Trip Report
New Routes at Eagle Creek Cliff in South Lake Tahoe
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Friday June 22, 2007 2:34pm
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I put up these routes a few summers ago. About an hour approach but puts you in an amazing location. Morning shade the sun all afternoon (can be really hot in summer...)
Approach:
See approach for Eagle Creek Cliff on page 159 of "South Lake Tahoe Climbing"
http://www.supertopo.com/packs/southlaketahoe.html
These routes are described left to right starting just right of Bad Perception (route C in the guidebook)
The ratings are just guesses at this point. I need to climb these routes with more people before I can confirm them.
All of the following routes can be toproped with a 60m rope.
1. (not shown on photo). 5.9. Starts behind a giant block/flake. Climbs about 10 feet right of Bad Perception. Has its own two bolt anchor. Might be a little dirty, especially at the start.
2. (not shown on photo). 5.10+. Same anchor as route 1. Starts just right of 1. Some tricky bouldery cruxes. A little contrived because at some points you could just reach left to route 1 to get around cruxes.
To the right of route 2 is a vegetated wide crack
3. 5.8. Start in a chimney and stem up a little until you can get in crack on the left. Maybe a 5.9 move to get in the crack depending on how you climb it. Some fun climbing and a fun adventurous lead. Two bolt anchor. bring long slings to toprope.
3.b direct start is 10a. start 10 feet left of regular start. first 30 feet take 4-6 inch gear to protect. 10a bulge then you put in a piece with a long runner and make a blind traverse out right to join with the regular route.
4. 5.10 Not the greatest route. Bouldery short cruxes. Can either start on the right or left. You need long slings in order to toprope.
5. 5.7. Great hand crack. Good first lead. Two-bolt anchor.
6. 5.7 A bunch of different toprope options. All 5.7ish. The start is tricky to protect on lead. Two-bolt anchor.
7. 5.8. A fun toprope. Not a good lead for 5.8 leader because some sections at the start and end are hard to protect. Two-bolt anchor.
8. 5.9 Bouldery and wandery toprope. Sling tree for anchor.
9. 5.9 Crack with fun and steep face moves. Two-bolt anchor on right.
10. 5.7 Great hand crack. Great first lead. Two-bolt anchor.
11. 5.10c Steep hand crack right and stemming about 60 feet right of 10. two bolt anchor on the left after 100' is hard to see.
Chris McNamara
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About the Author
Climbing Magazine once computed that three percent of Chris McNamara’s life on earth has been spent on the face of El Capitan—an accomplishment that has left friends and family pondering Chris’ sanity. He’s climbed El Capitan over 70 times and holds nine big wall speed climbing records. In 1998 Chris did the first Girdle Traverse of El Capitan, an epic 75-pitch route that begs the question, “Why?”
Outside Magazine has called Chris one of “the world’s finest aid climbers.” He’s the winner of the 1999 Bates Award from the American Alpine Club and founder of the American Safe Climbing Association, a nonprofit group that has replaced over 5000 dangerous anchor bolts. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and serves on the board of the ASCA, and Rowell Legacy Committee. He has a rarely updated adventure journal, maintains BASEjumpingmovies.com, and also runs a Lake Tahoe home rental business. |
Comments
David
Trad climber
San Rafael, CA
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Jun 22, 2007 - 02:43pm PT
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We climbed a few 5.10's(10.a, 10.b and 10.c in the book) on the far left side of this cliff last weekend. It doesn't look super inspiring from deck level but we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the climbing. Nice stuff! Going back tomorrow.
