and offered its own personality. I found the 5.8s to be the mental cruxes.

Anchors are earned as well . Be careful not to pass a place to sink a few goodies for them. The topo was dead on , maybe a little unclear in the end though. We did a spicy dihedral finish on the left side of the crest .

 

 

Again-no complaints, just 9 pitches of Alpine Stoke! Thanks Darin for the great beta and congratulations on a great pioneering effort.

 

And in case you missed the video Trip Report...

[video:youtube]

 

Gear Notes:

See topo at end of Dberdinks thread

[Matt_Alford]

Sweet Wayne! Good to see our route get a little traffic and that you found it enjoyable!

[dberdinka]

Nice work Wayne. Glad you liked it. Another twenty ascents or so and it might actually start getting cleaned up. Still no linkup to the summit of Shuksan....

[t_rutl]

solid work!

 

looks like a helluva an outing

[Off_White]

Wayne, did you guys bring the pins mentioned in prior ascents?

[wayne]

No, we didnt take pins, but a few more fixies and a couple belay fixies might be good?I wanted to start that discussion possibly:

 

Taking the idea a step further..I propose 2-3 bolts be added on 2 pitches?

1-2 on the first pitch. It would take very little to make it an "Outer Space, if thats what is decided. I wanted to start that discussion, possibly.

It is such a good line, that it deserves either consideration. When Rain and Poop do solo laps they will say any bolts would be too many. Then there are the 13,000 people who would make it their annual pilgrimage if it were a via-ferrata.It will naturally get more fixies as it get rallied. I can go either way. It is great to have routes with some jitters a-going.

 

I stuck with a small rack half set stopper 1 set cams. Would have taken a few more for the selective belay anchors. I got nervous when I found I had used the perfect size when trying to build belays. One belay took me a while as my partner told me.

[Sol]

I disagree with adding bolts to this one, it's an alpine classic as is, that is seeing considerable traffic for such a new climb.

[dberdinka]

Hey Wayne I'm glad you thought the route was good and I wasn't just high (though I am a little now so excuse me if I ramble...)

 

When Matt and I climbed the route I had actually snuck a bolt kit into the bag as my recollection was of a clean, featureless arete (which it is). Since we started low down on the left side, I carefully metted out the first pitch to Matt knowing he would have to stop at the base of the killer arete therefore allowing me to have all the glory of the lead, bolt kit in hand.

 

Of course Matt nearly drug me off the belay with a 59+ meter pitch that got him to the top of the difficulties. Had I led that pitch there's a good chance I would have stopped and sunk a nice 1/4" buttonhead somewhere on that arete and now everyone would say "great adventurous climb..... and what a great place for a bolt". But Matt had to screw it all up!

 

I definitely plan on going back with some more pins to fix the belays and maybe some wire brushes but you know how it is...maybe next year I'll get around to it.

 

I've considered going back with a bolt kit as well but I'm real hesitant on that one. Cleaned up and with some of the larger runouts tamed the route would definitely open up for a lot more climbers which I think is a good thing (Note that pretty much everyone who's climbed it so far had at least one solid 5.10 or 5.11 rock climber in the party.)

 

Personally I find bolts to be a useful tool for climbing, they definitely have their place in helping to craft the user-experience on a given climb. Unfortunately adding the first bolt to Mount Shuksan sounds like a dubious distinction to have. Also the jitters you mentioned are a very valuable part of the experience, its what gave the route it's character.

 

On the other hand the route name (named after my first daughter Araya) was inspired by the idea that maybe someday in her twenties she would climb the line and have some understanding or feel some connection to who her dad was when he was young (ok cheesy but whatever...). If thats the case I sure would like to think of her clipping a fat bolt rather than running it out way up in the mountains...

 

Anyway I was trying to get to some point I swear..

 

oh yah...for the meantime I definitely think it should be left in it's current state. I still think that arete might be tamed by a craftily fixed angle in a horizontal and the rest of the route will continue to improve as the minor looseness and occasional dirt gets clean up.

 

Basically there's no real hurry. The route will evolve. At somepoint the concensus might change. Because honestly as Wayne pointed out this route is sort of unique in that 1 or 2 bolts might open the route up to significantly more climbers without really changing the adventurous nature of the entire route. And then that many more people go climb it and have a good time and then there are that many more happy people which is really what the world needs IMHO. More happy people. MHP with CHPPD

 

So there's a bowl of ice cream calling my name right now but those are my deep thoughts tonight.

Edited August 7, 2009 by dberdinka

[Matt_Alford]

Ok fellows, I feel the need to chime in.

 

This was fully Darin's project that I was fortunate enough to sign up for. When Darin and climbed the route, I led pitch 2 on sight without a bolt kit by my side and digging out pockets for TCU's. As anyone who has climbed the route knows, hanging just isn't an option.

 

I am not a hardman by any stretch of the imagination, and I am not beating my chest here, but the experience that I had on that climb with Darin would be devalued to me by bolts on the route. I don't really care if the route ever attains a "Classic" status or not, my friend Darin and I had a rad experience climbing an untouched piece of rock on one of the most beautiful mountains in the Cascades.

 

That said, I would hate to hear about someone getting hurt on the route because they take their 5.9 climbing at Vantage and try to apply it to the NW Arayete. Hopefully folks will do their homework before hoping on a route!

 

Wayne, thanks for bringing up the discussion, It seems with the traffic on the route the discussion is warranted.

 

For the record though, I say no bolts.

 

Matt

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2009 by Matt_Alford

[Blake]

Darin,

 

I've run into several other folks (non CC.COMERS) who have done it as well. I think people like the idea of an alpine rock climb on shuksan, because it's a big beautiful peak, but lacked an appealing rock climb. (Much like Jack mtn, or Mt. Buckner)

 

I've posted it before, but I think this is a 5.8 climb for a 5.10 climber. We didn't find the long arete at the base to be the mental crux, knowing that it wouldn't ever get harder than 5.8. Nice lead by Matt to onsight it though. (without that knowledge)

 

No other pins needed, and not a lot of spots to put them either.

 

This route seems to fit in nicely with Nooksack Tower in that it should remain boltless, and that it has an 'on-paper' difficulty which does not represent the true challenges of the climb.

 

Grade III 5.8 or 5.9, so it's like climbing Orbit or Outer Space right?

 

Just keep doing pullups in your back yard, and you can ropegun Araya up this thing in 15 or 16 years. But wont Ella develop an inferiority complex without a route to her name?

[Matt_Alford]

Oh, no inferiority complex. Plenty of lines out there Blake ;-) I have a nice arete scoped out to name after Ella. Another Classic Cascade Mountain with an overlooked line.