Flyboys Shuttling

Anyone looking to climb this route next Saturday 8/11/18 who would be interested in coordinating a shuttle down?

The rap off goes surprisingly quickly.

Jason4Too wrote: The rap off goes surprisingly quickly.

You must be superhuman. I refuse to ever rap 18 pitches ever again in my life. 

At risk of derailing this thread, anybody who's done this route have any comments about it? Is it actually any good? Seems to be getting lots of hype, but I've been pretty underwhelmed with the climbing I've done on Goat Wall. I thought Sisyphus was kind of a stinker.

Hector Luevano wrote:

You must be superhuman. I refuse to ever rap 18 pitches ever again in my life. 

I went into it expecting the rap to take 4 hours or more.  I've rapped from the top of the 6th pitch and was down in 45 minutes and from the top of the 12th pitch and was down in less than two hours.  I don't see the top 1/3 of the route adding a lot more time.  I've been told that driving a bike (or car) to the top will cost you at least an hour of time setting up the shuttle.  Rapping isn't the fastest way down but it does leave you the option of bailing anytime you want if you're tired of waiting on the party ahead of you.

The rap times Jason is reporting are pretty consistent with my descent of a little over 2 hours for all 18 raps.  It's really not that bad.

Isn't Goat Wall ridiculously hot this time of year?

This has all been pretty useful commentary and I think the plan at this point is to just rap.

Thanks all 

How did it go, David? There was a rescue last night on Flyboys...

Nick Sweeney wrote: Isn't Goat Wall ridiculously hot this time of year?

Yeah. I was up at Washington Pass this past week and it was damn hot in the sun--and that's damn near a mile above Mazama. It was toasty at 8000 feet on Cathedral Peak. Sure enough, popped down to the store for some brews and there were people who'd been on the Goat Wall broiling themselves. I literally cannot imagine subjecting myself to that. It gets sun by late morning and it was well over 100 in Mazama for a few days last week. I'd say the temperature there right now can be legitimately dangerous and strongly advise against it. 

Also, FYI the road for the bike/vehicle shuttle is closed due to wildfire. Perhaps routes like Flyboys are best saved for another time given all the factors - road, smoke, heat, etc

Wow 2 rescues in a weekend then, we randomly bumped into one of the setters who had to go up there and pick 2 climbers who couldn't find the rap station in the dark off in the morning.

We actually ended up backing down after pitch 8 due to our pace not ending up where we needed it to be and a tweaked shoulder after an unexpected whip near the start of pitch 7.

Weather for us was warm but not too bad with the real enemy being rope drag. It was something like none of us had ever experienced before and has led me to believe linking pitches on the way up this one isnt the way to go.

I'll add this to the list of routes to go back for. 

FWIW

This isn't a sport climb. Don't climb it with sport draws. You need to climb with alpine draws, in addition to 120 CM slings to avoid rope drag. More to this point, be strategic with what you clip and what you don't. The rope drag would be heinous if you clipped every bolt on the route, especially with sport draws. We linked many pitches without issue.

While it is super cool to have long moderate routes with bolts, these are not sport climbs and require a very different level of skill and judgement to climb safely and efficiently. 

A buddy and I climbed Flyboys and Prime Rib a couple days ago, right after SAR/coast guard heli plucked a benighted duo off around pitch 10. They couldn't find the raps in the dark - according to the register, I think they started around 10 AM and we saw their headlights near the top around 9PM. Burdo was extremely interested in where/what and kept tabs on how to make it safer. You could tell he really cares about the route and safety.

Some thoughts:

• The development effort is insane. From scrubbing and trail development, to materials, to extremely generous bolt, anchor, and rap anchor placement. You really have to see it to believe it.
• The route-finding for both climbing and rappelling is very simple and intuitive, especially if you pick up the $5 beta pamphlet from Goat's Beard. This is good and bad I guess. While there's absolutely no reason an accident or rescue should occur barring nature, I'm sure this will draw a lot of people up there without much multipitch or ropework experience.
• For what it is (18-pitch 5.9 sport route), it is quite unique and good. It's pretty rare to have a climb of that length and grade consistency. I wouldn't call the climbing on it world-class or flights-and-rentals destination worthy by itself though. However, the Mazama area is destination worthy. There's a lifetime of good climbing to be had within an hour, highlighted by some of the mega sport routes and WA Pass and bookended by the cragging.
• We simuled/shortpitched Flyboys in 4 blocks and Prime Rib in 2.5ish blocks using a halved 70 m, 28 draws, a couple microtraxions, and auto locking belay devices for the second. This was a lot of fun, safe, and relatively casual, but I'm sure detracts from the overall experience of a moderate mega multipitch route. These would probably be just as enjoyable as full-day affairs, but, for reference, Flyboys (6 hrs total) took 3.5 hrs car to top and 2.5 hrs top to car (simul rap). Prime Rib (4 hrs total) took 2.5 up and 1.5 down.