OMTRS: Tyrolean traverse

The OMTRS did its annual Tyrolean traverse training at La Cueva last Saturday. There was a lot of equipment involved: large tripods to set up anchor points, pulleys galore, ropes, emergency litters, the whole shebang. This being my first exposure to technical rescue techniques I mostly sat back and watched the experienced members of the team run things. A lot of the rescue techniques are new to me, but the equipment is all pretty familiar and I do not doubt that I'll be able to pick up this skills with a little practice. My only complaint is that everyone was too occupied fiddling with rescue gear to want to go climbing. Next time...

North rabbit Ear: Awful Buttress

Today felt like mountaineering. Cold winds buffetted us through-out the day, and I was actually forced to climb in a toque and wind-breaker. Scott and I stabbed at the North Rabbit Ear, blundering onto a route called Awful Buttress . For some reason the name failed to ward us off, but the main reason we ended up on this climb was it was the one route with a descrption that I could vaguely follow up the North-West face of the NRE. One thing we forgot to account for was that the descent was off the south-face, and unless we wanted an additional hour of scrambling/bushwhacking, we needed to climb with our packs. Another reason that it felt like mountaineering...

The meat of the climb was dealing with chimneys and off-widths. Having packs on made this more difficult than it should have been, as well as scarier. Below the crux pitch was a delicate face traverse under the lip of a roof, at which point Scott started looking for alternatives. Instead of completing the traverse, he convinced me to abandon the crux pitch and attempt a corner system 100 ft to the right. This also ended up to be a chimney (last pitch of the PeaPod route I think), and for once we got smart, and dropped our packs to make the squeeze chimney climbable. We then angled back left on a rising flake and re-joined the Awful Buttress route just above the crux off-width.

Of historical note, the last entry in the summit register was May, 2004. This doesn't really surprise me as Dennis Jackson omits the Rabbit Ears from his guide, and local beta is hard to come by. A lonely peak on a windy day. I thumbed through the register to an entry in the 70's, Dick Ingraham's second ascent (solo) of the NRE, where he rants about the soon-to-be-built Aguirre springs campground. I sometimes wish that the Organs had better access. Roads that any car could get up, a network of maintained trails. While these would make climbing up here so much easier and more accesible, I also see the beauty that Ingraham saw: rugged inaccessible mountains, that will stay that way as long as roads and trails are absent. A proving ground only for the truly determined and adventurous. A bastion of wildness only a stone's throw away.

Dona An Mts, Charlie's route on V-dome

It's been a long week and it was looking like I wouldn't be able to go out climbing. I got called in to work on Saturday and couldn't join the OMTRS at Percha Creek. But since I've been getting up early consectuively for such a longs spell, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get up early this morning and tackle a short route the Charlie Cundiff showed me a year ago in the Dona Anas. The route is located on the dome in front of the Checkerboard wall, and we dubbed it Vedauwoo Dome because of the parallel wide-cracks that we climbed there last year. Last years trip with Charlie was a follow up trip for him, as he had already climbed one of the best looking lines on the formation, and dubbed it "Cultural Learnings of America" after some movie. Liz got up with me early this morning and we dragged the dog out there to try it for ourselves.

Cultural Learnings of America
I didn't remember the approach being too difficult, the usual scrambling up boulders and dodging the prickly plants. KLiz and Sasha felt otherwise. We slowly picked our way up to the gully beneath the route and when Liz saw that I expected her to continue scrambling up the 4rth class gully, she put her foot down. We roped up for the gully. The climb itself was a great little route. The business was the first 20 ft, which were steep, dark, and dirty. Absolutely no evidence of Charlie's FA is left, and I felt as though I was making the first ascent all over again; brushing off the dust and dirt, cleaning out the cracks before trusting my jams, carefully testing the rock for soundness.

CLA is the shaded corner on the right side of the Dome.

The Wedge, Shillelagh

A little over a year since Scott and I climbed the Wedge's West Ridge, we came back to climb the other classic route on the Wedge, The Shillelagh route. Scott has been talking about doing this climb for a while, it's special appeal being how the first ascentionists used a wooden stick to aid up the crux, giving the route it's name. Scott was hoping the Shillelagh would still be there...

I made the mistake of taking Sasha. On the past few climbing trips she's been on, she was great. This time though, the 4rth class scarmbling and heavy bush-whacking were too much for her, and it was all I could do to coax her out of hiding so that I could haul her over obstacles. I got pretty adept at slinging her under one arm and climbing up 4rth class slabs.

