[TR] Stein's Pillar - NE Face 5/2/2010

[pac man]

Trip: Stein's Pillar - NE Face

 

Date: 5/2/2010

 

Trip Report:

For more info, my partners trip report can be found HERE.

 

 

We decided to climb the NE Face of Stein's Pillar and get apparently hightly needed practice at aid climbing. We had initially thought the route would be a nice blend of aid and free climbing. We were wrong!

Overview photo of the section we climbed

 

The trail is easy to find and follow, and after a nice 1.5 mile easy hike, it brought us directly to the beginning of the climb. We prepped our non-aid climber's improvised aid gear, "gh-etriers" and a ghetto "wall hammer":

 

A good description of the pitches can be found on summitpost.org. We found that previous trip reports are definitely right, the crux probably is getting up the first pitch. It is claimed to be 5.9, but I found it much harder. Maybe I didn't get it. Anyway, I ended up aiding the first 8 feet off of a hangerless bolt and a #3 TCU shoved into a pocket. You would need a ~7 inch piece to protect the bottom of this pitch in the crack. The pitch drastically eases after 10-15 feet to very easy climbing.

Pitch 1 after rappelling the route

 

Pitch 1' is just a walk across a huge ledge/cave that would make an excellent bivy spot.

 

Pitch 2 has ~15 ft of free climbing at the beginning and ~15 ft of free climbing at the end off of a flexing piton hammered into a bolt sleeve. Though Pitch 2 doesn't gain much vertical ground, the 45 degree traverse made it long and tiring, especially since we found out we aren't efficient aid climbers.

P2 from below and above

 

Pitch 3 starts on the far left edge of the ledge and is a vertical and fun pitch that, at least with probably improperly spaced gh-etriers, requires a decent amount of top stepping. Due to the wind picking up, temps dropping, and since we weren't as quick and efficient as we hoped, we bailed from near the top of pitch 3 at 1 new rap bolt, a manky bolt, and a metal post driven into the rock.

P3

 

We ended up rappelling from where we ended on pitch 3 (it looked like the rap station minus a 2nd rap bolt, but I'm not positive) to the top of pitch 1 with 1 rope. One more rappel got us to our gear and the nice hike out.

 

Overall from what I saw of pitches 1-3, there is some questionable fixed gear, but decent bolts are evenly spaced and really ease any worries. I thought the route is better protected than I had pictured, however there were homemade hangers, SMC hangers, and bolt sleeves that protruded 1 in out of the rock.

 

We'll head back sometime and finish the route, but not yet.

 

Gear Notes:

For pitches 1-3 only; P4-5??:

-Did not use any pitons or ghetto hammer

-Gear to 1", including a lot of small nuts and Ball Nutz

-Etriers or "gh-etriers"

 

Approach Notes:

Easy 1.5 mile hike

[wayne]

Wow, brave march up there!

So is that the McGown route or the standard?

[Pilchuck71]

Very cool!

I wish we had freaky pillars where I am at.

 

[pac man]

The NE Face is probably the standard.

 

What is the McGown route?