Climbed my first route involving some aid! It was time. I bought some alpine aiders and Eric Krumland and I set out to do the Direct East Buttress of SEWS. This is an extremely striking line, shooting straight up from the hairpin curve to the summit of SEWS. It looks imposing! The climb is 11 pitches, Grade IV, and goes at 5.11 if all freed. Very few people free it, because the aid sections are delicate face climbing right next to bolt ladders. It can be done as easy as 5.9 C1. We aided both bolt ladders, and one 5.10 crack, but Eric freed the 5.10a section above the second bolt ladder. So our grade was 5.10a C1.
We met up around 4am again in Mount Vernon and hit the road. We were moving up from the hairpin by 6:30. The approach to this climb is pretty simple: park at the hairpin, head up the gully, then start trending right below the steeper cliff bands when it becomes obvious that the start of the route is to your right. We made good time and were racking up to start climbing in a little over an hour.
On this trip, we could have planned out our leads much better. I really wanted to lead the first bolt ladder as I was psyched to hit the aid sequence. Eric really wanted to try to free the second bold ladder. I was pretty nervous about the 5.9+ roof pitch. Therefore, I should have let Eric lead out first, but that's not the way it went. I ended up taking the first pitch, which was 5.6ish blocky climbing. This leads up to a short dihedral (5.8) to an awkward belay at a tree. From there, it is a short traverse right into the long 5.9+ dihedral which ends in a big roof. Eric took pitches 2 and 3.
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| Eric led the first hard pitch, 5.9+ roof |
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| Josh follows pitch 3 with the hairpin far below |
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| Fun hand jams below the roof |
Below the roof, Eric sewed up the crack like a madman. I scraped the hell out of my hands trying to clean the gear, and wound up having to leave a #1 C4. I finally arrived at the belay huffing and puffing, with bloody hands, and totally exhausted. For some reason, I only rested long enough to reflake the rope. I took off onto the the fourth pitch, 5.8, with a pretty physical short roof. By this point I was worked. I pumped out completely trying to protect the roof, and ended up lowering off, defeated. Eric led that one too.
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| Josh leading pitch 4, 5.8 dihedral with the small roof |
Once at the top I took a good long rest before finally taking the lead on the first bolt ladder. Little did we know that we were about to leave the relative warmth of the sun behind for the rest of the morning. We were both highly underdressed at this point. I had a blast figuring out the sequence to the bolt ladder! The exposure was unreal and the rock was solid. So fun! After crossing the arete, the line follows a thin seam (5.9) to a two-bolt anchor. At last I felt redeemed, having led legitimate trad 5.9 after my previous flails. Apparently pitches 5 and 6 can be linked. In my opinion, the rope drag would be heinous around the arete and due to the varied bolt placements. Plus, just after the short crack the two-bolt anchor is so solid. Why not stop there?
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| Josh leading the super-fun first bolt ladder on pitch 5 |
Eric took pitch 6. This started out with a short bolted traverse, followed by a right-trending hand crack. It goes free at 5.10, but it was cold, steep, and exposed. He aided it clean.
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| Eric heading out on the second short bolted section, heading into the cold shade |
Pitch 7 was the second bolt ladder. Eric aided that section. But then he freed the 5.10a section above. Impressive! This included two hard mantel moves with thin holds. Finally the climbing eased and he was able to head up an easy crack until running out of rope and brought me up.
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| Eric leads the second bolt ladder on pitch 7, followed by a 5.10a free move |
Three more easy pitches led us to the "killer topout". Aptly named, this prow somehow escaped my notice on my previous three trips up SEWS. What an amazing spot! It is an easy scramble over from the South Arete route. But the position is unmatched with a commanding view over the hairpin and the rest of the valley. Some of the most beautiful shots I've ever obtained of the area were taken from this spot. It would be easy to get to from the other routes, but I just never knew it existed.
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| Eric on the awesome topout ridge, true summit over his left shoulder |
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| Josh at the killer topout prow, with the Wine Spires and Silver Star |
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| Killer topout! |
I'm so glad I finally tackled the easy aid sequence. It is nice to have in my bag of tricks, as now I'm confident that I can get myself out of a jam on a climb if needed. Nothing fancy is needed besides a single long sling, but the alpine aiders sure were nice! Another great day out with a very solid climber. Not my best effort, but I still learned something, climbed safely, had a blast, and ticked off another difficult classic!
