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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Mazama - Burgundy NF and Paisano attempt, Cragging |
| May 29th-31st, 2009 |
Day 1 - Burgundy NF and Paisano attempt
Burgundy on the left of the Wine Spires
This weekend was the clubs annual spring campout at Mazama. The trip consist of camping on Friday night with people organizing trips they want to do on Saturday, followed by a potluck dinner and cragging on Sunday. Mel and I loaded up the car with our stuff and a bit of community gear and headed out there around 5PM. We hit some traffic on I-5, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing the whole way and we reached the campground around 9PM. Brian, Michelle, and Obadiah had preceded us and registered the sites so we parked our car and set up.
The rest of the group filtered in for the next couple of hours and we built a fire and enjoyed some food and beer while we planned the next day. For me, the plan was to go do the Paisano Pinnacle and Burgundy NF link up. There were two teams of two headed for this objective comprised of Frank and Obadiah, or team tall guys, and Jon and myself. Jon arrived and we put together a rack consisting of a single set of Camalots up to #4, a set of nuts, and 12 alpine draws. After some brief discussion about the intended route, we were off to bed.
I set the alarm on my phone for 4AM, but ended waking up naturally at 3:55. I got up and dressed and was a little bit shocked at how light it was out that early in the morning. We had packed the car the night before, so we had some food and were off around 4:30 to find the pullout. We had little difficulty locating it, although we didn't see the Silverstar sign the book mentions. A short scramble down the side of the road brought us to an obvious climbers trail. The trail up the slope was rather steep and we gained a lot of elevation rather quickly. After about an hour on the trail we hit snow and were soon at the base of gully leading up to Burgundy col. I think the approach to that point and take a bit under an hour and a half, no where near the 4 hours the book describes.
Burgundy off in the distance
At the snow portion of the approach
We set off up the gully, eventually running into another party that intended to do Silverstar. A bit below the col, we scrambled up a little bit of 4th/5th class to get to the base of what we though was the route up Paisano. We consulted the topo thinking that we had found the tree it described and I went out for the first lead of the day. I climbed up and right, and had to back down after the group pointed out that I was probably off route and not heading for the correct tree. A bit of tenuous down climbing and removing gear got me to back to the base of a dihedral that I took up. The climbing was supposed to be 5.8, but I think it is sometime hard to tell in the alpine as everything can feel kind of difficult. A ways up the dihedral it started to get pretty thin and I spotted a crack with a stone in it up and left. I reached up to grab it and it flexed a bit so I decided to leave it alone. I made it higher up with some thin fingers and stemmed feet only to have my right foot blow a couple of feet above my last piece. Panic gripped me as I slipped down and my left hand locked into a finger jam on the loose stone. I tried to get my feet back as my heart raced but the left one was covered in grime and wouldn't stick. I was able to rub it on my pant leg and get up a bit to a more comfortable stance as I place a piece and tried to slow my rapidly beating heart.
Frank comes up the Gully
Group scrambles up to the base of our route
Lounging at the base
I continued up until I found a giant roof looming above me and a thin dihedral to the left. Shit, I wasn't going to be able to make it around the roof and the dihedral looked really hard. Fortunately, someone had left three nuts and slings and biners on each tied to a master point. Apparently, someone else came this way and decided to bail so I clipped in and had Jon lower me so I could collect my gear. I almost made it back down to the start of where I needed to be, but had to build an anchor and untie to get my ropes out of the nuts above. After that, a little bit of down climbing with a cam slung to me for pro and I was back to the base of the dihedral. I made a kind of scary traverse over to a little notch with a sketchy tree and built an anchor of the tree and 2 C3's in a less than ideal pocket and I brought Jon up.
Jon follows up to our first stop
Concerned about out dubious anchor
We figured we were probably just off route, so Jon decided to traverse right to get us back on route. To do so, he did a scary tension traverse while I braced myself as best I could so we didn't have to test our anchor if he fell. He was able to place a super small nut in a tiny seam with about half of the nut sticking out of it and pulled on it. From there, he was able to traverse across and get in some marginally better gear climbing along some questionable rock until he finally made it up to some more solid climbing. Anchored into the base of a much better tree, he brought me up. Whew, that was close and we were pretty sure that we were back on route now. Jon lead up again to what he thought were the twin cracks, but turned out to be just a really hard crack that he made a couple of aid moves up. From there, he climbed a bit higher before bringing me up to another set of nice trees. At this point, Frank and Obadiah had decided to bail somewhere well below us as the route they tried was also hard and didn't seem right. Jon decided to lead out again and stopped about 10 feet up telling me he was going to have to do a really hard and committing aid move to go any higher so he came back down and we decided to bail and head for the NF of Burgundy as well.
