[TR] Snow Creek Wall - Iconoclast 5/13/2011

[keenwesh]

Trip: Snow Creek Wall - Iconoclast

 

Date: 5/13/2011

 

Trip Report:

With both my parents gone in the grand canyon, leaving me home for a week, I decided to jump at the opportunity and skip a complete week of school to go climbing. Marc Leclerc came down from Canada to join me. We planned to climb at index cause he wanted to try city park, but alas, the weather turned to shit. We still managed to climb Sloe Children (hardest 10d I've ever climbed, but sooo good!) and Marc got one short TR session on CP. We fled to leavenworth to escape the rain, spending our first day climbing at rattlesnake rock and when it started to rain we headed for peshastin. Damn that rock is sketch! marc went up some harrowing 10d "sport" climb on orchard rock, throwing down chunks of rock and skeptically clipping bolts. when the route disappeared into even more lose choss with no bolts in sight he backed off and I ran up the tunnel to retrieve the gear. I gave Curt Haire a call to see if he was home for a visit and he fed us dinner and offered to let us stay for the rest of our trip. He and Karen his wife are truly some of the nicest people I know. Thanks guys! The next day we just bouldered and kicked it around leavenworth, our rest day before SCW. Friday morning we woke up, late, goddamn cellphone alarms never work, and headed out. a huge section of forest at the creek crossing below the wall has fallen down all willy nilly and it took us a good half hour to thrutch around it up to the wall. as soon as we sat down at the base to eat breakfast we were surrounded by goats. They squabbled over my offering of urine and we took that chance to escape up the wall.

Mawin' on some food

 

Marc running from goats

 

I headed off on the P2 traverse, this is a muchbetter pitch thn the normal BS to start OS

 

Marc headed up Psychopath, the crux was tricky! he spent a while figuring out the moves. really a great pitch

 

 

We then screwed up and broke the next section down into our own pitches. I took a easy ramp up a full 35 meters to the recent rockfall. marc led up a fun and not too hard steep corner another hundred feet or so to the base of the overhanging 5.11 face pitch. this belay was really uncomfortable. he fired off the strenuous and very powerful face, which protected really well.

It was a nice contrast with psychopath, which is more techy and delicate. The 2nd to last pitch was my favorite, tricky but not desperate 5.10 face pulls around onto the shield. incredible runout knob climbing (~5.8) leads up to a single bolt after which a few good and bomber slingable knobs show up every 20 feet. the handcrack in the corner is fantastic too.

 

 

it's really airy

 

Marc originally wanted to give edge of space a go but we were cold and ready to get down. I took a handful of cams and headed up the last OS pitch.

 

 

We chilled out on top, coiling the rope and looking out over the valley before starting the trudge out. we were kinda freaking out about ticks and I kept having to check myself. I found a couple and crushed them under rocks. I hate those things.

 

Gear Notes:

doubles up to #2, I forgot the 3 in the car but luckily it's not needed. possibly a few extras in the finger sizes.

 

Approach Notes:

trudge trudge trudge, check for ticks, repeat

[Drederek]

Way to make the most of our weather window. I'm pretty sure we started up Remorse to get to Psychopath, but you guys came in from a bit further right? Iconoclast is a great way to start the season. Thats great that the ticks luv you, people want to go up there with someone whom the nasty little buggers prefer.

[keenwesh]

we started on remorse. first pitch is 4th class, 2nd is a 5.8 traverse to the psychopath ledge. I remember what you told me about the traverse pitch onto the shield, man that is wild!

[Pete_H]

Should do that route finishing on Hyperspace, if you haven't already. The Pressure Chamber pitch is a can't miss.

[keenwesh]

pressure chamber sounds kinda unpleasant... we decided against it after talking to curt and reading about it online. the iconoclast pitch was absolutely stellar, I want to go back to lead it.