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Tahoe climber
climber
Davis these days
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Jun 22, 2007 - 05:52pm PT
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Need for Speed
Spread your wings and crap
Old Eagle Eye
Flippin' the Bird
Madder than a wet hen
Shake your tail feather
Endangered Species
Gone Fishin'
Skinny Dippin'
Claw your eyes out
Eagles do it higher
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Mr. D
Trad climber
West Coast
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Jun 22, 2007 - 07:07pm PT
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The Falconer
Chickenhawk
Baby Eaglets
Sh*t in the Nest
Pecking Order
Talons
Eagle Droppings
The Colbert Report
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Joe Metz
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jun 22, 2007 - 08:22pm PT
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Fly like an Eagle
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Tahoe climber
climber
Davis these days
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Jun 22, 2007 - 08:28pm PT
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Wind beneath my wings
Gnarly-bird
Wish I was light as a feather
Feather tickle
French tickler
Eating Nemo
Sharp Eyed Nemesis
Can't See Sh#t
I wish I was a bird, so I could fly, far, far away
Feathered Fart
Tether of Feathers
Coiler
(I'll admit that one has nothing to do with eagles if you admit that it's still funny as hell)
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wack-N-dangle
Gym climber
the ground up
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Jun 23, 2007 - 10:41am PT
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Might be a little obscure in terms of eagles or feathers,
but how about "The Gift". I'd recommend a natural line no bolts.
Still, I wouldn't want to offend anyone or cause access issues. Todd Gordon have any insight?
Kind of reminded me of a video I saw of Ben Moon, an eagle, a
photographer and another climber.
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coiler
Trad climber
The Rock Monkey Ranch
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Jun 24, 2007 - 07:11pm PT
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How about, "all these routes were climbed in the 80's"
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David
Trad climber
San Rafael, CA
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Jun 24, 2007 - 10:58pm PT
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Just did all of these yesterday. They're fun.
re."How about, "all these routes were climbed in the 80's"
Doubt it. Looked to dirty, overgrown and untouched. Could be wrong. Your saying you did them in the 80s?
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rhyang
climber
SJC
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Jun 27, 2007 - 12:20pm PT
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Do these routes look like they are to the left of this ?
(also from Eagle Creek Canyon, last Jan - bolts up at the top)
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David
Trad climber
San Rafael, CA
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Jun 27, 2007 - 05:11pm PT
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"left"? Sort of. They're south/east of that flow and farther down the creek towards the main Eagle Lake crag. You would have walked past them on the way to that ice and yes they would have been on your left.
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Andrew
Trad climber
Marin
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Jun 27, 2007 - 11:25pm PT
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I just want to add that those routes are pretty fun. Of the group, Route 9 (5.9), Route 7 (5.8) and Route 10 (5.7) seem to be the best out of the ones we did. We didn't get on 3 and 4.
Route 9 has great face moves off of an arching finger crack. I'd name it "Out on a Limb", kind of a bird name and is fairly descriptive of the route.
Route 7 needs to be cleaned a bit and the gear could be better. There is a move where you have to lunge to a horizontal crack off of a nut or small cam. It'd be tricky but very satisfying for a 5.8 leader. I'd dub the route "Out of Reach".
Route 10 would be a great first lead. The gear is perfect and it's hands all the way up on broken cracks. I'd call it "Tweety bird".
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DavisGunkie
Trad climber
Davis, CA
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Jun 28, 2007 - 01:05am PT
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what about phoenix type names for the fire
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Tahoe climber
climber
Davis these days
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Jun 28, 2007 - 11:29am PT
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bird on a fire
hot wings
burning beak
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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Jun 29, 2007 - 12:59pm PT
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Where's Shyboy? Blitzo......?
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rhyang
climber
SJC
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Jun 29, 2007 - 01:08pm PT
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Thanks for the info Chris. My partner led the route after those guys tr'd it. Some locals we talked to at Sunny Falls said it was about WI4+ ... it was a fun, though pumpy climb, especially with the free-hanging pillar at the bottom -
(click for hi-res version)
He lassoed the pillar at the bottom, placed two cams, then screws and I recall cleaning another lassoed ice feature. The one to the right does look like fun (probably a hang-fest for me though) ...
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Brian Biega
climber
Truckee, CA
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The routes noted, most of them anyway, are not new routes. Cutty Sark is the name of the route (ice route/rock route) in the two pictures above. Cutty Sark like most of the routes on the "Whiskey Cliffs" has many variations and can be climbed with ice and/or without ice.