Jon on the tension traverse
Jon leading higher up
We continued up to the top of the col, and decided to leave one of the packs behind. After a little bit of a snafu with a tree having stolen my rope down below, we were off and scrambling some 4th/5th class terrain trying to actually make it over to the base of the route. After a couple of false starts, we were able to contour around to the right and make it to the top of the gully where Jon lowered a rope for me so I didn't have to free solo some mid fifth moves. From the base of the route, we scrambled to the left a ways up on some 5th class terrain until we decided that roping up would be a good idea. I took the first lead with again ended up with me going too high and having to down climb a bit before making a long rightward traverse and then heading up a short ways before anchoring into a bunch of rap slings and bringing Jon up. Jon lead the next pitch going the more difficult way of directly up that had some difficult moves up a crack before the climbing eased a bit and he made it to the top of the notch.
Jon leading our second pitch
Looking down from the top of our first pitch
From there it was a long scramble over and through a tight snow filled cave under an enormous block to the base of the next pitches. We had some food as we waited for Obadiah to finish the first pitch and after Frank got a ways up I was off and leading the next pitch. It was a rather interesting pitch with some fun moves with good jams mixed with scary and tenuous slab climbing. The crux came with protection in a small pocket with a #5 nut and wasn't actually that hard physically, just a psychological move. After that, a run up an awkward crack and a short kind of scary slabby traverse brought me to easy ledges and a bolted belay. Stupidly, I didn't put in another piece and left Jon with a huge pendulum fall potential, but he was able to make it without incident. Lesson learned though, you always need to think about your second as well.
Frank Belays Obadiah
Obadiah high on pitch 3
Jon took the last pitch which was a finger crack that widened to some good hands then a bit of chimney to a double off width. He was able to strain and curse his way up it, which was a pretty impressive feat. At the top, we all coiled a rope and set off for 4 double rope raps which brought us back to the base of the climb. From there it was one rap down the gully back to the tower where a short scramble brought us to the final rap. Jon introduced me to the simul rap on this one, and a short scramble from the base of the rap brought us back to packs and boots. We had a little bit of food and drank what little remained of our water before cruising down the gully on kitty litter and snow before regaining the trail.
Jon leading pitch 4
Four people and four ropes to coil on a small summit
Happy to be at the top
View from the top
The trail was steep enough that it was pretty much impossible to not semi-jog the whole way down. At the bottom we crossed the creek, and made the last push back up the boulder field to the car. The descent had taken us about 40 mins, and we were back to the car at 8:50. We quickly packed up the car and headed to camp for some well deserved food and beer.
Day 2 - Cragging at Fun Rock
After waking up a bit sore from the previous day, I wasn't too excited about going out and doing much climbing. After eating some breakfast and helping to pack everything up and making sure the sites were in good shape, we were off to the Mazama store for some coffee and more food. After that quick stop it was on to fun rock where it looked like most people were feeling a bit sluggish. However, there were people putting up routes and doing some top roping, so I donned my harness and went with Brian to go to warm up on some easier stuff. Brian led a 5.9 which I followed, and then we tried our hands at a 5.11a that went up into a cave. Brian was able to get it with one hang and some planning, and Obadiah got it as well after finding the perfect knee bar. I had to hang my way up it, but probably could do better after some rest so I'll be back for that one.
Obadiah leads steppenroof
Mel likes to throw rope in the trees on rappel
After those routes, we headed to the Rhino Zone where I topped Rhinoplasty, and Rhinovirus. Others gave it a go as well, and people were leading and top roping all over the place in between lounging around and enjoying chips and cookies. Around 4ish, the crowd started to break up and the campout was pretty much over. We headed out for dinner with a couple people, and then made the drive back to Seattle in a little over 3 hours. All in all, this was a great weekend full of climbing and hanging out with club members. Big thanks to Michelle for organizing the event! Also big thanks to Jon for being an outstanding alpine partner and giving me some tips and tricks of the trade.