Frenchman Coulee

Agathla Tower

October 21, 2001

Jeff was back in town after his summer in the alps, so we all decided to spend a day at the crags. The weather forecast for the west side of the mountains was for rain, so we headed east. Kim, Jeff and I met up with Chris K and Michael at the Feathers and warmed up on some old favorites. This worked out well since it had started to sprinkle. Many of the routes in this area are blocky and can be climbed in wet weather. Kim, Jeff and I started off on Mandatory Suicide, a fun 5.4 route, while Chris and Michael were off climbing trad routes. There were many other climbers who had the same idea as us to head east to beat the rain, but it had followed us! We met up with one of Kim's classmates who was climbing with a friend who Michael knew.

After Kim and I finished the 5.7 Beckey Route, I belayed Michael as he led a trad route just to the right. Michael belayed me up, and then I belayed Kim up. We had some excitement when Kim's jacket dislodged a large rock above her. She held it in place as I kept her on a tight belay so she could swing out of the way as it crashed to the ground. Whew! That was close. I read that cleaning routes at Frenchman Coulee is no longer practiced because of the damage it causes to animal habitat and local floral. So if you get off the bolted routes at Frenchman Coulee, wear your hard hats and climb carefully!

We rappelled down safely and headed over to the main parking lot and ate some lunch. Most of the other climbers packed it up when the rain didn't let up, but Michael wanted to get the most out of the long drive over the mountains so he talked me into trying a new route on Agathla Tower. The Jim Yoder routebook vaguely describes three routes on this prominent rock: a scramble route up the east side, a 5.10 route up an open book on the northwest side, and a 5.7 crack near the northeast corner. There are numerous opportunities for other routes as well. We circled around the north side until we settled for the 5.7 crack near the northeast corner. There was a fixed pin at the base, although it was so close to the ground that we figured that it must be a belay anchor. The rain on the abundant moss made this loose crack pretty exciting so I traversed over to the right and gained ground via some lower angled slabs. Since the climbing was fairly easy to this point I hadn't placed any protection but quickly realized that I was getting higher than I would like to fall so I looked for suitable cracks unsuccessfully. There was an obvious crack above me so I scrambled up to a slab at it's base. Upon examining the crack closer, I saw that it was fine lower but higher up it became loose with rope bag-sized rocks jammed together. I was in a tight spot because I still needed to place my first piece of protection and in order to climb higher I would have to trust the apparently loose rock above me. Down climbing was not an option because of the wet, mossy rock. Hmmmm. I wasn't too hot on placing a marginal cam in the lower crack and rappelling off of it. Especially since I was using Michael's rack. My predicament caught Chris, Jeff, and Kim's attention and they all watched to see what would unfold. Being good friends they all offered suggestions but they were all things I had already thought of until Chris said that he could go get his rope, take the scramble route to the summit and lower me an end. This was by far the best suggestion I had heard yet so he headed off to his car to get the rope.

While I was waiting for my rescue, I placed a cam low in the crack. Then I realized the rain had stopped and the sun actually started to shine. The rock dried out enough to give me more confidence in continuing higher. I was now able to stem on the mossy rock which allowed me to reach the jumbled rocks above. I placed a little yellow alien in one of the least loose looking cracks and continued up. I found it somewhat unnerving that I was testing my holds as I was clinging to them! I made it up the crack without incident and found myself on a large ledge with a scrubby tree with some slings looped around it's base. I felt better that others had bailed off this loose pile as well! I examined the slings and they gave me much more confidence than the two cams below me, so I clipped into them. As I did, I noticed a vertical fixed pin near the back of the ledge. Aha! Another clue that this was part of the 5.7 northeast crack. On the left end of the ledge was a prominent crack but I could see that higher up it became overhanging. 5.7, huh? Hmmmm...

I traversed to the right and found some less intimidating climbing. I was able to build an anchor with a small cam and a bomber nut. By this time, Chris had returned and was calling down from the summit above me. I humbly and apologetically called up let him know that I was now OK, and that I didn't need the rescue. (At least not at this point). I brought Michael up, he took the rack and was off for his turn of our adventure climb. In the meantime, Chris, Jeff and Kim lost interest as we were no longer in danger so they walked across the highway to the cliff and took turns throwing rocks at an old truck far below.

Michael continued right around a corner and was quickly out of sight. There were a few pauses and I would hear, "OK, this is a loose part", followed shortly by "OK, I'm past". Then a few minutes later, "watch me here!", then finally, "Alright! I'm on top!". Michael belayed me up and I saw a ramp with loose skree below a shrub. I carefully climbed past and removed the sling from the shrub. Climbing higher and to the right I cleaned a well placed nut and found myself a corner with smooth red walls. I was glad I was on tope rope as I pulled myself up the crack and through this awkward chimney. Michael informed me that the worse was behind me as I continued, scrambling easily to the summit. Whew! That was a bit of an adventure!

Michael and I scrambled down to meet the others and we all hiked over to the sunshine wall. Kim had never climbed 7 Virgins and a Mule, so Kim belayed me as Michael belayed Chris nearby on Tangled up in Blue. After Kim climbed up, I lowered her off and Jeff climbed up. Instead of walking around or rappeling off farther down the wall, we stepped over to the rappel bolts on top of the "Steel Pulse" pillar. On the rappel we took turns swinging out and doing a "Peter Pan" impression.

Meanwhile Chris and Michael were working on George and Martha, the classic 5.10a crack. Chris had already climbed it and now it was Michael's turn. He had a little trouble on the difficult offwidth part but then figured it out and cruised up. I gave it a go and got about a third of the way before my arms tired out. We walked out just as it was getting dark and drove down the road to Vantage and feasted on Trucker Burgers at the Golden Harvest. Thanks everyone for a great day climbing!