mountainsloth Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 Trip: Squire Creek Monolith - Illusion Wall - Excalibur Date: 6/26/2011 Trip Report: So my plan going into the weekend was to take a friend out climbing Saturday and give him his first taste of D-town granite but our plans fell through last minute.... damn. Later in the evening while researching something easy and alpine to solo I decided to take a peek at the partner forum here at cc.com To my surprise I see someone looking for a partner for Excalibur on the Illusion Wall and had posted his request only a few minutes prior. Perfect! I think to myself. Within an hour I had plans for Sunday to visit a wall I have wondered about for years with a man who knows it like the back of his hand. It was my first time out to Squire Creek and all I can say is...... The valley opposite Squire Creek Monolith How is it so little people go out there? What an unbelievable valley. Words and pictures cannot describe, but I will try anyway. The Illusion Wall looms left The route is well described in Rainman's TR so I won't bore with details just pictures and comments. This 10 pitch route is very well designed and has a variety of climbing and tackles a steep headwall. Pitch 5 and 1 of the many gem's. Finger locks, chicken heads, and edges oh my! Leading pitch 6 the Excalibur flake. It reminded me of Dreamer's flakes. Rainman working a steep pitch on chicken heads Leading the crux pitch 8. thin fingers corner, a traverse, and then a steep face crux. Rainman leading pitch nine, a pristine corner and arete. View of the summit from the top of the Illusion Wall Coming down. One more look at my two favorite pitches The Wall in its entirety Nature nerds will love the extra large trees The greenery made the long hike out pleasant In all seriousness, this was easily one of my favorite multi pitch routes in recent memory. Every pitch minus the 10th had 3 or 4 star climbing and the rock is immaculate. Most of all it is a safe and an exhilarating climb. The approach is no worse than the Green Giant buttress. You can get pretty decent info on it from Rattle and Slime but I will add more here. More people need to enjoy the climbs out there. Huge thanks to Rainman for his hard work on the route, showing me the way and getting me out to this spectacular wall. Gear Notes: Gear to 3 with an emphasis on fingers to small hands (BD .3 - .75) 15 draws with some double lengths. Approach Notes: The approach took about 2 1/2 hours but was quite pleasant and not too schwacky. Follow the squire creek trail crossing a few major streams. Keep looking for a small cairn sitting on a horizontal log on the right maybe about 30-45 minutes in. This is the start of the climbers path. Follow this through a forest to Squire creek. Cross on a perfectly fallen old tree, head up the creek for 100 feet and follow a dried up stream bed. Look for a large cairn on the right and take a right onto a steep forest trail. This will eventually bring you to open slabs and bushy ledges. Follow the slabs and ledges up using the path of least resistance and treading slightly left. Some zig-zagging is involved. You are aiming for the obvious wall seen in picture #2. There are a couple of scrambling moves over some of the rock and a crappy piece of rope to aid you (trust with caution). Eventually you end up on some flat dirt ledges under the face. The first pitch follows bolts and shallow cracks to a bush up and to the left. Quote
Riley81 Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 Good to here some more people are getting out and enjoying that Monolith of Granite. Rainman has worked really hard on putting up some great routes out there that I have had the fortune to enjoy. I climbed Excaliber last October with Benmurphy and was stoked after the getting the crux pitch clean, and the excalibur flake is very fun and physical climbing. Though I have a fear that the block just below and right of the Excalibur flake pitch may not be long for this world. The abundance of chickenheads on that plate doesn't fit in with the smoother granite surrounding it. Fortunatly the belay is just above it. Great TR. Flake is just right and just below the Excalibur flake. Quote
Tyson.g Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 Yeah cool place. To bad about all the ticks though. Way too much bear activity in those woods to make the approach anything but terrifying. At least once you get up past the first pitch the smell of feces and urine is only faint. Nice TR and pics! Quote
billcoe Posted July 4, 2011 Posted July 4, 2011 Great lookin spot, thanks for the pics and the report! Quote
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