Sol Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 1. Libery Crack/Freedom or Death, Liberty Bell, 12+/13- 2. Thin Red Line, Liberty Bell 12+ 3. The Tempest Wall, Colchuck Balanced Rock 12- 4. Vanishing Point, Dolomite Tower, Mt. Baring 12- 5. Independence Route, Liberty Bell, 12- 6. Dragons of Eden, Dragontail Pk. 12- 7. Der Sportsmen, Prusik Pk. 11+ 8. West Face, Main Gunsight Pk. 11+ 9. The Passenger, South Early Winter Spire 11+ 10. West Face, Colchuck Balanced Rock 11+ *edited to reflect changes Any thoughts? What's missing? Quote
Off_White Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 If you can see it from the road, is it really alpine? Just curious about the definition, but isn't the approach to Liberty Bell roughly equivalent to Index UTW? Maybe Liberty Bell group routes only count as alpine if they include an oatmeal pitch? Quote
Farrgo Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 J'Berg is fully roadside... so pretty much a walk in the park? Quote
Off_White Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 J'berg has no routes close to the hard top 10, so maybe we dodge that bullet. We could also say paved road. Of course, I'm just blabbing and splitting hairs instead of working, a little for-the-sake-of-argument climbing palavering... Quote
Kimmo Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 vanishing point isn't 12+, more like 12a or b. liberty crack went free at 13-, if i remember right. Quote
John Frieh Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 Off the top of my head Scoop CBR Passenger SEWS GITM Stuart I know WA Pass has a few other 11- routes Not really sure what you mean by "top" though...? Quote
DCramer Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 LEAVENWORTH, Wash. (AP) - People who look forward to camping in one of the most popular wilderness areas in the Cascades will have to get their applications in earlier this year. Only 1,500 overnight permits are issued for north-central Washington's Enchantments each year. Rich Haydon, who coordinates the program for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, said the number of applications has doubled in recent years and the agency needs more time to process applications. For that reason, the application period has been moved up by three weeks this year, to Feb. 1-8. Applications postmarked before Feb. 1 will be rejected, and applications received after Feb. 8 will not be processed until all on-time applications have been considered. Permits will continue to be $5 per person per day. Off - I guess if you need to use an overnight permit it's an alpine route otherwise it's a crag route. Quote
mountainmatt Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 You mention that the tempest is 12+, however motamota rated it as 12. Has anyone else free the pitch yet to confirm the rating? . Quote
Pete_H Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 I've climbed some of those. They weren't free climbs for me though! Quote
G-spotter Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 green beckey has a whole bunch of 11+ and 12 freeclimbs on baring and dolo tower, not just vanishing pt. Quote
marc_leclerc Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 'Hard' is a relative thing. Dragons of Eden looks fucking rad! So does Vanishing Point.... Quote
Sol Posted January 8, 2010 Author Posted January 8, 2010 I didn't include Liberty Bell, cuz it just doesn't seem like it had been truly freed. If I remember correctly Brooke Sandahl protected sections of the climb by clipping loops of rope that was fixed from an anchor above. Well this doesn't seem completely legit, Ill let it slide and add it to the list. I limited the Baring climb's to Vanishing Point because I haven't seen/heard any info about the myriad of Doorish routes up there (or for that matter Vanishing Point too). If anybody can confirm their difficulty or quality I would love to add them to the list. Kimmo, have you climbed VP? I've only heard of these dudes climb it, and an attempt by Fitz Cahall and the late Ryan Triplett. Still waiting for that beta and topo Fitz... I'll drop it to 12-. Grade on Tempest Wall changed. Girth Pillar knocked off the list. By "Top" I mean quality routes. A couple harder climbs that didn't make the list due to lack of quality: Tooth and Claw, North Face of SEWS (might by a good route, but a weird start and such). Doesn't it seems like WA state is lacking in higher end alpine free climbs? It's just not a very big list. Quote
