From: micah_lauer (offwidthclimber@hotmail.com) Subject: TR - The Marginal Mystery Tour Newsgroups: rec.climbing Date: 2000/10/10 The Marginal Mystery Tour Mystery Route, 5.10a, III Saturday, October 7, 2000 Squire Creek Wall Darrington, WA After a sudden change in weekend plans left me without a visiting brother to feed alcohol to for the weekend, and too late to join in on the already-in-progress annual Liberty Bell excursion, I decided a fine way to spend Saturday would be to meet an internet acquaintance in the flesh and explore a rarely visited wall in the notorious Darrington area. The following is an account of our adventure. Warning - its long, just like the day we spent exploring. Enjoy! Happy Climbing! Micah Lauer ************************************* It all started innocuously enough. I had exchanged a handful of emails with Matt in the past few weeks regarding climbing at Darrington and we were both interested in making a trip to the mystical Squire Creek Wall, apparently home to some obscure, rarely visited and undocumented, 25 pitch friction slab routes. A phone call or two finalized the plans and we were set. 4:30 am came all to early, but none the less, I was excited for the upcoming adventure and the chance to take a crack at a route called Primal Scream, which allegedly ascends thousands of feet of beautiful, white granite, to the tune of 25 pitches or so. 5.9 crux, mostly 5.7 and 5.8 - talk about a dream come true! I met Matt outside my apartment at 5:00 am and we headed north. It was just about first light when we pulled off the gravel road at the turn out up Squire Creek Drainage. Strangely enough, it was almost like driving through a light snow storm on the way in, with hundreds of little white moths flittering around the access road. It's mid October - what are they still doing around? I would ask this same question later in the day with regards to the biting flies and abundant mosquitoes that plagued us throughout our journey in the damp, dense forest. Once out of the truck, eyes traveled upward, fixating on a series of fantastic, towering granite walls, shooting above the dense forest far into the deep blue sky. No clouds, no wind - the makings for a perfect day! We quickly arranged the packs and plunged into the forest at 7:30 am. About 5 minutes into the brush, I was introduced to the Darrington D scale of approach ratings, which became quite an education as the day progressed. We lost the faint, poor excuse for a trail and started through the first bit of much D2 we would encounter throughout the day. D2 is generally defined as brush whacking, which includes interaction with a variety of fun specimens, such as Devils Club and tangled, thick groves of Slide Alder and other various brushy vegetation. No real chance of injury beyond scratches, gouging, etc. Prior to now, my limited travels in the Darrington area had yielded only tame D1 approach terrain, which is loosely defined as trail hiking, with an occasional bush pull. I was in for a surprise! We searched up and down the creek for about 10 minutes, looking for the alleged cable crossing, before we removed shoes and socks and plunged into the cold water. This was definitely a wake up, and ironically enough, while we sat on the far bank, putting our shoes and socks back on, Matt spotted the cables, high above the creek. Truly the work of an engineer, the cables were anchored into a massive boulder/cliff on the far bank by a 8" x 8" steel plate and a handful of stout bolts. Oh well, it was actually probably easier just crossing by foot, although the cable is probably an important asset during high water. While scrambling up the far bank, I claimed my first ever piece of climbing- related booty - a nice, unused copperhead. What I would use a piece of aid gear for and why it was here on the ground in the forest was beyond me, but regardless, booty is booty and in my pocket it went. There's no need for a blow by blow of the next 4 hours of approaching, so I will summarize. It was by far the most excruciating, punishing, relentless, heinous, steep bushwhacking I have ever experienced, well - besides the descent. We basically swam and thrashed up a STEEP moutainside through a tangled mat of thick brush for a few hours, occasionally moving over unprotected slabs, where I would gain appreciation for the definition of D3 - serious terrain (possibly exposed) where there is a sporting chance someone could get hurt. Pulling up over steep, wet, mossy, exposed slabs via a handful of alder branches, that I hoped were connected to well rooted trees, was enlightening to say the least. There are no trails here. We don't need no stinking trails! At any rate, there were a number of scary moments, but with no place to pro in the rock, and being that this was still the approach and in the middle of