Climbing Some Rocks

This is long, detailed, and has only one picture... so it's mostly for me to remember the trip, but if you're into that sort of thing, enjoy...

Josh (Andrea's Brother-in-law) was trying to get me to climb Mt Adams with him this past Friday.  After trips to Maui and Sunriver, my PTO is non-existent.  So we compromised on rock climbing on Saturday (after soccer).  Josh still climbed Mt Adams in 1 day and the next day we went to Broughton Bluff.

I've always climbed with more experienced climbers and never had to setup a top rope.  (Although I did my first lead climb at Smith this year but the anchors were already setup and I just clipped the rope into the carabeiners).  I've seen in done numerous times and had a very good idea of how it was done.  Knowing that this trip I would be setting up the ropes, I had my brother give me a lesson and it reinforced the process for me.

Andrea, Aiden, Josh, Dallin, and Abby came to Broughton with me.  We hiked up and headed over to "Giant's Staircase" to get the kids climbing.  At Brougton you don't need to lead climb because you can hike around the backside and setup a top rope.  Good thing because the routes we wanted to climb required trad gear if you wanted to lead them.  I setup the rope on Giant's Staircase and rappelled down.

Dallin was up first.  He had some creative moves that got him to the top.  The hardest spot on the climb is about 3/4 of the way up.  There is not much to hold on to and you have to be a little creative. 

Andrea was next and she climbed with ease until she got to the tricky spot.  After not being able to find any good holds, she felt like quitting but she rested on the ledge and gave it a few more tries.  After a few creative moves, she was at the top.  She did great!  She said she had fun but she's not quite addicted to climbing yet. 

Aiden got about 5 feet up and got a little scared.  I think he needs a little more experience in the rock gym to get him more comfortable with the height and trusting the rope.

Josh climbed up with ease and was ready for more.  Although he was ready to blame climbing Mt Adams the day before if he didn't climb well at Broughton.

The kids were done so Andrea took them back to her parent's house while Josh and I looked at our next climb.  Next to Giant's Staircase is a 5.8 route called Edges and Ledges.  It looked pretty fun and the guys on it were about to pull their rope.  So I hiked around back to setup the rope.  This one was a little sketchy.  I had to reach around the rock to reach the chains and attach my daisy chain.  Then I had to work my way out around the edge without swinging.  I setup the rope and started to rappel down.  The route shifts way left when you are about 3/4 of the way up so I attached a quickdraw to keep us from swinging if we fell in the first 3/4 of the climb.

Josh climbed first.  The climb followed a crack up to "the Hammer" where there was a ledge you can stand on.  Josh got to the top of the crack and was having trouble getting up on top of the hammer.  There wasn't really anywhere to put your feet.  Plus, the Hammer was to your right after climbing the crack so you had to shift your hands over with your feet dangling and pull yourself up.  After taking a rest on the rope, Josh managed to get on top of the hammer.  That's where the climb gets even more difficult.  There is a small crack to the far right of the route.  You have to use that to get up about 5 feet and then traverse over to the left.  After studying the rock for a while, Josh decided it was beyond his ability and he came down.

Then it was my turn.  The start was really easy, the crack climb was fun, and it was a little tricky getting up to the top of the hammer.  My hands were tired and I didn't have much of a grip left but I managed to use the crack on the right to get myself a little ways up and then after a rest or two on the rope, I traversed around and finished the climb.  I was glad I made it to the top even if I cheated a little.  I had to take the rope down so climbing up was the easiest and safest way to do that.