Trashy and Coomy on the Blob

Trashman, Coomy, and I met at Blob Rock at 8 a.m. this past Saturday. We wanted to give Erickson's Crack (10b/c) a try. The best approach to this one pitch crack is a route called On Ballet (5.9). On Ballet is a starred route in the Rossiter guide and we all agreed that it was a fine route. Coomy led the first pitch which appeared a bit junky, but was excellent. The quality of rock on Blob Rock is just stellar. The protection is quite good on this first pitch - even Coomy could find placements! Coomy led out most of our rope to a stance just above the crux of the first pitch. Trashman and I followed on the same rope. Trashy tied in about 25 feet from the end and I was on the end of the rope. I carried the second rope on my back. The first pitch has two interesting sections. The first is a thin lieback-y type move around a curving crack. Then, near the top, is the crux of the pitch. This is a beautiful right facing dihedral that is quite steep.

Trashman led the second pitch which starts with a very steep section to get by this overlap. Above, there is face climbing with not great protection. Coomy and I followed once again on one rope. At the top of this pitch we had entered the central chimney which is more like a gully at this location and there were two shiny bolts with rappel rings. We were now at the base of Erickson's Crack. It looked fiendish and we weren't sure it was the right crack until we checked the guidebook we were carrying. It was now my turn to lead.

The start is the crux and it is continuous and very hard. I placed a couple of small stoppers as high as I could before stepping off the ledge. And then stepping back down. This pitch is very steep and the holds are not good. I had to re-evaluate. I started up again, first in the left crack. I leaned to my right and placed a marginal stopper in the right crack. Then I tried to continue up the left crack, but the next hold up is just a pinch. I was pumping out. "I'm coming off," I called. Trashman pulled the rope tight and my first stopper pulled out under the tension. I struggled a bit longer before coming off. The top stopper held and I lowered back to the ledge, only five feet below my feet.

Time to re-evaluate once again. At the start are two cracks. The one on the left is the crack you must eventually climb because it is the only one that continues, but down low this crack is very thin (fingers and off fingers). The crack three feet to the right is worse at the start, but then opens up for a single hand jam before it disappears altogether. We decided, as a committee that it was key to get the hand jam in the right crack.

Attempt three: I started up on the right, grabbed the pinch with my left hand, worked up the feet and reached right to get the hand jam. From here I placed a red Alien. Now I had to get back left. This proved to be the crux for me. Terrible, marginal, flared, thin hand jams were just barely enough for me to get back left and up to a sinker jam. Here I placed another piece and was getting desperate with the pump. Eric encouraged me to continue and it was just enough to get me to push on through until I got a great left foot jam and could rest a bit. The crack isn't very long and twenty more feet saw me to the end. I was pumped! My hands and forearms are not in very good crack climbing shape. I continued up to a shiny two bolt belay with rappel rings.

Eric followed next and moved quickly through the crux to the hand jam. I was surprised. Eric is always downplaying his free climbing ability, but he is quite good. He seems comfortable leading 5.10- and he had just followed flashed what I thought was a very hard 5.10 crack. The Trashman was next and with all the gear removed there wasn't much chance of him coming off, but he did think the crack was very hard. Trashy thought it was more like 5.10d. I thought 5.10c/d. This crack is definitely not 5.10b.

We rappelled back into the central gully and I TRed what we thought was One Way Out (5.10d). The guidebook describes this crack as the "obviously harder crack up and right from Erickson's Crack." The crack looked nearly impossible on rappel, but I started up it anyway. Strenuous fingerlocks led to a shallow flare section with no holds for about eight feet. This section, if climbed solely via this flare is at least 5.12. Hence, we were confused. I stemmed off the chimney wall on the right and was able to stem most of the way up the crack with this technique. At the top, I had to move over into the crack and this was a very hard move, maybe even 10d, but if this is the route, then a more detailed description is required. Later, we noticed a fixed piton in a crack on the other (east) side of the gully. This might be the route also. Nevertheless, when I was being lowered down the roped slipped a bit to the left and my efforts to flip it back to the right only slipped it permanently over to the left.

With the rope in this position it was impractical to TR the crack I had just done so we tried to TR the route in the middle. This route is not in the guidebook. It climbs up a steep wall via discontinuous cracks and small layaways until the first bolt is reached. There are three bolts that complete the climb. This route looks very hard (5.12?). Does anyone know the name of this route? Eric got up to the first bolt before lowering off. Ditto for the Trashman. I got a bit higher by hauling myself up on the other line. I got high enough to see that the route was possible, but extremely difficult.

We did a long, double rope rappel back to the ground and headed over to the sport routes just left of Where Eagles Dare. I led the sport route on the right (5.10a/b?). Trashy led the one on the left (5.10a?) and Eric led the route in the middle (5.10a?) They were all quite enjoyable and more challenging than they looked. The left and middle routes require the placement of a couple of pieces to avoid long runouts, but with these pieces they protect quite well.