Upper Echelon 5.10c 8p

[ryanguy]

Upper Echelon 5.10c 8p
FFA: Ryan Kurytnik & Dave Brayden August 2, 2007

A new 8 pitch alternative to the Squamish Buttress and the Ultimate Everything located just left of the Ultimate Everything.

Pitch 1: 5.8 Gear to 1" & 3 Bolts 28m
-Start at the belay anchor on a ledge, accessed via a small gully with a fixed line 15m left of the start of the Ultimate Everything.
-Climb out right either to the bolt and traverse back or directly up the diagonal crack skipping the first bolt (5.10a).
-Gain the large ledge then up a flake past 2 bolts and back left to a large ledge and ring anchors.

Pitch 2: 5.10a Gear to 1.5" & 2 Bolts 35m
-Stem in the corner through the technical crux around the first bolt.
-Ascend the finger crack above.
-At the 2nd bolt climb right up the arete and over to the other crack and to the rap-ring/webbing anchors.

Pitch 3: 5.10c Gear to 1" & 4 Bolts 31m
-The crux pitch
-Walk up to the main ledge using the fixed line then over left about 20m and up 3m to a ledge at the base of a stunning crescent crack.
-Climb the thin crack with increasing difficulty as the crack closes.
-The crux is thin and quite technical below the lip.
-Mantle onto the ledge then over the bulge up the easier crack/groove to the ring anchors.

Pitch 4: 5.8 Gear to 4", 1FP & 1 Bolt 33m
-Often wet until later in the season but usually still climbable even when wet.
-Climb left up the fault line.
-Half-way up climb right around an undercling to a fixed pin.
-Climb up the slabby dihedral crack past a bolt then a wide crack on the left (#3 or #4 Camalot) to the ring anchor.
-Shares the anchor with the 4th pitch of the Ultimate Everything

Pitch 5: 5.10a Gear .5-2" 25m
-Walk up the trail left about 30m to the base of a nice dihedral hand crack.
-Jam the hand crack then continue steeply up the thin crack avoiding the tempting ledge to the left.
-Gain the main ledge then climb the double lay-back cracks above.
-Quite powerful at the end of the crack to gain the ledge above.
-Easy ledges from there to the ring anchors.

Pitch 6: 5.10c Gear to 3" 40m
-The steep impressive looking crack 70m to the left of the anchors of pitch 5
-Look for several unexpected jugs.
-The difficulty increases above the alcove with tenuous lay-backing.
-Gain the ledge over half-way then up the slab to the flake then over the lip.
-The ring anchors are about 5m further back on a small ledge of rock.

Pitch 7: 5.8 Gear to 1" & 4 Bolts 34m
-Gain the main ledge using the fixed hand-line then walk left about 10m to the start, marked with a belay bolt.
-Climb out left in the broken cracks then up the slab past 3 bolts.
-Climb the flakes above on easy ground to the final bolt on the final slab.
-Gain the hand crack then up right to the ring anchors.

Pitch 8: 5.8 Gear to 2" & 1 Bolt 40m
-Climb out left past a bolt, avoiding the dirty dihedral.
-Climb around a flake then through a series of diagonal cracks to the tree mid-way.
-Climb the fine finger crack above with great nut placements to the top anchors.

-Hike up then right to the top of the second summit.
-Descend via the second summit trail to the southwest.

[MCpl]

Sounds awesome. Thanks for all the work.

[ryanguy]

Thanks for the comment.
I have been having trouble posting topos and photos so here is a link to where you can view them:

http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.a ... C_ID=23022

It is a really fun route and we hope it will become popular. Please give it a go.

[MCpl]

I like how the pitches are mostly over 30m in length. Was that done out of necessity or intention?

[ryanguy]

There are 2 pitches less than 30m but most are longer. We wanted longer pitches but they are that way out of necessity, not intention. It is just how that ledges and terraces are spaced. Each belay is on a large comfortable ledge or terrace.
On another not I just added more photos to the linked webpage showing off some of the sweet cracks on the route.

[itsonlyadream]

Thanks for the comment.
I have been having trouble posting topos and photos so here is a link to where you can view them:

http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.a ... C_ID=23022

It is a really fun route and we hope it will become popular. Please give it a go.

We did this August 12. Thanks for all the time, effort, and hardware.

Pitch 6 was challenging because of flaky rock through the crux but gear was good.

[ryanguy]

Hey Mike,
Glad to hear you got on the route. You're probably the first one.
Dave is planning to give pitch 6 a final brushing soon. We found it a little scruffy too when we finished the route as it hadn't been cleaned in a while (since 2005).
Any comments on the grades?

[tedium]

I did the route with Andy ("itsonlyadream") and we found some of the pitches pretty stiff for the posted grades. Pitch 3, in particular, seemed much harder than pitch 6 (both listed at 10c). Andy redpointed it but I heard some distinct huffing and puffing. We guessed that you guys may be on the taller side. The stemming on pitch 3 was fine (albeit thin and technical) until the last bolt but I would be interested in your beta on reaching the lip when the left wall starts to overhang and you cant push off with your left foot. The two "jugs" on the left wall dont seem to be enough without something for the feet.
Again great job in putting up this new route and I hope its gets lots of traffic.

