Trip Date: January 3rd, 2010
Grace and I arrived in Leavenworth on Sunday morning hoping to climb rainbow falls before it sloughed off the rock in the warming weather. Too late. There was water running down a bare stretch of rock in the middle of the flow (splitting the left and right lines). I walked up to the first tier which was still well formed and beat on it with my hammer. The hollow *THONK* it made was not reassuring.
Back to the car to regroup. Look at the book. Decide what to do next. Huh. Icicle Buttress is in Washington Ice. We could do R&D as a mixed climb...
The first 20 feet was a low angle slab thinly covered in snow. I thought I was going to walk up it. Instead I groveled, making liberal use of knees. The next 1.5 hours of my lead was... interesting. I learned a lot about pick and crampon placement, torquing moves, good hooks, bad hooks... The gear was good, and there were plenty of rest stances (it's an easy climb in the summer!). The most challenging part was moving off the steeper ground onto ledges and slabs. Good pick placements would disappear, and I'd spend 10 minutes clearing snow before I could find anything. In the last move up to the belay ledge my right pick blew. My feet skittered off the rock. My left tool ripped from my grasp. I was falling on gear for the first time in my life... until I jerked to a stop dangling from my left leash, one of my feet wedged in the slot below.
I regained a solid stance and paused for a few minutes to contemplate my misadventure. The gear was good. It would not have been a life threatening fall. I had at least one good (well tested!) pick placement to move up on. The move was wrong. Out of balance. I tried a different tack. Matched picks, found a better move to the left, and made it up with ease.
When Grace made it up to the belay, we decided to retreat. We were having fun. The climb would go. But we wouldn't finish it in daylight at this rate. Sacrificed two tricams to the cause.
We'll be back another day.
Grace and I arrived in Leavenworth on Sunday morning hoping to climb rainbow falls before it sloughed off the rock in the warming weather. Too late. There was water running down a bare stretch of rock in the middle of the flow (splitting the left and right lines). I walked up to the first tier which was still well formed and beat on it with my hammer. The hollow *THONK* it made was not reassuring.
Back to the car to regroup. Look at the book. Decide what to do next. Huh. Icicle Buttress is in Washington Ice. We could do R&D as a mixed climb...
The first 20 feet was a low angle slab thinly covered in snow. I thought I was going to walk up it. Instead I groveled, making liberal use of knees. The next 1.5 hours of my lead was... interesting. I learned a lot about pick and crampon placement, torquing moves, good hooks, bad hooks... The gear was good, and there were plenty of rest stances (it's an easy climb in the summer!). The most challenging part was moving off the steeper ground onto ledges and slabs. Good pick placements would disappear, and I'd spend 10 minutes clearing snow before I could find anything. In the last move up to the belay ledge my right pick blew. My feet skittered off the rock. My left tool ripped from my grasp. I was falling on gear for the first time in my life... until I jerked to a stop dangling from my left leash, one of my feet wedged in the slot below.
I regained a solid stance and paused for a few minutes to contemplate my misadventure. The gear was good. It would not have been a life threatening fall. I had at least one good (well tested!) pick placement to move up on. The move was wrong. Out of balance. I tried a different tack. Matched picks, found a better move to the left, and made it up with ease.
When Grace made it up to the belay, we decided to retreat. We were having fun. The climb would go. But we wouldn't finish it in daylight at this rate. Sacrificed two tricams to the cause.
We'll be back another day.
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