[TR] Three O Clock Rock – season opener. - 5/21/2011

[curtveld]

Trip: Three O Clock Rock – season opener

 

Date: 5/21/2011

 

Trip Report:

Mountainman Doug and I made the pilgrimage today. With the rapture fast approaching, we wanted our last earthly hours to be memorable.

 

As reported previously, the road is still blocked ~MP 2, leaving a lengthy but fairly painless road walk. No snow was encountered on the road or trail until the final uphill climbers tread to the rock. There is snow piled up around the entire base, making boots useful. Exfo clearly has even more.

 

We jumped on the Til Broad Daylight+Kone combo, to take advantage of the light climbing traffic. The initial slab to the first bolt was grubby with winter debris, but after that all was nice and clean! Despite steady sprinkles, the rock was dry enough and we squeaked up all five pitches. Around three, the curtain dropped and things got soggy for the walk out.

 

Sorry, no pics - you gotta take my word for it.

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axes carried but not needed

 

Approach Notes:

The road walk took about 1:15 to the trailhead. You could probably cut that in half with a mtn bike.

[rocketparrotlet]

2 hours to the cliff is not too bad. Glad to hear you got some clean Darrington granite!

[curtveld]

2 hours to the cliff is not too bad.

That's pretty much what it took - about the same as Snow Creek Wall

[Riley81]

Did it look like there was any activity for reparing the Road? Hanman said they put in a small access path around the first slide at MP ~2 to get equipment up to the second larger slide. Is that the case or am I living in a dream world?

[curtveld]

Looked identical to what Hanman found a couple weeks ago:

As shown, the road was patched over the first washout, but access is blocked off by boulders. It will be OK for 2WD once the boulders are removed. The road is basically fine for the next ~2 miles to the second major blowout, which is still a mess.

 

I emailed the FS road guy for an update but haven't heard back yet.

[builder206]

If it rains, how quickly does Three O'Clock Rock dry out? I have a friend interested in doing some routes on Three O'Clock Rock. We'd like to know how much time to allow before heading out after a rain. With a 90 minute drive from Seattle + 2 hour walk to the cliff from the road closure, we don't want to find it out of condition.

 

thanks

[mattp]

You're not going to get the magic formula, Builder.

 

If it has been raining for three weeks, you might want to wait a day or three. If it has been fairly dry, 5 minutes might be sufficient. I'm not kidding. I've climbed up there when there was intermittent rainfall and had dry rock.

 

One thing that will help is if you are not afraid to climb wet rock if that turns out to be in the way of your objective. There is often a wet streak here or there that may be in your way even on an otherwise dry day.

 

With current reports that there is a bunch of snow at the top of Exfo and Squire Creek Wall, I might avoid these destinations right now.

 

If it were me, I'd head up there tomorrow, if that helps.

[builder206]

Thanks. Based on what I have read so far, Three O'Clock Rock would be my only objective for now until we have longer spells of warm weather later in the season.

 

I am happy to go up there just to see it but my would-be partner wants to be sure we can actually climb on arrival, hence the wet/dry question.

[curtveld]

I emailed the FS road guy for an update....

The report is that they will look at reopening the road through the first washout if looks safe enough. That would save about a half hour walking each way.

 

The second washout is a tougher nut, since they need to find more $ to fix it and their maintenance budget is already meager. Cross your fingers and tune up your mountain bike in case it doesn't happen.