TripReport - Wallowas Mar 21

[willstrickland]

The Sky is Falling Wallowa Mtns, Mar 21, 2002

A phone call from Terminal Gravity, raving about “magazine cover” ice convinced Wes and I to make the 5 hour drive out to Enterprise. We headed out straight after work Wednesday and arriving at TG’s around 11pm we immediately crashed. After about 5 hours of sleep, TG fired up the coffee while his lovely wife cooked up some waffles. Nice! I hadn’t had a real breakfast in months. A quick meal, some “calling in sick” phone calls, and we were off. Ten minutes on the road put us at our parking area. A short stop to deflate the tires a bit got us up the last 1/3 mile of non-plowed roadway. We donned our gear and headed up the approach slope. A quick and short approach of about 10 minutes put us at the base of a 55-60m fall. Sure enough, on the wall in front of us was a beautiful curtain of white, this was going to be fun! Temps had hit 50 the previous day and would reach at least that high today. TG commented that the flow was half what it had been the day before. Looking up, I noticed that one connecting section, a 10 ft vertical step, was gone and would require some serious dry tooling and/or aid to pass. Looks good, and looks interesting (i.e. hard!). Since TG had led the last pitch when we were here back in Jan, and I had led at Ski Bowl, it was Wes’s pitch. Now about 9:00am, he took off up the vertical start and bouldered through the first 15ft, axes making that reassuring “thunk” when hitting solid plastic ice. Reaching a step, Wes stopped to place a decent screw. He soon climbed out of our sight as we had taken shelter under a rock overhang to the side. Wes was moving really smoothly and confidently, and was well into the pitch after a couple of minutes. After heading out of sight, and what seemed like a really long time, he sounded an “off belay” from above. I was soon to find out why the delay was in order. Tagged as the leader of the next pitch, I took off following Wes’s lead and trailing a line for TG. I was determined to get through the pitch quickly and efficiently since it appeared that the next lead would take some juice. I managed to follow the pitch fairly quickly and was soon pulling across a traverse to Wes’s belay. One look was all it took to realize why he was a while with the anchor, and to inspire me NOT TO FALL! Two poor tied-off screws, an ice tool, and a slung icicle column made up the belay. Not confidence inspiring, but for what he had to work with Wes did an excellent job. I had the pins on my harness and reaching the belay handed them over where Wes tried, without luck, to add a decent pin to the belay. We decided I should climb on through and get some gear above. This seemed like a good idea, for about five moves. After trying out a rightward traverse to rock to bypass some poor ice and finding ice coated slopers, I retreated back left and started to climb upwards. Now situated directly above Wes with no gear in and a questionable belay, I started downclimbing. I reached an area with better ice and tried to place a screw…no luck. Tried another…whew, got a stubby, that’s a little better. Continuing to climb through poor ice and reaching some decent footholds I decided to get another screw. Again I had problems getting a placement and finally gave up and kept climbing up and left. Deciding to traverse to a rock shelf to the left, with the hopes of getting some good rock gear in, I pounded a Spectre into decent ice and set off. As I dropped the tools and started pulling rock moves I felt relieved, as this ledge was big enough to stand on and would take good cams and pins. No sooner than I start to place a cam I notice a bolt…right in front of me, then another. Stainless steel, 3/8 inchers, must be reasonably new. The bolts were a real surprise, but welcome at that point because the rapidly melting flow and missing section of ice meant we were going down, not up, from here. One look at the aid/drytooling section and the rapidly melting ice was all the convincing I needed. I arranged a belay off the two bolts and backed it up with a bomber small cam. A quick eq job with the cordelette and TG was on belay. I couldn’t see TG, and apparently he took a couple of short falls off the initial section…trying to tiptoe around and climb delicately, he just oozed off a couple of features. All I felt was the rope go tight and then come unweighted a few seconds later. Deciding to bash and smash as much as he needed to, Steve continued in good style and cruised on into the belay without further ado. Now Wes was up. After trying to exchange the camera a couple of times, Wes ended up with it after Steve had followed. I had the camera when Wes was leading the first pitch and snapped some shots. Then I forgot to give it to him at the first belay (the anchor was my immediate concern at that moment!) so he couldn’t get shots of me. I had the camera when Steve was following and I couldn’t see him until he was right in my lap. Now Wes had it (I’d lowered it on the rope when Steve was following trying to get the camera to Wes). Wes is following, pops his head over a ledge giving us the chance for a great shot…face in the frame, from above to the side, sun shining, axe planted in ice above the lip, etc, but he had the camera DOH! Wes followed without any problem and we began to arrange the rap station. Lacking any tied webbing, we decided to leave a rap ring and two slings. Wes was the first down, and Steve followed. Being the lightest, it was standard practice for me to go last and pull the backup cam. I cleaned the remaining gear, holstered my tools, and began to rap. Quickly enough I was at the base and ducked under an overhang in the rock. I thought about pulling the rap ropes from there but the drag looked to be too bad that way. Still attached to the ropes, I began rapping down the snow slope below the base to get away from the face in order to pull the ropes. TG was at the packs under an overhang at the base and Wes was standing a few yards to my left. Suddenly I hear Wes scream out. Now I don’t know what words came out of Wes’s mouth, but all I remember hearing was a cry with some SERIOUS alarm in it. Looking skyward, I saw the cause of the seriousness….all 800 lbs of it. Just like a dropped paper plate will flutter to the ground, a massive chunk of detached waterfall will float and flutter on it’s way earthward. Wes sprinted left, soon reaching a low angle section of jumbled rock and got hemmed in, but out of the main fall line. Instinctively, I began rapping the remainder of the rope as fast as I could and tried to get a bead on the biggest pieces. WHAM! The chunk hit about halfway down the climb and exploded into two large pieces and a bunch of smaller ones. Still rapping, here it comes…time it right, wait, wait, DUCK! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! The biggest pieces went to my right and left, the haymaker passing a good 15-20ft to my left. Somehow I managed to dodge some and get spared by the rest, only getting hit with one basketball sized piece in the shoulder. Ok, that was close, now get me the hell off this rope! Traversing way to the side, I give Wes the rope to pull and head to the packs. A quick analysis and we basically agreed that the bolts were most likely for a 1st pitch belay for the ice route, and not for a rock route as we originally surmised. The sheltered position, lack of other bolts, and lack of an obvious line through the rock led us to our conclusion. So much for virgin ice, but we didn’t finish the whole thing anyway. Soon enough we are hiking out under clear blue skies and 50 degree sun. Staying well to the side and moving quickly, we were out of harms way and back in the trees in less than a minute. A growler of porter awaited us at the truck and we made quick work of it, soaking in the beauty of the Wallowa Mountains. Lunch in the cowboy bar and a few beers at the Terminal Gravity public house situated us nicely for the long haul back to Portland.Usually, after any kind of close call, I get the “stress let down” where once the thing has passed I feel shaky and amped up. I never got that, and actually kind of laughed right after the blocks blew by and we were looking at each other in awe. All I kept thinking was "damn, good thing we weren't on that pitch when it came down". I guess I can put the tools away for a while now. I have no idea what the rating would be, but suffice it to say that the conditions were much more of a factor than the steepness (although it was steep enough with maybe a third of the sections going at vertical and the start actually overhanging slightly). I’m not revealing the location except to say it’s in the Wallowas somewhere, and someone else obviously knows about it hence the bolts. I’ll post pics when I get them scanned (probably next week).