a forest, aiding up shrubbery was the best possible alternative - besides turning around and running home. Slowly, but surely, our location became increasingly airy and we were soon about 2,000 feet above the valley floor - no easy feat considering the terrain. Below the massive, steep bulk of the main wall, we began to thrash in a left-trending direction, hoping to round the corner of the wall and lay eyes upon the acres of lower angle friction that was our goal for the day. Noting that it was already 11:00 am, we would unfortunately not be climbing 25 pitches today. At any rate, another 40 minutes of groveling took us to a huge, mossy gully that topped out at the base of Lower Dick Ridge Buttress, otherwise known as the "Butt Rest." Here, we would turn the corner to the promise land! So I thought. A hundred feet of sketchy gully scrambling over loose, wet, mossy, brushy slabby D3+ terrain, we at last came upon some D4 terrain, defined as death defying. Climbing a wet, mossy slab, with a damn good chance of slipping and falling to serious injury or death was definitely out of the question, so we scrambled down to a marginal belay stance and climbed a nice friction pitch up around the right side of the gully, which would have been much easier in rock shoes than sloppy trail running shoes. It was a fine pitch in and of itself, but was still just the approach. We traversed out left into the upper gully, which had "tamed" back into D2/D3. Once on top, we cruised through some open timber (thank God!) to the bottom of the buttress. At this point, it was 12:00 noon and having spotted a couple of fixed anchors on the steep headwall above, we decided heading that way would be a much better use of the day than traversing another hour or two around the bottom of the Primal Scream area. It wouldn't be 25 pitches, but at least we would get some climbing in! The first pitch was somewhat nondescript, but still enjoyable, following some broken ground (with intermittent gear opportunities) to a nice little wall below the belay, yielding a couple of fun 5.9 moves. A semi hanging belay from a couple of 1/4" bolts gave us the opportunity to lean back and enjoy the spectacular views. Around us lay a sea of granite. Large unnamed, unclimbed domes and walls rose from the dense, green forest, beckoning us. A climber's paradise of virgin rock, ranging from steep aid lines to long mellow friction climbs, and everything in between, sprawled across the landscape. Potential for 20+ pitch routes was everywhere. In another place, under different circumstances, Darrington could be a premier granite climbing destination. However, a combination of weather, topography, location, access, lack of trails and federal Wilderness status will probably safely keep Darrington a quiet, adventurous backcountry location for those willing to earn/struggle for their climbs. Our attention turned back upward to the fantastic pitch that lay above. The steep, slabby headwall looked difficult, but a combination of tiny edges and perfectly placed little magical knobs resulted in an enjoyable, clean 5.10a multi-star pitch that passed a line of 1/4 inch bolts up bright white granite to another hanging belay. In Icicle Creek Canyon, this one would have deserved at least 3 stars. The third pitch continued up the buttress, passing a little roof with a fixed cam right above the belay and moving into a nice, layback finger crack, followed by a couple reachy face moves (5.9/5.10a) to lower angle ground and eventually another set of bolt anchors. There were no protection bolts on this pitch and it seemed to favor Aliens and small TCUs in the short finger crack, with bigger pro higher up the pitch. Above the third pitch, the headwall ended, and the angle backed off into friction climbing terrain. It was hot in the direct sun, feeling more like July than mid October. The water bottle emptied quickly while we climbed four pitches of nice friction and flakes (through a bit of pine brush near the bottom) to the top of the lower buttress (5.2 - 5.8). From here, a party could continue by scrambling across the ridge/saddle to the upper buttress and then climbing a number of friction pitches to the top, making for a long 12-20 pitch day depending on your route of travel. Noting that it was already about 4:00 pm and we still had a big descent to make, we started rappelling the route. By some Act of God, we passed through a myriad of rope- eating flakes for several double rope rappels without a single incident and continued down the fixed anchors on the lower pitches back to our packs. We climbed the route using 50 meter twin ropes. 