[TR] Snow Creek Wall - Outer Space 5/20/2016

[brionifitch]

Trip: Snow Creek Wall - Outer Space

 

Date: 5/20/2016

 

Trip Report:

This looks to be interesting...

 

Left Vancouver 0720 after 12hr work day, stoked to get out climbing in the morning! Arrived to the Leavenworth area a little before midnight, parking on a quiet forest road for a short night of sleep under the stars. I awoke at 0500, Dan was still snoozing (had ingested something toxic the day before and had been throwing up and generally feeling like crap). By the time we got to the Snow Lake TH it was nearing 0715.

 

 

AFter racking up with oodles of kit, we hit the trail at 0730 with high anticipation of the climb ahead.

 

Arrived at the base of the wall around 0900. There was one party setting up for Outer Space already. We were unsure of their climbing speed, but after seeing them roping up and placing pro for the original start scramble we decided to quickly rack up and free solo to two tree ledge.

 

The one tenous part on the traverse was a downclimb to an easier path instead of crossing directly across vertical granite.

 

 

Set a quick anchor and Dan started out on P3 aiming for the traverse crux. The following party caught up and we watched Dan work slowly through the traverse. I couldn't help but silently urge him to pick up the pace as we now were making the other pair wait. Awkward! It wasn't until I worked through the climb myself did I realize why it took so long (that section is tough!).

 

About to enter the absolutely other-worldly environment on P4. The features just blew me away! Such fun climbing on that pitch no matter the long run outs, it was great.

 

Dan then set out to enter the dream-world of P5, what a beautiful crack! All the hype about Outer Space became true once I climbed this pitch.

 

 

I just had to stop mid pitch at a good rest and capture the perfection I was amidst.

 

After resting and enjoying Library Ledge for a bit I headed out to finish the climb. Using a 70m, the decision was made to climb the full length instead of pitching out.

 

The wild features continued on this pitch, especially the "roof" bulge that made me literally LOL.

 

Belay anchor was set up off a huge boulder that was approximately 69.5 meters from Library Ledge (rope stretcher!), Dan's smiling face came over the crest, and we celebrated the day before starting the walk off.

 

 

Back to the base of the wall at 1445. We could see the party we had passed free-soloing had just started up P6 so we were pleased to have made that decision. Realized we just did a 7 pitch climb in 4 pitches. Definitely recommend it as an alternative to the standard route. All in all, a great climb and a great experience!

 

Gear Notes:

Full rack, doubles in cams, (think we had triples in size 1 and used em up easily on P5/6). Save an orange metolius/equiv (or two) for the belay anchor on the top boulder if linking P6-7 and using a 70m.

 

Approach Notes:

Hour and a half up and hour down. Don't forget to factor in the walk off to the base of the wall, would rather not get caught in the dark there.

 

Edited May 22, 2016 by brionifitch