Snow Creek Slow Cooker

Psychopath Pitch Crux

Marcus pulls the roof on pitch three.

Marcus jams steep cracks and flakes on pitch four.

Pitch four close up.

The chimney right before the Pressure Chamber.

In the spirit of revisiting the ol' ticklist Marcus and I spent a day this week climbing Hyperspace.  Believe the hype, Hyperspace is good.... real good.  Fully admitting that I'm not a rock hotshot I found the climbing pretty challenging, though with some move specific beta much more obtainable.  First off, expect some physical climbing.  The upper portion of Hyperspace reminded me more of Yosemite style chimneys and bombays than anything I've seen in Washington.  By the time I topped out, I felt pretty beat up.  You don't need to worry about saving your tips because you only use knees, elbows, forearms, ass and back to get up this thing.  It seems like the perfect Yosemite training route.  I'm looking forward to getting back on this and hopefully finishing without feeling like I went ten rounds.

I won't delve into specific beta as Blake's entry on Mountain Project is spot on.  I will say that brassy offsets or rps should work well on the Psychopath pitch but the first 2/3 protects well with tcus.  Also, the pressure chamber is not an offwidth problem its a stemming problem.  Although it must have been pretty humorous going inverted with a thigh jam in a squeeze chimney... at least for one of us.  Blake's suggested grades seemed pretty accurate as well, though I wouldn't call any of them easy for the grade.  Take doubles from green c3 to #3, don't forget some stoppers including rps and possible some offsets.  No #4 needed and you could probably swing it with just one #3.  We took ~12 slings and used almost every sling each pitch.

The Doldrums

Jason on the very fun final pitch of Davis Holland - Loving Arms

The doldrums (aka intertropical convergence zone) is an area of the world where weather systems from the northern and southern hemispheres meet.  The weather convergence produces a region laden with long periods of stagnant windless air that torture wind powered seafarers.  This summer, that's right all 78 minutes of it above 80 F, feels similar to the doldrums.  Long periods of sitting through poor weather in town, working night shifts and a few missed opportunities punctuated with a memorable climb.

I've certainly gotten out far less than I would have hoped this summer.  Partly my diminished activity has been the weather but a new city, job, more distant local climbing and paucity of climbing partners has also played a part.  Despite the circumstances I have revisited a few climbs that I forgot about long ago.

Almost a decade ago my buddy Tim and I got on the Davis-Holland only to get cooked in triple digit heat.  I managed to get back on this route and finish it one evening a couple weeks ago.  I found that nearly every pitch had memorable and exciting climbing.  If you haven't done this climb... do it tomorrow... or at least don't wait another decade!