Outer Space III (5.9)

Snow Creek Wall Leavenworth, WA

April, 2004

Michael's report and some great photos are here.

Michael and I climbed the classic 7 pitch route, Outer Space on Snow Creek Wall today. We passed on the first 2 pitches of the original route and instead climbed the Remorse link up, which was really fun.

I started our adventure with Pitch 1, mostly a scramble. Started up on snow, placed two pieces. Got to nice ledge, built anchor. Nice easy, pitch to get things going.

Michael lead Pitch 2, up a face to a flake, friction traverse left on a face to undercling flakes. Another traverse to the left but with a ledge for hands. This traverse was pretty exciting even on TR.

Pitch 3, Started up the easy slanting chimney to the left, then moved out onto the face with a nice crack. Should have used a longer runner. Lot's of rope drag. Could have gone straight up large blocks, but decided to move right with an interesting move around a bulge to a corner with a nice crack. Got up to some large blocks near the left side of 2 Tree ledge, but decided to belay from the blocks to avoid more rope drag. Brought Michael up and we scrambled over to the large "2 Tree Ledge".

Pitch 4, three choices being easier from right to left. Michael lead up left which wasn't easy. Climbed rightward slanting face and crack to a corner where the crux airy hand traverse begins. "Watch me here", it looked hard. He made the rightward traverse and then gained the crack and face moves up to a shrub and gear belay. I took some time to search the shallow, downward sloping handcrack for the best hold then ventured out. There wasn't anything really for feet, so I really had to make the most of my hands. My right foot slipped but my hands were good so I was able to stay on and quickly get my right hand higher to a better hold and continue up. I reached the belay and said, "Whew, that was hard for 5.9!". Kudos to Michael for this great lead. I hoped that this was the hardest thing we'd encounter....

Pitch 5, We re-read the description, runout chickenhead traverse to a pedestal. I lead this and didn't really think about the long runouts because the chicken heads were soooooo big. I traversed up and left to the base of the dihedral and climbed up a few feet and placed a cam with a long runner so as to cut down on rope drag. I climbed the crack up to the top of the pedestal and clipped a single bolt (the only bolt we found on the route) and backed it up with some gear and belayed Michael up. There was a small tree and a ledge on the other side of the pedestal so I continued to belay Michael down the other side to where he could set up a gear anchor. We ate lunch here, enjoying the incredible views. I almost didn't want to stop because it was just prolonging the time before I had to lead the next pitch. It was Michael's turn to lead but we swapped pitches so he could lead the crux (5.9) on the final pitch. I was still a little nervous because of all the photos I had seen of this steep, 130' hand crack.

With the added fortitude provided by my turkey panini, I ventured off on pitch 6. I reassured myself that this pitch was only 5.8 and that I could always takle a rest since I was carrying a well stocked rack with a gazillion cams. I started up the generous chicken heads to the left of the crack for about 12 feet. Here the crack widened to perfect hand size. I looked up and it seemed to go on forever. But the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, so I just made my way up, slowly but surely After about 40 feet, and several bomber pieces below me, I felt much better and started to really get into the climbing. I'm not a great crack climber, but this crack made me feel like I was.

I usually never look down while I'm climbing, but a couple times I caught myself breaking my rule and taking in the incredible exposure on this amazing face. Near the top I yelled down to Michael that this was the best pitch I had ever climbed in my life and that he was in for a treat. I was amazed at how many old hexes, cams, and stoppers I saw wedged way deep into the crack from previous parties. I took a lot of time leading this pitch and found myself stopping to place pro about every 8-10 feet. I think this was partly because I'm cautious and also because I wanted the experience to last as long as possible. But all good things come to an end and too soon I arrived at Library ledge.

I built an anchor and then placed two equalized pieces in the crack to protect the first move of the Pitch 7. As Michael climbed up and came into view, I could see that he was enjoying the pitch as much as I had. At the belay we rambled on about what a long, most sustained, perfect hand crack that was. We also laughed about all the chicken heads that had chalk on them when there was a perfect hand crack right in front of your nose! Dude, you're missing out!

Michael lead off on Pitch 7 which was tough right from the get go. We knew from the topo that the first few moves were the 5.9 crux, so we made sure the first two equalized pieces of protection were bomber. I ran the scenario through my head of what would happen with a leader fall here. I knew Michael had the move well protected, but I glanced over at my gear anchor and visually checked it out to make sure all was well. Michael was able to overcome the initial 5.9 "boulder move" and soon had additional protection placed. Whew. With the "vegetables" out of the way, he could now look forward to "dessert"! He climbed quickly and efficiently up the crack. I was paying out rope steadily when Michael stopped and yelled something down to me. The afternoon breezes had arrived and made communication difficult. I yelled "repeat" several times until I finally caught the word "rope" and realized that Michael was asking how much rope was left. I called out "ROPE! TWO! ZERO! FEET!", and then a few minutes later I heard "Off Belay".

It was now my turn for the challenging 5.9 "boulder moves". In the gym, 5.9 is about the easiest boulder problem, warranting a V0- grade. But in the gym all the holds are clearly laid out in front of you. Here it wasn't so clear. I studied the holds and tried to remember how Michael had climbed up. In the end I jammed my fingers in the crack, got my left foot as high as possible, smeared a foot out right and yarded up. I just reset my right hand higher when I felt my right foot slip off. Oh boy. I couldn't get my right foot back on so I just locked off on my solid left hand and felt my right hand up to a small groove that I could just smear my fingers in for a balancy move upwards. Whew, that was really tough. I must have totally missed the holds that made this move 5.9. I made my way up to a better stance and cleaned the small cam that Michael placed. A move or two later I arrived at a welded nut that I forgot was left by a previous party. I must have spent 5 minutes trying to clean it before it donned on me....doh!

The scary finger crack soon widened back to the lovely hand crack and life was good again. Michael must have felt very comfortable on this part since the gear placements were few and far between. I did come across a perfectly set hex that Michael left for my satisfaction. I found Michael at a bush/gear belay just below a small roof. I guess there is a short 8th pitch left. I clipped in to the anchor and sent Michael off, belaying him to the top. After a short slab of chicken heads (some so big you could sling them!) we found ourselves on top of Snow Creek Wall having just climbed Outer Space in fine style. And if that wasn't enough, there was a big mountain goat greeting us with his piercing dark eyes! I unfortunately ran out of film at the beginning of the 7 pitch, but Michael was able to take several shots of our summit goat.

At the top we took in the views, drank some Gatorade, and snapped more pictures of the Summit Goat. Around 5pm we said goodbye to the top of the wall and headed down the trail. Michael had made this infamous descent a couple times before, and we had plenty of daylight so I wasn't too worried. We followed a trail down through the rocks and ledges and were greeted many times by small herds of mountain goats moving back up to the higher elevations for the night. Once we stopped to let a big male climb up past us and he was so close I could have reached out and touched him.

We lost the trail near some sandy slopes and ended up traversing left underneath the wall back to our waiting poles and pack at 6:20pm. We hiked back down the trail having spent the entire day with Snow Creek Wall to ourselves. At the car we checked each other for ticks since they aren't allowed in Gustav's.