[TR] Enchantments - The Valkyrie 6/16/2013

[whitnc66]

Trip: Enchantments - The Valkyrie

 

Date: 6/16/2013

 

Trip Report:

Tad, Logan and I climbed the Valkyrie on Sunday, June 16th. The route offers six great pitches of 5.10 climbing on good rock. The first pitch heads up a slab to an awkward corner/roof system. We belayed at a big horn 10 feet below the orange rock marked in Blakes topo. We broke up the second pitch into 2 pitches, which was probably a good thing since the OW was strenuous! If you are not comfortable in offwidth terrain then a #5 would be helpful but its not too bad without one. The second pitch continues up an awesome left facing corner system to some wild face moves. The third pitch goes up cracks on the face and then moves left on a ramp to a ledge. The fourth pitch is a sweet traverse out right past an arête and then up a sick right facing corner system with hands and fists. This pitch brings you to an awesome steep headwall with a left arching finger crack and wild knobs. When the finger cracks peters out you move up and right on knob jugs to a belay that joins you with the last pitch of acid baby. The ridge traverse pitch is awesome! Such great exposure. GO GET ON THIS ROUTE! It is super classic and needs more traffic to clean it up. Now for some pictures☺

 

 

Whitney on Pitch 1

Logan leading Pitch 2

Pitch 2 intermediate belay

Following upper half of Pitch 2

Tad coming up Pitch 2. Frostbite Freddy strikes back!

Whitney on Pitch 3

Logan starting the traverse on Pitch 4

Whitney starting up the headwall on Pitch 5

Sick knobs!

Topping out the overhanging knobs pitch

Logan leading out on the final traverse Pitch 6

Wild traverse!

The beautiful Colchuck Lake

Sunset topout!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Doubles to #3, optional wide gear

 

 

Approach Notes:

Near the top of Aasgard pass, 50 feet left of Acid Baby. Approach to route is snow free. There is a small snow patch encountered when topping out the peak to walk off the backside and a small patch at the top of Aasgard pass.

 

 

[wayne]

Great shots, glad you posted this. its high on the list.

[jonesy]

Sick dudes!! Looks like you had a great day out there

[christophbenells]

those are some awesome pictures, looks like great climbing.

 

i like!

[Sol]

Glad I steered you guys to the Valkyrie, much more varied and memorable then Acid Baby

 

5th ascent I think??

[whitnc66]

I think it was the 5th ascent but who knows! Thanks for the recommendation Sol! It was such a great climb.

[Val Zephyr]

Great pics! Fantastic-looking climb! Thanks for posting! I'm curious how this route compares to Acid Baby? I've been trying to break into leading at this level for a while now. I had the opportunity to follow Acid Baby last summer thanks to "pu", but would still hesitate to lead it with the two 5.10+ sections in there. Are the 5.10's on Valkyrie easier/harder? As sustained? More/less runout (Acid baby was fairly well protected, but I do recall a couple runout moves on slab)? It's great to hear that there is another route up there that is of equal or better quality. If it's a touch easier than it's neighbor, it might make a good end-of-summer goal for me.

[Sol]

More sustained and scrappier. A bit wilder and more exposed. Same grade.

[Eric T]

Hell Yeah Tad and Whitney! Isn't that a sweet climb. Great Pics, I love the light.

 

With all the climbers flooding into Leavenworth for the Alpine these days I can't believe there are single digit ascent numbers left on a climb this classic.

 

 

[dbb]

Climbed this route recently. It was a quality climb with only a few spots of dirty or mungy climbing (mostly in the first pitch). Haven't climbed Acid Baby, but my partner had and commented that Valkyrie seemed like the better route.

 

Val- I'd get on it. The stated grades seemed a bit soft, my impression of the pitches were: 5.10-, 5.10 (awesome), 5.9 (one move), 5.8, 5.9, 5.9. A #5 C4 would make the 10' off-width section top roped on lead, but a #3 fits in half way. We also only took 1 #3 which seemed fine.

 

[Val Zephyr]

Thanks for the encouragement Dave. I'll keep training on the crags and keep my eye on this route. It sounds to be very much within reach. I loved the Acid Baby route next door. If The Valkyrie is better, then I really want to have a go at it!