2 ropes are necessary for rappelling the route. We removed our climbing shoes and both enjoyed a cool Guinness in the late afternoon sun before donning our packs and heading down. Soon enough, the open forest turned into steep D3 and we found ourselves heading down a mossy, slabby gully, down-aiding from branch to branch. Shortly there after, we arrived at some D4, and a full double rope rappel led us to lower angle D2 bushwhacking. About 30 minutes of following occasional sawed branches had our hopes up for finding a direct descent, but as soon as the cut branches began, they mysteriously disappeared. At this point, the sun was setting and we were a long way above the valley floor, so we began to head straight downhill, through more thick, heinous brush, hoping to make the creek on the valley floor before it became too dark. In retrospect, we were wise to keep our helmets and harnesses on for the upper descent, as about 45 minutes later, in the dwindling light, we stumbled to the edge of a 50 foot overhanging cliff, disguised in the middle of steep, but fairly innocuous looking forest. A quick single rope rappel through the hideous brush hanging over the lip of the cliff found us back in relatively safe terrain. Our descent route was entirely different from our approach, following a more direct drainage back to the road. Headlamps came out and we plunged ever downward, in search of the creek. Eventually, about two hours after starting our descent into Hell, we gained a rocky, loose creek bed that provided some respite from the jungle and followed it into a flat meadow of Devil's Club, which led to more steep Slide Alder (I think I'm seeing a pattern) and finally, the creek! Unfortunately, it was just a little tributary and not the main creek we were looking for. Two more false creeks later, we crossed a hill and heard the roaring of Squire Creek! Yes! We were nearly there! I plunged in, the cool water soothing my sore, blistered feet. We knew at this point that the roadbed was uphill and according to Matt, impossible to miss. 30 minutes of uphill thrashing over rotten logs and through more brush (surprise, surprise), led us to the roadbed and 10 minutes later, back at the truck. I did a little victory dance in my head because I was too beaten to actually perform one, and dropped my pack. We threw our gear in the truck and took off down the road. It was 8:00 pm - twelve and a half hours after leaving the truck in the morning. Back in Darrington, we stopped at the Shell Station, which, judging by the amount of high school students hanging out there on a Saturday night, must be one hell of a convenience store. After a quick phone call to the wife and some much needed rehydration and Chili Cheese fritos, we headed down the highway, back to Seattle and civilization. The aftermath - I had a great, yet tiring day. The Squire Creek Drainage is a largely untapped resource and very wild. Relatively little route development has occurred in the area and not too many people make it in there. I considered myself fortunate to have had the chance to go up on Squire Creek Wall - it's a small group who have been there before. Most the climbing in the Darrington area is focused on the drainage containing Three O'Clock rock, Green Giant Buttress and Blueberry Hill, which still has a large quantity of virgin rock as well. The climbing in Squire Creek drainage is very adventurous, and so are the approaches and descents, which are not to be taken lightly and have the potential to turn serious or deadly, especially in bad weather. It's not a good place to get injured. The chances of someone else being on the rock or within shouting distance is slim to none on any given day. We were the only climbers there on a beautiful, sunny Saturday. This is even the case for the "popular" Darrington areas, which still see relatively little activity. A multipitch classic like Dreamer can apparently sit unclimbed even on nice, sunny weekends. By the way, Matt says the D scale does includes D5, but that they really don't know what it is since they haven't come across it yet. Being that we are talking about Darrington, I'm sure D5 is out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered! Oh yeah, I'm still picking Devil's Club thorns out of my hands. Bastards! And my final comment. A few weeks ago, rei-outlet.com had Black Diamond Vertical climbing pants advertised for $50.00 (BD website lists them at $128.00). I jumped on the deal, snatched a pair and they accompanied me on my adventure to Squire Creek Wall. How I managed to bushwhack for an entire day, getting bloody cuts on my legs and thighs, without a single fray appearing in those pants is a fucking miracle. I highly recommend them. I referred to the route we climbed as the Mystery Route. There is no published name for the route, nor is there a guide book to the wall. I am looking into the name and will follow up with that information and any other useful details if they become available. *************************************