[TR] Index Upper Town Wall - Town Crier 5.12+ 7/8/2010

[Wallstein]

Trip: Index Upper Town Wall - Town Crier 5.12+

 

Date: 7/8/2010

 

Trip Report:

My girlfriend Kate and I left Snohomish with the super cragging alpine start of 2pm. At 3:30 we had started up the trail, after taking a quick dip in the Skykomish. At the base around 4. We then sat underneath the trickle of the Waterfall to try and cool off from the temps in the lower 90's. Worked pretty well.

 

We each shoved a Gu packet and box of raisins in our pocket and clipped our water bottles to our harness and blasted off sometime shortly after 4:30. I linked the first two pitches which brought me to the base of the pendulum pitch. I'd been free climbing on the route a couple times before early in the spring and knew we would be doing a slight variation here. After bringing Kate up I lead up and left to the shallow corner/arete feature to the left of the standard pitch. This pitch involves a compact layback move over a small roof (maybe 11+??) which leads to a fairly scary big hollow flake and runout climbing. Cool pitch though its heads-up.

 

The next pitch is the triple roofs pitch, which I was fairly unsure about. I'd toproped it once before but had never tried to lead it free. I set off thinking I'd just dog up there and get things figured out but I couldn't help myself and went for it full throttle. Though I came up short mid-way through the roof and took a fair size whipper as its to hard for me to clip all of the pins. I dangled around for a bit and figured out some completely new beta and came back down to the belay and pulled my rope. Somehow even after botching my beta and climbing poorly I sent the pitch second try. Not as runout as the last pitch but still fairly heads up! Really cool dynamic moves on the pitch, maybe in the 12+ range but hard to tell.

 

I brought Kate up as quickly as I could as the shadows had moved fairly far across the valley floor already. She got a little pushed around on the crux and had to pull on a draw to make it through. We both powered down our Gu packets and tried to get psyched up on the next pitch. Again I'd only tr'd this pitch once before and hardly remember anything about it. I placed a couple stoppers off the belay and then punched it to a fix pin 10ft up. For a second I thought I was going to plummet into Kate but I regained my composure and clipped the pin. I continued up working small knobs for my feet and pin scars for my tips but I was climbing poorly and nearly pumped out up a little higher in the awkward wide/flair funky crack. When I hit the belay I was feeling cooked and a little worried about the shadows that were half way up Mt. Index. Kate pulled through on draws to speed things up for my sake. (She'd hike the pitch if she had the time)

 

I could tell my chances of sending the crux final pitch were fairly low, given the time of day, the heat somewhere in the mid 80's still and my general lack of fitness but I sure wasn't just going to rap without trying. I tied the shoes a tad bit tighter and started up the flare finding good heal-toes and armbars the whole way. I botched my sequence through the steep section but managed to hold on till a good rest jug. My confidence was starting to fail as much as my muscles but I had to keep going. For the first time of the day I actually executed my beta correctly for the crux but then managed to mis a couple key footholds higher up on the pitch and took a good sized fall. The variation clips the first bolt of the ladder and then goes out right a ways without any pro and produces some big falls if ya screw things up. After falling I threw a full "Smith Rocks Sport-o Wabler" that I'm sure everyone in town could hear. But it actually felt good to get a little pissed off and want to send so badly. I sat there slumped over my harness for awhile not sure what to do.

 

The sun had long left Mt. Index and I should of just called it quits then but I had to give it one more go. I lowered down to the belay and pulled my rope and tied right back in. There wasn't time for any sort of rest, as we were already going to rapping without headlights in the dark. I motored up the wide crack not taking any of the rest I had before, powered up the steep lieback section and quickly made it to the "rest" jug. This time I only briefly shook out and kept going knowing that at this point nothing I did was going to help my chances of sending. I had all but given up and nearly just grabbed the draw but the desire to climb and send pushed me on through. I executed the crux and managed to to use the correct feet this time and continued climbing farther and farther away from the bolt. My legs started to shake. Things were looking bad... but one hold after the next I kept climbing. My feet had become useless at this point as I couldn't see the foot holds at all anymore. Blindly I kept pasting them hoping they wouldn't blow off the little bits of lichen they were on. My forearms screamed as I drained every bit of energy they had. I should of fallen. Every indicator and variable was wrong. I could barely see, I hardly knew the moves, I was way beyond pumped, and I knew I was failing. But I was to scared to let go. I had managed to climb 15ft above my last piece and well past the point a sane person would let themselves fall. In reckless desperation I let out a scream and dug deeper into the core of why I climb and found the remaining strength I needed to keep climbing. The holds started to get bigger as I traversed back left . The final jug was in sight. I wrapped my fingers firmly around the huge hold, threw my right leg up and mantled up to the anchor. That was a little to close for comfort I thought.

