Wallstein Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 Trip: Dragontail and Colchuck Balanced Rock- Linkup - Dragons Of Eden (V 5.11+) and West Face (IV 5.11+) Date: 7/27/2010 Trip Report: Last week my ever stoked friend Jens asked me to join him for a couple climbs up in the Enchantments. This seemed like a perfect opportunity as I'd never really climbed with Jens but had always wanted to and I really wanted to climb some of those peaks. Jens came up with a pretty mega idea of trying to climb Dragontail, Colchuck Balanced Rock and Prussik Peak in day. I agreed without even thinking about the magnitude of the objective. I figured if Jens thought we could do it why not try. Upon a little more discussion though we let some doubt creep into our minds and we decided to scale it back to Dragontail and CBR. This idea was a lot easier to choke down given the fact that I hadn't done a route longer than 5 pitches since February. We decided to make our morning a little easier by sleeping at the trailhead even though Jens lives down in Leavenworth. I really dislike getting up early. We got our act together by 5:40 and started charging up the trail at a blistering pace. I've hiked with quite a few serious athletes but I gotta say Jens was one of the fastest hikers I've ever seen. I was moving at full redline pace and could easily see Jens pulling away from me. I almost started to run but figured that would just power me down for later in the day. We reached the base of Dragontail in 1:50. We were both surprised at our time. After powering down a bar and some water we made the transition to climbing mode. Jens took the lead as he's been on Dragon's of Eden a couple times and I was onsighting. I followed him up some loose 4th class to the base of a nice hand/fist splitter. I was warned that this pitch was chossy, but it didn't seem to bad to me. Jens handed over the lead and I got a sweet 5.11 fingers and thin hands pitch that felt fairly pumpy at the time. Superb pitch. Nice belay on a ledge on top of the pitch. In retrospect I should of ran the rope out even farther and belayed right at the base of the crux pitch. So Jens did a short little pitch that brought us underneath a sweet looking finger crack splitter. I grabbed the rack and set off climbing up a couple easy move to the top of a pillar where the real business started. At one point I think this pitch was rated 5.12- or so. I slowed my pace a bit to try to and figure out some of the moves while staring up at it. I placed a small stopper to protect the insecure opening moves and then started slamming in perfect finger sized cams as I moved up. The opening moves were a combination of side pulls and fingers locks with high awkward feet. Quickly though the climbing turned into straight in steep finger locking. I found the climbing to be way more secure than anticipated. Small but good feet were found throughout the crux section. If this pitch was at the crag it would be a mega classic. Really good stone with enjoyable jamming. Felt just slightly harder than the previous 5.11 pitch. For me it was somewhere around 11c/d. Again I should of ran this pitch farther than I did. So Jens had to do another short easy pitch to the base of the prominent headwall. The headwall is MEGA! Steep, exposed and clean!!! Jens took the lead and did a brilliant job of linking all three of the original 5.11 pitches into one stunning 210 foot pitch! It went on for ever and ever. Another pitch that would be classic if it were at the crag. Jens' huge pitch took us to the end of the hard climbing were we unroped and switched into our approach shoes for the long slog (2,000 ft or ?) to the top. Jens warned me that we were in for a pretty long slog up the thing but it went by very quickly in all reality. We celebrated on the cumbre for a few seconds and then scurried down the back side to a couple short rappels and some down climbing. We motored over to Asgard and were bouncing down the trail in no time. We got our second time check (we didn't have watches and had to rely on hikers with watches) almost at the base. It was only 12:20. We gone base to base in a little over 4 hours. The stoke meter was high! And then we had to make the slog up to the base of CBR in the sun.... I down shifted heavily and set a more manageable pace. We reached the talus field just underneath the West Face and had to talk about plans here. We were both feeling pretty darn good and started talking about the possibility of heading to Prussik after CBR. This would cause a couple problems, first we didn't want to climb with our packs so we'd have to cache them there and return at a later date for them, we were down to about 500 calories each and lastly our vehicle was at the Stuart LK trailhead which would leave us stumbling into the Snow creek