April Whitesides Original Route with Jacob

 

Kenton and Jacob at the top of the Original Route

Jacob and I drove up to Whitesides on April 27, 2021 with our minds set to try climbing Traditions (5.11c). After the 45 minute walk from the parking lot, and after convincing ourselves that the route was not closed for peregrine falcon nesting, we thought we were at the base of the route. I made my way up the first twenty feet, using a fallen tree resting on the face for extra handholds, and clipped the first bolt. And then I promptly lowered back to the ground from that bolt, abandoning a carabiner, and gave up. Either we weren't on the right route, or we were in way over our heads.

Just then we heard noises from the trail behind us and realized another party was approaching. It turned out that they had climbed here many times and were heading to the Original Route (5.11a/5.10c A0). Not only that, but they are firefighters/paramedics AND rock climbing guides. A HUGE shoutout to Anthony and Forrest from Fox Mountain Guides. Not only did these guys let us know that we weren't on the right route (we were in fact on a difficult, alternate start to the O.R.), they also sprayed volumes of beta down at us as we tried our best to follow and keep up with them. There is no doubt in my mind that we would have gotten quite lost trying to climb this route without such a competent and generous party in front of us.

Pitch 1 - climbed up the slab, placed a small cam under a flake halfway, traversed up and right to clip a tree/bush, then up and traversed left to belay from a tree.

Pitch 2 - Moved belay left on the ledge, climbed over a flake with cam placed behind it (waiting for the fall to pull the entire flake off the wall!), then easy climbing up to the next belay.

Pitch 3 - ?

Pitch 4 - Reached high to place a #3 cam in the slot above my head. Then, with a tight belay from Jacob, I lay back on the small rail and smeared my feet up the polished face to my right. When high enough I was able to grab the real hold and clip the bolt at my face. What a relief, and happy to have done this pitch clean. Easier climbing after this move.

Pitch 5 - ?

Pitch 6 - Fun, exposed.

Pitch 7 - I had to pull on the bolts here after trying to make the move free several times. I just couldn't reach far enough to hit the good holds left of the first bolt. I almost began the traverse of the next pitch before the party in front of us pointed out that I was supposed to belay from a hole/cave up above and THEN make the traverse.

Pitch 8 - Easy traverse to the right.

Pitch 9 - We had lost sight of Anthony and Forrest at this point. I worked my way up and right but never found the "grassy flake with a fixed pin". Instead after maybe 200 feet I just built a gear belay and brought Jacob up.

Pitch 10 - Climbed 10 feet on rock, then straight up through the bushes/forest above my head. It turned out we were supposed to climb on the rocks to the right of these bushes, but I didn't figure that out until we were at the top, and we wanted to finish things up quickly. The "dirty bushes and mud forest variation".

We struggled a good bit with twists in the double-rope system. I will need to practice my half-rope technique some more to avoid these problems in the future. My overall impression was of many, many runouts. Glad we made it safely to the top!

Jacob flaking the ropes

Kenton near the top of pitch 5?