[TR] Darrington - Pabst Smear - FA 12/12/2009

[Argus]

Trip: Darrington - Pabst Smear - FA

 

Date: 12/12/2009

 

Trip Report:

David Whitelaw and I went out looking for some ice in the Darrington area on Saturday. We drove up the Clear Creek road and found a flow coming down the Asbestos Creek drainage. The 50 yard approach ensured that this would be the route we would be climbing.

 

The lower part of the route from the road. The climb continues up and left out of view in the picture.

 

 

When Dave pulled out his puffy jacket that was older than me, the route name was born.

 

The route has some lower angle ice to begin with that we solo'd, then steeper steps in the WI2+ range. We roped up at one of the steeper bits and climbed 5 roped pitchs. We decided to descend after that due to the fact that the next curtain we would have to climb had a significant amount of water running behind it. We hadn't exactly gotten an alpine start and didn't expect to find that much ice up there. The water flow was definitely increasing as the day went on. Most likely there would be quite a bit more ice above where we turned around. We made 4 full length double rope rappels and walked the brutal 50 yards back to the car.

 

This was definitely a fun mellow day out. The ice was nice and it actually took good screws. It's probably very rare for this to even form and even rarer to be able to drive to the base of it in December. We definitely felt like we scored.

 

Gear - 6 screws, double ropes.

 

 

 

 

 

Some lower angle ice on the bottom of the route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool Grotto.

 

 

 

[cbcbd]

Whoa, are those them newfangled Footfangs?

 

Good work guys!

[genepires]

we saw those lines from our attempt on a peak far away. It seemed like there were 4 ice lines coming down that hillside to the road. Good that you got on it before the rain will wash it all away.

[dberdinka]

Awesome. Having splashed around in those falls on a hot summer days I always dreamed about about climbing it in winter. With it's southern exposure I never would have thought that it would actually form up. Nice work. Wish I could have been there!

[hanman]

Jeezus- what a fine cold spell. Ice climbing in DTown- I wonder if that thing has ever frozen completely; it's one of the largest multi teired waterfalls in WA.

 

Great find Argus and David!

 

MH

[mountainsloth]

What an amazing cold snap! So much has been climbed so easily! Good work team Darrington!

[The Cascade Kid]

whew that ice be lookin wet

[John Frieh]

Best route name I've heard in a long time

 

Well done

[Argus]

whew that ice be lookin wet

 

It looks wet in the pics, but it was actually dry the whole way.

 

Gene- you have any pics from your vantage point?

 

[DRep]

Until I saw the picture of Dave's jacket, I thought you might have named the route in memory of your Monthly pap smear Matt.

 

Argus - IMHO you should have named it JFCFF

Edited December 15, 2009 by DRep

[mattp]

Nice one!!!!!

[crazedmaniac]

i really dont like it when you put a tool in and water comes pouring out. Or when you can see the water flowing just under the ice. thought it was way to cold for any of that this past week! There are plenty of big multi 'tired' ice climbs in d area. this one forms up all the time when its really cold out. first time doing this was in mid. 70,s for the old man. Dont think ive seen it so 'clear' looking tho. and, usually there is a very big slide/avalaunch danger here. Have seen some big ones come thru here before.