Avg: 3.5 from 96
votes
There's tons of beta out there for this climb, but I thought there oughta be a place on the web for it for sharing beta, conditions, or just some old fashioned spraying.
P1 - 5.10c, 100'. From a nice ledge with a low anchor pin, climb the 'clean break' crux pitch. A sustained thin hand beauty that'll wake you up if the approach didn't already. Nature's coffee.
P2 - 5.9 or 5.10a, 75'. Avoid the dirty right facing corner and follow the 3" crack up and right over a small roof. climb past the 4" horizontal crack up a slab and over another roof. If you don't like the looks of the 2nd roof, you can traverse left into the original corner. Finish at a small ledge with a bushy tree.
P3 - 5.7, 80'. All the topos out there don't quite agree, but the super topo worked out. Make a short left traverse then up a left facing corner. Angle right, past a tree, and belay at a horn.
P4 - 5.8, 90'. Downclimb right about 10' then make an insecure traversing move around the arete to a ledge on the right. Up blocks and belay by a huge flake.
P5 - 5.10a, 100'. Climb up the thin crack to a fixed pin and make a dainty 15' traverse left to another thin crack. Place a blind mental cam, make the move, then upgrade the cam to load resisting. Climb up the crack and belay at a spacious ledge.
P6 - 5.6, 180'. Bang out a full rope length up a chimney, and then blocky terrain and belay at a tree below the Hercules Tower.
P7 - 5.10b, 100'. A wonderfully varied pitch. Take the ramp right to a steep wall with a left sweeping 2" crack that widens to 4" where it goes vertical (10a). Over the bulge, up the ramp to another 10a slab traverse, this time to the right to even things out, to a thin crack. Climb the crack, tips to a jug (crux). Sweet.
P8 - 5.8, 100'. Up a hand crack, right around the crest, up flakes to a ledge.
P9 - 5.0, 60'. Climb the easy chimney to a big blocky ledge. P8 and P9 can be climbed as one.
P10 - 5.9, 80'. Killer locks with some stemming up a short steep face, traverse right on a narrow ledge, up some blocks to a huge ledge.
P11 to P15 - mid 5th, 500'. Go thru a hole and right over the crest to a big ledge and simul-climb from there. Stay on or to the right of the crest. There is a nice 5.10a hand crack to top out up there, if you can find it.
On the east side of Juno Tower. From Silver Star Creek, at 5000' make a rising traverse avoiding most of the slide alder to the steep clean crack at the base of the prow, left of a deep narrow gully.
set of nuts
doubles to 3"
no need for a #4 as there is a fixed one on P7 (7/4/14). #4 is gone per comment below. It's nice to have one.
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A little more... Unless you're a rockin thin hand crack climber, or have tiny hands, bring an extra .75, and maybe .5. The first pitch is by and far the hardest pitch of the route, with the ".10b" bulge easily being the crux IMO. It's pretty hard, harder than some of the 5.11 pitches out there. The rest of the 5.10 pitches are cruiser though, soft .10a's.... so don't be dissuaded by the hard first pitch... as I've heard people mention bailing after that pitch because of the perceived difficult nature of the route.
This route climbs super fast for it's size and is of high quality. Jul 19, 2014
Oakridge, OR
Great route! Led every pitch and got some calf burn (perhaps de to the hike). Get an EARLY start or else you'll get benighted like me and end up bushwhacking in the dark for hours and hours... Sep 14, 2014
We climbed Clean Break last weekend (6/6/2015).
Approach
Went up and over Burgundy Col, dropped down quite a bit on the back side, and traversed skiier's left for a while to the base of the climb.
Conditions
The snow was friendly. We glissaded the big drop just over Burgundy Col. Just brought axes, didn't need crampons.
The Route
Super fun! I'd definitely recommend doing it, and will definitely go back and repeat it at some point. The first pitch is great! I didn't find it to be much more difficult than other parts of the route, but I do personally prefer a crack of any size to a delicate traverse.
Route Finding
Route finding was pretty straightforward as long as you follow the beta. We thought we might have been off-route a couple times on the last 500ft of simul-climbing, but realized we were on-track the whole time when we hit the summit.
Gear
The only spot where a #4 was truly useful was the swooping crack on pitch 7. Just bring one #4.
Descent
We descended the west side, dropping some and then traversing over to Burgundy Col, back to Bench Camp. We never felt like we were on an obvious climber's trail.
VANCOUVER
12 real pitches plus 200 meters of make up your own rock climb at the end. P1 is not 10c-- felt like 10a-- loads of gear and stances.
