Culp-Bossier route 06/24/07

P1- Another party was ahead of us. They had stopped at the official end of P1, and I wanted to run to the end of the rope and build a belay. I got to their spot just before the second took off. He let me pass, but there wasn't time for me to get up the chimney before he needed to start following. I moved aside and waited. Bomber #3 cam placement in the anchor on the ramp.

P2- Dave led up to the bail slings and pulled a roof. The backpack was a pain, so he clipped it to the slings. Route-finding gets difficult here. He got channeled rightward. He pulled some ballsy unprotectable moves trying to get back to the middle of three corners ahead of us, but the rope drag was too much. He built an anchor with textbook micro nuts.

P2b- We were about 25 feet to the right of our route with an arete/bulge obstacle and some face moves in our path. I stepped out and committed to the arete just 5 feet or so from the belay. I hooked a heel and pulled, but I couldn't get a second hand-hold. I struggled, started to back down, then found a crimper that let me mantle up on the bulge. Scariest move of the day for me - bad place to fall and I almost did. Traversed 25 feet of 5.7 face on one good small cam placement (my first was a micro nut that fell out.) Got to the dihedral and built a hanging belay station.

P3&P4- I left Dave hanging uncomfortably and went up the corner. Got to the end of P3 and used a roller-biner to redirect the rope at a right angle so I could link up P4. Traversed left and up for 50 or 60 feet to get to the enormous belay ledge at the great white corner.

P5- Dave ran almost a full rope length up the face following the corner. Thin pro, but fun, consistent 5.7 climbing. Unfortunately, there's another hanging belay at the end of this pitch.

P6- Our topo showed the route going straight up, but staying to the left of the Hallett nose. After 3/4 of the pitch I felt the wind whipping around the nose and it seemed as if I was too far to the right. There is a giant buttress of rotten rock ahead, and the left side looked like the way to go. I traversed 30 feet or more leftward on scanty pro to build the worst belay anchor of the day. (One good #2 cam, a loweball, and a #1 in a mossy slot. I added a sketchy tricam as a directional. A party just leaving the crack there informed me that we are on 'The Englishman's Route'.

P7- We consulted the topo. There are 3 possible exits. This is the same place John and I found ourselves two years ago, and we had taken the right option which has a 5.9 wide-crack roof move. With the leftover snow, it is likely to be wet. We chose the left option, 5.8 face with a few small roofs. It was definitely the spiciest pitch of the day. Nearly a full rope length with some runouts, ending at the blocky top of Hallett. As Dave was climbing, a rainbow framed the route overhead. That could have been a bad sign, but all the storms were far to the South. Great day.

Oh, yeah. Then there was the descent. It's supposed to be a double-rope rappel followed by a class IV gully. I beg to differ with that classification. It sucked. Loose stuff everywhere and lots of 5.1 downclimbing for at least 600 feet. Nerve-racking and treacherous. Near the end we found a tree with slings that let us rap down the face and over the snow all the way to the talus slope.