Crag Rock Climb - Mazama

Trip Report

We had originally planned to do the Southwest Rib of SEWS but we got rained out. So we did Prime Rib instead! 

We did a car shuttle. We parked one car at the top of Goat Wall at 48.622813, -120.435467 (it was very helpful to have the map downloaded on GAIA so I could see where this was.) 

For the Prime Rib we parked at the swimming hole pullout at 48.6224, -120.4548. This was right by the climbers trail that had a climber’s registry at the beginning. 

When the trail diverged, Craig and I opted for the scree trail on the left whereas Tony opted for the talus trail on the right. We both got there in about the same time, but the scree definitely had more rock fall potential. I’d recommend the talus. 

It was raining when we started but I was optimistic about the weather, and my stoke was high, so I convinced the others to let me lead. By the second pitch the rain was mostly clear and there was a gorgeous rainbow! I wish I could have taken a picture, but I was too busy belaying the followers in parallel. 

There is a big hike between pitch 7 and 8. We found this beta from MP helpful, “There's a small trail, but it's easy to miss. The general beta is up for a bit, then to the left, and look for a big fir tree. The first bolt is about 10 ft up and there's no anchor bolts to belay from (just girth hitch a tree root).” 

Pitch 8 was very fun and probably the most sustained. 

The last pitch does not have belay bolts. A commenter on MP recommended belaying from the first bolt, so I intended to build an anchor from the 1st and 2nd bolt, assuming that the bolts would be close together like they had been for the rest of the route. This was a terrible decision. The bolts were far apart, and the crux of the entire climb was in between them. I had to do this with a ton of rope drag then down climb to get to my belay stance. Also the first bolt is a spinner. Please learn from my mistake! I should have slung a boulder on the ledge and belayed from there. 

The last pitch was much harder than the previous pitches but very fun and mostly well protected. I placed long slings so that my followers could aid if they so chose. 

We scrambled 2nd and 3rd class terrain to the top then followed a very nice trail along the barbed wire fence that brought us exactly to our car. 

We made it to the Mazama store right before they closed and I was able to purchase the very last baguette. Here is the most important beta: Mazama Store baguettes are the best! 

 

Map