A great route. Superb rock and position and great views. Do this. Aug 24, 2015
Cashmere, WA
Mount Vernon, WA
Did this as carry over from Silver Creek TH to MP 167 on Hwy 2. Stashed a bike at MP 167 - would have been difficult to catch a ride at 10pm on a Monday evening. This option has the least amount of elevation gain and no need for overnight gear or ice axes and crampons (needed for Burgundy Col). However, it is not suitable for more than one objective in the area.
We created a GPS track based on Steph Abegg's track and followed it closely. That worked really well and I would definitely want it for the descent. Going high after crossing the creek at 5600' on the approach avoids most of the brush. The descent from Juno Tower to the bench is a little tricky due to some cliff bands that get in the way. It's relatively straight forward in daylight, would not want to do it in the dark.
We followed Herrington's topo which worked out so and so. Herrington combines Supertopo pitches 2&3 and 8&9. The latter worked out fine. The former only works if you place no gear on the 10a section (not me) so I ended up with horrible rope drag despite long and extra long slings on every piece. Wouldn't do that again. We led this in two long blocks with me leading pitches 1-4 and my partner leading 5-8 (Herrington pitch count). There's a nice ledge above pitch 4 which made for a perfect lunch beak. We did one more pitch above pitch 8 (Herrington calls this 4th class) which was good because that was not even low 5th. Above that we simul climbed to the top. The route stays close to the arete, but it's about 50:50 left and right (Herrington says right). It's airy and improbable in places.
Overall the ratings were right on for all the harder pitches IMHO. I found the 10c is right on (I have small hands). Maybe I just had a good day, but I found it easier than the 2nd pitch on the Davis-Holland. However, all the easy pitches are a bit sandbagged. The 5.6 traverse has a 5.9 move and the 4th class on top includes some mid 5th class.
We brought doubles .4 to #2, one #3 and one #4, triples purple, green and red, a set of nuts and a few smaller cams. Purple was total overkill, but the triples green and red were nice to have on the first pitch and they made for great anchor pieces on almost every pitch that followed. However, if you are super solid on 5.10 it's probably overkill. Nobody needs a #4 though - simply because it does not fit where you'd want it. There's a reason there was a #4 stuck! What you really need is two #3's. I also used the #4 on the second pitch and it was nice to have, but not necessary. I wouldn't bring it if I were to do this route again. Jul 26, 2018
New Paltz, NY
Bend, OR
Leavenworth, WA
The 3 best pitches:
Pitch 1: The best pitch, this thing smacks you in the face first thing in the morning, very pumpy. there were a lot more bomber finger locks than I expected, although the crux was definitely thin hands around a bulge, felt fair for 10c, it seemed more difficult than P2 of Davis Holland.
Pitch 2: Really fun varied climbing on very clean rock, we linked this with P3 which led to pretty terrible rope drag (fully extend your first few pieces), I would still link P2-3 if I were to do it again.
Pitch 7: A really awesome pitch that rivals pitch 1 as the best pitch on the climb. The swooping crack takes a #2 at the start and then is perfect #3s the rest of the way , a #4 wont fit, dont bring the #4. The 10b finger crack corner is less a finger crack and more of a slabby dihedral with some delicate face moves, exciting! (bring a couple tiny nuts). Aug 10, 2020
Seattle, WA
We elected to approach via Silver Star Creek and carry over to Bench Camp and descend back to 20 via that trail. We definitely goofed up the approach and ended up doing quite a bit more bushwhacking than what was likely necessary. We descended the obvious scree gully and made a skier's-left-trending descent across a few ribs and through a few sections of scree. We never felt like we were on an obvious trail until intersecting the trail near Bench Camp after crossing a small running stream. In hindsight, I may have created a GPS track based on Steph Abegg's to facilitate the approach and descent.
This is a fantastic outing. If doing this in a day, I'd recommend following the carry over option. If you have other goals in the area and the time, I would consider approaching and base-camping out of Bench Camp instead. Aug 17, 2020
Lafayette CA
Approach:
Steph Abegg's GPS topo ( stephabegg.com/home/triprep…) was super helpful. Also, the Silver Star Creek trail crosses the first boulder field and continues through flat swampy forest section all the way to the second scree. It's faint but very helpful. Then, you just gain elevation through the forest and boulder fields directly to the climb.
P1 is the loveliest looking crack that requires very little hand jamming - lots of stances, rests, lieback moves, etc...
P2 both roofs are 5.8
Descent: follow Steph Abegg's track but also keep to the left of the gully as you descend from the top. Sep 2, 2020
Seattle, WA
Tucson, AZ
Taking the path of least resistance at the top ended up being a lot of 3rd class and was a little bit underwhelming. Jul 18, 2022
Eugene, OR
Overall, a phenomenal adventure. Aug 16, 2022
Ithaca
Anchorage AK