[specialed]

Man I hate that helpless feeling when you're caught in a slide or rock/ice fall and there isn't shit you can do but move your ass out of the way as fast as humanly possible and hope it doesn't hit you.

[sobo]

Sounds like a rarin' good time! Give my regards to Wes, for he would have fared about as well if he'd been with Cragg and me in the Little Naches. See related TR in this forum.

[wdietsch]

quote:

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Originally posted by willstrickland:

The Sky is Falling Wallowa Mtns, Mar 21, 2002 I had the pins on my harness and reaching the belay handed them over where Wes tried, without luck, to add a decent pin to the belay.

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Will is too kind, this should read more like "Wes pulled a fucky gumby and left the ground without the pins". I was actually able to add a #2 LA to the belay

Note to self.... "Buy a couple of stubbies to add to the rack, tied off screws are bullshit especially with spectra runners"

Sobo... glad you and Cragg finished her off. I am kind of fond of TLN and Chinook Pass, being the old stomping grounds and all. It came down to the very last minute when Will and I made the decision not to go to TLN and head out to the Wallowas. TG did some pretty smooth talking, almost as smooth as his brew.

Both these areas and places like Strobach go right along with the thread on "Washington Ice" in relation to there being lots of options for those willing to search/work for it. TG spotted this flow while scouting around on something else. For those of you checking out Strobach don't ignore the North Fork of the Tieton and other areas on White Pass both above and below Rimrock Lake. On Chinook Pass, the lower north face of Fife's Peaks also has huge potential for those willing to put in the effort.

Wes

[willstrickland]

OK, The pictures as promised:

The Falls from a few viewsRoping UpWes on the first pitchRapping Off - The "pointer" shows Will for perspectiveand TG and Will chillin on the belay ledge

I think we could grade this SI-Fading for Slurpee Ice-quickly melting. Seriously though, any guesstimate at the rating for this thing?

[ 04-02-2002: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

[ 04-02-2002: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

[sobo]

quote:

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Originally posted by willstrickland:

<snipped> Seriously though, any guesstimate at the rating for this thing?

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I'll weigh in, Will.

By the looks of the last three pics, I'd give it WI3+, based on its (perceived) angle, stepped formation, and height of vertical curtains. I base my grading on Jeff Lowe's "Ice World" and Duane Raleigh's "Ice".

Between 75 deg to vertical, easy rests, pro where you want/need it, and short vertical sections broken up by easy-to-find rest stations gives a WI3. The vertical sections appear to be about 3 to 4 body lengths (20-25 feet), for which I add the "+" modifier. If the vertical stretches were any longer/higher (>30 feet), I would give it a WI4. However, I've often been accused of underrating ice climbs by about one-half a grade... Just my $0.02

[ 04-02-2002: Message edited by: sobo ]

[sobo]

quote:

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Originally posted by wdietsch:

On Chinook Pass, the lower north face of Fife's Peaks also has huge potential for those willing to put in the effort.

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Wes,Cragg and I were driving around after climbing a couple of weekends ago and stopped by the Fife's Peak pullout on 410 and gazed longingly to the north... He mentioned that you and a bud had been in there a while back, or had talked to someone who'd been in there. Looks like a 3-day trip, with a lonnnnng day of tough skiing to get in position.

We put it on our tick list for next season. Care to join us?

[wdietsch]

Sobo,

I will put something together and either post it in the So Wash forum or send you a PM

[sobo]

[wdietsch]

Forget the skis, the approch to Fife's from the south is in the trees on steep ground until you are directly below "The Mainmast" in an area known as "The Yeti Lair".

[sobo]

Data transferred to long-term memory storage banks. Thanx,dood.