[TR] Daring-A-Ton - Half Dreaming 8/3/2013

[ivan]

Trip: Daring-A-Ton - Half Dreaming

 

Date: 8/3/2013

 

Trip Report:

the augors of august started poorly - hammer-knocks on the front door in the early morning hours - a neighbor, perhaps rightly, awful annoyed that the wife had neglected the parking brake of the Red Devil, resulting in its nightime ambulation into her ride at a heady 3 miles n' hour - my sad mitsubishi beached on her bumper like a kamikaze short on sake - 7 a.m. holler'n'n'lawya threats, dogs howling in the grey mist, sleep scuppered - a non-plussed insurance adjuster - jesus, w/ the weasels all out of their warrens and zeroing in, i must escape this suburban somali

 

so, as fate had felt vouch-safed to fend me, i'd the powderhound all primed up on the launching pad for a short trip North - all i had to do was make it through a few hours w/o committing a capital crime, get packed, then put this sordid scene behind me

 

garden raiding - fresh basil n' oregano pizza w/ cloves of garlic - a greasy calzone for the weekend rations - chicken-tv when bryan arrives - introductions all around and a spot of dinner done, we cast off for the Emerald City, our plan to party w/ an assembly of demi-gods: tvash, joshk, n' that wonder of the west, mr. wayne wallace

 

rain on the road - rush-hour traffic - smokes make the time smolder on by - seattle in the evenign - lenin late for lunch in fremont - we arrive to find josh's demesne much deranged since last i'd left it - the seed of a traffic ticket is set

 

an evening of gut-laughs ensue - 250 cc.retard tr's represented in one room - josh's tv not unlike the HAL 9000, on the cusp of consciousness - w/ the wonder of a weed volcano, we toast the wisdom of our fair republic and its ballot initiative process we lay plans for the morrow n' wayne bows out early for some damn-fool thing in the way-back of the pickets, as he is wont to...

 

7 a.m. comes quick, n' bryan and i are out the door for the fred meyer to find fresh booze for the long weekend, then we're off for darrington, the first time for the both of us - we ramble up half-ruined roads, eventually reaching a big bend w/ bruising boulders that signal its time to stop

 

sure, dreamer's a long route, the topo says it right there, but come on, this powderhound kid's a goddamn rope ninja, all raring to go, so who's to say we can't do this whole thing w/ a 11 a.m. start? we pack up whilst puffing on whatever, then saunter on down the rapidly diminishing track to see what mischief we can find for ourselves

 

a fine walk through the woods, reminiscent at times for me, for likely no real reason, of downey creek - huge stumps given succor to preceding generations - shade n' moss n' needle thick about us - lengths of miner's metal pipes haphazard all about in defiance of the local swarms of meth-heads

 

our misfortune was soon to follow - despite decent descriptions, niether of us saw fit to pay much heed, and having reached the waterfall, we wandered off the proper path - i'd tell you the right thing to do, but chance's are, if you're reading this, you don't give a shit about such things at any rate, should you be looking to glean a gem of beta from this rapidly bloating text, the idea is this: when you reach the big pool at the base of the waterfall, go right into the jungle on a trail w/ flagging, passing eventually back left to the top of a big boulder above the falls where a big cairn is - from there, though the trail goes left, look carefully for a vegetated tunnel w/ rocky debris strewn on its floor to the right and uphill - this is the begining of a stony gully n' slab system that will eventually take you to the base of dreamer, from whence you'll scramble up a ways to reach the route's start

 

as it turned out, in our zeal to ascend slabs, we stuck to the waterfall which heads to a pass, and too tragically late realized we were far, far away from our route - an hour plus of hateful swacking ensued, which i've engaged a professional therapist to expunge from my memory: side-hilling over broken ground - a grim mix of slide alder, slide cedar, devil's club n' alpine rose - sweating like a whore in church, beads of perspiration raining down like a horse pissing on a flat rock, eventually we make it out of north cascadianistan

 

after some scrambling we found what we were supposed to

holy shit, is it really 2 o'clock? and did some dickhead really shit his pants here?

realizing that climbing the totality of dreamer was just that, we figured we'd at least settle for climbing as much as we could before dark - i relished the excuse of tardiness to relinquish all leads to the 'hound

 

bryan on dreamer direkt (i think - frankly, i was mostly confused whenever i looked at the topo )

pitch 2 i think, though maybe we'd wandered onto something else here?

then our last of the day

3 pitches up, and approaching 5, we took pause - the next pitch was rattling the nerves of the usually staid hound, and for good reason - seemed an awwwwwful long way to the first bolt and a fall would be right onto the anchor, after bonking off a bit of a ledge - seemed an easy decision to rap off, n' so we did - eventually reaching our packs, it then seemed proper to just leave all the shit up there and head back sunday for a spot of redemption?

