[TR] NEWS - West face and Northwest corner 7/13/2008

[mountainmatt]

Trip: NEWS - West face and Northwest corner

 

Date: 7/13/2008

 

Trip Report:

Here is an old trip that I took with Martha back in July of 2008. The goal was to go hop on the West Face of North Early Winters Spire (NEWS) and then hit the North West Corner the next day.

 

We started early on Saturday up to the west face. The first pitch was a little loose, but nothing particularly hard or exciting (5.8). The second pitch took us up a blocky corner to a small ledge belay (lower belay). We continued up to another ledge below the offwidth on the next pitch (5.8). Pitch three starts with a short 6” offwidth that moves onto exciting and exposed unclings and liebacks. Belay at a nice ledge (5.9). In researching pitch four, I found topos and trip reports calling this pitch anything from 5.10c to 5.11b. In my opinion, the rating greatly changes depending on the size of your fingers. If you can get jams in the blue tcu sized crack, I bet it feels like 5.10 c/d. However, I have Jimmy Dean sausage fingers and I was barely getting my tips into the crack. I feel like 5.11- is a fair rating for me. After about 30 feet of tough terrain, you clip a bolt and do a 10- slab traverse over to the belay. Definitely a short pitch (5.11-). Pitch five is the money pitch. After some fun jamming, the crack steepens for about 10 feet before it slowly starts decreasing in angle to the top. The crack stays mostly the same, but as the angle decreases, it goes from 5.10, to 5.9, to 5.8, until you are just cruising. Definitely a great pitch (5.10b). Pitch six went up a nice slab to the top (5.7). At the summit, we ran into some friends who just topped out South Early Winters Spire. It was strange, but we could have a conversation between the towers. On top of that, there was a mountain goat playing in the sun on the summit.

 

We started the rap by me dropping my belay device down the gulley. Luckily it only went down about 30 feet, but still it was nice to know the munter hitch for the first rappel. There was a nice series of fixed mank and old bolts that help you get down to the ground.

 

The next morning we got up a little later since we had been freezing all day and started back up the same pitch one. There was a party ahead of us, but they seemed to be moving at a nice pace so we continued on. We cruised the easy class 4 pitch two to come to a nice ledge. Moving this quickly turned out to be a mistake. When the next party started up pitch three, they spent a lot of time hanging, taking a few falls, etc. We sat on a ledge freezing to death as the sun had not yet hit the wall. Why did I only bring a light fleece? Dammit! When they finally moved on, we headed up pitch three which was a fun and exciting lead. Fun jamming, underclings, and exciting moves (big gear is helpful) (5.9). Pitch four is the classic corner pitch. Start from a small ledge and a bunch of fixed mank, jamming, fighting, scumming, etc. up the offwidth. Having a couple #4s and a single #5 were handy for sure. Belay in a corner below the roof (5.9). Pitch five starts with a small corner slab section (which was wet for us), leading to a roof. Exciting moves take you over the roof until you can belay on a nice ledge (in the sun!) (5.9). Pitch six runs up easy fifth terrain to the summit and the same raps (this time I didn’t drop my belay device).

 

Overall, two fantastic routes. I would highly recommend them!

 

 

North early winters spire:

 

Pitch one of both routes, kinda loose:

 

Pitch 2:

 

Pitch 3 off width start:

 

Pitch 4 finger crack:

 

The awesome 5.10 pitch:

 

Nice rest in a pod partway up the crack:

 

Fun undercling/liebacking on pitch 3 of the NWC:

 

Martha heads up the classic offwidth pitch 4:

 

Topping out:

 

Mountain goat on the summit of SEWS:

 

Starting the raps:

 

 

Gear Notes:

Standard rack for both routes. Personally, I liked having 2 X #4 and 1 X #5 for the NWC. Greatly depends on your live of offwidth.

[kukuzka1]

wow! summer and warm rock looks nice right now