[TR] Washington Pass - SEWS, Liberty, Concord, Cutthroat Wall 8/11/2010

[kevino]

Trip: Washington Pass - SEWS, Liberty, Concord, Cutthroat Wall

 

Date: 8/11/2010

 

Trip Report:

Over the last seven days I had the great luck of no work and the opportunity to climb literally all over our great state of Washington. The bulk of my time was spent at Washington Pass. I found a partner on here, by the name of David, who posts as talah. I would recommend his as a climbing partner to anyone. On to the climbing...

 

Day 1: South Early Winter Spire - Southwest Rib

 

Seeing as how this was our first day climbing together, we figured we could get warmed up on a classic moderate. About an hour after leaving the parking lot, we found ourselves gearing up at the base.

 

We opted to link pitches 1&2 (David's lead), and pitches 3&4 (my leads).

 

David on the first pitch, barely visible.

 

David following pitch four

 

We swung leads and David started out on the catwalk traverse - fun moves around the corner

 

Since I led the white flake pitch, David asked if he could lead the bear hug pitch, to which I happily agreed.

 

I led one more rope length, and after, we preceded to unrope and scramble to the summit. I want to say it took us just over six hours from the TH to summit.

 

Day 2: Liberty Bell - Northwest Face, link up with Concord Tower - Tunnel Route

We found good climbing on both of these routes, and I would recommend them both. Northwest face is continuous climbing for four pitches (5.5, 5.7, 5.8+, 5.8+) with only about 6 feet of less than great rock. The Tunnel route, while not the greatest rock quality had enjoyable climbing in a neat position.

 

Liberty Bell - NW Face

P1 - easy left trending ramp crack system

 

David on P2, leading up the finger cracks to chimney before leaving sight of the belay

 

David following pitch 3 - topping out on the flake system

 

Same pitch - entering the ramp

 

DAvid leading pitch four

 

After the fourth pitch, we scrambled to the summit, then rapped down to the col. We literally descended about 150 ft and then started the next route.

 

Concord Tower - Tunnel Route

Pitch one - a little dirty but fun moves

 

Pitch two had fun moves and only had one less than ideal rock section.

 

We walked through the tunnel and David led a clean pitch on the face for about 30 m before we unroped and climbed to the summit.

 

The tunnel

 

Start of pitch 3

 

Day 3 Cutthroat Wall - The Perfect Crime

 

After two days at the Liberty Bell, we opted to spend the next two days climbing Blake's new(ish) routes on Cutthroat wall.

 

For this route, we found the first three pitches a little bit difficult to follow. We found the rock carin as per Blake's TR and climbed starting about that. We followed the topo as it looked. Hopefully Blake can help us and future parties out.

 

P1: David climbing a steep start and belayed below a roof.

P2: I moved right and up to a small roof and climbed around it to a nice ledge.

P3: David led up a stout crack (see picture, continued easy climbing up, wasn't quite able to pick out a good route, so he climbed the slab left of the barber poll tree and belayed on a nice ledge, above the tree.

 

The crack at the start of our pitch 3

 

Looking down at the tree at the belay on top of pitch 3

 

From this belay we could see the orange rock Blake described, so I climbed left to a finger/hand crack, pulled through a vertical bit and followed the easy ramp around the orange rock, then climbed the hand crack to the next belay ledge.

 

Looking down at David following the hand crack

 

David then climbing right on good face climbing, to the great splitter crack that Blake described.

 

After that pitch, we scrambled to the summit. From here we kind of had a different experience for the descent than Blake's description. We found no webbing, only a rap ring. We set up our own rappel, and did a full 30m rappel to get to easier ground. We then continued straight down the gully and walked down easy slabs back to the base of the wall.

 

Day 4: Cutthroat Wall - Easy Getaway

 

Route finding was much easier on this route.

 

David pulling the roof/overlap on pitch 1

 

Pitch 2 was straight forward and fun climbing. Pitch 3 started off great, I pulled over the small roof, but then it wasn't clear (to me) if I was suppose to go left or right. I went left at first and wasn't please at what I found, so I down climbed and went right. Lo and behold it put as back the belay from the previous day! After I brought DAvid up, we consulted the description, and it almost seemed as it this was right and yesterday was wrong? Who knows. Anyway, David climbed up the same stout crack and left until he knew we were back on route.

 

I took over on pitch 5 and had a great time up easy face climbing, pulling the small overhang and then walking the plank.

 

Looking down at David working on the over hang

 

The crack and the plank on the right

 

P6 - David leading the underclings to the chimney

 

P7 - I led the awesome finger/hand crack

 

P8 - David working the chimney. We hauled our packs, I would recommend it.

 

In hindsight, the Perfect Crime would be a good route from the real alpine experience. The Easy Getaway holds a lot better and cleaner climbing. As far as the approach goes, good luck. The second day it only took us 40 minutes but I can't really explain it any better.

 

Thanks again David for four days of good climbing!

 

Gear Notes:

Single set of aliens, tcus, camalots from .5-4, doubles in 1 and 2. The 4 was only needed on SEWS and the Perfect Crime.

[Blake]

Nice, it's cool to see some more climbing on that area of the pass! I know of a few other groups that have done these as well, so maybe some of the pine needles are getting cleaned up. I wasn't alone on the climbs, just alone in spraying about them. Max Hasson and Dan Hilden were leading the way as well (we had a convention limited to climbers whose last names started with "H")

 

I can't recall too much about the first couple pitches on "Perfect Crime" - as you mention, they were a little more vague and wandering than the top of that route or on the route to the left.

- Bigger Topo

[Dannible]

Nice trip. I went back last year and climbed these routes again with Aaron. Good stuff! There were a few pieces of tat on Easy Getaway and I found a brand new rap anchor on the back side, so I think that route does get a bit of attention. We also managed to trundle a couple of the loose blocks, so its pretty much as clean as they come.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Nice, I need to get up there, have only done the ridge route!

[kevino]

Right on. Things do seem to be relatively clean and loose block free, especially since they are not written up in any guides.

 

As for being on route, we were still climbing and still having fun!

 

So Dan, when were you up there last? Either way I still think its weird that there was no sign of webbing and a lone rap ring was just lying on a ledge. Did you guys use biodegradable webbing?

[G-spotter]

Either way I still think its weird that there was no sign of webbing and a lone rap ring was just lying on a ledge. Did you guys use biodegradable webbing?

 

Snaffles eat webbing, man

[kevino]

We figured as much. Anyway, the black webbing on the tree was place there by us. Who knows how long it will last!

[Dannible]

We last climbed it in July of 2009. The rap setup we found was webbing with 2 biners, one of which was a fancy new light wiregate thing which is now back in service. In 2007 I left blue webbing around a tree with a rap ring, but I think we used a different tree last year.

[dennyt]

Snaffles eat webbing, man

 

Yup, I stashed a picket & nylon sling overnight, came back the next morning and the sling was chewed most of the way through.