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sweatyballs
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 10, 2007 - 05:37pm PT
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Cherry Jam, 5.8, B4*
Circa May 16th 2007
Table Mt., Santa Catalina Mts.
Tucson, AZ.
My Daughter had a softball tournament a couple years ago just outside of Tucson. This took place at some softball park directly south of the Santa Catalina Mts. Looking North, one can see a large wall resembling a "mini" El Cap. I was super curious what area I was checking out as I had recently moved to Phoenix. When the tournament ended, I drove to a climbing shop and purchased Bob Kerry's guidebook and was stoked to see a three star 5.8 route going up the ridge. The route is called Cherry Jam.
I read the route description of the gnarly bushwhack approach to get to the base of the route. Hence the B4 rating (Just like Aid, A1 to A5) as there were no Hezbollah militia dudes chasing me to qualify for B5.
My partner and I left Phoenix late on a Wednesday evening and decided to go get some drinks near before we got to the bivy spot. We ended up at a place called Che's and got extremely tore up from the floor up. I was f*#ked up and Tracy had puked after a delicious road side hot dog. We managed to get to Catalina State Park and woke up with gnarly hangovers as the sun was rising. We started to pack gear when Tracy noticed that she forgot her climbing shoes. F*#k! We took off to the local climbing shop which did not open until 10 AM. So, we crashed back out in the back of my truck behind the climbing shop for about two hours.
The shop opened, Tracy got the shoes, I bought a snake bite kit. It is now just past noon and we park in the State Park and started heading up our own trail....
This is our starting point - Very bad place, do not start here.
So, I forgot to mention that this was the beginning of the heat and must have been somewhere naer 100 degrees. Fortunately, I brought plenty of Mary Jane for the trip! However, We did not bring enough water, Only 9 liters for the both of us - huge mistake! It took us over 6 hours of brutal hill up/down climbing mixed with burly B4 territory before we reached our Bivy spot about an hour below the Ridge...
Looking at the Ridge from Bivy spot, The "Cherry Jam" is about halfway up the ridge.
When we stopped to Bivy, We were worked. My legs were trashed from hiking, I was melting from the heat and we drank 6 Liters of water. We had 3 left and decided to hydrate with 1 Liter the night before, take 1 Liter on the route and save 1 liter for the descent.
We woke up kind of late and it took us an hour to get to the base of the route - Exhausted as F*#k...
I lead the first 200 feet of climbing covering the first two pitches, and part of the third - ending just below the "Cherry."
Me heading up the First Pitch
So, I set the belay just before the "Cherry Jam" and took off on the next pitch....
Looking down the first pitch....
Me entering the "Cherry Jam" the wrong way.
I headed up to the Cherry Jam and eneter it the wrong way. I was totally clustered where I had to take off my helmet. I could not get it. I was lowered a bit and entered the crazy daigonal ODUB Chimney thing the other way and was much easier. I went as high as I could but rope drag made me set a belay at a cozy ledge. I was dead, out of energy and we only had about 1/2 Liter of water left for the rest of the day.
Tracy came up, as worked as I was and noticed me napping. I took off on what I thought was the next pitch. I was heading up this loose hard 5.9 Offwidth to a prtruding ledge with no gear. I must have went up about 30 feet before I came to a stop. I was gripped to keep going and gripped to downclimb. I pulled out the Vagisil and downclimbed back to the ledge. When I Got down, I noticed that I was heading up the Orange Dihedral the book said NOT TO GO UP.... So, I was at the wrong ledge, went up the wrong pitch, running out of water and left my Mary Jane at the Bivy Spot! At this point, Tracy led around right and found the correct ledge with sketchy gear placements. I took off - once again - THis time on the correct pitch to another ledge where Tracy led the last Pitch. At this point, we stopped taking pics as the camera was a bitch to deal with and neither one of us had motivation to mess with it.
I led the final pitch to the top and searched for shade. I was dieing - totally dehydrated, I nearly fell asleep while she came up. We started heading south to the rappel gully and did some easy downclimbing followed by some rappels off of nice bolts. By the time we got to camp, it was nearly dark, had ran out of water and I was in bad shape. I could not eat and fell asleep right where I sat. I had no motivation or energy to hike out that night. We drank some of our last liter and saved the other half for the Hike out.
From the bivy spot, we noticed that we totally went up the wrong way. We say a distinct trail leading down on the opposite side of this hill that we came up. We decided to head down this side of the trail, stop at one of the houses and ask for water. nearly Two hours later and no water, we got near the houses when a hiker was seen. Fortunately, she took us back to her house and her husband gave us water and a ride back to my truck.
I was super stoked as water never tasted soo good. This was pretty epic but not as epic as the epic I had on Washington's Column when we totally ran out of water.
I think I am going to go on a diet, lose 30 pounds and sport climb now.
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Aug 10, 2007 - 05:46pm PT
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Nice Trip Report. That extra thirty pounds you are carrying... wouldn't have anything to do with all the sushi now would it?
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Aug 10, 2007 - 05:57pm PT
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Sweet. More water!
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sweatyballs
Trad climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2007 - 06:23pm PT
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Nature my friend! Dude, I grinded like a mad man up there. That probably only added 3 pounds. The rest is from eating like madman.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Aug 10, 2007 - 06:36pm PT
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Thanks for the report.
Water is so good!
See ya,
Zander
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Aug 10, 2007 - 07:11pm PT
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Cool report. There is some great climbing back there. Those SE AZ approaches can be pretty brutal. I remember only too well stumbling back from leviathan dome through the brush and cactus, totally dehydrated and at night. Good stuff!
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Aug 10, 2007 - 08:21pm PT
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I've always wanted to do that route.
Had to go back and check the date. I didn't think anyone could be crazy enough to do it in July or August.
If May is that bad maybe I'll shoot for early March.
As far as the approaches, they don't call 'em "shin daggers" for nothin'. I Don't think there's anything that grows in S AZ that doesn't have pointy bits.
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J. Werlin
climber
Cedaredge
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Aug 11, 2007 - 08:51am PT
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Fun TR shhweaty and good send. We'll give it a 5.8d for the heat factor.
Thanks for posting up.
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