We're
up early (7AM) to avoid the sun on the climb. We renew our campsite at the
Idyllwild County Park for one more night, and drive to the trailhead with
the Jeep. At least now they accept the new interagency pass ($80) we'd bought
at Red Rocks (note that you can park on the side of the road, just short of
the sign, and avoid the fee).
Steep
hike to Lunch Rock, fortunately still mostly in the shade, but it's hot anyway
and we're sweating like pigs. We gear up at Lunch Rock, then hike another
100m or so to the base of the West face. Here starts a long (maybe 500ft or
so) diagonal traverse ("From Bad Traverse", 5.6 sandbag) to FBT ledge and
the base of Super Pooper. We short-rope on a doubled-over 60m half-rope for
this. Some tricky moves on this thing… I'd say more like 5.8... We get to
FBT ledge (large, multi-tiered ledge with trees and bushes) and rope up for
the route.
The first
pitch is about 165ft and is clearly the crux. Starts friendly enough, up a
wide crack just right of a thin flake, but quickly gets to a series of tricky,
somewhat awkward and burly moves, up the slanted crack/corner/slot to a small
ledge at the base of a good looking finger crack in the left wall (the second
finger crack you run into). Somehow, 30 ft short of the belay, I clip a fixed
piton just below a small roof using a short sling which causes the blue rope
to run tightly past the lip of the roof, where it eventually gets completely
pinched and stuck. No choice but to untie from the blue rope and finish the
pitch on green. No biggie, only it leaves it to Lucie to sort out the mess
and carry the second rope up the pitch. She manages to free the rope pretty
early, coil it and put it in her pack. This makes her pack unpleasantly heavy
for the hard moves above.
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The
route is hard to miss: the obviuos corner crack at the center
of the picture.
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Eric
starting up p1.
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Higher
on p1, nearing the multiple cruxes.
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Lucie
following p1.
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Views
to the south.
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The second
pitch is pretty sweet; starts up the finger cracks (rated 5.8 but definitely
one 9+/5.10a move to start), then gets to the base of a short but striking
left-facing dihedral capped by a small roof. I found out later, after looking
at the topo that I should have belayed here… but I have only gone maybe 80ft
or so, so I keep going.
Above
the little roof, the cracks disappear and you end up running it out some,
until you traverse a few feet right, under an overlap (some small pro in horizontals
in this section), then back left and step onto an unprotected slab to the
top. By this time, Lucie is calling for 20ft left, and I am pulling rope drag
from hell, while tiptoeing up the slab, well above my last placement… scary.
I should definitely have cut this into two shorter pitches. Anyway, I manage
to find a half-decent anchor at the end of the short slab (a bush and a questionable
#2 Camalot in a horizontal), and bring Lucie up.
She continues
another 20ft on Class 3 terrain to a great flat slab of granite at the top.
The sun is now hitting hard, and it is getting hot very quickly.
After
a few snacks and some water, we go in search of the Class 4 friction descent.
We find it without much trouble. It's a bit exposed in spots but not bad.
Only takes a few minutes of scrambling before you find yourself in the gully
on the South side of the rock. The trail leads down and around the base back
to the start of the route (and my approach shoes, which I had decided not
to carry up the climb).
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Starting
up the sweet finger crack on p2.
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Higher
on p2.
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Sunny
California granite... hard to beat.
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Looking
back at the route from the approach trail.
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We chat
with some "locals" whom we had spied on the striking "Vampire"
(11a), to inquire about protection on that route. It is reportedly fine, but
requires some extra green camalots for the first pitch. Hopefully we'll get
to do this route in a few days…
We get
back to the bus around 4:30PM. It's very hot. We re-rack and refill the water
bottles for the next day's climb… but later decide to make tomorrow a rest
day. We have to move the bus to a free spot in the morning anyway (this county
park is way too expensive). It's too hot to cook inside, so we light up the
barbecue. I go to town to get some corn and pork chops, which added to our
chicken breasts and italian parsley salsa should make a fine meal. And it
does.