 

I quickly fed the ropes through the anchor and slowly lowered.

 

We were back at the base at 10:00pm.

 

Climbing sure is fun!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

single set of cams from green C3 to 1 Camalot.

4 stoppers. from #3- #6 BD

10 Quickdraws

60m rope

 

Approach Notes:

UP the steep hill past the hole in the wall.

[olyclimber]

wow nice!

[lunger]

great send. really enjoyed the writing in that last paragraph.

[tanstaafl]

That was a little to close for comfort I thought.

 

 

Awesome; thanks for posting this. And congrats to Kate on Freerider too. Please tell her I really enjoyed her blog post (and your pics) on that -- very inspiring.

[Sol]

Impressive MIkey (especially in those conditions)!

 

Congrats on Freerider Kate!

[stevetimetravlr]

Holy snikes, thats rad.

[NoahT]

Thanks for sharing! Impressive, to say the least.

[pink]

very cool mr. schaeffer

[Rafael_H]

Awesome, Mikey!!!

"...dug deeper into the core of why I climb and found the remaining strength..." - thanks for the stoke.

[Winter]

Awesome. Could've used this psyche when I was getting worked today.

[Wallstein]

Glad I could provide a little stoke!

 

It sure got me fired up to climb around the NW for the summer. Cant wait to get back on the Upper wall soon.

 

Does anyone know if Justin Sjong is the only other person to free TC? I sure hope not!!! Its a pretty darn good route and deserves some free climbing attention.

[pazzo]

Pics or it didn't happen

 

Awesome job!!

[dberdinka]

Thought I'd point out that Mike is apparently a 5.12+ photographer as well. Nice work on these FreeRider, thats gotta be a serious effort getting into position for some of those shots.

 

BTW Mike (if your out there) as a freeclimb would Town Crier be much improved if a majority of the rusty fixed gear on the Triple Roofs was removed? It certainly would improve the aesthetics of the route as an aid climb.

[Sol]

Didn't Justen remove a bunch of that mank when he originally sent?

[Kimmo]

 

Does anyone know if Justin Sjong is the only other person to free TC?

 

i think ben g freed it too. i don't think it's gotten a lot of attention from those capable of freeing it.

[summitchaserCJB]

 

Does anyone know if Justin Sjong is the only other person to free TC?

 

i think ben g freed it too. i don't think it's gotten a lot of attention from those capable of freeing it.

same with city park.

[marc_leclerc]

Has Green Drag-On had a second free ascent? Looks quite good.

[Wallstein]

As far as the fixed gear on the Triple roofs goes, it sure is nice that it is there for the free climber. It didn't look like Justin did any removal or additions to what is there. Without the fixed pins it would be a whole different pitch and might be fairly heads up.

 

I don't think Ben G has freed it but I could be wrong...

 

Ya Marc Green Drag-on has had a second free ascent now. Just as of a week ago. Go get on it while there is chalk. I'ver heard talk of a few other wanting to do it soon.

[tomtom]

BTW Mike (if your out there) as a freeclimb would Town Crier be much improved if a majority of the rusty fixed gear on the Triple Roofs was removed? It certainly would improve the aesthetics of the route as an aid climb.

 

Hey Darin, You forget that aid climbers have zero status around here.

[bigwallben]

Spent a day with Justy scrubbin and doing moves...but never went back for the send. I thought the climbing was darn good though and I remember some unique double arm bars in the flare leading up to the crux section near the end. Nice job Mikey sending this classic route.

 

Ben G

As far as the fixed gear on the Triple roofs goes, it sure is nice that it is there for the free climber. It didn't look like Justin did any removal or additions to what is there. Without the fixed pins it would be a whole different pitch and might be fairly heads up.

 

I don't think Ben G has freed it but I could be wrong...

 

Ya Marc Green Drag-on has had a second free ascent now. Just as of a week ago. Go get on it while there is chalk. I'ver heard talk of a few other wanting to do it soon.