first ascent [TR] F.A. "The Washington Pass Traverse"- Silverstar-Vasiliki 5.9+ VI 8/24/2005

[spicoli11]

F*#!k the grade.......sounds like a good time. The north side of chianti is shitty

[JoshK]

i'm just amazed dru is backing me up on this one

 

Dru throws down the respect occasionally. I'm pretty sure glassgowanger will have plenty of reasons why you are a huge pussy tho.

wow fuckface- don't put your words into my mouth. i think the grade VI is legit. this is not only commitment grade, but also over all effort used to do a climb. you can bail off the nose on elcap any time- the rap stations are all fixed. so according to you it should be a grade IV or V, since a competent party can do it easly in a day? there are plenty of places to bail from Mike's climb, but i am sure there are pleenty of spots, where bailing would be a serious matter. and this grade is for sure more about energy expended then anything else.

 

I was not referring to your take on the grade, but rather your angry insulting of everybody for not climbing like you, or how you think everybody should climb.

 

In any event, sorry to jack Mike's thread.

[EWolfe]

Agreed. It is a classification of commitment, not some pissy grade-haggle and should stand until repeated. Period.

 

 

Awesome link-up, Gentlemen!

 

[Blake]

Mike, you guys didn't climb this whole thing in tennis shoes did you?

[layton]

i put the rock shoes on two or three pitches for above 5.9 pitches, but 90% in our tennies.

i forgot to mention that the soles fell off my shoes from over-mis-ab-use. wish i brought tape, could'a saved both my bag and my shoes.

 

i don't think we did any major 1st ascents, just variations of pitches and lines here and there. maybe we did. i tried looking in the Beckey guide but quickly got confused and really bored at the same time. probably 15 or so of our pitches were 1st's.

 

photos comin'

[To_The_Top]

a small dinner of snacks, and a couple bars for the next day. No water though. We bombed down burgundy col east toward Chianti and found trickles in the ice. Thank you whiskey bottle It was the only thing small enough to collect our water. With full bottles we slogged back to the col and had another minimal bivy. It was great.

Real Alpinism

Excellent TR and quote

Take grade discussions here.

[layton]

Mark on the am approach

 

The east ridge of silverstar click me

 

A closer look click me

 

From Scurlock's Page (with his permission of course!)

 

Mark has a long way to go

 

Looking back on the early part

 

Mark early on in the climb

 

Getting late on day one, still got lots to do!

 

Mark is so hungry on the 1st bivy he eats the wrapper too

 

I'm making the most of my food situation

 

Mark tops out on silverstars west peak on day two

 

I head over to the old woman before the wine spires

 

The wine spires from scurlock's page

 

I head up chablis east face

 

Oh boy! Another rappel!!!

 

I'm heading up Pernod now

 

Looking down at mark on our new route on the south face of burgundy

 

Looking down at Mark on Burgundy

 

Mark finished the last pitch of burgundy

 

Sunset at burgundy col

 

Enjoying the little things cuz that's all we got on our unplanned 2nd bivy

 

The sandbag view of vasiliki ridge. guess what? there's more!

 

Here's a photo of vasiliki ridge with burgundy visible on the far left i stole from "Uncle Tricky" in the gallery

 

Here's a photo i scanned from the beckey guide a few years back i dug up in the gallery of part of the traverse, the yellow line was from my topo for "Carlos Rossi Memorial Tower"

click me

 

Mark on top of vasiliki tower

 

click me for silverstar from vasiliki

 

click me for panorama from juno tower

 

Well, was that enough photos? No???

Well Mark Allen is having a slideshow beer bash (planned way before this whole adventure) with photos from lots of folks and including a special DVD by John Scurlock, lord of the skies.

[bwrts]

nice work gents! but, really I am confused....

 

did you actually cross "washington pass" on your traverse?

 

[corvallisclimb]

sick!

[layton]

nice work gents! but, really I am confused....

 

did you actually cross "washington pass" on your traverse?

 

yes, yes we did. traveled back in time and made sweet sweet love to your mom too my son. boy was i high on acid baby

Edited August 28, 2005 by michael_layton

[Alpinfox]

 

 

Looks like a comet in the sky up there. Did the world end?

 

Nice pictures Mike/Mark.

 

When/where is that slideshow?

[layton]

The slideshow is in mazama Sept 9th, i really don't know what's gonna be shown or who's showing what. hopefully someone will post something. beer will be served

[jordop]

Very nice though I stand by my earlier estimation of those notches as vomitous. Glad YOU did it

 

From Paris to Milan, word is 5.9+ is the new 10dX

 

At what point on the traverse did you UNCAGE THE SOUL?

[Dru]

and he forgot how to tilt the camera, too!

[Billygoat]

I fuckin' love it! What a great effort. It is such an obvious line.

 

Way to go guys

 

[layton]

At what point on the traverse did you UNCAGE THE SOUL?

 

When we ran out of slings, we used em for rap anchors.

[EWolfe]

I've always wanted to do a traverse, and call it "Pat Traverse"

[Billygoat]

I don't think many peeps under 40 are going to get that one E

 

[dylan_taylor]

Mike, did you drop the tent poles?

 

Nice Job!

[olyclimber]

Awesome pictures Mike. Great trip report and climb. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[PaulB]

I've always wanted to do a traverse, and call it "Pat Traverse"

 

I don't think many peeps under 40 are going to get that one E

 

 

on the traverse. Very cool.

[forrest_m]

holy photo assault!!! super cool job, mike, and inspiring pics. dan aylward and i did the silver star part of the traverse the weekend before your climb and were eyeing the continuation. i was going to post a TR and some photos, but it seems a bit superfluous now... FWIW, that in itself is a fabulous day out and i highly recommend it.

 

BETA ALERT!

 

the crux climbing for us was the last 200' to the summit of Silverhorn (up some aretes and then a chimney just left of the crest, up through a cannonhole from the back of the chimney onto the summit, 5.8?) we only made one rap the whole day, from the back of the first big tower beyond silverhorn. we downclimbed the rest of the descents, though we passed a number of fixed anchors. we didn't bring rock shoes - sticky rubber tennis shoes worked for us, though downclimbing the silverstar glacier was interesting, even with aluminum crampons. we brought a single 25 meter rope and a rack consisting of 4 stoppers and 4 cams. it took us almost exactly 15 hours CTC including the bike shuttle from silverstar creek back to cedar creek. there is no water between the trailhead and the summit this late in the season, although there were snowpatches here and there on a rained-out attempt back in july.

[j_b]

It looks like a lot of fun climbing Ridge running is the best!

[thelawgoddess]

geez. lots of photos for lots of climbing. nice work, boys!

[Jim]

Ignore the nit-pickers. Let them do it then tell you it should be down-graded. If I run into you at pubclub I'm buyin'. A bold trip. Extra points for the imigination to brew it up and more so to implement. My vote for best TR in a long time.