[TR] Monument - Abraxas 10/24/2009

[geoff]

Trip: Monument - Abraxas

 

Date: 10/24/2009

 

Trip Report:

Abraxas on the Monument, seen below, kicked my ass.

 

 

More photos to come.

 

Gear Notes:

Wing, a prayer and a few more days might help.

 

Approach Notes:

Sweet.

Edited October 26, 2009 by geoff

[ivan]

nice geoff - guess you musta been able to get ole'ben to pack'up his shit the night before?

[geoff]

Sweet route.

 

Here's all the folks on Moscow.

 

 

Ben charging up P2.

 

 

Looking down P2.

 

 

The hand traverse.

 

 

Fixed nut on P4.

 

 

Looking down P3-old belay ledge 20 feet below.

 

 

The rest of the route from top of P3.

 

 

 

Ben during happy times. We're going down for beers.

 

 

The route from ground. Ropes fixed to top of P3.

 

 

Ben preparing to rap.

 

 

 

 

Day 2. Didn't make it very far on P4 til I opted to be lowered back down to some decent gear.

 

 

Ben taking care of business on P4.

 

 

 

Money pitch. P5.

 

 

Nice belay perch. Complete with Ivan style tunes.

 

 

Um, we better get moving.

 

 

Nice work on bolt replacement. All anchors were bomber. P3 and P4 were scary.

[ivan]

wish i coulda been there...

 

you went w/ blue, huh? da'lright!

[alexbaker]

Nice. I almost went with but the 'deplorable rock' guidebook description scared me off. So I have 2 questions:

 

1. How shitty is the rock

2. Does it/did it go free?

 

Alex

[billcoe]

AWESOME! Did you guys free the 10d crack pitch on top?

 

Steve Strauch has a great story of putting in the belay bolts on one of those pitches on the FA. I think it may be the one with the good ledge. He was clipped in and was clipped in a tad short when he stood up, pulling both bolts straight out of the rock. (2ea 1-1/4" compression bolts, we use to call them "Rawl Bolts".

 

I asked him "OMG!, What did you do?"

 

"Put them right back in and used them", he replied. LOL!

[ivan]

AWESOME! Did you guys free the 10d crack pitch on top?

 

[backclipped]

F-yeah. I'm wicked jealous. I've looked that route up and down more times than a man has the right to, and I've never had the balls to take her on......nice work.

[geoff]

That's right. We aided it.

 

I climbed P1 and Ben frenched P2. Everything else was full on aid climbing.

 

Ben wasn't sure about a free ascent. I figure someone could probably do it. At this point you should plan to mostly free solo P3 and P4 cause them bolts ain't holding a fall.

 

The Tombstone Wall pitch was awesome with awesome rock. It could use 10 or more gold camelots. Was raining and almost dark so neither of us even tried, 10d is a few grades out of my reach anyhow. The ledges at the top were cool.

 

There was good rock but it seemed to be on either side of the climbing line. The new bolts were solid. The old bolts were old. Lots of SMC hangers with rust bubbling through the shiney metal. A few new bolts to replace some old ones would make this route more reasonable.

 

Bill, those old timers are hard core. I wonder if that happened at that ledge or at another old belay. If so, those bolts looked like they had been replaced and not that bad. One anchor, probably the one mentioned in the book as top of P3 in an alcove, had like 6 of the crappiest bolts ever.

[geoff]

Thanks dude. Go get it. Stickclip was useful.

 

Ben tells me about Snibble T everytime we go climbing. I'm assuming you been on top and not just in its shadow. That traverse start option seems sweet on its own.

[skyclimb]

Nice work. I used to work with a guy at Entreprise who got the FFA of this route. He said the first few pitches were scary as all hell, but the upper pitches were all worth it. Most people rap into the hand crack and send from there... good on ya for the adventure, smith is full of them.

Edited October 27, 2009 by skyclimb

[wayne]

Yeah! Good work. The route is one of the choss elite for sure, but people can still manage, The start of the crack is difficult for sure but eases off to 5.9 after the first 30'. You guys are having a great run, whats next Picnic?

[ivan]

Yeah! Good work. The route is one of the choss elite for sure, but people can still manage, The start of the crack is difficult for sure but eases off to 5.9 after the first 30'. You guys are having a great run, whats next Picnic?

post-halloween - ben's all hawt to swap out some crap bolts for some purty ones - hopefully geoff or miker will come along so ben can just jug behind and indulge himself while we do some actual work

[justinp]

 

Looks like Ivan has started a trend with the mini bomb box!

[Pilchuck71]

 

Looks like Ivan has started a trend with the mini bomb box!