 

a ramble off, bryan insisting on downclmimbing the approach slabs w/ pbr in hand, spilling only a few drops - we found the proper approach far less of a ball-buster than our misguided cross-country clusterfuck, complete w/a few fun sections of fixed dental-floss for a hand-line

 

back at the pool where we began our wayward path, we bumbled into josh n' pat, out for an evenign stroll - high-jinks ensued, and soon we sat like stone gargoyles glowering at the alpine scenery all about us - dragonflies flitting, black flies buzzing - the roar n' rustle of snowfields peacefully finding their way to the pacific

 

a gallivant through the alpen-glow in the forest - camp at the cars in the gathering dusk - a grand bonfire built by our resident pyromaniac - tunes blaring out the high-tech box: kanye west, peter gabriel, perry farrell n' tom waits of course a diversity of menus feasted upon as the bugs bombed about us - me w/ michner's "alaska," too foot-fucked to hop-around much, apathy hussied up as virtue - talk and talk and talk, i forget every word of it but treasure it all

 

they retreat to their netted heavens as the night grew thin but me i settle down to battle it out w/ the biting ones - awoken in the wee hours w/ a throbbing pain in my big toe, it the victim of repeated injuries resulting in some quasi-arthritic state - i worried at how it might fare in the morning

 

shouts n' shrieks n' gunfire in the distance at dawn - pat and josh off to westward ho, us back to dreamer the plan - a couple passes through us as i start percolating the coffee, they too dreamward-drawn

 

our approach the second day much appreciated in its relative brevity, we bespeak the couple, a pair of seattlites, who've lost the 2 hour head-start they had on us on god know's what - we start climbing just ahead of them, and they keep good formation just below of us for the rest of the day up until our decision to bail

 

we decided to climb another line to our high point of the day before - safe sex maybe? this was the first pitch at least...

heady climbing to be sure, my trap's sore as shit the proof a day after - the quadricep of the upper arm!

 

gravity.

by pitch 6 we were feeling proper scorched - the sun shit its golden arrows on us as we singed n' slowed - my feet heaped hatred upon me - i had no hope of leading, and found little joy in sitting on slight ledges, waiting to share them w/ strangers - my fault entirely, rank suckers like me could ruin even a blow-job

 

bryan just past the undercling on p6

a polish lass leading up p5 - humble apologies for my poor persona and general stink of an orangutan in heat

atop p6, our pink skins sizzling, bryan looking at an unavoidable day of work on the morrow and a long drive afore us, we settled on bailing - perhaps if my feet didn't pulsate w/ hate-fuck i would have volunteered to aid-fuck my way up 7? ah well, whatever, down we go...

 

a lively little deproach - the pool in the late afternoon sun - swimming n' smoking - bryan makes a #3 after aspirating some tobacco

 

then it was that long orbit back to oregon for us - hours passing by w/ the roar of time pissed away - we set to deep discussions, like the wisdom of our First Peoples - piners - 3/4 bottles - getting hawk-eye drunk - donut-holes - cousins - phone calls not returned, pow-wows, atv's, etc.

 

do yourself a favor and listen to 30 seconds of such genius

 

[video:youtube]

by the time the day had died and midnight neared, i realized this whole trip had made me thankful for at least one thing: i no longer need to freebase cocaine - my sponsor in this quixotic quest:

[video:youtube]

gotta get back to darrington some day, that is assuming the damned bean-counters don't clobber the approach road - the tragedy of the golden-age of north cascade mountaineering behind us...hopefully i'll have some rebuilt robot-feet by then to take the pain?

 

Gear Notes:

gear to #4

 

Approach Notes:

don't miss that first rock gully at the waterfall, hidden as it is in a tunnel of bracken bullshit

[tanstaafl]

Ivan, It helps to do the approach in the pouring rain on Friday.

 

I would say too bad you didn't head up to Squire Creek Wall but it's clearly for the best as we only had five liters of wine and two flasks of bourbon for the weekend, which was barely sufficient for just us.

[Tyson.g]

You Beyoches need a guide ..........Sorry I was busy with familial obligations.

 

Edited August 5, 2013 by Tyson.g

[ivan]

Ivan, It helps to do the approach in the pouring rain on Friday.

 

the debate between the volcano and the wet-bushwack was a short one i assure you

 

how's the approach for squire creek compare?

[tanstaafl]

oof -- I did Dreamer in 2007; my memory is suspect under the best conditions and six years is far too long for me to make any useful comparisons. I can say the Squire Creek approach was both easier and took less time than I expected. I can't really remember a damn thing about the Dreamer approach except that it was kinda brushy here and there.

[geoff]

Nice one. Look like fun.