I posted the full route description at Mountain Project. My first impressions of the first pitch was that it looked easier than 5.9. I was in for a treat. After the chimney section was a nice ledge and a steep handcrack bulge. It looked like one could escape the difficult moves by reaching around the corner to the left and reaching into a separate crack. But it also looked like I could attack the crack straight on, move up on a good jam, and make a reach for a shallow ledge. I attempted just this and gained the ledge, and was very happy with myself, until I wasn't able to pull up past the ledge. There wasn't a good jam or hold past the ledge, my feet were poorly placed, and the shallow ledge was slightly sloping and I was pumping out hanging on it. I fidgeted for about a minute, trying to position my body right to get through. then I got pumped, and thought about trying to down-climb the difficult jam move in order to get back to the ledge. I didn't get the chance, a slipped off the ledge, and took a tumble.

The fall wasn't very far, maybe 10 feet before my purple camelot brought me to a stop. I don't remember being scared, or really gaining much speed, but I ended up with my head facing down and a massive ache on my back. My leg had caught under the rope and flipped me around. My back must have slammed into the rock, or perhaps the descent shoes tied to my back were crushed between me and the wall. Either way, my back hurt, and my heart raced as Scott called up to see if I was ok. I took about a five minute breather on the ledge, regained my composure and backed-up my purple camelot. Then I jumped back on the climb, this time getting a better foot placement and passing the crux. It's a good feeling: to succeed where once you failed, to triumph after a defeat, and to muster up courage instead of cowering after a thrashing. I felt good belaying Scott up the route, my head clear, enjoying the wonderful views of Squaretop peak.

I led the rest of the route and let Scott finish the last pitch that is shared with the West Ridge Route. We ate a hearty snack of sardines and saltines at the top and enjoyed being at the top.

Rough and Ready Hills, Scott's new trad line

Scott has been great this past week, helping to install our new patio door. This morning, he showed up at 9am and finished casing the door, a tricky job due to the walls of our house not being plumb. I guess the reason he's being so nice is that I've been very agreeable to where we've been going climbing this past month. After finishing the job this morning (as well as bacon and eggs grace a Liz) we headed out to the rough and readies to finish off a trad route that Scott has been eying for some time.

Scott's route takes a clean-crack just left of one of his other new unnamed routes. the crack is fun, and well protected and tops out on a ledge about 60 ft high. Instead of stopping here though, Scott continued up over low-fifth jumble of loose rock until he gained a final 20 ft head-wall. this is the kind of climbing most climbers avoid, especially at a sport-area like the Rough and Readies. The only time climbers purposely climb over rotten rock is to reach summits, so this had the feel of training for a mountain route. The final 20 ft was a little better, and it achieved something that very few Rough and Ready climbs do, it attains the top of the crag. We un-roped and meandered around on the plateau above, noting that the other jeep in the parking lot was gone, and commenting on the chossy upper cliffs, and how there could be some routes in there as well.

The second reason for leading this trad climb was to throw a rope over an adjacent roof formation to see if it would make a good route. The over-hanging section was actually pretty good, with good incut holds up the steep section and solid-sounding rock. Too bad the first 30 ft is a chossy mess. I think Scott still wants to bolt it though.

We finished the day with burns on Rough Rider (5.11a) and Brangus Muffins (5.11b), both led by Scott. My arms are not used to these pump-fests.

Pena Blanca, Outing with OMTRS

I heard that the Organ mtn Search and Rescue Team (OMTRS) was going to be training at Pena Blanca today and decided to meet up with them. I've known about the team ever since moving to las Cruces. My first climbing partner was an OMTRS member named Steve Kellum and I distinctly remember him not being able to climb on several occasions because he had to train with the OMTRS. I decided then that I was not interested in joining this group, because it would take away from my precious climbing days. Now two years later, i am considering becoming a member. It's not that I have any urge to do mountain rescue, but as far as I can tell, there the closest thing to a local climbing community. I'm eager to meet more local climbers and learn explore more of the Organs, and this group seems to be all for it.

They were easy enough to find, 3 SUVs, one with the OMTRS logo on its side, passed me by near the Volcano, and I quickly caught up with them on the approach to the Garden area. The president, john, welcomed me to join them and up we went. their training mainly consisted of teaching basic rock-climbing skills to new memeber; how to belay, tie knots, basic climbing technique etc... I was happy enough to set up two ropes for them on the Garden Slabs, both new routes for me. The new climbers didn't seem to mind dso much that the routes I set up were on crumbling, and rotten rock, making the climbing sketchy and dirty. I guess their used to La Cueva, and also other "training" scenarios during which rotten rock is all part of the game.

One other climber I had met before at Hueco, Grady, and we set up a few harder routes, one on an un-named formation just up hill from El Diabolo. The corner on the north-east side was challenging and sharp, with a crux move to skin-tearing finger slot. The cooler temps definitely helped keep the skin on.

Organ Mtns - Barb's Buttress

Scott and I hit the Organs again today without a real definite destination in mind, but agreeing that somewhere in the region of the Citadel would be a good place to start. By the time we got into Rabbit Ear Canyon we had agreed to try out routes on Barb's Buttress. I didn't have any topos for this face, but had glanced at some done by Charlie Cundiff, and knew that there was supposed to be a good 5.6-5.7 route on the wall.

