Slab Daddy

A couple of years ago, one of my climbing partners told me about a route in Darrington on Squire Creek Wall that was 22 pitches (rope lengths) long.  At this point I was totally unaware that there was anything this big nearby.  My curiosity piqued, I started doing some research and purchased a state-of-the-art CD ROM guidebook and . . . there it was.  A black and white photo with a red line and 22 red dots marking the anchors.  The route was built in the typical Darrington style, ground up with some run out (no protection) and bolts only where the route could not be protected with cams and nuts.  Because Squire Creek Wall is located within a wilderness area, no power equipment is allowed, therefore every one of the 165 bolts on the route was drilled by hand with a hammer.  Rumor has it that it took David Whitelaw 5 years and many partners to complete the route.  This is roughly where the route goes.

After the initial look over the route description, I immediately had doubts about whether this was something that I could actually climb.  This was more than double the size of anything I had climbed up to this point.  Curiosity got the best of me and I tromped up to the base of the climb on a rainy day in June to have a look.  I figured that if we were going to try and climb this giant, it would be nice to not be lost on the way there.  To my disappointment, the climb was veiled in the rainclouds and would not come out to give me a peek.  My faithful friend Joe and I returned on the Fourth of July on a reconnaissance climb and took on the first 11 pitches to see if we had what it took, what the ledge was like, and if indeed the ledge had a water pool as reported.  Many climbers hate slab (less than vertical rock), but Joe and I had been cutting our teeth on the Cascades and our home crag Mt. Erie and actually enjoy it.  The first 11 pitches were wonderful, we got a good look at the ledge (which did have water), and then we rappelled off and headed home, still a very long day.  The next weekend the planets aligned: we were both off work and the weather report was awesome, so we started to get ready.  Hauling is not advisable on slab since your haul bag will inevitably scrape all the way up.  I sort of knew this but at the same time I absolutely hate climbing with a backpack.  So I went thrift store shopping looking for some old military duffle bags but ended up with a thinner material than I had hoped for.  We barely scraped through the climb (no pun intended) without losing anything out the holes.

We ended up taking a chemical water purification kit because it was much lighter than a traditional water filter.  It worked great, except that there were little black bugs in the water, and even though they were sterile, I could not bring myself to drink them.  A makeshift colander out of a handkerchief effectively removed them.

The 11th pitch bivy.

Spoons? No way--too heavy.  Good thing canned food is light! :)  Canned food is good, but so is Mountain House, woulda-coulda-shoulda, but didn't.

 

This awesome sunrise greeted us on our first ever big wall wake up.

 Not going to lie, the feet are not happy about the climbing 

shoes on day two, and I think my face pretty much sums it up.

Pitches 11 through 22 were harder and had more 5.10 climbing and more trad pitches, which take longer.  By pitch 16, we were beginning to be fatigued but both decided that now (1.5) days into the climb it was starting to look like the size of cliff we would normally take on.  I was particularly stressed about pitch 18, which had a long 4-6 inch crack.  Turns out I should have been stressed about pitch 19 which was partially aid on old button heads and scared us both pretty good.  I enjoyed the long crack and really enjoyed ditching the 4" cams on the next anchor to be retrieved on the way down.

The dreaded pitch 18

Joe cleaning pitch 5

 Joe cleaning Pitch 17

Pitch 14

 We made the summit by about 5:30 in the afternoon, which was later than we had hoped, but we were pretty much on a warpath for the summit after pitch 16.  We took some photos from the top and reveled in our achievement briefly, but then headed down.  I'm not sure what it is about rappelling that takes so long.  My mind tells me it should take about 10 minutes a pitch, but, in reality, it takes much longer.  We started rappelling at 6 pm and got back to ground at about 2 am which works out to 20 minutes a rapp.  A short story is perhaps in order here.  Joe and I had a fight on a ledge at about midnight over whether or not to scramble down a short exposed 4th class section in the dark or try to rig a 20 ft rappel.  Long story short it is a good idea to remember that on really long climbs people get tired and cranky and do not always think straight.  I was lucky and Joe, being the solid person that he is, forgave me for being a jerk, but not all relationships would have survived the squabble.  It has been a good reminder to me that my friendships are always more important than the summit or getting back to the car faster.    We got back to the car about 3 am and were eating Grand Slams at Denny's by 4.  It was at this point that I realized that I was not going to make it to work the next day and called in sick.  I told my boss that even if I dragged myself in late they wouldn't want me there, I would probably fall asleep standing up.  

Parting Shot

This is the back of White Horse viewed from the top of Slab Daddy.

I hope you've enjoyed this installment of The Edge of Insanity!