Freequently, climbers have referred to these routes
Route 1: Patron (starts behind a giant block/flake)
Route 5 - 8: Kentucky Moonshine (climb to ledge, rap from tree or continue to top and walk off left)
Route 9 - 10: Hyrum Walker (rap from tree or continue to top and walk off left)
Going right (not pictured above)
Herradura
Blue Ribbon
Cutty Sark
Crown Royal
Etc.
*Note: not all whiskey but the theme has always been a constant whether "on the rocks" or "no ice"
To give a new name to a cliff with routes that people have climbed for years would be in bad taste. Unlike the Whiskey.
Edit: as noted by the coiler "How about, "all these routes were climbed in the 80's""
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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Brian.......Snowshed - tomorrow ***
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rhyang
climber
SJC
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Cutty Sark is the name of the route (ice route/rock route) in the two pictures above.
That matches up with what the folks at Sunny Falls told us. I noted that Carville's guide mentioned an ice climb named Cutty Sark over by the Echo Lakes, but I guess this is either more evidence that Carville's guide isn't that good ... or there are just two ice climbs named Cutty Sark in the south lake tahoe area :)
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UncleDoug
Mountain climber
Places unkown
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Brian,
Thanks for the post on this.
I knew that these were not new routes but was not sure of the names.
In all reality there is not much new in Tahoe. You can hike of "into the wilderness" and find chains dangling where you thought no one has been before.
Tahoe is no climbing mecca on the scale of the valley, but there is one heck of allot of history as far as climbing goes in the region.
I hope it does not get lost by people finding "new" routes and claiming them as their own. It would be similar to me going to the valley, running up the Salthe and stating "I did the great new route. One heck of an FA!"
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David
Trad climber
San Rafael, CA
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I'm still having a difficult time matching the photos of the ice routes to the first photo in this thread that Chris posted. They look much different. However, I'm happy to accept the fact that they've been climbed before if that's the consensus. To me, the fact that there are some fun climbs there is much more important than who did them or what they are called. As a peon who's just looking for something different to climb I really could care less who wants to "claim" the rock.
The fact that Chris only refers to the area with the generic term "Eagle Creek" and didn't bother to name anything makes me suspect that he wasn't really sure. All he did was throw in a couple of anchors and let other people know about some routes that haven't been climbed in a decade or so. For that I thank him.
Comparing this scenario to renaming the Salathe and claiming an FA is a pretty wild stretch at best.
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UncleDoug
Mountain climber
Places unkown
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David,
I believe "we" my business partner and I, go into it with you a bit when the Tahoe Guide was published.
I'm sorry if this has you in a defensive posture here, but I don't think my statement is a stretch, at all.
So by your standard it would be cool for me to "claim" all the routes I've done "as my own" and publish a book featuring these routes with my own names and my own history to it regardless of the real history of the climb or area. Right?
Since I'm not a valley local, the history should not matter to me?
Just because Tahoe is not the big ditch does not lessen the history behind an area. I don't think the sun will rise in the west if something is missnamed, but in this case since money is being made from guide books in the area, a little tact(i.e. ask "hey has anyone ever climbed this before" instead of saying "hey, I found new climbs!") and thorough research on the history of the area is in order.
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rhyang
climber
SJC
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I'm still having a difficult time matching the photos of the ice routes to the first photo in this thread that Chris posted. They look much different.
I believe that is because the ice route (singular) is to the right of the routes in the first photo in this thread .. I went and looked up Bird Turd in the south lake tahoe supertopo guide, and it looks at least plausible (I should go look at it during the summer sometime too).
Seems as though there is precedent for an ice climb which forms over an existing rock route to have a different name ... no worries either way - I was just curious about the area.
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Coiler's right. Those were done in the 80s!
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David
Trad climber
San Rafael, CA
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Uncle Doug, I'm not interested in arguing about it. You make good points.
I had a fun morning climbing the routes in question with a friend. There are some easy routes that will be a good place to take my young daughter in a couple more years. That's my only interest in this subject.
Cheers
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Juggler
Trad climber
Earth
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Foghorn Leghorn....although he was a rooster not an eagle
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kuan
Sport climber
CA
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Biega, dude, you are like MasterCard: Everywhere I want to be.
How are those stairs going for you? I'll buy you a shot of whiskey when you are done building them, deal?
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