trailhead at some un godly time in the morning without a ride. But we figured what the heck lets go for it! Jens started leading up the moderate opening pitches and I started simul climbing underneath him after a bit. His goal was to make it to the base of the huge corner but he stopped slightly shy of it. He did a short quick pitch and handed over the rack. Since I was onsighting I got the pleasure of leading the 5.11 corner pitch. So so good! Endless hands and liebacking on perfect stone! I was loving it, though the mileage started to creep up on me and I got a slight pump which caused me to get a little scrappy. Soon enough I was at the fixed belay underneath the roof. Jens took on the awkward roof traverse with a little grunting but still looking fairly controlled. This pitch is casual if you are a midget like me. The crux pitch lay ahead us. I had to get a little fired up for this pitch as the efforts of the day were starting to take their toll. It starts off with perfect hands that leads to a capping roof and a 5.11+ boulder problem exit out left. Jens gave me the running beta spray and with a little bit of grunting I made it through the reachy move out left. As I sat at the belay I tried to figure out where the route exited. There was splitter that ran through a roof but the pitch was suppose to be 5.8. I sat there wondering until Jens popped up to the belay and reaffirmed my suspicion. It looked like the hardest 5.8 I had ever seen. And well it was. Calling that pitch 5.8 would be like calling George Bush an environmentalist. Jens slithered up the steep flair pitch and I followed in a thrutching manner barely sticking the moves. Thankfully I didn't blow the onsight on a 5.8.... In a few minutes we were on top firing off the final little boulder problem on the balanced rock. We weren't exactly feeling that spry anymore and weighed our options again. With only 200 calories left the thought of hiking over to Prussik and firing up another 6 pitch 5.11+ route wasn't that appealing. We could be content with a very civilized day in the mountains or turn our day into a total sufferfest. We choose the previous and bombed down the standard descent gully to our packs and the trail leading back to the car. The pace slowed as our muscles we about done for the day. We reached the talus field above the lake at at 7:30, for the first time I was disappointed in our time. The Heidelburger would close at 9:00 and the reality was setting in that we weren't going to make it. I did the reverse math figuring out that we'd have to be at the car is much less than an hour. I tightened the shoes one last time and started to jog out of there. The jog progressed into a run and then quickly followed by an all out sprint. We were both feeding off of the accomplishments of the day and the drive to push even harder. The trail turned into a blur as we bounded from rock to rock taking the banked turns at full stride. My muscles came alive again and I pushed to the redline for the final part of the mission. We arrived at the car at 8:40pm (1:10 from the talus field) which would be to late for the Heidelburger but made our time an even 15 hours car to car. Overall we were extremely pleased with how hard we had pushed and the outcome due to that. Parts of me wish we had pushed on through and made the masochistic march and climb out to Prussik but on the other hand it was nice to swill a couple beers and crawl into bed at a reasonable hour. As always I was amazed at the gems the Cascades have to offer and the high quality of the climbing we did. If Dragon's of Eden continues to see traffic it will surely turn into a classic. Thanks for the inspiration and such an awesome day Jens! Quote
Rafael_H Posted July 29, 2010 Posted July 29, 2010 Wow, wow, wow, awesome, and inspiring, you gus are slaying it! Can't wait for a rematch with the Dragon. Quote
Off_White Posted July 29, 2010 Posted July 29, 2010 Now that's a great day in the mountains. You've had some great TR's here recently, I've really enjoyed your stories. Quote
goatboy Posted July 29, 2010 Posted July 29, 2010 Best line: "Calling that pitch 5.8 would be like calling George Bush an environmentalist." Quote
tanstaafl Posted July 29, 2010 Posted July 29, 2010 Stupendous. Thanks for posting your Cascades adventures Mikey. Quote
Schaef Posted July 29, 2010 Posted July 29, 2010 Very impressive! It must be liberating to have that level of skill and fitness. I thought the 5.8 pitch was hard as well. Was whimpering like a little girl if I remember right. Quote
scottgg Posted July 30, 2010 Posted July 30, 2010 Whoa! Super inspiring, thanks! I was wavering on this weekends East Coast summit bagging plans after my buddy backed out, but now I am psyched! Thanks! Quote
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