John Frieh Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 By "Top" I mean quality routes. A couple harder climbs that didn't make the list due to lack of quality: Tooth and Claw, North Face of SEWS (might by a good route, but a weird start and such). If you must limit it to just 10 GP is higher quality (cleaner) and more committing then West Face of Gunsight Main Peak IMO. Gunsight might clean up with more traffic but given in the same amount of time it takes to reach the base you can drive to Squamish and do harder, longer, cleaner routes I dont see that happening. Quote
Kimmo Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 Kimmo, have you climbed VP? I've only heard of these dudes climb it, and an attempt by Fitz Cahall and the late Ryan Triplett. Still waiting for that beta and topo Fitz... I'll drop it to 12-. Grade on Tempest Wall changed. Girth Pillar knocked off the list. climbed it maybe 5 years ago? really good route. yeah and Full Tilt (crux pitch of tempest) was given straight up 5.12, and other feed-back seems to confirm. Quote
marc_leclerc Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 climbed it maybe 5 years ago? really good route. I heard there is some 5.11 X in the filter pitches.... how bad is it? Quote
mountainmatt Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 I can't really comment on the "top 10" in terms of quality routes as I have only done a couple of the routes listed below. Here is a list of a few of the other hard routes out there: 1. Liberty crack, Liberty Bell 13- 2. Thin Red Line, Liberty Bell 12+ 3. The Tempest Wall, Colchuck Balanced Rock 12 4. Vanishing Point, Dolomite Tower, Mt. Baring 12 5. Northwest passage, Dolomite Tower, Mt. Baring 12- 6. Independence Route, Liberty Bell, 12- 7. Dragons of Eden, Dragontail Pk. 12- 8. Pangaea, NEWS, 12- 9. Tooth and Claw, NEWS 12- 10. West Face, North Gunsight Pk. 11+ 11. The Passenger, South Early Winter Spire 11+ 12. West Face, Colchuck Balanced Rock 11+ 13. The Scoop, Colchuck Balanced Rock 11+ 14. The Passenger, SEWS 11+ 15. Northeast rib, Dolomite Tower, Mt. Baring 11+ 16. Der Sportsmen, Prusik Pk. 11+ 17. Devil finds work, Dolomite Tower, Mt. Baring 11 18. Dragonfly, Dragontail 11 19. Supercave, M&M wall, 11 20. Gorilla’s in the mist, Mt. Stuart 11 21. The Girth Pillar, Mt. Stuart 11- Quote
marc_leclerc Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 where'd ya hear about 5.11 x pitches? That youtube video... Burdo says something like that about the filter pitches. Quote
dberdinka Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 Girth Pillar knocked off the list. By "Top" I mean quality routes. While I haven't done it, at what 11b/c, it's hard enough for your list and the position looks absolutely astounding compared to just about every other route on your list. Seems to me it's definitely Top 10 if not by grade alone. Doesn't it seems like WA state is lacking in higher end alpine free climbs? It's just not a very big list. Compared to Chamonix maybe. Maybe I'm gonna get skewered here but look anywhere else in the US and the spread just isn't there. Pretty much every range has only a very limited number of peaks where rock quality and access allow the development of high end free climbs. In CO you'ver got The Diamond and some hard routes on Spearhead. In CA? The Hulk and east face of Whitney/Keiler. Wind Rivers? some hard stuff on Mt Hooker. Scattering of 11s and 12s in the Tetons. In the Sawtooths it's pretty much all Elephants Head. How about the Coast Range of SW BC? Hardest (completed) route on Slesse is 10+ though across the valley there are a bunch of 11s on the Nesakwatch Spires....I forgot what I was talking about. Quote
Kimmo Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 where'd ya hear about 5.11 x pitches? That youtube video... Burdo says something like that about the filter pitches. maybe it used to be X, before he added bolts.... when we climbed it, i'd say there was a bit of PG type 5.9 runout up high on the route, approaching the big roof. everything else seemed well protected, either with gear or bolts. Quote
marc_leclerc Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 where'd ya hear about 5.11 x pitches? That youtube video... Burdo says something like that about the filter pitches. maybe it used to be X, before he added bolts.... when we climbed it, i'd say there was a bit of PG type 5.9 runout up high on the route, approaching the big roof. everything else seemed well protected, either with gear or bolts. Okay cool, yeah it sounded to me like there was some runout 5.11 in some overhanging corners. Thanks for clearing that up, I hope I can find a way to get out there and try it sometime... Quote
G-spotter Posted January 8, 2010 Posted January 8, 2010 Hardest (completed) route on Slesse is 10+ though across the valley there are a bunch of 11s on the Nesakwatch Spires Rock quality also differs markedly as you cross the valley Quote
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