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Sport climbing near Port Angeles October 28, 2003

Peter and I took a ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula and then drove to Sequim to meet with our friend Greg. In anticipation of some winter climbing, we reviewed crevasse rescue procedures by setting up the Z-pulley system. There is no such thing as being too familiar with a rescue procedure. Afterward, Greg drove us out to a sport climbing area for a little autumn cragging.

We walked through a deciduous forest carpeted with gigantic leaves from the big leaf maple trees being tossed about in the wind. Around a corner we came to a huge overhanging sandstone bluff, the concavity of which magnified the roar of the rapids below and of the wind scattering thousands of dried leaves above. From the sandy path we scoped out the potential of each route. Peter stayed and studied one in particular a little longer while Greg and I continued around the bend to view all the choices.

Someone had been very busy 'gardening' there; there was lots of moss and remnants of several stiff brushes laying around. The porous gray sandstone held the water which trickled off the ridge above, and areas which had been scraped off ended abruptly around another corner. Here the entire rock face for over a hundred feet was a green leprechaun village of varying depths with small sword ferns poking their fronds out.

The routes here are all bolted, most of them beginning beneath a small roof. This makes for an interesting start. Most looked to be in the range of 5.10 or above. Without a guidebook to confirm this or direct us toward other routes we knew to be within our grade, Peter decided on one with a promising appearance and called Greg and I back.

Greg and I got into our harnesses and helmets (top pic) as Peter flaked out the rope. Since the start was overhung without any good jugs and the first bolt was fairly high off the ground, he decided to try clipping another bolt off to the right and link the two up. This didn't work, so he decided to have me lower him off from there and he'd try another route.

With Peter still tied in and me having the rope through my ATC, Greg picked up the white canvas cloth he'd spread out beneath the rope and we all scooted around the corner to a different route. This one had a blocky start and the second move required mantling up onto a thin foot ledge. There was also some suspicious looking rock here, the rottenness of which was to be confirmed later. Then a small finger crack continued up about 10 feet, but this couldn't really be made use of given the slime and mud that Lady Erosion had caked in it. Peter clipped the second bolt, found the finger crack unusable, decided to set up a top rope since we were running out of time and daylight, and asked me to lower him off from there.

While Peter scrambled up the backside of the bluff, Greg and I stayed below keeping an eye out for falling rock. Pete rappelled back down, setting up the top rope on his way (video). You can see him pick up the biner he was lowered off. I tied in and decided to give it a whack, but without much confidence that I'd make it. After peeling off twice at the finger crack and managing a little pendulum swing, I finally grunted my way through it with an appalling lack of finesse! I peeled off again with a burning pump in my forearms above that, then again about 4 feet from the top where the friction moves couldn't be executed due to wetness and my own fatigue. Given what I've been climbing in the gym lately, I estimate this route was about a 5.10a. Peter lowered me off in the increasing darkness.