Epinephrine 2026

Mike T. and I climbed Epinephrine (5.9) on February 27, 2026. This was my second time climbing it and Mike's first. My personal objective was to climb it clean (I hung once or twice on gear during my first ascent) and to climb it more efficiently. Both objectives were accomplished. We left the parking lot around 6:30 AM and were back at the car by about 6:30 PM, roughly 12 hours car-to-car. For comparison, the climbing alone on my first trip took about 12 hours, and car-to-car it was 15. Also, I didn't hang on gear at all during this second ascent.

We left the parking lot around 6:30 AM and were climbing probably around 7:30 AM. We were using double ropes and each had a smaller pack. I had 3 liters of water and drank them all.

I led pitches 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10. Mike led pitches 1, 3, 6, 8, 11 and the final scramble to the top.

Impressions: the chimney pitches were scarier than I remembered. They are both the physical and the mental crux of the climb. We were both climbing with small packs, and leading the chimneys with a pack, even when trailing it, was no walk in the park. If I did this again, it would probably be best to bring a single pack for both climbers. And, it would be even better to haul the pack rather than forcing the second to trail it beneath him.

Pitch 1 - Slabby climbing with some delicate moves between bolts. Watch out for rope drag.

Pitch 2 - Ends with a mild chimney to preview what is coming next.

Pitch 3 - Both chimney and crack climbing finishing with a traverse out right.

Pitch 4 - Solid chimney almost the whole way. It may be easier to stick to chimney technique rather than working farther back towards the crack.

Pitch 5 - Kinda got squeezed in the back low down trying to place gear before moving back out and working with the featured left face. Run out at the top, but much more solid holds.

Kenton rests up for the final push out of the chimneys!!!

Pitch 6 - Anchor is on top of the Elephant Trunk (in conflict with the Handren guide, but in agreement with the SuperTopo map). Chill pitch.

Pitch 7-9 - We followed a crack for these two pitches, fun and well protected.

Mike enjoys the good holds and great protection in the climbing above the Elephant Trunk

Pitch 10 - Some easier climbing to a 5.7R face followed by easy 5.9 roof/bulge.

Pitch 11 - Very easy climbing, but at the top to avoid rope drag it makes sense to move to the anchor on the left. We did not do this - instead Mike moved up and right into easier terrain, but this made the rope drag very bad.

After this we reduced our setup to a single rope and shortened it to about 100 ft. to make a final push to the top, reaching the end of the ramp around 4:30 PM.

The descent was long but straightforward following a GPX I had downloaded from Mountain Project. We reached the car just after 6 PM.

Savoring our victory at the top of Epinephrine on Black Velvet Peak