[TR] entiat valley and leavenworth - 01/02-03/2010 - 1/2/2010

[spionin]

Trip: entiat valley and leavenworth - 01/02-03/2010 -

 

Date: 1/2/2010

 

Trip Report:

doug hutchinson and i went on an ice scouting tour this weekend in his totally sweet eurovan camper.

so we left seattle early saturday morning and drove up to entiat. the ice guide talks about a number of routes along the entiat river road. we drove through a pretty decent fog back and forth, and only saw two routes: the mighty fang and something around mile marker 20, tyee falls?

so we parked and shwacked towards the prize. this involved crossing a frozen (??) river, where at each step we got serenaded by loud cracking.

we decided to try the right side of the falls, which provided a more continuous line. doug climbed a ways up into an unprotectable shower stall, looked for a decent way up, got bombed by snow pretty well, and finally retreated.

 

i think if the weather cools down the falls will fill in nicely and be ready for action soon.

 

we then drove to leavenworth and checked out icicle creek. both carenos look good. careno right acquired two more solid pillars since last saturday (and alpinedave and zach climbed it in good form)

we had a warm, relaxed evening in the camper, complete with with some gor-met dinner (not roughing it)

 

 

on sunday we decided to do pivotal point. the book says that there's a route right above air roof. this is it (from which side do you approach it?), and it doesn't quite look like wi4:

 

around the bend in the road, and up a canyon is this (more likely to be pivotal):

doug jumped straight-on to a central pillar

while i decided to lead a line to the right. it looked more "interesting", potentially offering a backstep/stem move, but instead forced me up a narrow chimney and the put me in an awkward position under some hangers (bad move on my part)

 

doug then lead up a narrow mixed gully on the left side of the falls, which looked almost mellow, but wasn't (surprise).

he placed 4 solid pins and 2 useless screws. and i'm very glad he talked me out of re-leading it.

note the delaminating ice on the right. this whole thing crashed on me. ice in the center of the gully also took off. drytooling and moss-sticking ensued.

we'd like to call this line "note to plumber, the sink is too low and water tastes like shit", inspired by an outhouse inscription in wenatchee, and by getting covered in crap while squeezing through the narrow, dirty gully.

Gear Notes:

pins, screws.

 

Approach Notes:

according to the book, with happy music. 2 hours into driving doug declared my musical selection (massive attack) too dark, refused to listen to tom waits, and for the rest of the trip i felt like we were in a vw/apple commercial.

Edited January 4, 2010 by spionin

[Dirtyleaf]

It looks like you went ice climbing. AND gourmet. The High Life.

[spionin]

...just in case, i intentionally spelled gourmet that way. just sayin'

[Dirtyleaf]

Not even close. I caught on. Went for a ride. Had a good time. Just sayin'...it looked like fun. The High Life.

[AlpineMonkey]

Is that first pic the Fang? That looks nothing like it to me. Did you park at then end of the road where you can no longer drive anymore? Every time I've seen "The Fang" it looked like a huge single pillar of ice. No crap on the sides. If that is it, how was the crossing? How long did the approach take? I've been wanting to take a wack at it for several years now.

 

Rat once told me about a bunch of lines up there around the corner where you were. I think he may have done them all in the past, maybe he'll comment?

 

Craig

[AlpineMonkey]

we then drove to leavenworth and checked out icicle creek. both carenos look good. careno right acquired two more solid pillars since last saturday (and alpinedave and zach climbed it in good form)

 

See that big hole on top of the right pillar on Careno Right. That was caused by me.

[Dirtyleaf]

Craig: You're such an ice-hole.

[spionin]

Is that first pic the Fang?

no, that's the photo of what we think is Tyee falls, the route we actually got on. the fang looked good, and doug actually thought we should do it. it looked solid (as solid as a described hollow-topped pillar will be, probably).

the approach to our climb took us about 45 min through trees and across the river. the trek to the fang would probably go faster. it's visible on the left around milepost 23-24.

[t_rutl]

atta girl V!!

[spionin]

thanks troy! we need to inaugurate the new year by getting on something scary.

[AlpineMonkey]

Your brave getting on Tyee. I would think the crux would be to not get shot at.

[spionin]

Your brave getting on Tyee. I would think the crux would be to not get shot at.

you know you totally wanted to be there - dodging bullets and icicles!

