Total Soul 

FA:  Matt Perkins, David Whitelaw (1999) Type:  Trad Consensus:  5.10b [details] Length:  8 pitches, 1000 feet, Grade II Season:  May - November Views: 152 page views Submitted By: Matt Perkins on Aug 12, 2007 Add Photo  Add Comment

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David Whitelaw on pitch 6 of Total Soul, the "mann...

Description 

Total Soul is an eight pitch route on the North Buttress of Three O'Clock Rock. This is slab climbing, though with a remarkable variation to it as the climb follows a dike for two pitches, passes several interesting overlaps along the way, and has the rare distinction of being one of the routes that actually "tops out" on Three O'Clock Rock. The difficult climbing is mostly bolt protected but the leader must carry and know how to use gear.

Location 

To reach the North Buttress of Three O'Clock Rock, head five or six miles up the Clear Creek logging road (gravel) from the (paved) Mountain Loop Highway a few miles southeast of Darrington, Washington. Stay right on the main fork at about five miles, and soon come to the Eighmile Creek Trailhead (parking on the left, sign and trail on the right).

The trail climbs steeply through second growth and soon enters the tall trees. There are some impressive old cedars along the way and about forty minutes from the car the trail leaves the woods and crosses an old somewhat overgrown talus slope. The trail bumps right into the rock at the base of Silent Running (an excellent 7 pitch climb, 5.10a).

Head left and uphill from the point where the hiking trail reaches the rock. A few hundred yards later, the base of the climb is marked by a bolt on the right wall, maybe fifty feet below where the bushes give way to a rock chimney/gully system that forms the deep cleft between the North Buttress and the South Buttress of Three O'Clock Rock.

Chains are in place at all the belays so you can rappel the route. The top two pitches are more easily rappelled by an alternate route in the trees on the right (north), for a more vertically oriented rappel. The first of these two raps is from a set of slings on a medium sized tree, thirty to fifty feet right of where the route tops out. The second, less than a half rope below, has a chain anchor that is often overlooke so there are slings on a large tree nearby.

Protection 

Gear to 2" and ten or eleven draws. Hoard your #1 Camelot until nearing the end of pitch 4 or bring an extra.