[TR] Squire Creek Wall - Slab Daddy 7/29/2011

[curtveld]

Trip: Squire Creek Wall - Slab Daddy

 

Date: 7/29/2011

 

Trip Report:

After assuring ourselves that we wouldn’t broil, 'Jopa' Joe and I ventured up Squire Creek to attempt the epic padding of Slab Daddy. For those living under a rock, Slab Daddy is an instant classic 22-pitch climb produced by many seasons of hand-drilling by Dave Whitelaw and a small army of collaborators. The climb and basic logistics are well documented, so here are a few photos to enliven a stack of route updates.

 

After a leisurely start and fumbled approach, we did the climbing between 3 pm on Friday and 3 pm Saturday. The first 11 steppy pitches placed us on the Balcony Bivy at about 8. After a calm if mosquito-plagued night, we were back crimping at 0600. After lots more clean, varied and challenging climbing, we turned around at pitch 21.5. The many rappels got us to the snow cone around 7 and we were chowing burgers in Dtown by 9. Only thirty-six hours, but my fuzzy brain and crunched toes felt like they had been at it much longer. But for a climb of this size and quality, the bit of suffering was well worth it!

 

For those that don’t want to climb slabs with overnight gear, a good option is to day-trip the first 11 (or more) pitches. That only requires two 5.10 pitches (#7&11), as the 10+ crux on pitch 2 can be easily avoided (details below). Another way to reduce pack weight is to use a small haul bag (and not carry so much water, duh!). Not owning one, my ancient duffel did it's best but was shredded.

 

Emerging from the mists is the amazing Squire Creek Wall! Slab Daddy climbs behind the dead treetop into the white bowl, then follows the light streak above its left edge.

 

After fording Squire Creek, you face an impenetrable thicket! However, the obvious trail running that runs into the open timber makes access very reasonable.

 

The 3 pm 'alpine start' up the sno-cone burying pitch 1. We traversed it and some grubby slabs leftward to access Pitch 2.

 

The fabled Balcony Bivy, with a flat sleeping pad.

 

Waking up gently to 5.10 climbing!

 

Exiting ‘The Feature’ (Pitch 13) onto the immaculate upper slabs. The small water streaks visible on Joe’s left were encountered on many pitches, but never a real problem.

 

Micro-crimpy 5.10+ dike on pitch 16. The bolts are almost as close together as they look.

 

The long corner on pitch 19 is the best crack climbing on the route.

 

Strategy and Gear

 

The topo linked above is extremely accurate and helpful.

There was LOTS of water in puddles on the route, including all the blue dots on the topo. It may taste like our ropes though, after the frequent dunkings during rappel pulls.

On a related note, PLEASE use blue bags! Enough said.

Joe’s bivy sack was very useful for bugs and heavy dew.

 

Pitch Notes (if you want them)

 

P 2. 10+ crux was running with water. A dry 5.8-ish variation was on the right – one bolt, moderately runout.

P. 4& 5 can be combined in a 60m rappel.

P. 5 The fourth bolt is damaged and very loose. Not too scary because the nieghboring bolts are fine and not very far off.

P. 9 Belay anchor is a bit farther right (~40’) of corner than shown on topo.

P. 15 Line wanders - use long slings to reduce rope drag.

P. 17 It’s tempting and possible to rappel to the bottom of pitch 16. Our 60 m ropes just reached, but the knot threatened to stick on the pull (yikes!), so better not to combine them.

P. 22. Save some small cams for the ‘10- steep’ wall. We didn’t, so headed down with no regrets.

 

Gear Notes:

Full range of cams from tiny to #4 camelot (doubles not needed). We brought but didn’t use any nuts.

 

Approach Notes:

The creek that landmarks the turnoff from the old roadbed onto the climbers trail no longer has an “exposed culvert” – it’s now the one with the cut cedar log crossing.

[Rainman]

Well done! It's fantastic that Slab Daddy is getting the attention it deserves. A great route in a great location.

[Tyson.g]

Nice work Curt!

 

[benmurphy]

nice dudes! sweet line indeed...