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Outer Space (5.9) Snow Creek Wall Leavenworth, WA May 6, 2005

Matt's trip report and photos are here.

Matt and I had a great time climbing Outer Space today. We met once again in Monroe at 5am (Kim got up at 4:15 with me and was my lovely chauffeurette) and drove over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth. It was a beautiful morning with barely a cloud in the sky as we pull into the Icicle Creek parking lot. We were surprised and happy to see that our car was the only one there. We spent a few minutes sorting the rack and getting our gear situated. The air was cool and calm as we headed up the trail around 7:30am.

Last year Matt and I climbed Orbit in sweltering heat so we were very glad to have the cooler weather today for Outer Space. We reached the base of the route around 9:00am, ate some food, and organized our gear. We stashed our packs where we hoped the goats wouldn't easily get to them, and tied into the rope. Instead of the climbing the first two pitches of the original route, we opted for the more direct (and more spicy!) Remorse link up.

Matt took the first pitch and soon realized that we had started too far to the right. The subsequent rope drag was significant as Matt traversed back left to the end of the first pitch. Sorry Matt! The second pitch was really fun and 'balancy' as I made my way up to the hollow flake and traversed across and up to the large ledge. We were "loaded for bear" so to speak, so I took advantage of our abundant rack and sewed up the route.

I belayed Matt up the pitch to the large ledge and we drank some water and I ate some food. One more pitch and we would be at Two Tree Ledge. Matt lead the third pitch and I was finally able to get my camera out and shoot some pictures of him climbing it. While belaying Matt, I noticed my first tick of the day. It was crawling on the flaked out rope. Ugh! What a nasty bug. I flicked it away and was suddenly hyper-aware of any little itch that I felt. Matt did a great job of leading this third pitch, and brought me up to a great anchor that he built at the far side of the two tree ledge. Unfortunately, the fourth pitch begins toward the middle of the ledge so we had to rebuild the anchor.

I found the start of the fourth pitch to be awkward and committing right off the bat. After the first 12 feet, the going got easier until I reached the crux finger traverse. From the last time I climbed Outer Space I remembered the finger traverse as being much shorter than it actually was. In reality it was closer to 15 feet long, not the "two moves" that I remembered. Not wanting to fall, I spent a lot of time (and energy) putting in a lot of protection instead of just climbing the traverse. So near the end my arms were spent so I put in yet another cam and had Matt take my weight. After resting a few moments I completed the pitch and built an anchor to bring Matt up. Matt cruised up the pitch without having me take his weight at all. Nice work, Matt!

While Matt was climbing up, I heard other voices below us. Up until now, we had the entire wall to ourselves. Matt told me that while he was belaying me two climbers "came walking up to the ledge carrying their rope in their hands". Gary and Dean had just scrambled up the original first two pitches of Outer Space to Two Tree Ledge. A few minutes after Matt started off on our fifth pitch, Gary arrived at the belay. I had tried to leave some cracks free for his anchor, so with some careful planning he was able to build a solid independent anchor that was below ours. We discussed some of the accidents that had occurred on this route due to over crowding at belays, and how unfortunate this was. It's in the best interest of all climbing parties to make sure that everyone else has safe anchors too. Dean told some funny stories about climbers in Joshua Tree freaking out when another party wanted to clip into the large, bolted, belay anchors that they were clipped into.

Matt called over the radio "off belay" just as Gary belayed Dean up so I was able to give Dean my spot. Again, I had forgotten how run out this next pitch was. But just like Orbit the run out sections are blessed with lots of chicken heads so the climbing is relatively easy. Once on top of the pillar Matt belayed me down the other side and I built an anchor at the base of the Glory Crack!

We were now climbing in the shade so we put on our extra clothes to keep warm. The first pitch of the 300 foot hand crack is the best (IMHO) so I offered it up to Matt. So up climbed Matt on the best hand crack in the state! Sure there are shorter cracks that are nice too, but it's hard to beat the location of this crack! Matt made steady progress up the crack and soon was at Library Ledge. When he called "off belay" over the radio, I asked, "So how did you like it?" I couldn't hear all of his response but it was something like, "I was too focused to enjoy it". Meanwhile Gary and Dean had arrived, so I broke down our anchor and followed the pitch. What a great pitch. The finger/hand crack traverse of the fourth pitch is definitely attention getting, but these last 2.5 pitches are what Outer Space is all about! Yummy!

As I climbed up to Library Ledge where Matt was belaying, I notice that the pieces of protection were sparse. Whoa, Matt had ribbed me about my running it out when we climbed Orbit last summer, but that was on easy chicken heads. When I reached the ledge I joked what's up with the last 25 feet being all run out? He said, "I wanted to save gear for the anchor". Good thing Matt is a good crack climber! Once safely on the ledge and anchored in, I reached around the corner to the start of the seventh pitch and placed a bomber nut as high as I could reach and clipped the rope in. No factor two fall for me, thank you! The start to this pitch was what had been causing me some lost sleep the past few nights and now it was "go time". Matt asked if I wanted to climb the much easier 5.6 bypass and I retorted, "Don't tempt me!" I was faced with two choices: a difficult lead 600 feet off the deck, or a fun 5.6 alternative. I don't know if I said it aloud but I was thinking of the line from the Two Towers where Frodo says, "I know what I have to do. I'm just afraid to do it." Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking! Well, like most things that we mull over, worrying needlessly about, the pitch went smoothly and wasn't that bad. I protected it to my satisfaction and I didn't have to hang, so in my mind I was pretty happy.

All too soon the seventh pitch was over and I was bringing Matt up. As the slope of the Shield lessened, we were back in the sun. Ahhh, nice. Matt belayed me up the final 40 feet past the massive chicken heads and soon we were shaking hands on top of Snow Creek Wall. Gary and Dean came up as we were changing into our tennis shoes (approach shoes for Matt!) and sorting out our gear. This was Dean's first trip up Snow Creek Wall and Gary hadn't climbed it in several years, so Matt and I lead down. Actually I followed the rest of them down as I snapped photos of the mountain goats coming up for the night. Near the bottom where the trail became sparse, Dean scrambled up a buttress while Matt and Gary continued down the sandy scree towards the forest. I followed Dean to see what he found and once on top of the buttress, I recognized the first pitch of Orbit so we scrambled down into a gulley and up the other side and soon found ourselves at the large ledge at the beginning of Orbit. Dean radioed over to Gary and told them where we were and soon we were all back together again.

We hiked back to our waiting packs and were relieved to see that they were still there. We did see where a medium sized rock had been knocked down. A goat must have tried to climb up to the packs and slipped on the loose rock. Ha! Our booby trap worked and our packs had been saved. Elated from our great day in the hills, Matt offered to buy a round of drinks at Visconti's for the four of us. So with that to motivate us, we trekked down the trail to our waiting car. Gary and Dean had parked up the street to avoid an unfortunate encounter with a Forest Service Ranger Meter Maid trying to enforce the illegal double tax which is also known as the Recreation Fee. In their greed the Forest Service blocked all the wide spots along the road near the Snow Creek trailhead parking lot with "No Parking Anytime" signs. Matt, being a visiting Canadian and not wanting the hassle of a $50 parking fee to access public lands, had already purchased a Northwest Forest Pass so we were able to park unharrassed. We gave Gary and Dean a ride back down the road to their car and then caravaned into town where we toasted to good times in the mountains.

Thanks Matt, for another great day climbing Snow Creek Wall and for the delicious dinner!