Today Thomas and I did an awesome climb! It’s called Black Streak (III 5.10b, 6 pitches, 800′) on Devil’s Castle (10,920′). It’s mostly a bolted climb, but there are some gear placements in there, too. The approach and getting ready to climb took about an hour. The climb itself took about two and a half hours, and then getting down took about an hour and a half. The pitches are 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.8, 5.4, 5.10a, 5.9.
Overall, I loved the route. I’m going back next week to do another route on the same face. Here are two epic highlights of the trip:
- Hearing the hum, then buzz of falling rocks. They sound like missiles, and you can’t see them. Then all of a sudden the rock exploded 15 feet away from us… It’s one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever experienced.
- The road out of Little Cottonwood Canyon is super steep, and I was riding my breaks the whole way. Aaannddd… My tires caught on fire. I’m not kidding. I pulled over on the side of the rode to check out a cliff and I realized that my tires were smoking! I looked closer and saw that there were flames coming out through the holes in the hubcap! Thomas and I grabbed all of the water bottles in the car and started dousing the front two tires and eventually they stopped flaming and smoking. Crazy…
Here are the pics:
The route is marked in yellow, with the small yellow dots being the belays.
Getting closer to the start of the route. It goes up the obvious black streak in the middle of the picture.
Thomas in the bergschrund (the gap between snow and a cliff) at the base of the route.
Looking down from the top of the first pitch.
Thomas starting out on pitch 2. Beautiful rock!
Looking down pitch 3.
Thomas on pitch 4. The yellow arrow points to him.
Me on pitch 5.
Looking back across the big ledge at the top of pitch 5.
Thomas on the last pitch.
Cool rock!
Thomas moving from the anchors to the ridge top.
Me on the summit!
Looking through a sweet hole in the rock!
Me on top of the knife-edge summit ridge. Suh-weet!
Look how big and scary the face looks! The route goes up the obvious black streak in the middle.