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I gave this climb 3 stars out of 4. I think it is because it really has some fun pitches, but remember the name of the route says it all. Are you a HARDMAN?
James, Aaron and CJ practically built the route together over a long period of time, however the last two pitches were not “officially” completed and bolted until he and I climbed the whole thing in a day. I think that was the first time the route had been free climbed from top to bottom, probably because CJ would have a hard time following some of the pitches as he rarely climbs much, if at all, these past few years. Great guy just loves biking and other outdoor activities. So these two guys, especially Aaron, deserve props for being dedicated enough to work so hard on this route.
Phil, I believe there are only 2-3 really hard pitches, the Godsend is my favorite pitch of all, and I rate it at about 5.10d maybe 5.11??? full-trad, sorry I’m not the greatest rater. I barely got it, as crack it not my forte, but so beautiful it was! Pitch 9 was hard to follow around the traversing left section, I couldn’t have imagined leading it, but I believe Aaron added another bolt there when we were there rapping the route last Nov. 2006. Then pitch 10 is a hard one too, Aaron led that one and he puts it at about 5.10d. The other pitches are 5.8 - 5.10-.
As mentioned previously, I enjoyed this route immensely. It was easier for me. I led every pitch on this route whereas I shared the climbing on BOS. Though serious, it is perhaps less serious than BOS, though those are always personal feelings. What are your hesitations? Do you just want to do the easiest Notch Peak route for your first time in the area, or are you asking something else. BOS is probably more "R" than WH....maybe why I liked it so much. Some people will describe everything in the West Desert as a choss heap, but you may treasure an ascent of Western Hardman combined with La Fin du Monde as the most significant thing you've ever done in North America...certainly in Utah. It is at the pinnicle of adventure climbing in my book.
I forsee a day soon when somebody like Dean Potter will free solo all the routes in a day and then jump off from the summit of Notch Peak and glide into camp in Sawttooth Canyon for a BBQ. I hope I am there to drink some corn with him to congratulate him!!! Good luck...get after it, dude.
No hesitations, I'm just curious to know how it compares to Book of Saturday. When I climbed Book of Saturday last year I immediately wondered what the other routes were like but I know relatively little about them, other than information from the American Alpine Journal. I thought Book of Saturday was great and I'd like to complete some other lines on Notch. I think my question in part comes from my experience with our local limestone/quartzite in which some is great and some is absolute choss. When climbing Book of Saturday, I wondered how other routes compared to it. And, I agree with you, even after spending extensive time climbing in the desert Southwest and the Black, I think Notch is probably tops when it comes to adventure climbing in the U.S.
Right on. Sounds like you have a lot of great days in the House Range to look forward to. It is also very cool that you like it so much that you are driving all the way from Colorado to climb on Notch Peak. That is significant because you certainly have plenty of walls close to home. The lack of rules, other people and noise as well as the atmosphere out there seems to be a magnet for you as much as me. Western Hardman seems a bit better protected and I wouldn't necessarily give it an R rating as is the case for Book of Saturday. I think the name comes more from a King Crimson song than the Saturdays it required to put it up. All FA parties of those routes out there deserve kudos....think labor intensive and committment. Aaron Weaver has around here on his other routes in Utah the reputation for meticulous cleaning and preparation and intelligent placement of bolts. He sure proved that on WH.
I agree with you guys, Aaron and C.J. definitly put some real time and thought into Western Hardman and I was lucky enough to be an FA and I wish CJ would get back into climbing and kickass so he can do the climb he helped put up.
As for Dean soloing it... Um, I got no beef with soloing, i understand if a personal choice and I usually leave it at that but to solo a route with that rock quality is just dumb or crazy, I don't know which but the looseness it just way too risky for a solo, no big while roped, but yeah, probably gonna have some disagree-ers on that statement, but again I guess it that personal thing. Just always like to know good guys make it and live! Never like to loose a good guy (or gal) to anything especially climbing.
PS... So when Aaron and I went back there after I broke my wrist, we couldn't obviously climb it, and so we did the huge walk around to the top of it, and half way there, we looked up and saw a bird, a plane, nope a base jumper in a gliding sut and barely got that shoot open to get over the lip at the bas of the canyon! 1 second away from getting a photo, but not fast enough. He was like 100' above us, or so it seemed. Sweet to be right under!!
Kudos to the FA party! This route clearly took a lot of work and is thoughtfully equipped - great effort! I found this route to be far less intimidating than the other on the Howe Wall - Appetite for Destruction (from which we bailed after a nasty fall). The godsend pitch and the 10th pitch (cool face moves to a finger crack) are very fun and the position and exposure are fantastic. We linked P1& P2; P3 & P4; and P7 & P8. I think it would be reasonable to link P5 & P6 (godsend pitch) but we broke those up. The upper pitches don't lend themselves to linking. A 70m rope was handy on the raps as some of them are pretty close to the end of the line. We pared the rack down to doubles from .3 camalot to # 2 camalot, (1) #3 camalot, (1) #3.5 camalot, optional #4 camalot - and that seemed like plenty. We didn't use any nuts. Due to the good quality of the topo and anchors, we managed to climb the route in 6 hours, and rap in a little less than 2 hours - 10 hours car to car. We were hustling a bit as we had a canine friend waiting. Again, job well done to the FA crew. Thanks for all the beta. Matt
By michael layton From: Salt Lake City, UT Oct 13, 2009 rating: 5.10c/d
Just did this route having to import my partner from the PNW. I felt it was extremly well protected and the grades were not sandbagged in the least. The only jingus pitch was the 1st 50 feet of pitch two, but everything else was tons o' fun. You definately don't need to be a hardman or woman. I felt the triples on the rack reccomendation was a bit much, but the godsend pitch has a bonus final section that requires one last large cam (a 3.5 or 4) and a couple hand sized pieces you can put in the face. Don't bother bringing nuts. The previous rack rec. was spot-on.
The 2nd to last pitch is well protected, so i guess that the bolts were added.
We walked off via the ledge sytem to the B.O.S. rope ladder since rapping 13 pitches never seems like fun. The walk off is very casual but takes just as long i'm sure. Careful on the talus, but it's not as steep as it looks via a cross-chasm view.
I was wondering on the 70m single rope rap. How do you get off the godsend pitch with just one rope? It's 50meters and the intermediate pitch bolts are chopped.
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