Ascent Notes for: Northwest Books - 5.6 popular Average Rating : 3.53/5

uhh, fun but too short! Climbed 5.9 variation.

first 2 pitches worth it, did the 5.9 variation and slipped on a dynamic move and tested my best gear placement of the week ironically enough. skipped the bolt on the first pitch, why bother.

I thought the 5.5 friction move was a bit stiff, like maybe even 5.8, but protected by a bolt. Accidentally did the 5.9 variation, though glad I did. Definetly rope up for the first part of the walk off.

Fun little climb. Led the first pitch and followed the 5.9 variation (recommended).

first pitch is nice. blah after that

Climbed this as a short end-of-the-trip climb before heading back to SF. The first pitch is pretty fun climbing; the rest is fairly forgettable scrambling. Above last big ledge, you can go above and left on easy (but runout) slabby ledges to a big block for a easy, juggy top-out that is a little more satisfying than ending at the ledge and walking up the slab.

1st pitch - 3rd or 4th class. 2nd Pitch was a beautiful ramp w/ underclinging lieback crack that was great! Belayed from a totally natural anchor. 1 bolt at bottom of 2nd pitch. 3rd pitch - did a 5.9 variation because the "easier" face moves weren't obvious & it looked scarier. The 5.9 was good. Got above the bolted face moves that i skipped, and belayed from a fair position. Had a bush and a crack as an anchor. The traverse was sort of fun and exciting. 4th pitch - Climbed the relatively easy & long pitch to the last belay. Could see the orange spot from the bottom of 4th pitch. The belay at the top was ugly. I slinged a big loose rock & got some other fair pieces in. The so called "walk-off" was to the right, but it was a drop off below, and more climbing above! We were going to wait for the next party below, since they may have known where the walk-off was, but we never saw them. We set a hex, 2 Camalot Jrs. & rapped. We had only one rope. We rapped again on a nut and an old Friend. Luckily found an old bolt with a ring on it. It was in the back of a gully crack. Not knowing exactly how far down past that we would have to rap because the dome eventually leveled out. I tied the rope to the bolt to do a full 50 meter rap. It looked pretty far, so when I found another monster (modern) bolt hanger, I quickly ran back up the gully, doubled the rope and rapped back to the modern bolt. I clipped a cam to the bolt to find it again, because at that point, it was mostly dark & I had the only head lamp. We rapped again off this single bolt and were able to reach a "walkable" spot to get down. We ended up back in the valley past midnight. WOW! What an epic day.

This one would be a good one to climb on a hot day but I got really cold at the belay between the first and second pitches since it was only a warm day. I led first pitch & Dwayne led second (his first trad lead). Note: there are only two pitches to this climb according to the SuperTopo book.

Nonte

Wish we knew the way down, walk off was long, dusty, and out of the way. Rapping a loose block at the top would have been more fun.