When I got back this evening, I drew up this topo using PDF Annotater on Charlie's file.


Route A-1: We didn't have time to jump on this but I marked it because I saw two bolts on the route, and it looks like a good line. Both bolts are 3/8" and appear in good shape. The route looks like it could go from 5.7-59 slab.

Route A-2: This is the climb we jumped on first. We broke it up into two pitches, with Scott leading the first 80ft to a Juniper tree/ledge. The first pitch climbs a short corner and then some loose-sounding blocks to gain the ledge. Climbing isn't that hard (5.7+?) but the rock could be better. The corner is good though. From the ledge, climb left past an old 1/4" bolt (with a shiny 3/8" right next to it) and then up an exposed section of slab. The climbing isn't too hard (5.7+?) but crux moves are 10ft higher than the bolt and are committing. I then followed easier climbing past a bolt and up to a small juniper beneath a headwall. We rapped fromt eh juniper with two 60 ms and hit the ground.

Route A-3: If I had to guess, this is route that I would call Buckey blue from scattered information I have heard from local climbers. We climbed 200 ft of excellent climbing, nothing harder than 5.7. The climbing after the first stunted juniper was pleasant. Ok, so that's not too descriptive but that's how we felt. the rock was solid, and had an aesthetic look, the route follows under an overlap with a top-out crux. Scott belayed from a ledge just underneath a large right-facing corner. I took the final lead and opted not towards a lone 1/4' bolt on a slab, but instead charged up the large corner (5.7). There is a large ledge with an ancient juniper covered in tattered poot slings, and I stopped here rather than continue up what looked like low-fifth. We rapped from the juniper with tw0 60ms and hit the ground.

route A-4: Before heading up the previous climb, I had spied a lone bolt on a slab under a roof-corner problem. After rapping A-3 (Buckey Blue) we still had time for a quick pitch, and I convinced Scott that we should try this roof. The bolt was curious, in the middle of a short slab section surrounded by 4th class climbing. I was skeptical that the bolt led to anything, and doubted even that the roof/corner would go. Just past the bolt and under the roof is a huge hollow flake, which can only be described as a bongo flake. I seem to recall hearing this description for granite flakes elsewhere, but now I understand it: you could pound out a nice rhythm on this flake. the roof proved to be protectable and climbable. It is essentially a boulder problem, being only 8 ft high, but and it took me one failure before I figured out a sequence. By working your feet up high and using a lay-back, I was able to extend my right hand to just below the top of the crack, where it took a weak finger jam. I then attempted to bump my left hand out to the lip of the roof, but was not able to grab anything and was losing my balance in the crack. it wasn't until my right foot accidentally got stuck in the crack lower down in a toe-hook fashion that I was able to balance, and then grab a large jug with my left hand. So how hard was it? If I bouldered more, I could probably relate it to a V1(+), but I haven't been bouldering in a while and could be way off. Scott wasn't tall enough to use my beta, and wasn't able to figure out a different sequence.

The big surprise for me today was seeing another pair of climbers. Because there is so little information about the climbing in the Organs, I find myself believing that climbers just aren't out here these days. I imagine that most of these routes haven't been climbed since the hey-day in the 80's and 90's. But then I see these two climbers, tackling a rock formation on the north side of Rabbit Ear canyon across from the Citadel which I have don't even know the name of. These guys could be climbing all sorts of routes, on unnamed formations, and be familiar with all these old routes I've been trying out this past year. I look around some more and see fresh bail gear on The Nose (on Citadel) which I climbed a year ago, more evidence that people are out here more than I would think. In a way, it makes me feel guilty for wanting to gather and make public Route beta. Part of what I enjoy about the Organs is being able to go out and climb something without any beta. It feels like you are first ascentionist, even if you stumble across old pitons, or new bolts. By trying to publish a guide, would I be taking some of this away from future climbers? It's a ridiculous argument when you think about most other climbing areas in the country, but I see some merit in it. Not having public information on the climbs, means less climbers coming here, less impact to the environment, and more rewarding adventures for those who like this kind of climbing. This argument works best for long-time residents, who have the opportunity to explore the wide-ranging Organs year after year. For climbers who are in town only short periods of time, it could be frustrating; not knowing what places have good routes and are worth the effort, not being able to tap into a local climbing community, because it really isn't there. That's the other issue I have with the lack of information on the climbing here. It seems that the lack of information leads to the lack of a climbing community. Those few who know the ways and routes may only climb in small circles. I have been making forrays into the Organs for 2 years now, and have met only one "Old-timer" local with deep knowledge of the routes here. As a result, my thirst for more information is limited to how many trips I can get in. I'm realizing this is a weak argument, but I think this issue is one which I need to hash out more thoroughly. Maybe during my next climbing trip...