Mount Erie Climbing

Published on 2003-2-15 by Michael Stanton

Friends: Robert, Theron, Kris
Location:
Elevation gain: 0m = 0m

Mount Erie rock climbing 2/15/2003

Robert Meshew invited Theron, Kris and myself to go climbing at Mt. Erie. I'd been once before 6 years ago when I learned to rappel on a glacier mountaineering class. We did a few great climbs (I'll post pictures when I get them). Robert and Theron did "Tyndell's Terror (5.7)", which I missed. I climbed two crack climbs to the left of that, finding them both pretty interesting. (I think one was "Leaning Crack (5.6)", and then "Psycho Crack (5.8)", which did feel a little psychotic). Kris and I then climbed "Nice and Easy (5.7)", topping out from the wall. We went and had lunch in town, then came back so Theron, Robert and I could climb "Zig Zag (5.7)" (Kris drove Theron's nice car and napped in the sun). Robert led us all over creation in an exploratory bushwhack (haha!) to reach the base of the route. It was great 3 pitch climb that started with a nice right facing corner crack, then a kind of scary pitch above which climbed a face, then traversed right to a fixed pin, then up to a dead tree and a belay spot. The final short pitch started with scrambling, then climbed on juggy holds to the top of the impressive wall. After that, we found a trail and scrambled ledges to the top of the mountain. Finally, a few fun pitches at the "main area" as darkness fell for the four of us. We were dodging the impressively clad and numerous "learning parties" that took over the upper cliffs all day ("We've a CLIMBER DOWN!!" one said). One guy was wearing gaiters (why?), and we inadvertently wandered into their designated urination area once. We had a great time.