The Sorcerer 2007
210m IV, WI 5
December 25, 2007
Feeling honed after Fist & Fang a
couple of days prior, I was keen on trying out The Sorcerer, which has been
a personal goal for a while. By some coincidence, Jason had done it just
this past weekend too, but he was willing to go back. The drive was
uneventful and the approach only took us a bit over an hour, since the
trail was in perfect shape (gps
waypoints). I will never forget the initial glimpse we got of
the climb, as we rounded a corner and emerged from the forest. Wow, what a
sight!
It was a bit windy so we didn't sit around too long. I convinced Jason to
let me lead the hard pitches, as we had already done them a few days prior,
and didn't mind tagging along. We did it in four pitches:
55m WI 4 to a double bolt belay on the left
40m WI 2 to ice belay left of the ice (cave)
45m WI 5 to ice belay in cave on the right
50m WI 5 to ice belay on top
The two top pitches were absolutely memorable. Beautiful, sustained ice,
quite featured with createful rest stances. I had a permanent grin on the
way up.
For descent, 4 rappels: abalakovs off the top; bolts (right side); bolts
(middle); bolts (1st belay)
This is a climb that is worth doing over and over again. Took us
about 7 hours car-to-car.
And here is a
free topo map of the area for Garmin GPS and
some GPS waypoints.
Google map here.
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first view of The Sorcerer |
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our first glimpse of The Sorcerer |
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closer view of The Sorcerer |
what a beautiful position |
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starting the first pitch |
the upper pitches |
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me starting the third pitch |
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just placed a screw |
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higher up on the third pitch |
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my belay on the top of the third pitch |
looking down the third pitch |
looking up at the last pitch, whohoo! |
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happy! |
jason happy to be here |
can't stop looking at the 4th pitch above |
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Jason topping out on the very last pitch! |
on the top! |
i'm starting off the last pitch |
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starting off |
me on the last pitch |
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jason's view while coming up the last pitch |
view of Black Rock Mountain |
rappelling down the last pitch |
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jason is happy, but time to get down! |
rappelling |
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last view before we leave |
rappelling |
rappelling The Sorcerer |
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