Summertime!!

There is no doubt that the  alpine rock climbing season in the Cascades (roughly mid-june to mid-september) is my favorite time of the year.  Three months to send all the routes i've been daydreaming about, drolling-over, visualizing, and ultimately obsessing on through the long dark winter. Of course, I never climb them all, but there's no doubt I try!

This year i'm deep in the throes of a 2-Year RN program (it's great!), and subsequently find myself with very little freetime (and very little sleep).  Nonetheless, I do what I can do, and found myself booting up the ever familiar Colchuck Lake Trail on  a mild June day, less that 24 hrs after walking out of my Final Exam for a particularly brutal Spring Quarter.

First up on the plate for this season was a climb of the neo-classic Acid Baby, on the Spineless Prow near Aasgard Pass. It's a good warm-up for the year, with a reasonable approach, slightly BURLY  10+ crux, easy descent, and lots of beautiful positions and scenery. This year I teamed up with fun-guy Joel Kauffman for the seasons first romp. 


Starting us off for the day

Joel psyched up for the crux on Pitch 2

Pitch 3 is a wee bit chossy...

 ...but still really fun.

It really starts coming together on Pitch 4 

Alpine Bliss

The finale is a classic knife-edge ridge traverse...

The season begins!

East Face of Bridge Creek Wall

Earlier this spring Jens Holsten and myself made an attempt on the East Face of Bridge Creek Wall.  For the past couple of seasons we've been looking to BCW to serve up adventure, and it always seems to deliver.

Jens Holsten getting psyched to free the Nose Route, October 2010:

http://maxhasson.blogspot.com/2010/05/spring-training.html

http://jensholsten.blogspot.com/2010/10/nose-free-ascent-of-bridge-creek-wall.html

The East Face is a 7-9 pitch route  put up in 1984 by hardmen Jim Yoder, Bob Vaughn, and Gordon Briody at 5.10+ A2.  The route has been reported to have  gone free at 11+ and we were lured in by guidebook reports of ferocious liebacking, overhanging chimneys, and the mythical "Astroman Pitch."

Jens had tried to climb the route once before with local climber Dan Cappellini. Perhaps classic to BCW, they missed the route, and inadvertently completed a different line. In the process sending a probable first ascent, all-free, onsight and ground-up. Nice job guys!!

A large mudslide in Icicle Creek Canyon forced us to begin this venture on bikes:

Though BCW is guarded by an arduous 3,000 ft approach, the views and excitement for the day always seem to wash away the misery of one of the longest slogs in Ltown.

 

The one and only, Bridge Creek Wall:

Choose your own adventure:

As soon as we rounded the corner to the wall we began to sense, that for this season, we had arrived a bit early.  The descent was still shrouded in snow, and a thousand ft above us, we could see some blocks of ice, shimmering in the sun, and clinging precariously to the upper wall. Nonetheless, for some reason (ignorance mixed with optimism and  a tad bit of OCD?) we continued on.

Rackin up:

and starting out:

We followed the vague description of our topo to the best of our abilities and ended up beneath the closest thing we could call a V-slot, this beast:

Dirty as hell, awkward and loose, BCW was starting to deliver.

The going was kinda slow but we were making progress. A short pitch of flakes and another long traverse pitch put us directly under the cleft that defines the East Face route. The climbing looked to get even better so Jens eagerly launched off into what appeared to be the business of the route.

 

Unfortunately for us, our luck had come to an end (or was it just beginning?) and the ice blocks above parted from their winter nest, crashed onto the wall a couple hundred feet above us, and littered the belay with thousands of ice chunks.

Jens, shielded from the majority of the ice fall by the steep climbing, quickly called down to see if I was alright. Which I was. Immediately, we began our descent. But not before being hit once more by another barrage of ice. Yikes!

As you can see from the next photo the descent was super chill and there was no loose rock at all (just kidding!!):

While we've tried to get back up there, the rigors of nursing school, and a generally very busy spring, may have delayed the E Face until next season.  Nonetheless, it was adventure we were seeking, and adventure we got served. BCW always delivers.

