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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Tieton - Ride the Lightning and Cragging |
| May 2-3, 2009 |
Evan and I had talked about going out to do ride the lightning last week, and decided that if the weather looked alright we would go give it a shot. The forecast wasn't terrible, so we left seattle around 7PM on Friday night to drive over to Yakima and stay with my mom. The drive went by pretty quickly and soon we were at my mom's house, where she pulled out some beers for us and then made us some sandwiches, Awesome! We all hung out for a while and sorted gear for the following morning before retiring for the evening with a planned 7AM wake up to get an early start on the route.
I couldn't sleep past 6:30, so I got up and went with my mom to grab some coffee and a child size hot chocolate for Evan. Our gear was already packed, so we threw it in the truck and were off to Goose egg. The drive from Yakima was probably only about 45 minutes or so and we didn't have any difficulty finding the turn off or the small fenced in spring. We parked the car and headed up the steep but short approach to the base of the climb. We we got to the base, we could feel some light sprinkling but decided that it probably would be ok.
Evan on the approach
We racked up and Evan lead the first pitch so I could have the second dihedral pitch which elicited no complaints for me. The first bolt is a good ways up, but the climbing was pretty easy up to that point so it wasn't a big deal. Evan did a great job leading the first pitch and quickly made it to the first belay station and set up the new belay system we tried out. After that, I followed up the first pitch which I found to be rather difficult face/slab climbing with tricky hands and feet. Evan thought the first pitch was supposed to be 5.7 and I told him the topo says 5.8 but it felt a bit more difficult than that to both of us. I think it was this pitch where we found our first booty biner of the day. While at the top of pitch one, we noticed some others at the base of the climb, but they quickly made their way left heading for Dirty Sanchez.
Evan at the fist bolt
Evan high on the first pitch
Me giving Evan an attentive belay
Due to the new system the rope was already racked up and ready to go so after a brief chat I was up and climbing on the 2nd pitch which started with more thin climbing until about the 3rd bolt where the holds became more positive and plentiful. More bolt climbing up and right lead to the much raved about dihedral, and I was not disappointed. There were good jams, excellent liebacking, and bars of rock for the feet. I had kind of run out of draws, so I kind of ran some of it out placing only 3 pieces but the climbing was so solid it didn't matter too much. At the top, the traverse over to the bolted belay station. At the station I found a sling and 2 biners so I grabbed those and set up the belay for Evan. He followed and also found the Dihedral to be fun climbing. We both agreed that the first pitch should have been 5.8+ and the second 5.8 rather than the other way around which is what the guide book lists. At this point, the rain had picked up considerably and we decided it would be best to bail. Two double rope raps got us to the bottom and it was a good idea because the rock was super slick on the way down.
Second belay station, with new setup and booty sling and biners
Evan follows pitch 2
Both of us getting ready to bail
Evan Raps pitch 2
We went back to the car and started driving back home when the rain eased up quite a bit, so we decided to stop by the royal columns to give it a look. By the time we were at the base of the columns, it had stopped raining and it wasn't long before the sun came out. I took the first lead on Little Know Wonder(5.7). This was a fun 2 crack system with great jams and gear. Evan Followed and moved the ropes over so we could top Inca roads(5.9). Although I cruised it on toprope, it would have been a rather exciting lead with offwidth down low to finger locks up high. I'll give it a try the next time we are back out there. We ended the day with Evan leading Level Head(5.6). Although the climbing was easy, the gear was pretty fiddly which made for an interesting lead.
Evan starts out Little Known Wonder
Evan with the wide stem on Little Known Wonder
Evan on Inca Roads
Evan Leads Level Head
Evan nears the top of Level Head
We headed back home, and had a beer before going out to dinner with my mom. It must have been prom or something, because we saw multiple high school aged kids wearing formal clothes. After dinner, we went and saw X-Men Origins, then headed home for some rest for the next day.
We had a more leisurely wake up time the next morning and were pretty slow to start moving. Mom cooked us some delicious breakfast, and we packed up our gear and said goodbye before heading out to the bends. After a little bit of difficulty finding the obvious turn off area, we made the neat approach to the bends that was pretty gentle in grade and had a really cool suspension bridge crossing. We started out on Ed's Jam(5.8). It says 2 pitches, but the first is really just a scramble with one kind of airy move. Evan lead it out since we didn't know and built a gear anchor to bring me over. I lead the next pitch which I found to be super fun with great jams and good feet on the outside. I also found a brand new looking biner on a rap sling bringing our total to 4 biners for the weekend. This pitch was really long and due to some miscommunication and bad planning Evan lowered me down to about 10-15ft above him where we ran out of rope(on a 70m). So, I built another gear anchor and belayed him up to the top where he built an anchor and I climbed the pitch again. We walked along the top and found a place to rap off.
Evan leads the "first pitch" of Ed's Jam
Evan on Ed's Jam
At the base, Evan found a pair of Teva Sandals which completed our booty of 4 biners, a sling and sandals. We looked around and Evan decided to try a route that started up Hallowed Ground(5.9) and went left onto some 5.10c bolted face climbing. Evan made it up to the first bolt(which was about half the route) but was tired and the .10c was looking pretty tough. So, I lowered him down and lead the rest of Hallowed Ground which I did not find to be excellent hands as the book suggests but more like some excellent hands with good fingers thrown in and painful feet. After making it to the top, we decided to call it a day and packed up and headed home. We made a quick stop for gas and $.50 corn dogs(if you don't buy them its like you're losing money), then drove home. At home we all had some Thai food with Mel, Annelisa, Jackie, and Mason and looked at the pics from the weekend.
Evan leading The first portion of Hallowed Ground
This was a super fun weekend spent with a great partner, and I'm sure we'll be back out that way to see if we can indeed ride the lightning.