Steph and I spent a lovely week climbing in Donner pass area
last month and I wanted to get the pictures up.I think that this was really
exciting for Steph and I because this was the first trip for us together
outside of the northeast climbing and it was sort of an eye opener of the
possibilities. Climbing in any area
where there is little forest and lots of rock can be intimidating just because
of the open feel of the land. I think
that it took a first day of climbing at easy grades to feel comfortable with
the area and its surroundings. Donner Pass is a harsh environment. It was 80 degrees every day and sunny and
when it was not sunny it was thunderstorms.
As north easterners it was hard to gauge how much sunscreen we
needed. On day one we climbed at school
of rock and got calibrated. It was a
nice single long pitch at 200ft and then one short 60 foot pitch to the top at
5.6. The views are impressive.
When you look across from most of the climbing you can see
where the old railroad used to be. It
sits high on the mountainside and has tunnels that look small from a distance
but are able to house a double train track.
They are called Snowsheds because they were used to stop the tracks from
filling with avalanche snow. It is hard
to picture the environment with 22 feet of snow like it was back when the
Donner's tried to go through the pass the winter they got stuck.
On day two we climbed at the grouse slabs because it is
farther back from the road and we lucked out.
It was a whole entire day of climbing and we did not see another climber
the whole day at the cliffs. We did a
route that was a stellar5.6 180 foot consistent streaking crack that was
great. Steph liked it and I did
too. That was our 2nd pitch
after warming up on an easier 5.5 and then it started to thunderstorm so we hid
in a boulder cave on the side of the hill. It was a real adventure day that included many
types of climbing and really felt genuine.
On day 3 we went back to the grouse slabs and warmed up on a
climb called greener pastures that was really good and then we went and did
another 5.9+ climb that was really a boulder problem for the first 10
feet. The third pitch of the day was a
5.6 that we had been eyeing the day before.
For having no stars in the guidebook we both found it really fun. The climbing was varied and good.
Day 4 we kind of messed up… I wanted to climb on a different type of rock in a different type
of area and I totally messed up. The
directions to the cliff were bad and said obscure all over them and I thought
that with my experience we would make it there OK… We ended up hiking out to a
chosspile and hiking around it with no
climbing anywhere that looked ok and nothing to show. So at the end of the day we drove up to
Donner pass and went to see the snowsheds up close and personal. It was a good end to the trip to go out to the more quiet section of the pass and do this.
In the end I think we both had a great trip. The pics are Mount Rose, Columnar Basalt, The rained off Day and the 200 foot crack.
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