Hyped on Hyperspace

Sorry it's been so long folks. While i've done lots of different climbing since I last posted, most recently, Jens Holsten and myself made a Sunday run up Hyperspace on Snow Creek Wall.

Hyperspace is a 7-8 pitch 11a that takes the burliest line up SCW.  Years ago I had climbed the route with good friend Tyree, surprisngly, Jens had never been up the route and was eager to give it a burn.   A cool and cloudy Sunday found us with the wall all to ourselves.

Highlights include taking the psycho whipper on the Psychopath (twice!) when I botched the sequence, and watching Jens send a dripping wet Pressure Chamber onsight.  Yeah buddy!!

Remeber that nice campspot right by the creek crossing? Well, it's been obliterated:

The Psychopath!

Jens looking down from 1/2 way up the Pressure Chamber:

  

The last pitch (so cool!):

 


Hope everyone's having a great spring and making it outside.

A little training motivation.

The snow continues to come down in Leavenworth.  Thoughts of dry local rock have been replaced with rooster tails of deep powder, steep chutes, and cliff drops.

While i'm not really complaining (and packing up to go tour right now),  I am currently stuck between two sports.  Too entranced with the powder to stop riding, but with an impending spring break trip to Red Rocks to hook up with my good friend Blake Herrington, too disciplined to stop training for the rock.  So for now I do it all.  A half day tour balanced with a study session, some plastic pulling, a ring workout, and perhaps a bit of campusing.

In an effort to provide a little motivation to myself and my readers, here is a video shot and edited by my neighbor Mike Tremberth last fall.  I am featured in the video climbing a fun V7 at the JY Boulders called Nosebleed.  Also in the video is some footage of Kyle O on The Strainer, a challenging V9 that I pulled off last fall as my first problem of the grade (it must be an V8!!!).  Hope you enjoy and don't stop training folks, climbing season should be just around the corner....


Leavenworth Bouldering Fall 2010 from Mike Tremberth on Vimeo.

And for those who need some motivation to get out and ride, another great video by Mike:


Untitled from Mike Tremberth on Vimeo.

Reality Check

With over a foot of fresh snow in Leavenworth its hard to believe that we were climbing dry sunny rock just 8 days ago.

Jens warming up on Tubbing in Der Ritterhof (11a) at Rattlesnake Rock:

Kyle on the cliff classic, Rock and Rattle (11c):

3 perspectives on The Rib, a classic V4 at the Carnival Boulders.
Drew starting up:

 Jasmine looking solid:

 Geoff getting close:

For now we kill pow, but I gotta say that dry granite sure felt good...

Coach

Coach, the man, the myth, the legend.

You can't climb in Washington for very long without running into the Seattle based character know as, "Coach."  Coach had a bad run of luck a number of years ago.  It began with a serious on the job accident (industrial window washing) which wrecked his back and his shoulder.  With no means of income, and no savings, Coach was forced out of his home and moved into his van next to the river in Index, WA.

About this time, I was living in Bellingham, and spending many a winter and spring day learning the ups and downs of wall climbing with my good friend Tyree Johnson.  We became friends with Coach, and though we may have avoided him in the AM because his crazy stories would last forever, we would often stop by after climbing and put down a cold one with Coach and try to lift his spirits.

The pinnacle of our spring training that year ended with an ambitous effort to climb Davis Holland/Loving Arms, The Green Dragon, and Town Crier in a long day. We definely surprised ourselves when we crushed the link-up one late spring day in about 14 hours.  Throughout the day, monkey calls would rise up the wall from Coach's van and we knew that down by the river Coach had our back if anything went wrong.   

Recently, a scholarship writing binge forced me deep into my files in search of past letter's of recommendation.  Though I don't think the scholarship committee would give much credibility to the letter Coach placed on the hood of my car that sunny day in Index so many year ago, I do cherish the memories it brings back.

