Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, catching up, heh heh heh, um, well this is awkward. For you, not for me, I mean, I'm here in Alaska, remember?
Back to the grand re-telling of my adventure. So the first week went by with no climbing. Second week, same result. Finally, I found a wall!!
Well, this isn't exactly it. But it looks great, doesn't it? This is a two pitch wall at least, and has the most potential for 4 star routes, maybe even some trad, there is a sweet looking roof crack to the right in that bulge.
I actually found two walls, but the second wall is much more involved than the first and would require A LOT of preparation, rappelling, bolting, cleaning, etc. etc. The first wall is great, and suited what I was looking for to a T. It is a roadside crag that offers slightly inverted climbing on thin edges, and sharp finger buckets. I heard about this wall from a guy who used to work for Search and Rescue (SAR) and told me there would be promise in a wall that they used to practice rappelling down. I drove and drove down a road (the only road really) that he recommended and voila, there it was. Smiling back at me, as if it had been waiting around for me the entire time. A huge piece of graffiti staining it's otherwise, well, crumbly but promising lower face, shouted out in two words the summation of teen angst "Shit Ballz" in yellow and blue (can't argue with the color scheme). A small scramble onto a ledge and you are perched at the base of this seemingly innocent looking piece of rock. Climbing up a couple of ledge systems lead to a good head wall where all of the routes that I have been working on begin.
It was a bit of a struggle to figure out how exactly I was to reach the top of this 65 foot wall, in order to throw a top rope down and start inspecting the lines, but once I crunched my way through some underbrush there turned out to be quite an accommodating little trail that actually runs the length of the entire bluff system that has a lot of potential for future routes. When I happened upon the right section of wall I found that there was a huge chain wrapped around a massive tree overlooking the right side of the wall and I was overjoyed that I wouldn't have to go through the rigmaroles of setting up my own anchor systems as well as cleaning them, even though I knew in the future I would have to in order to scope out and clean the left side of the wall. I rapped down and was pretty psyched the whole way down. The wall is featured, but not too featured as to make harder lines contrived or A line at all ambiguous. I could tell that the middle and left walls had lines and features all the way up them as well so I smiled big and got to work brushing, chalking, and prying loose holds off the wall. I managed to put up and send the first line of the wall, which I affectionately named Shit Ballz, a name to this day I loathe. The route starts off, as all of them do, off the ledge by a short boulder problem. After the boulder problem its 5.8 climbing on ledges to one final ledge, where you can stand and look up at the blankness. From here, there is a lot of foot work and one small razor blade crimp that lead to flat holds and one more lock offs to a good jug. Then it's all lock offs on fairly decent flat edges, finger jugs, and split crimps. The crux isn't really my favorite thing in the world, but the top section is actually quite brilliant and slightly thuggish. The wall is slightly overhanging after all.
This is a whale tail! I named him Wally. Wally the Whale.
The wall itself overlooks Silver Bay, and all of September there has been a juvenile whale feeding, breaching, blow holing, and singing to me as I climb, so I have decided to re-name the wall 'Whale Wall'. As for the quality of the routes, I'm pretty sure nobody thinks their own kids are ugly, so maybe its just the glow in the eyes of a first time parent that could blind my judgment, but I think they are all worth doing, and then worth doing again, especially since I haven't really invested any time in any of the other crags I have found. The climbing on the wall is very, VERY crimpy, and sharp. After a couple burns on the harder routes, my feet and fingers are done. There is no texture on any of the holds, its almost like climbing on the fractured basalt at Deep Creek except nowhere near as classy. The rock is crumbly down low, but once you get on the headwall its bullet hard, with the exception of some thin flakes that I have been prying off here and there.
All in all I have cleaned and sent on top rope these 6 routes below.
Shit Ballz - 5.10c/d
Sitka Sounds - 5.11a/b
Sitka Vibrations - 5.11d (very contrived, but a cool low percentage crux move)
Whale Song - 5.11d (hold broke at second crux, so may be easier now)
Whale Rap - 5.11d
Blow Hole (5.10d/11a)
There is maybe 3 more variations to do before the contrived problems start coming out of the bag, but the last pure line on the wall is going to be hard, maybe even in the .12b/c range hard. I liken it to Legends at the quarry, very sustained crimping, hard foot work, to a pumpy finish on flat ledges. It's going to be awesome, I just need the skin and psyche to finish it off.
The future looks good, I may make a trip to Anchorage at the end of this month and check out the climbing gyms. Other than that, there is a sweet new crag we just discovered that has some slabby routes on the front and some overhung routes on the side, so I'm waiting for dry weather to check it out on a rope.
This is a picture of the sun setting on Silver Bay. After climbing sessions I sit and take in the immense beauty of this place, and always with a few Rainiers.
So, will the wall ever get bolted? Well, I met a local who used to climb and the word Hilti came up in our conversation, but now its all a matter of how much time, money, and effort I want to put into this little piece of rock. We shall see...