[OlegV]

nice!

[mattp]

Good one!

 

If you consider going back, think about this (it has a significantly shorter approach than Dreamer):

 

 

Witch Doctor Wall, on the back side of Exfoliation Dome.

[crazedmaniac]

Sounds like Jonas and you had to many .. pinners, EH? funny read, and you should be glad the place didn't take your rope too!(rapping, rope eating place)

Gone are the days of camping and parking close to the giant. This place would have made a really great campground before they cut all the GIANT OLD GROWTH fir and cedar from this basin, with climbers coming from all around, to 'pay' to camp here, for all of time. (instead of the one time timber sale) . Even The whole upper clear creek valley..EH?

super pic Matt! Witch Dr. looks really 'good', from that angle and time of year. have some shots of the basin from very early 70,s with stumps and clear cuts from top of blubbery,green and 3 o clock. will post em here soon.

[crazedmaniac]

(Daring-A-Ton, nice)

I also hear the sounds of rock drilling from the 'big boulder basin' at the n face of 3 fingers a lot lately. t is a great place for the hot days. Sure there will be a lot of highly protected very fine climbs there soon. The trip to the top of the basin, with Craig lakes is a super bonus, also. Have done a lot of traverse trips and circle routes there that were always rewarding. Just watch out for the black hole of aluminum and parts. t can suck you in, and you lose time, wondering. finally spent alot of time there figuring out just what happened, by climbing all over the rock and finding embedded parts. Seeing the 86 shortly after it got spread out from just the impact, helped a lot also. Amazing how time and nature (and climbers) can spread it out even more. Like the big boulder in the basin. it used to be tilted much more to the wall, with a huge cave directly under it, complete with table and stash spots. It is completely covered up now with the new tilt, (mostly from late 90,s) complete with hangers for testing your friction ability's. Never thought i would see that! We used to have a lot of fun climbing on the "big boulder", that i first heard about from Ken Carpenter, in the late 60,s. Daring ton rocks!!!

[fgw]

another great read. can't believe you guys felt like doing that approach twice in 2 days

[tvashtarkatena]

Where can one find beta on the aid routes on Witch Doctor Wall? Never been. Could be a reason to go back sooner than later.

[mountainmatt]

From Smoot:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Hiq3yGt92hwC&lpg=PA110&ots=6wGCYqnopl&dq=witch%20doctor%20wall%20climb&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q=witch%20doctor%20wall%20climb&f=false

 

A couple of TRs from Alpine dave:

http://www.alpinedave.com/darrington/Voodoo/Voodoo_Wall.htm

 

http://www.alpinedave.com/darrington/muddyfingers/muddy_fingers.htm

 

From Matt's site:

Approach

From the fork where a spur heads left off the main Clear Creek logging road about five miles from the Mountain Loop Highway, drive approximately 1/2 mile until a small clearing allows parking on the right, immediately before an old logging roadbed can be found to head up and left into the woods. Follow this about 1/4 mile and, where it nears the creek draining the back side of exfoliation dome, follow the road cutting back right another hundred yards or so until finding a crude "trail" cutting up the bank above the roadbed (on the left). The route starts out following closely above the creek, then switchbacks before traverssing steeper slopes, heading up and left, to emerge from the woods in the boulders below the northeast side of Exfoliation Dome. Cairns mark a route starting up through the boulders. A combination of rock hopping and brush leads to the base of the slabs below Witchdoctor Wall, and the Solar Wall routes lie up and left.

 

[tvashtarkatena]

Thanks!

 

What's the generally accepted protocol for, um, pruning in Darrington? None? A few snips here and there? Napalm OK?

 

TIA

Edited August 8, 2013 by tvashtarkatena

[ivan]

you gonna lead all the a3 slab pitches pat or do i get some too?

 

the entrance into the rock gully leading up to dreamer sure could use a chainsaw treatment to help your friendly out'o'town stoners not go astray

[crazedmaniac]

just follow the 'rock' around the north side. stay in the drainage. it is that simple. Have done it over 30 times.... some times, found ourselves way up on the rock, looking down where we wanted to be for our stashes ....

[crazedmaniac]

'generally accepted protocol for, um, pruning in Darrington?'

if what happened up on squire ... 4 years ago ... after no chopping or cutting down of old cedars, bushes that i VERY ENJOYED brushing thru, and watching how they formed to the brushing of my packs over the 30+ years of going thru them like a 'door', and seeing many bushes and trees that i personally planted and natured, get chopped for a 'marked trail' .... says anything ....

[tvashtarkatena]

Well, that clears that up.

 

Without a translator, I'm left to my own devices, I reckon.

 

Some of the trails and routes could use a snip or two here and there.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2013 by tvashtarkatena