Mount Hayden Trip Report - Page 2

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There are quite a few ways to start the first pitch. A 5.9 hand crack to the left, a 5.7 bombay slot just off the ground, or you can do a fairly easy boulder problem onto this little tongue of rock, then traverse into cracks either on the left or right side and head up from there. I headed up and traversed left to the crack above the 5.9 start, which turns 5.6 after the initial crux is pulled. This became a big r-facing corner system that leads up to the first belay. I was a little tentative on the sandy rock initially, but relaxed after making a few moves and getting some protection placed. I moved on up to the top of the corner system and then crossed over to the right and climbed up onto the lowest shelf in a set of brush-covered ledges running across the middle of the face. I placed some big cams and got set up to belay. There was a bit of loose rock, but I managed to keep from dumping anything over the side while getting arranged to belay. Once I turned around and looked back down, I spotted the two-bolt rap anchor on a ledge about 15 feet down and to the other side of the big corner system. I put Tim on belay and he started climbing. It seemed like he was climbing really slow, and I suppose he was, given that he hasn’t been climbing in a long time. The sun was really pounding on the belay ledge and it got hot in a hurry. Across to the southwest, I could clearly spot the two big smoke plumes from a pair of forest fires that were being allowed to burn parts of the North Rim. When Tim made the belay, I traded with him so he could belay Scott while I checked out the terrain ahead. There was a nasty looking offwidth to the left that the topo said was rated 5.8+, another stiff looking wide crack straight above that’s 5.9. We were taking the path of least resistance, which the topo said was out to our right and rated 5.7. I could see a tree over there at the base of what I figured was our crack.

After Scott made the belay, Tim put me back on and I climbed over some boulders to gain a ledge running to the right across the face. I traversed right on the ledge for about 20 feet to the tree that I planned to rig a belay from. I figured we could move the belay to the tree and then go from there, but when I arrived, I decided to just keep heading up. I only had one piece in with a big sling, about halfway across the ledge, so I figured I’d be ok on rope drag. I let Tim know I was heading up and slotted myself into the base of the chimney. This wasn’t too bad. I just had to keep from popping out for the big ride before I got another piece in.  Problem was, I couldn’t put another piece in until I was up a ways, or I’d get killed with the dreaded rope drag. I ended up climbing to a point where you step left out of the chimney and then continue in a hand crack.  I put two pieces into the base of the hand crack section and then jammed up the crack, marveling at all the cool features on the face I could hang onto. The crack pinched down and the holds kind of went away at the top, and I had to pull a sort of bulge. I shoved in a TCU and pulled the crux moves, relying on the edge of the chimney (still within reach to the right) to finish it off. I jacked the TCU on the way past, so it was looking kind of useless and maybe hard to remove. I continued up past a block, crossed over to the right (missing the two rusty Star Drivyn bolts on the face to the left) and rigged a belay from a tree growing out of the face. I was a little concerned that I hadn’t seen the indicated rap station anchors, but I figured Tim could scope for them when he came up. Sure, enough, he spotted them just before crossing to the belay. Scott followed after Tim, and slung his own tree to the left to give us some space.

It was a little curious that the two bolts now in view off to our left had no rap slings on them and I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I figured maybe someone had put in a newer rap station or something, so I led off to the left and up the “Class 3 ramp” indicated on the topo, looking for other bolts along the way. I’d say this “ramp” is more like easy 5th class climbing, but who knows. I crossed over a block and then climbed up a slot, then a dihedral and arrived at the brushy ledges below the summit cap. I was getting some serious rope drag by this point, but I think I’d only placed one piece, so it wasn’t from the pro.

On the summit, we enjoyed the views and took a few summit shots. I’d brought along my tiny tripod, but found that if I just set it up on the flat top of the summit, we wouldn’t get any good background of the Canyon in the shot. I took a loose branch laying on the summit and shoved it into a small bush. This propped it up, so I took the velcro strap of the tripod and attached the camera to the branch, which gave us a little better summit shot (hopefully).  It felt pretty good just laying there on the summit for a while. We could see people up at Point Imperial and Tim let out a whoop in response to someone’s yell. Tim dug the tiny bottle that holds the summit register out of a pile of rocks. Based on the register, the peak only sees about one party per year at the most. The last party in the register was Jeff Mayhew and someone who topped out on Sept. 11th, 2000. Clearly, there is not a conga line of climbers on this peak.

