[TR] Wolf Rock - Back to Mordor - Morgul Vale 6/21/2015

[YocumRidge]

Trip: Wolf Rock - Back to Mordor - Morgul Vale

 

Date: 6/21/2015

 

Trip Report:

On Sunday 06/21, OlegV, Simon and I visited the Oregonian big wall - Wolf Rock - and climbed Morgul Vale:

 

 

a sweet 8 P route on the SE face which was put up by Chris Fralick and Tyler Adams in 2010. Currently, there are multiple link ups in the 10- to 10+ range for PP 1-4. The rock was clean and solid for the most part as compared to the next door "classic" neighbor Barad Dur where I almost died a week before after pulling a block and being off route.

 

 

Wolf Rock, the third largest monolith (Ta3 andesite) in the world, has certainly its charms along with only 10 min approach from NF15:

 

 

 

 

Scrambling to the base of the route:

 

 

On P1:

 

 

Large party ledges after every pitch:

 

 

Simon on P2:

 

 

Looking down:

 

 

Myself on the crux P3:

 

 

Steep:

 

 

Boys on the party ledge #2:

 

 

Oleg on P4:

 

 

On the party ledge #3:

 

 

Oregonian Cascades:

 

 

On P5:

 

 

Looking down:

 

 

Oleg on P6:

 

 

Mt. Washington:

 

 

PP 7-9 to the summit ridge:

 

 

Boys on the summit ridge:

 

 

Registering in the register:

 

 

 

The descent - "third gully" - was supposed to be at the end of the complex summit ridge. Whatever it means. It took us an hour to locate the scary looking and moving slope before we could see the cairns leading down the "smooth slabs" - what turned out to be a very solid staircase. The staircase got cliffed out so we traversed over to the skiers left and picked up the trail in the trees below.

 

 

Glad to be back to the party ledge #4:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Draws and rack to 1.5"

 

Approach Notes:

NF 15

[BillA]

Nice Anastasia! I did the second ascent of Morgul Vale with Tyler a couple weeks after he and Chris finished it. Love that climb! For history sake, it follows (very) roughly the same route as Gigantor, which was put up back in the 70's by Dean Fry and Wayne Arrington and had like one 1/4" bolt per pitch. I believe Tyler and Chris talked to Wayne about their plans and he said it was cool. No one is really sure where Gigantor went anyway, but hard to believe they could find a 5.8 route through some of that terrain.

 

Anyway, psyched to see Tyler's routes get some traffic. He was proud of Morgul Vale, rightfully so, as it's one of the best (if not the best) long moderate route in Oregon. Now you should go to the Menagerie and climb some of his routes there!

[YocumRidge]

Bill, thanks for the input and keeping the legacy alive!

 

I was amazed by how much effort Tyler put into the routes at Wolf, and what quality routes at that. The SE face routes (Edge of Mordor, Gigantor, Cerberus, Morgul Vale and Ian's route can now be all linked to the single 5.8 exit pitch.

After having a mental and physical breakdown on Barad Dur a week prior, I was really surprised to see the totally opposing rock quality on the routes which are only 200' apart.

 

I have climbed a few of his equally inspiring routes in the Conspiciuous Arch as well, but too bad they don't connect to the summit ridge.

 

Menagerie sounds fun but I need someone to show me around. The area is a bit convoluted

[shapp]

Some words from Tyler himself on Morgul Vale stone:

 

"Managed to climb morgul vale on sunday in a fucking down pour with my friend steve. Was pretty funny, soaking wet on every pitch, but good to know you can still climb it in the rain, fuckin-a that rocks got friction."

 

miss you a lot budy, RIP

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2015 by shapp

[stevetimetravlr]

Righteous! Great TR and photos. I always wanted to climb there, now I know I have to. No TR on Barad Dur?

[ivan]

i can look at that all day

[MrGecko]

I'm positive that when we climbed there you swore you hated the place and thought the rock absolutely sucked. Glad to see you give it a second chance.