ivan Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 Trip: Dawg Mtn - God Spine (Helser Direkkkt - 5.mossy, 3 Date: 3/2/2013 Trip Report: my centennial cascadian cluster-fuck! a froward febuary, spring forestalled and we all weather-fucked - a hip shot of a trip here and there, and what to show for it, for the record-books at least? a day-climb of the complete picnic lunch wall n' zebra-zion to boot, a shot at a day-climb of stone-soup cut short w/ my pinky-tip all shorn off, a jaunt to the jungle cliff.. couple weeks back kenny n' i thought to climb the dog spine, so set out, stoned as statute permits here in the blessed paradise of washington - sadly we were right too eager, and stomped up far too far west of the proper place - a strong wind that brain-sucked saturday, my mind pickled w/ purple burgundy and too feeble to advocate properly for wherever it was we shoulda been - us in the parking lot w/ me realizing i'd left crampons n' day pack behind, smokes too, and where the fuck my sanity - i blame myself, bastard i am. the first footfalls of getting fuck-all lost we kept wandering up, expecting to find funtacular free-climbing on moss at any point, but profoundly dismayed to never meet more than another calf-busting scree-slope long story short, at 2000 feet we burst upon the main hiking trail and so obviously we'd no recourse left but to drink to our dregs... a weekend later and i at the jungle cliff w/ beatard ben - grappling w/ gorillas or whatever appellation had been affixed to it i don't know - just stormy n' sultry that jew-sabbath i recall pitch 2 - a line of hero-bolts to big-sweating on a fixed bit of what-the-fuck, begging a high-step in both aiders to a desperate bit of pin-banging just to protect a bitter step down to free the daisy so as to dance a wee bit further up on a titacular ledge ben following, just before a birdbeak blew out another week later and wet i was to have another what-have-you w/ the dog - the powderhund n' his bro pat the new set of nefarious cluster-fucks to call comrades for this quixotic quest the proper parking place for the helkser start (and a fine place to file away a big old dookie under a decade of scree n' sand ) pretty typical mudd-fucking far below somewhere in this forest we must be... route-finding ain't so strait-forward for much of this free-for-all - hem n' haw n' head wherever the spirit moves you - here old bryan'n bored off to a hanging basin of scree and where we needed to be to bear up on the far end of the "dead deer traverse" (which we could identify by a bit of fixed webbing on a horn to protect the crux of the traverse) pat w/ time for a butt and a laugh - our passage trhough to the end of the dead deer traverse and the first bit of roped climbing just beyond his shoulder we kept thinking that thing was the dog rock spire itself, though in time it proved the drathmar the first bit of heads-up - an improbable passage at first - we came to it from the east, but the other way from the west was protected by a fixed sling n' ladder to facilitate cowards coming up from thither pin anchor from a preternatural era bryan got that pitch - the only one gear got placed on - a #3 and a #1 and 2 bolts above that short pitch ye drop the rope and hike up n' right to a deer trail this game trail brought us to a great big goddamn gully, which we struggled up to the saddle by the dog spire the dog spire looks game enough, but not us today in it's wet n' soggy state, us w/o proper shoes n' jesus-fuck, how to rap off it when all said n' done? the pitches above the spire invigorating - bring an axe! i got the next pitch - from a tree slung w/ hardware store cord you head up a creepy slope past 2 bolts to a anchor hard to see no worries, right? another pitch up of ghey-4th class and so you find a rocky gully - bear off left 'fore too long unless you want to tangle w/ a ridge-traverse we declined a bit above that and almost there above this we bailed onto the game trails east of the final summit block - we threw down in the cloud-murk to throw down some beers n' butts in the growing storm the exit a work in itself - up 100 feet and a traverse to 2100 feet in 30 minutes or so that brought us to the trail - we stumbled-fucked n' smoked our way down, all atonto! who can complain about a life like this? Gear Notes: all we needed was a #3 n' #1 and 4 draws as it's basically an old-skewl sport climb w/ a handful of pins and bolts to protect the skerry bits - the dog rock spire itself could use a #3 for the belay, but from there it looks like the only pro is 2 bolts - a decent mountain axe quite critical - anti-tick and poison oak apparel not a joke as we pulled a handful of those horrid fuckers off us (hopefully the oak was still dormant ) Quote
jrex Posted March 6, 2013 Posted March 6, 2013 I have got to get out and climb some of that mossy gorge rock...The views look sweet... Quote
Plaidman Posted March 7, 2013 Posted March 7, 2013 (edited) Ivan you should have asked me about Dog Rock. I rope soloed it and there is an anchor on top. Wrote up the adventure on my blog: http://blog.oregonlive.com/climbing/2011/12/100_days_100_miles_100_climbs_35.html And here was the recon of the route: http://blog.oregonlive.com/climbing/2011/12/100_days_100_miles_100_climbs_32.html Plaid That bump near the top of the shadow is me on top of Dog Rock. Edited March 7, 2013 by Plaidman Quote
ivan Posted March 7, 2013 Author Posted March 7, 2013 i assumed there was one - rain was already falling, we'd just boots and gigs in the evening too, so the cards weren't right - it's worth goign back for how hard the all of 20 foot climb? 5.7? Quote
Plaidman Posted March 7, 2013 Posted March 7, 2013 (edited) It's 5.4 but the exposure ups the anti a bit. Making that move solo on sight was wild. At least it was for me! It seemed a little longer than 20ft. Although I am a short hobbit sized guy. Plaid Edited March 7, 2013 by Plaidman Quote
Plaidman Posted March 7, 2013 Posted March 7, 2013 Thanks Steve. That will be all from the peanut gallery! I told you about eating those peanuts. They are making you loopy. Quote
kevbone Posted March 7, 2013 Posted March 7, 2013 rain was already falling, we'd just boots and gigs in the evening too, Excuses...... Quote
powderhound Posted March 7, 2013 Posted March 7, 2013 rain was already falling, we'd just boots and gigs in the evening too, Excuses...... getting laid is always and appropriate excuse Quote
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