Been using one of those for about 2 years now, they are sweet. Nice hard case to protect your shiznit and room for goodies too! Oh yeah and they crank some decent volume as well.

[ivan]

 

Looks like Ivan has started a trend with the mini bomb box!

ah, but geoff does not, at least based on this pic, appear to have yet bought into my fondness for tying into the muzak as well

[denalidave]

 

Looks like Ivan has started a trend with the mini bomb box!

I got mine... I use it to drowned out Ivan's singing!

[corvallisclimb]

 

Looks like Ivan has started a trend with the mini bomb box!

ah, but geoff does not, at least based on this pic, appear to have yet bought into my fondness for tying into the muzak as well

 

your guys' suck cuz they aint water proof at least i can kayak with my shit. nice work geoff and ben you guys climbed the meat and core of the route cept the 5.5 pitch. its like people bailing from tapir terrace w/out topping out, but that happens more often. well done! thomas emde and mabey mike stoger did the ffa at like 12a or some shit i think otherwise the routes a "chill" 11a A0 what ever that means.

[LostCamKenny]

 

Looks like Ivan has started a trend with the mini bomb box!

ah, but geoff does not, at least based on this pic, appear to have yet bought into my fondness for tying into the muzak as well

:lmao:

[beaconben]

Yo Alex. The rock is really not that bad, in fact there is a good bit of nice solid rock.

 

I am kind of obsessed with the idea of making a free variation on P3. It looks to me like you could free the continuation of the P2 crack system with better rock, steep, and bigger holds. I will post more in a bit

[corvallisclimb]

I am kind of obsessed with the idea of making a free variation on P3. It looks to me like you could free the continuation of the P2 crack system with better rock, steep, and bigger holds.

 

I agree, so much more potential up there. The arete up high is insane!

[beaconben]

shit, I guess I need to read the whole thread before posting.

 

so it has been freed, that is sweet. the crux might include a fist jam on the P4 overhang, put a #4 camalot there.

 

those guys had some balls freeing with those rusty old "bolts", bolts probably are not even what they technically are. like geoff said it would amount to pretty close to a free solo, and on questinable rock.

 

The Tombstone Crack is one of the best pitches around, and probably the best location at smith. The exposure here seemed to dwarf monkey face or picnic lunch wall. Like Wayne said it turns to a hand crack after about 30 ft. in fact there is not much protection opportunity besides hand size cams. Next time I will try to free it, and be armed with about 8 BD #2's, maybe more.

 

so who is gong to help me work on the P3 variation

[backclipped]

Thanks dude. Go get it. Stickclip was useful.

 

Ben tells me about Snibble T everytime we go climbing. I'm assuming you been on top and not just in its shadow. That traverse start option seems sweet on its own.

 

Yeah, I'm still in Snibble's shadow. My buddy and I have been up to half mast on the route, but we were driven off our sole attempt by cold (me being a pussy). We didn't mess with the aid line. There is a direct line that entails one pitch of 10+ bolts, an another pitch of steep 11- bolts on suspect rock. From there it's a 5.7 ramp of choss to that stellar looking 5.9 dihedral....I have no excuse for not having done the whole route yet. Perhaps your Abraxis adventure will prove inspirational.

 

Again, good on you guys for getting on that thing. Sick and impressive.

[corvallisclimb]

Thanks dude. Go get it. Stickclip was useful.

 

Ben tells me about Snibble T everytime we go climbing. I'm assuming you been on top and not just in its shadow. That traverse start option seems sweet on its own.

 

Yeah, I'm still in Snibble's shadow. My buddy and I have been up to half mast on the route, but we were driven off our sole attempt by cold (me being a pussy). We didn't mess with the aid line. There is a direct line that entails one pitch of 10+ bolts, an another pitch of steep 11- bolts on suspect rock. From there it's a 5.7 ramp of choss to that stellar looking 5.9 dihedral....I have no excuse for not having done the whole route yet. Perhaps your Abraxis adventure will prove inspirational.

 

Again, good on you guys for getting on that thing. Sick and impressive.

 

The true Snibble line is way easier than SHWL wich I know you sent. Go get some more classic 60's funk!

[fgw]

great job on tombstone! saw you guys starting up on saturday. was hoping to get some shots of you later/higher but you must've been done for the day by the time we were hiking back.

 

PS that is a beautiful photo in the topmost post if I may say so myself, Geoff

 

snibble tower is nbd - esp. if you use the sport line on left for 1st 1.5 pitches (like we did). rest is cake. here's some shots:

aid pitch

 

.7 choss ramp - looks worse than it is:

 

choss of the direct chimney finish that would avoid the short ladder (apparently first freed by A. Kearney & co).

 

superfun .9 pitch

Edited October 28, 2009 by fgw