Failure February: A New Route Attempt on CBR

Late summer I made two september attempts on  a new route on the immaculate and celebrated Colchuck Balanced Rock. 

My usual partners were currently obsessed with their own CBR creation so I reached out to see who was psyched and available. First I teamed up with guide extraordinaire Kurt Hicks, and second with long-time partner Jimbo Shokes.

I had spotted this line years ago while making the first ascent of the Tempest Wall with Blake Herrington.  I was surprised it hadn't been climbed more recently and figured it was time to give it a burn. The route starts directly to the right of the Tempest, aiming for a bizarrely angled quadruple roof feature. The orange "New Line" in the photo below (Thanks to Matt Clifton for the awesome topo, copyrighted suckas).  CBR wasn't so colorful a few years back...

For both attempts the weather was quite marginal.  Kurt and I originally tried an independent start just to the right of the Tempest start, but wet and dirty rock forced us down. We started up P1 of the Tempest for about 30 ft. before moving right up ramps and corners to the base of the quad-roofs.

Kurt on our new start attempt (roofs way to the right, almost out of view):

The quad roofs are a very cool feature that oddly enough change corners five times.  Once scrubbed, it should be a memorable pitch of airy free climbing.  Easy and awkward aid got us through the roofs in two short pitches.

Uncle Jimbo gettin some on our second attempt:

Myself on the first:

Our second roof pitch changed corners four times as it made its way upwards:

It ended with thin gear and perfect dirty rock:

Jimbo won't be smiling for long....

 

From a nice ledge at the top of the roof pitch, a wandery pitch of 5th class climbing brought us through a large treed ledge system and deposited us at the base of the upper face.

More moderate free-climbing with a touch of aid continued up and into the giant corner we had seen from camp.  For Kurt and I the weather was improving nicely while for Jimbo and I the clouds were beginning to thicken...

A decent belay stance started off the corner which seemed to be the dirtiest chuck of rock on the entire formation.  Clearly a drainage, I forced my way up the corner, cleaning out each placement on aid.

On the first go, a good 50 feet out from the belay, I came upon 3 decent sized belay-slayer's wedged into the corner.  I was worried about the rope unlodging them If I continued forward and more worried about killing the newlywed husband below (Kurt).

The top block seemed lightest, so with all my strength I picked it from the pile and hucked it off the mountain.  The two remaining blocks were even bigger. I tried to pick up the second slayer but it caused the third block to slide and shift and I nearly shit my pants as they began to slide downwards. I didn't know what to do so I stabilized the blocks as good as possible and got the hell out of there.  It wasn't worth getting myself or Kurt hurt, so we bailed. We were able to move over to the Tempest and quite easily rapped to the ground.

Looking down at Kurt a bit below our high point:

BAIL!

For Jimbo and I things were quite a bit different.  It began to sprinkle as I headed up into the corner. My plan was to set a belay at the blocks, bring Jimbo up and we would trundle them together. The sprinkle quickly turned to rain and before we knew it we were engulfed in  a complete torrential downpour while halfway up a new alpine route. Awesome.

I was soon soaked to the bone. The corner had become a torrent with each placement sending icy water up my sleeve, soaking my core.  Jimbo wasn't faring much better. The rain was coming off the top of the wall in waterfalls that were landing directly on him and his belay. He would move his belay and gear only to have the wind change the direction pounding him again.

I fought for as long as I could. But I had to finally accept the fact that we were getting SHUT DOWN, again, and we got the hell out of there.  We hadn't even reached the previous highpoint. Our bail was pretty epic. We were both nearing hypothermia, all our gear was completely soaked, it was starting to get dark, and stiff frozen fingers were beginning not to work. We got down, but not before dropping my Ipod and speakers, a Clear Alien, and due to rapping the muddy, granite covered ropes, two belay devices and biners to acute wear.  CLASSIC! The hike out was cold, sloppy, and completely miserable.

I can't wait for next season to go back for some more.