The bolts at the top of the first pitch consisted of one rusty Star Drivyn with a Leeper hanger and an old 3/8” Bandito “Bad Bolt” hanger. Just before rapping the second pitch, we’d found that Scott had left the 20 foot sling (the one I’d tossed him before heading up the route) at the bottom for some unknown reason. Said he didn’t even recall the sling. We’d find it in his pack after reaching the ground. A fairly decent looking sling was on the Bandito bolt, with a slightly ratty yellow sling on the Leeper, but they looked fine for one more rap. We were back on the ground at the base of the route at 2:20pm.  Ahhhhh…water!!!  All we had to do now is trudge back out and up to the rim.

We spent about a half an hour on top and then headed down. This would be a trick with no anchor on top. This whole peak needs a rework activity on the anchor situation. Using the pro anchor I’d set up to belay, Tim and Scott rappelled off the cap down to the ledges below. Tim set up an anchor and I downclimbed the 5.5 dihedral (easy). From there, we crossed back over to the top of the “ramp” and I rigged an anchor off a small tree. Using that, I belayed Scott as he downclimbed back to the two Star Drivyn bolts below. Tim followed, downclimbing with the rack so he could leave a piece here and there to give me a bit of protection on my downclimb. I removed the pieces on the way down and we were soon all at the bolts. We rigged a sling through the rusty bolts, and backed it up with a couple of big cams. I volunteered (as the biggest lardass on the team) to stress test the bolts. The rap was straight forward and the bolts were solid. Scott followed with Tim behind. Pulling the rope looked interesting. The brush-covered ledges looked like they might be of the horrendous rope-eating variety, but it didn’t actually go that bad. The rope got caught in a tree up on a higher ledge, but popped out and down the face below with a little tugging.

We packed up and moved out, descending the loose crappy slope on the northeast corner of Hayden back to the red hills. Then easy hiking across to the trees. We tried to stick to the “trail” back through the trees, but there really isn’t much of one to follow. We tried a new variation near the gully we were shooting for, getting off into the trees. This was a mistake as we ended up in the weeds, getting nailed by the big thorn bushes. Tim and I thrashed to the base of the gully and waited for Scott to show. Scott had basically followed our tracks and we could hear him wading through the thick brush, muttering profanities. He was clearly not amused. We climbed back up the gully, then paddled through the loose dirt to the top, finally gaining the final slope leading back to the rim. Scott had dropped back a bit, swearing he’d kill anyone who uttered the words “Y’know, that wasn’t so bad” later that night. Tim started getting cramps in his thighs and dropped back as well. I kept paddling to the rim, slow but steady. The sticker bushes were worse on the way up as you’re leaning into the slope and taking them in the arms. Finding a path through them was pretty difficult.  I was really happy when I cleared the last few feet and came out of the trees, sweating and covered with dirt and ash from head to toe. I came out up the slope right in front of a couple trying to enjoy the view. I don’t know what they thought of me, but the wife sure gave me a weird stare. The trip back to the parking lot took my an hour and 36 minutes. Tim showed up about 10 minutes later with Scott another 15 or so behind him. Scott said he found a place to sit down and decided to rest a while and drink some water. By the time he topped out, I was pretty much cleaned back up. I’d brought a sun shower and boy did that feel good. Tim and Scott showered up as well and we spent quite a while in the parking lot. We piled out of there and back to the site to make some dinner and crack a few beers. We had to dodge several groups of suicide turkeys and a few deer on the way back to the site.

<< Tim starting the hike back over to the Coconino, after the climb.

I don’t think anyone had much of a problem sleeping that night. We were up the next morning between 6am and 7am. We packed up and drove on out. We stopped off in Flagstaff for gas and lunch at 11am. It was at lunch that Tim and I noticed Scott’s arms. He looked like he’d been trapped in a gunny sack with half a dozen wildcats. His arms were both cris-crossed with scratches from his fingertips to where his sleeve covered his upper arm. Tim and I both had a couple of scratches and some punctures, but nothing even close to Scott’s damage. We made the standard tour of the climbing shops and then headed for Phoenix, getting to my place about 2:30pm.

Game over.