Kangaroo Temple, Northwest Face - September 9, 2001

Neither Dave or I wanted to get on anything too committing or difficult (he was still feeling the effects of Stuart North Ridge, and I, well... I'm just Phil). So we decided on the northwest face of Kangaroo Temple, which is a series of 5.7 pitches (4 to 6).

Dave getting psyched for the first pitch

We hiked two hours to the base of the route from the hairpin turn. A democratic game of Yahtzee determined that Dave got to lead the first pitch, which looked a little sketchy. It was interesting that the topo and description in the Beckey guide are almost completely different from each other, except for the middle two pitches (which are described as "short", even though they were nearly full rope lengths).

We followed the topo for the first pitch, which involved an easy traverse left, then a traverse and downclimb right, followed by a steep, somewhat wet 20 foot wall, with small holds and minimal pro. Glad I didn't lead that.

I continued up the second pitch (5.7+), which was solid, fun and quite straightforward, except for a lieback around a roof. The belay was next to a cool deep cave in the cliff.

Me on the second pitch, above the flake. photo by Dave Burdick

Dave took the 3rd pitch, which was sustained solid 5.7 the whole way, except he made a little route-finding error and made it a little harder.

Thus we arrived at the "dance floor". We took a 10 minute break here, put on our dancing shoes, and grooved for a bit. Ok, back to climbing. The route in the topo continues straight up. There are several choices of "chimney" here. I began left, which looked easiest, but the rock was orange and rather crumbly. It looked the same up above. I decided to traverse left and go for the easier dance floor variation instead. This was nice low 5th friction climbing, which turned a corner and headed up what looked like 4th class terrain. I let my guard down a little since it looked easy, and nearly bit it! Dave heard me cry out some expletives when I slipped, but luckily I didn't fall. What looked like 4th class was actually 5.6'ish, because you couldn't get your hands in the grassy crack, and all the holds were rounded. But again, it was solid and interesting climbing. I ran the rope out to a tree, and Dave came up and we simul'd up easy terrain to the summit. It had taken about two and a half hours. We noticed a group of several people hanging out at the rap station.

The NW Face route, with dance floor variation. Most of the unsavoury first pitch is not visible. The dance floor is just to the left of "3"

We relaxed on the summit for a while. The group at the rap station had made no progress. Still 4 helmets bobbing up and down. What was taking so long? Mountaineers class, I thought. Surely they'd be gone soon. Oh well, nothing to do now but relax in the sun.

We could see forest fire smoke over towards Mt Goode. Mt Goode had been plainly visible, but it was becoming more and more obscured, until you could just barely make it out. Guess there are some fires burning in Bridge Creek.

We went down to the rap station to hang out for a while, hoping they'd ask us if we'd want to rap through. They didn't. We didn't expect it to take too long though, so we just sat and waited (and got sunburned) in a nook protected from the wind. 20 minutes later, still no progress. One of the students had been out on the edge for 20 minutes or so, trying to begin the rappel, but decided against it, and came back up. Hmm.... still no progress made! I mean, I sympathize with beginners, but this was getting a little ridiculous. So here we are waiting, while the rap station is not in use, yet is taken up by their ropes, and they're just hanging around talking about rappelling, but not actually rappelling.

Dave went up and asked them if we could use their ropes to descend (since they didn't seem to be using them). They said "No, not right now" and "This is a beginner class." Umm.... ok... that's pretty rude, but we kept silent, and made friendly talk. They seemed to be pleasant - but obviously were clueless about etiquette. Dave later said he was on the "verge of getting nasty". We looked around for alternate descent options - the northeast face looked like it might go - but we figured they couldn't take TOO much longer....

Finally, and hour and a half later, they are all down, and they pull their ropes. Dave and I set up our rappel and descend. But we see they've got their ropes stuck, and one of the leaders is climbing back up to retrieve them. So he doesn't have to set up an intermediate rappel or downclimb, we offer him the use of our rap line, which he accepts.

They then offer the use of their already-set-up rap line for the final short rappel, while they gather the previously stuck rope from the 1st rap.

Back at the base, we scoot off to our gear around the side of the peak, hoping to get out of there before the group of six begins descending the approach gully. Alas, it is not to be. Tumbling rocks alert us to the descending group, and we get "in line" behind them, finally passing them on the traverse back to Kangaroo Pass. Just before we get to the car, we descend from the path a bit to take a look at some old plane wreckage. Yup - looks... wrecked. Wonder what the story behind this one was.

All in all, a great day on great rock....