Quote of the day:

Reverend Lovejoy:
Homer, this is really low.

Homer: Not as low as my low, low prices!

Mr. Plow
 

December 2008


Mon
8
Dec '08

Day 1 (12/06/08)

  • Bunny face - TR pitch 1, 5.7, LD pitch 2, 5.6 (9 clips)
  • Ancylostoma - TR, 5.9
  • Rabbit Stew - TR, 5.7 crack
  • Unnamed face between Rabbit Stew and Lycopodophyta - TR, 5.9/5.10a, very fun friction climb
  • Super Slab - FL, 5.6

Day 2 (12/07/08)

  • Five Gallon Bucket - LD, 5.8 (7 clips, one of which cannot be seen from below)
  • Super Slab - LD, 5.6, 3 pitches
Mon
8
Dec '08

Super slab

Overall: a 3-pitch 5.6 trad route. Super fun and quite long. With some exposure and quite a few real 5.6 moves. Not a hard climb, but really a fun one.

Pitch 1:
This is a longer than average pitch but pretty easy. Bring a few small to mid sized stoppers or cams. At the end of the pitch you reach a wide ledge with two sets of bolts.

Pitch 2:
It’s a low class 5 short traverse to the left. It does have some exposure and it’s pretty much un-protected. There is one very small flake where you can put a small stopper (#3 or #4) and another small pocket for a cam or nut. You definitely do not want to test them though. If you have two followers, it’s probably a good idea to have the second rope clipped in the two pros as the first follower climbs and have the second follower clean the route. The second pitch ends at the bottom of the long crack going up to the top. The platform is only big enough for 3-4 people at most. Bring a few mid sized hex or cams to build an anchor if you have a party bigger than 2.

Pitch 3:
This is a long 40-metre pitch along the crack. You will need a lot of small pros. My suggestion is to bring 2 sets of stoppers in the #3-#8 range. The crack opens up at a few places where you can stick a 3-inch cam. The last 4-5 metres can be either climbed on the face left of the crack or over a big rock over the crack. Either way it’s mostly unprotected. The face is pretty much a friction climb but the friction is very good. The face leads to two bolts on a big rock at the top. You can either belay your follower hanging on the bolts or sitting behind the rock. This pitch is quite exposed for the intimidated.

There is another set of bolts at the top from where you can rappel off. Neither of these bolts have rings on the though. Bring your own rappel ring. We left a brand new one on 12/07/2008 tied on a couple of slings. You need to do two double rope rappels to get to the ground (you might be able to use one 70-metre rope for the second rap, but definitely two ropes for the first one). You can also scramble off the gully if you only have one rope. The first rappel goes pass the beginning of pitch 3 and down to a ledge with some bush. Then you walk 10 metres to the right to the top of pitch 1 and continue rappeling from there.