The Face of South Early Winter Spire, certainly one of the most impressive walls in the Washington pass area if not the entire Cascades. It is around 800ft tall, very clean and quite steep. On the South face is a route called "The Passenger" (IV 5.12a). First climbed in 1991 By Bryan Burdo, Pete Doorish and Greg White. The passenger is widley considered the "Astroman" of Washington because of its sustained nature. Of its 9 pitches, only 1 isn't 5.10, 5.11 or 5.12.
The breakdown of the pitches is P1: 5.11a, P2 5.11c, P3 5.11a/b, P4 5.12a, P5 5.10d, P6 5.10c/d, P7 5.11a, P8 5.10a/b and P9 5.7
Graham Zimmerman ("Grammy" or "GZ") my long time partner in adventure. I had wanted to climb this route for a long time but had always felt a little intimidated by it. GZ was feeling super motivated and convinced me to just go get on it. After a Ro-Sham-bo, I one and got the first pitch, I got the odd pitches, Graham got the evens.
Me Leading the first pitch 5.11a
Graham climbing into the 5.11c cross over roofs pitch, this pitch proved challenging
Graham getting into the business of it,
After I lead the amazing 5.11b corner third pitch, Graham leading pitch 4 pitch 5.11a slab to a 5.10b run out mantle to a short but fierce 5.12a boulder problem pulling a small roof.
Graham getting ready for the Mantle
Grammy taking us up the final 5.7 pitch
No comments:
Post a Comment