Had a fun day at the Pinns yesterday. While everyone else reading this forum is probably out doing classic routes on granite, KC and I are still tapping and testing our way through the moss and choss. Speaking of classics - I had my eye on an old school route on the SE Flumes face for this weekend's outing - so we headed to that.
Drizzly Drain 5.5 – this was a fun climb but a bit of a grunt fest in spots. The scramble up is shown as 3rd class but feels closer to 4th class in a few spots. It lets you know where your head is at before you get to the base of the climb. Once at the base there is a small grassy spot to get situated and a tiny tree you can sling for your belayer's marginal peace of mind. I placed a #6 camalot early on and a #5 not too far below the first bolt.
JC heads up above the #6 - a few moves further and I would stuff myself into the squeeze
The first bolt was old but tight – not sure what type of bolt it was – maybe some type of rivet? Placed in 1966.
The chimney got to its narrowest point after the first bolt and it was tough to wriggle upward – definitely the crux for me. Some of the foot holds were a bit thin but the hands were pretty good and eventually there was a nice flake to skyhook and then stand on to get an extended rest. It would have helped not to have approach shoes on my back/butt. Maybe I'll try them on the front for the next chimney. I placed my #4 well above the first bolt and proceeded to extricate myself from the squeeze chimney. I took a rest and clipped the second bolt while I surveyed the traverse ahead.
The second bolt is old but seemed beefy and it’s tight.
The route description says (use slings) for the traverse but I used 2 foot runners on every piece (except the #6 at the bottom). Looking at the pic, topo and the route - I figured I was in for a battle in terms of rope drag. It’s a pretty good run to the first gear placement on the traverse and there was a lot of moss. The climbing is easy but pretty exposed/scary. I placed a red alien first, then my largest nut, followed by a gray alien and lastly my #3 cam to protect the moves up into the knobs - a #4 might have fit better here but I'd already used it. The rope drag was getting bad even before the knobs. I called for slack and pulled about 6 feet before heading up the knobs. Turning that corner and going up the knobs made the drag unbearable – even with 2 ft runners on everything. I had to reach back and pull hard to get any forward/upward movement and I felt like it was causing me to put too much stress on the holds - luckily by that point the angle is fairly low. I like to "float" Pinns holds at all times. After surmounting the knobs + a couple more moves up/across I was a in a decent place/ledgy area and called down to be taken off belay. I pulled rope from there and put large loops around a huge lodestone and a big knob below it.
The belay was a bit makeshift but I also had a decent stance. I considered going up to the tree but decided that would just make the drag unbelievable and I would be close to running out of rope. There was also some loose rock lying around that could get knocked off by the rope. I had little problem bringing KC up and she climbed solid.
KC comes up to the belay
KC took a brief rest on the ledge and I kept her on belay while she scrambled up to the tree. I coiled the rope and scrambled up to the tree. We used another bigger tree further up to start the scramble to the top of the ridge. Route finding for the "walk off" takes some thought but is not difficult. We talked to lots of hikers on the trail today. We decided to stop by Big Bad West on the way out. KC led BBW and I followed/free soloed after she let the rope drop. We talked to more folks on the way out. The car temp read 92 but it felt considerably hotter than that in the sun. Fun day!
Here's hoping everyone had a fun holiday weekend!!