 

so... does anyone know anything about that climb on top of air roof? or the climb that we got on?

 

[rat]

i don't have a guidebook so am unsure of the names. however, the first set of photos (those you don't think are pivotal point), are of a 3 pitch 5.7/wi2-3 starting in the left-facing corner immediately left of the visor. the little area where you climbed above air roof has a number of short and, as far as i know, unnamed routes around wi3. pivotal point (named by mitch merriman?) may be the unformed pillar immediately left of the flow you climbed. last time i climbed it ('96 or '97 shortly after mm led and named it?), it was a short thick wi4 pillar to the tree ledge then a shorter hollow pillar to the top. hope that helps.

Edited January 5, 2010 by rat

[rocketparrotlet]

Nice TR! Sounds like a lot of fun. I'd like to get out to Leavenworth this weekend.

 

-Mark

[spionin]

i don't have a guidebook so am unsure of the names. however, the first set of photos (those you don't think are pivotal point), are of a 3 pitch 5.7/wi2-3 starting in the left-facing corner immediately left of the visor. the little area where you climbed above air roof has a number of short and, as far as i know, unnamed routes around wi3. pivotal point (named by mitch merriman?) may be the unformed pillar immediately left of the flow you climbed. last time i climbed it ('96 or '97 shortly after mm led and named it?), it was a short thick wi4 pillar to the tree ledge then a shorter hollow pillar to the top. hope that helps.

 

thanks a lot - that sounds about right. the ice book doesn't have info on these, and i don't have a leavenworth rock book to look up info on the air roof rock climb. i assume that the rambly flow could be accessed by walking off rainbow and possibly rapping down.

the structure of pivotal proper then makes sense too (1-2 pitches). again, thanks!

 

[wayne]

Awesome tr! Glad nobody got hit too hard.

[AlpineMonkey]

I got bitched out by a women up in Entiat. I was very nice and kept saying, "sorry, sorry, sorry, were leaving right now." She walks away and I think its all over with...2 min. later her husband shows up. You @#$#, #$#$@, #$#&^!!!, I called the police and they're on there way, you #$#@ #$#$@ #$@@#. Your lucky my dogs didn't get you, you #$#@, #$@#$, @#$@. By that time I stopped being so apologetic and just stuffed everything in my pack and started running in the opposite direction of him.

[Dirtyleaf]

Shit, I'm sorry. Gettin' tag teamed is the least desirable thing to happen to a man. I get bitched out by women all the time. And yes, running is best thing to do.

[spionin]

Awesome tr! Glad nobody got hit too hard.

thanks wayne!

 

I got bitched out by a women up in Entiat. I was very nice and kept saying, "sorry, sorry, sorry, were leaving right now." She walks away and I think its all over with...2 min. later her husband shows up. You @#$#, #$#$@, #$#&^!!!, I called the police and they're on there way, you #$#@ #$#$@ #$@@#. Your lucky my dogs didn't get you, you #$#@, #$@#$, @#$@. By that time I stopped being so apologetic and just stuffed everything in my pack and started running in the opposite direction of him.

that's pretty hilarious. i totally hear you though. we sort of just went for it. it didn't look like anyone was home on what we presumed to be tyee ranch. we also heard a really loud truck on the road as we approached the falls, and doug wondered if that was his van getting towed.

 

Shit, I'm sorry. Gettin' tag teamed is the least desirable thing to happen to a man. I get bitched out by women all the time. And yes, running is best thing to do.

[insert image of a climber running through thick brush he/she just shwacked, wearing crampons] "i swear sir, all this sharp metal i'm carrying means no harm!"

[AJScott]

"note to plumber, the sink is too low and water tastes like shit"

 

thats written in the portapotty at the big Y shell station too...sweet lookin ice! hope it gets cold again this week

[Doug_Hutchinson]

2 hours into driving doug declared my musical selection (massive attack) too dark, refused to listen to tom waits, and for the rest of the trip i felt like we were in a vw/apple commercial.

I wasn't the one that begged to hear "We Brave Bee Stings and All" (BTW - that is the name of your new favorite album) like 200 times. I really liked Massive Attack until Tricky started to date my dream girl Bjork and then the jealousy coupled with my graduation from elementary school made me move on.

 

Pic of the Central WA's greatest portopotty graffiti

 

 

Thanks for a fun weekend.