[TR] Mt. Garfield - Infinite Bliss 7/16/2013

[Val Zephyr]

Trip: Mt. Garfield - Infinite Bliss

 

Date: 7/16/2013

 

Trip Report:

Ian and I climbed Infinite Bliss Saturday. Infinite Bliss was put up on our very nearby Garfield Peak (just 40 miles from Seattle) during the summers of 2001 and 2002. Once finished, it was reported as the longest multipitch sport climb in the country. It is amazing to me that something like this exists so near Seattle and I’d heard of it, but I hadn’t even given it much of a thought, never read a TR, and didn’t really have it on my ticklist. But it was Wednesday pub night once again with the UWCC, I didn’t have a plan for the weekend. Robert spoke of tails of getting to pitch 18 on Infinite Bliss and it sounded pretty fun. I immediately buzzed-dialed Ian (who I heard also wanted on the route) and the trip was set.

 

We left Seattle a little after 6am, and were ready to climb at just 8:30 (after a ~45min hike in). There were already 3 teams ahead of us and one at the base. The team at the base kindly let us start ahead of them. Speed is key on a route of this length. We simulclimbed pitches 1-9 in three blocks, making good time and passing two more teams in the process (Thanks!). At this point we began to be periodically showered with rockfall from the final team above. Unfortunately, the route funnels any rockfall from above onto the lower pitches. There were a couple of close calls here. We pitched out 10, 11 and 12 which included one of the 5.10 pitches. We strung together pitch 13 and 14 with a little more simulclimbing. It was only 12:37! Just over four hours and we’d banged out 14 of the 23 pitches. We were totally on schedule to finish this thing! My simulclimb block was next: pitches 15-17 looked like no big deal, just a single bolt 5.2 followed by two pitches of no bolt 5.0. I sped up the 5.2, no problem. I was surprised to have caught up to the party ahead at the anchor atop of pitch 15. The rockfall earlier began to make more sense as I spoke with them. They’d been up there for 1 hour and had made two attempts to find the next set of anchors with no success. The face is rotten and loose in many places and it was easy to knock debris down, especially if off-route. They gave me their best advice as to where not to go and I left with a seemingly good plan. I’d traverse 80’ just like in the topo, and turn straight up at the first bush, just like in the topo. I ran out the entire rope. No anchors. I searched all over the face, no anchors. I screamed and swore at the rock, yet still no anchors appeared. I downclimbed back to Ian at the belay, pulling one mediocre cam placement and picking up another that didn’t even pretend to be a psychological placement, and instead pulled and zipped down the rope. Yuck. Ian was ready for a turn though. He again ran out the entire rope in a slightly different direction. At some point he yelled, “Are you OK simuling?” Me: “Did you find the anchor?” Ian: “No.” Me:“I don’t want to simulclimb then!” Ian: “But I just need 20’ to get to some slings in a tree.” He hadn’t found the anchors, but he had found the tree rap station marked on the topo. At least that gave us some clue as to where we were. I unclipped and gave him the 20’ he needed. I climbed up toward him and then, when no gear remained between us, ventured higher onto the face in search of the anchors. Another grid pattern-like search and we finally spotted the anchors!! They were now below me and between Ian and I. About 80’ directly above the tree with the slings. Looking at the topo again now, this kind of all makes sense, but not really…. Ian climbed up to me and continued on to the top of pitch 17. Our good timing had come to a screeching halt, it was now 3:30. Everyone below us had decided to rappel. I took off to the top of pitch 18, trying to climb as speedily as possible. Ian took the 5.10c crux in good style. I followed, it was 4:30 now, we were tired. I got the short 5.7 and Ian took the long 5.10a chimney pitch. 5:30, passed our turnaround time of 5pm. We knew that we’d be rappelling some of the lower pitches in the dark if we continued. We decide to bang out the final two as quickly as possible. I got a very fun 5.8 and Ian got the final no-joke 5.9 (that thing was freakin’ hard after 23 pitches and ~10 hours of climbing). We summit!! It’s just before 6:30, we’d likely be rappelling the lower slabs in the dark. It was well-bolted there and the anchors are marked with orange flagging, so we are OK with this. But, just as we reach the top, the unthinkable happens: Ian’s belay device dives into the abyss. Probably a combination of being tired and me shifting to take a photo at just the wrong time, but it doesn’t matter. We are 23 pitches up, already running late and we only have one belay device. Crap. We briefly consider the Munter Hitch, but after a few rappels the double ropes would surely be a kinked-up mess. I remembered a cool trick that I’d learned in the Mountaineers Basic Course 14 years ago, the carabiner brake rappel. I’ve been so amazed at how these lessons have continually helped me out in the Mountains, even if it took years for the situation to arise. I fiddled with the largest biners that we had. I don’t have the old D-carabiners that we used to have in the Mounties course anymore, but I found some that worked. Yahoo, we had a way down! We got through the runout slabby pitches and were on about pitch 14 when it got dark. Everything slows down in the dark, especially since I had to construct my rig and triple check it every rappel to make sure that I didn’t screw anything up by being tired. There is no room for mistakes when on rappel. We made our way down slowly, but smoothly, reaching the base (and our hiking shoes!) at 1:30am. Wow, what an adventure. Before getting on this climb, I was curious how a mostly well-bolted sport-climb can earn a grade IV. I get it now, I think that one could get by on just multipitch sport techniques for this climb if everything went exactly as planned. But more likely, to complete this number of pitches in one day and to be ready for anything that may go wrong, you need to have your whole bag of alpine tricks with you.

 

Photos!

 

The view up from the base of the route:

 

Lower slabs:

 

Pitching out some fun climbing nearly halfway up the route:

 

Happy climbers!

 

My circuitous route up to the pitch 16 anchors:

 

Fantastic climbing higher on the route:

 

View over the other side from the top:

 

There are 24 rappels on this route!!

 

My carabiner brake rappel set-up. I backed it up with a klemheist above instead of an autoblock below the device in case my set-up itself failed. This made me pretty comfortable with the set-up.

 

It got dark about ½ way down the route, but we were through the run-out slabs, so we knew that we could follow bolts to find the rest of the rappel stations.

 

Gear Notes:

Half-ropes

Small set of nuts

A couple small cams

~25 draws

[kevbone]

Awesome job. What a fun day you had. Love that route.

[Off_White]

Carabiner brake rappel was the old standard, since a hip belay didn't require a device. I'm glad someone schooled you in the old ways, and you didn't have to dulfersitz the whole thing!

 

thanks for the swell TR

[spionin]

good lord, you're getting out a lot! i guess it really paid to have rocked the general exam!

 

awesome report!

[Rad]

Way to persevere.

 

For future parties, here is the beta on how to avoid unroping in the loose and confusing terrain around pitches 17-18:

 

Infinite bliss TR w beta on route info

 

Also, I have a simple topo I'd be glad to pm to anyone who's interested. The last time I posted it mods removed it, so that's why I'm not including it here.

cheers.

R

[tvashtarkatena]

I'd like a copy, Rad. TIA.

 

 

[Pete_H]

Looks like some fun pitches. What did you think of the route quality in general? Nice job, btw!

[Val Zephyr]

Overall this is a very high quality route. 23 pitches and only two of them had some crappy sections, that is a great line! There were several pitches that we finished and immediately commented, "that was some fun climbing!" I'd say its definitely worth a trip. But, as I sit here saying that, I'll add to try to climb it on a weekday to avoid some of the potential rockfall from parties above.