LAND DOWN UNDER (5.11c)
Honeycomb Buttress, Tieton River Canyon, Washington
|
back to classics
|
|
|
Ed Mosshart on Land Down Under
|
Honeycomb Buttress, also known as The Beehive, is one of
the unique crags in Washington. Although composed of the
same stuff as the other Tieton River Canyon crags -
featured andesite columns - Honeycomb Buttress's columns
are sideways. So instead of climbing up cracks between
columns, or entablature, the routes here involve face
climbing up the column edges and ends. The crag has a
half dozen routes in the 5.8 to 5.12 range, mostly 5.11
and 5.12 sport climbs, bearing names in keeping with the
Honeycomb motif (e.g., Anaphylactic Shock, Honeycombs,
The Pollenator, Fertile Ground), and gets my vote as the
best sport crag in the Tieton, all things considered.
One route that doesn't follow the Honeycomb theme is Land
Down Under, but the name is apt, as the route starts in a
cave at the very base of the crag and climbs overhanging
column edges out of the depths. If this route isn't the
best face climb in the Tieton, it is surely the most
unique. The route seems straightforward, but is tricky
and strenuous, with many sloping holds and hidden edges,
requiring tenacity and ingenuity to solve its cruxes. The
full route ends at anchors some 120 feet up, near the top
of the crag. The hardest moves come before the first
anchors at 80 feet, which facilitate lowering off and
toproping, although there is 5.11 climbing above. If you're
trying for an on-sight ascent, you must do the whole route,
but most climbers call it a climb at the first anchors and
set up a toprope for laps, for which it is perfectly suited.
|
First Ascent:
|
Mark McGuire, 1990.
|
|
Rack:
|
A dozen quick draws should suffice, several more if you continue
to the upper anchors in one pitch.
|
|
Guidebook References:
|
Rock Climbing Washington (Falcon Publishing 1999)
|
back to classics
