East Rampart Challenge

For all you dedicated readers still with me (give yourselves a hand) looking for some more insightful and well read literary commentaries, I'm sorry to say you're out of luck. Ostensibly, this is going to chronicle my self-imposed challenge of climbing every named route (as named by a combination of The Climber's Guide to Devil's Lake, Mountain Project, and the panel of Dancing With The Stars) on the East Rampart of Devil's Lake. Maybe I'll toss in a few commentaries for old time's sake, and because really, who doesn't like a good analysis every now and then.

Anyways, on to the climbing. Climb every route on the East Rampart, from Hawk's Nest to D'Arcy's Buttress. Only 200+ routes or so. After doing some quick calculus, getting out once a week from now through November, equates to roughly 6 routes a day. Definitely do-able. I'm sure I won't be able to send all the routes, but I still want to at least try them all, and of course lead as many as possible. Depending on how things are going, I may make a few changes. If all goes well, I'll toss in as many other routes/areas as possible. If things aren't going so well, I may have to only get on routes I haven't tried before. Either way, I'm excited to see how it all pans out. Oh yeah, did I mention I also want to climb a lot of boulders? I don't really have any specific goals bouldering, but we'll see if I can strike a good balance and still be able to feel like I accomplished what I wanted to.

With this awesome weather, I was able to get out a few times the last two weeks. Sarah and I got out for the first day on the rocks that didn't include post-holing through talus on the south bluff. We cruised down to Hawk's Nest, and had intentions of climbing some of the "less traveled" climbs down at the end of the bluff like Land's End, and also mix in a few classics as well. Unfortunately(?) it rained the day before, so a few of the less quality lines were wet. We were still able to get on quite a few great pitches, including top ropes of Angina, Mother Fletcher's, Anomie, Yellow Pages, and Vivisection, as well as leads of Coronary, Scylla, Charybdis, and culminating in a flash of Alpha Centauri. On Alpha Centauri, we finished up and right on the top of Vivisection, instead of going up and left, and when done this way, is one of the best climbs that I've done at the lake. All in all, 9 pitches. Not a bad first day and a good start for the year.

The next week I caught a ride out to the lake with Blake (thanks again Blake), and after a warm hike up CCC trail we were back down at Hawk's Nest. I must say that while I had been going down to Hawk's Nest in order to just climb all the routes there, I really like that part of the bluff. I think the pine needle covered base and the fact that it feels somewhat more secluded since it's the last buttress on the bluff, really lends itself to an enjoyable day out at the crag. Anyways, Blake and I decided to get started on Bucket Brigade and a variant called Hallucination despite the fact that parts of them were quite wet. After climbing through the awkward "funnel" at the start of these climbs a few times, we hung a rope on Alpha C so that Blake could give that one a try, and so that I could climb the proper left hand finish to it. After working out the start, and dealing with some rope stretch, Blake quickly sent. I also was able to try Pie Plate and No Fruit Please from the top rope, but unfortunately a typically poor description for those two route left confused as to what exactly I had done. Ultimately I think the routes are basically just minor variations of each other, but I will say that I thought the climbing I did do was quite good. Fun and not too hard moves to perfect edges the whole way.

After climbing Balke dropped me off at the Quartzite campground, where I waited, and wished I had a Russian Army Surplus Blanket, a Finnish Army Surplus Shovel, and that I had a place to hang my sleeping bag so the down wouldn't get compressed. After a while Jim showed up with the beer and the wood, and we had a nice campfire...until we ran out of wood and beer. Oh well, a quick run to the Viking, and we were back in business.

The next morning we got up and needless to say the psych was absolutely BRIMMING. A brutal hike back up to Hawk's Nest, and we were ready to get going. A couple of climbs I had missed before were up first, Land's End, and Angina II. Land's End was not my best showing. Somewhat chossy and loose rock, the number of beers, and a much too close ledge all contributed to me hanging my way up it. After that we hung a TR on Angina II, which had about 3 cool squeeze moves, and a lot of just blah climbing. Then Jim thrutched his way through the infamous funnel, and led another variant of Bucket Brigade, called The Ramp. Despite there being a few other variations to do, we were both tired of having to climb through the funnel to get to them, so we moved on and hung a TR on Happy Hunting Grounds and Flakes Away. I tried Flakes Away first, and got thoroughly shut down at the crux. I was also a bit confused (as usual at the lake) how close I could get to HHG. After the crux, the climbing was pretty good though, and it was much more obvious where the line went. Jim then got on HHG and did a good job working out the moves. While HHG is definitely a good route with some cool layback moves, I think that Alpha C and Pie Plate were both a step above. It wasn't quite as productive as my first day out, but I was still able to cross 8 more routes off the list.

Tomorrow I'm headed out again with Blake and Taylor, but this time to Two Pines Buttress. With 3 ropes, hopefully I'll be able to set a new personal record for routes climbed in a day. Also, Blake, I think you should go for the OS Lead of Full Stop.