I woke early, but lazed for an hour, taking care of internet business. I eventually thought to wake Beth Ann and eat breakfast. We left Matt and Wendy's house by 9 a.m., our destination was Big Cottonwood Canyon and the tick list included routes in the Dead Snag Area, Glass Ocean Wall, Challenge Buttress, JHCOB Wall, and the Salt Lake Slips. We would not climb past the Glass Ocean Wall.
The rain clouds had blown out during the night and the pavement was dry as we made our way up the winding mouth of Big Cottonwood. The nice thing about our climbs today were that they were close to the road and the approaches were short compared to the hour long approach to the West Slabs of Mount Olympus. We would start with Steort's Ridge, a moderate trad route in the Dead Snag Area. We parked the truck and followed the approach instructions in the guide book. Up a slight hill to a trail to the right. Cross a stream. Walk a short distance and arrive at the bottom of the climb. As we walked in we saw another party topping out and the no one else was waiting to start the route. Perfect timing. We stacked the rope, did our buddy checks, and I was off on the lead. Forty feet off of the deck pulling through an overhang I wondered to myself, "Maybe I do need some smaller cams". There had been a few horizontal cracks that were questionable stopper placements, but would have accepted a small cam. I had fished some stoppers in the horizontal weaknesses, but realized they probably would not have held a fall and would have only been mental protection. Small cams would have been nice. So, I had run it out. The overhang was not too hard. I just had to take a deep breath and look at the moves. Finally I cranked through where I was rewarded with a ledge and some pro placements. Shortly after the overhang, I built a belay and Beth Ann followed. I think the route was mean to be done in two pitches, but we split it into three. I have grown tired of pitch after pitch of not being able to see or hear my belayer during this road trip. Since this rock canvas was my own to paint on, we made three pitches to remedy communication problems. We chugged through the second and third pitch. These two pitches did have plenty of exposed, yet easy arete climbing, making the route very enjoyable and a great way to start the day.
Beth Ann tip toeing up Steort's Ridge.Photograph by Chuck Bolte.
After topping out, we down climbed a short distance to a rappel tree and were soon at the base of the climb packing up our gear while another group of two started up the route. Our next climb was Glass Ocean, a bolted moderate on the Glass Ocean Wall, which was further uphill on the south side of the canyon above the Dead Snag Area. The hike was steep and loose with small rocks and boulders. Through many short switch backs we were standing at the base of the wall looking up to a group of two finishing a route. The wall looked fun and I looked forward to finding a route that would take us to the top since the Glass Ocean route only went halfway up. I consulted the guide book to see where the route went exactly. Were there two or three bolted routes on this part of the wall or not? Were we standing at the bottom of the 5.8 or the 5.10d? Still perplexed, I looked up at two bolts and decided they looked 5.8-ish and started up. The moves through those first two bolts were an edging wake up call. Definitely the hardest 5.8 I had climbed on this trip. Finally I was on top of an ample ledge 25 feet up heading straight up through more technical edging protected by bolts. Before another large ledge I pulled through a small roof, which was probably the easiest part of the climb. At the ledge above there was a set of anchors, but I thought the Glass Ocean anchors were farther to the right. Hm. Beth Ann lowered me to the ground and I looked at the guide book. Indeed, I had gone off route and had climbed the first pitch of Northwest Passage, a 5.10c. The first pitch seemed hardly 5.10, maybe 5.9, which gave me confidence that we could climb both pitches to the top. We waited for another group to rappel down the route we were about to climb, then I started up again to climb the pitch for the second time. I cleaned all the draws on the way up then topped out at the bolted anchors. Once there I started looking for the bolt line of the second pitch. In the book, I had seen that there was a gap between the first pitch anchors and the next bolt and the run out was over blocky terrain, which I assumed was easy. I did not see anything that looked immediately easy, but I did see a blocky crack a little to the right. I called down to Beth Ann to have her bring the trad rack up with her to protect the crack while I climbed higher looking for the next bolt. Beth Ann climbed up with the trad gear and we took a quick breather at the belay.
Beth Ann on the first pitch of Northwest Passage.Photograph by Chuck Bolte.
From there I traversed right and up 10 feet to the start of the crack, which was much steeper than I thought it would be. The crack was tricky. It accepted medium cams extremely well in short parallel sections, but then flared wide making good jams hard to find. The face did not help much and I struggled to find good foot placements on the face or in the crack. I soon started to feel tired, out of my element, then pumped. I advanced a green cam up into a parallel section as far as I could and continued to climb. I could get my hands on a large sloping hold, but could not stand up. I was tired and getting desperate. My feet kept slipping on the blank face. I took a rest. It did not help. I went for the sloper again and my feet kept slipping. I was tired, I was done. I angrily wondered why the next bolt was so far away and why the terrain in between was so difficult. Then to my dismay I found that the highest cam, the green one, was so far in that I would need two hands to get it out and there were not good enough foot holds to use two hands. Thus began an insane process of placing cams to rescue the one cam. I had to place a cam above the green cam, weight the higher cam, reach both hands in and retrieve the green cam. Then I down climbed while moving cams below me for protection. Finally, back at the belay I was feeling defeated and cursing. It was decision time. We were at bolted anchors and could easily rappel, but I was certain we could find a way to the top, specifically up and to the left via a 5.9 crack. Wrong again. I was in a world of hurt 25 feet from the top, looking up a flaring crack, with pumped arms, and a shattered ego. Down and to my left I saw a bolt line that I could easily down climb to. We retreated from there. I was angry and defeated. The Glass Ocean Wall had confused me and broken my spirit. As I reached the bottom of the rappel I decided we would go ahead and climb the route Glass Ocean, the original destination, for redemption then leave. One day I would come back and redeem myself on Northwest Passage. One day. Glass Ocean was good redemption. Sustained 5.8 edging for a full pitch was good practice. Fried, as Beth Ann puts it, we hiked out, back to the truck and back to the city.
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