Today (3/29), myself (Matt Steen) and Kevin Brumbach (BrumBrown) ventured up to the rock headwall above "The Soprano" to check out a weakness I spotted a couple weeks ago. We hiked/climbed The Soprano gully to its end and arrived at the base of a right trending chimney spilling into a steep headwall above.
We found a mixed bag of good to poor quality rock, M4-M5 climbing and lots of spindrift. After climbing approximately 45m to the base of a snow gully we decided to bail due to uncomfortable conditions.
We found no evidence of a previous ascent, but the amount of snow this time of year could have easily hidden any. If this is in fact a new route, we propose "The Falsetto" as a name, both for its position above The Soprano and our screams during the wintry conditions.
Gear: micro nuts to #3 Camalot, spectre, blades and angles (one left w/ cord).
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Talk to Whit
Whit, et al climbed something up there early this season. You should talk to him.
Panther Raccoon 5.7
Matt,
Nice work going for the obscure. Nate Opp, Aron Thrasher, and I climbed that weakness back in eary December. Sounds like you ran into a bunch of snow, I'll bet it was some serious wallowing. We climbed it to the top of the shaft then busted out right onto the ridge and to the top. I think it was 5 pitches or so... some were short. From the top we droped into Mummy 4 gully and rapped so we could climb back up Mummy three and four. We left nothing on the route. You will have to get it next year with no snow it's totally fun adventure climbing. We called it The Panther-Raccoon after the most vicious hybrid animal we could think of.
To the obscure,
whit