[itsonlyadream]

I did the route with Andy ("itsonlyadream") and we found some of the pitches pretty stiff for the posted grades. Pitch 3, in particular, seemed much harder than pitch 6 (both listed at 10c). Andy redpointed it but I heard some distinct huffing and puffing.

It was an onsight unless my STM is shot, but it very nearly wasn't. p3 is harder than 10c for 5'8" climbers. It is hard to compare p3 and p6 because the difficulties are very different.

[methuselah]

Hey Mike,
Glad to hear you got on the route. You're probably the first one.
Dave is planning to give pitch 6 a final brushing soon. We found it a little scruffy too when we finished the route as it hadn't been cleaned in a while (since 2005).
Any comments on the grades?

We did the route yesterday and had a great time. We thought your description was excellent, the rock was mostly clean, and the pro and anchors were good.

We found all but the last 2 pitches stiff for the grades, even allowing for packs and fatigue (after Rock On). Pitch 3 seemed especially stiff (more like .11a?), although it did get easier with practice!javascript:emoticon(':D') Very Happy. Had difficulty with pitch 6 too (burly) but that was mostly fatigue.

Great job Ryan and Dave. It's an excellent addition.

Chris

[ryanguy]

Thanks for the comments Chris. Good to see people are getting on the route. I agree that the grades may be a little stiff but I think that only pitch 3 may need to be upgraded (to 10d). I did the crux moves yesterday on TR and found it actually qutie easy, just very delicate.

Yesterday I pulled up a multi-pitch virgin friend of mine up the entire Chief. He did quite well. We climbed Sparrow, Boomstick crack and the Echelon Connection, a combination of Upper Echelon and Ultimate Everything.

Pitch 1 - 5.8 - Upper Echelon start then traverse right over to the end of the 1st pitch of Ultimate Everything after the last bolt. Easy with good pro.
Pitch 2 - 5.7 - 2nd pitch of Ultimate Everything
Pitch 3 - 5.9 - 3rd pitch of Ultimate Everything then traverse left to the top of the 3rd pitch of Upper Echelon.
Pitch 4 - 5.8 - 4th pitch of Upper Echelon (more fun than pitch 4 of Ultimate Everything)
Pitch 5 - 5.8 - 5th pitch of Ultimate Everything
Pitch 6 - 5.9 - 6th pitch of Ultimate Everything
Pitch 7 - 5.8 - 7th pitch of Ultimate Everything
Pitch 8 - 5.8 - 7th pitch of Upper Echelon. Traverse left along the large ledge to the start.
Pitch 9 - 5.8 - 8th pitch of Upper Echelon to the summit.

In total we did 15 pitches of 5.9 and under climbing with no aid. It was tiring but a lot of fun.

I also scouted a variation to pitch 3 of Upper Echelon which is likely a 5.9.

Anyone else been on Upper Echelon? All comments are appreciated.

[harihari]

What gear is needed for this? One of everything to 4"?

Great work BTw; lots of work to dig cracks out in Squamish.

[harihari]

Nice work. Climbed it today (except for the first 10c pitch which was far too wet; bummer, it looks really cool!). The grades seem reasonable. We did not have a #4 and we only had singles of everything else (plus one extra TCU) but it was fine. The 2nd 10c pitch has a slingable horn and other features which made it possible to protect without too much gear. Looks like there is a pretty good splitter just to the right of the 2nd 10c pitch. Plus of course the echelon wall itself calls...

We also did the North Arete (?) on the Apron-- I think that's what it's called-- between St Vitus and Calculus Crack, up the fixed rope from Baseline Ledge to a crack. Very nice 2.5 pitches of hands and fists.

[seagull slayer]

some comments and suggested grade changes. pitch 3 seems harder than 10c. pitch 4 is wet even in dry conditions, seems harder than 5.8 and a bit runout. the last two pitches are of dubious quality. we did not climb pitches 5 and 6 (retreated from p5).

pitch1: 5.8 -- unremarkable climbing, ignore the crack and head for the bolt if you want to do the 5.8.
pitch2: 5.10a * -- a nice pitch with tricky stemming and fun cracks above.
pitch3: 5.11 -- this pitch is probably good if you can climb 5.11. the crack is a bit slimy (with mud) lower down, gets better above, but seems harder than 10c at the top. small cams for pro before the bolts.
pitch4: 5.9 -- this pitch is wet even now and it has not rained for a long time. this makes the traverse through the undercling more difficult. the section between the pin and the bolt is poorly protected, recommend taking a few tiny cams.
pitch5: we retreated due to the seemingly difficult to protect section above the jam crack. beta?
pitch6: did not climb
pitch7: 5.7 -- unremarkable climbing, the slab is quite dirty.
pitch8: 5.7 -- unremarkable climbing, first bolt seems unnecessary. is adding superfluous bolts really the right way to mark the route?