There were 8 of us scheduled to be on the climb; 4 basic students and 4 instructors. One of the students, however, called our leader at the park and ride cancelling, so we had 3 students and 4 instructors. At the trailhead, our leader, Mike (who was also the leader on my Sahale Climb a few weeks back) informed us that we would have three teams. Mike would lead the first team and set up protection. I would be the second climber and would clear the protection, and one of the instructors, Steve, would be roped up behind me and I would belay him up. The other two teams, each made up of an instructor and student, would follow, each setting up their own protection. Once all three teams were at the summit, we would rappel down the opposite side of the rock and then scramble around the base of the rock back to the cars. The rock itself was kind of like climbing on concrete with rocks protruding out of the concrete for handholds. Summitpost's official description of the rock is "silicified tuff-breccia." which makes for decent hand and foot holds, but loose rock falling down the chutes the primary hazard. When I looked up at the rock from the base, the rock formations reminded me a lot of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park that I visited a few months earlier.
We arrived at the rock a little before 9am. After a brief meeting and final packing, we immediately headed to the base of the rock. The first section was 4th class. Mike found a good route, set protection, and once at the first ledge, belayed me up with me clearing the protection. Once I completed the section, I turned around and top belayed Steve up to complete our first pitch. The other two teams followed suit and as the second team reached our location, Mike started setting up the second pitch. Like the first section, I had Mike on belay while he climbed setting slings around the various chickenheads for protection. With not much rope to spare, Mike safely reached the second ledge and then he belayed me up with me cleaning the protection. Though Mike is quite a bit taller than me and made the ascent look easy, I was still able to climb the 5.4 section and the rest of the pitch with little difficulty even though I opted to wear my alpine boots instead of rock shoes. Once I reached Mike, I set up to belay Steve. Steve is a strong climber as well and he was outclimbing the belayer (me), but I got him up to our location safely. We then had a wait as the second rock team struggled a bit. The leader on that rope team did not feel as comfortable with the route as Mike was, but eventually the other two rope teams reached us, so Mike went ahead and set up the third pitch.
Once again, we followed the same procedure as the previous two pitches. This time, the climb on the final pitch seemed a little longer and somewhat more vertical. As I started to climb up, the heat of the day required me to exert more effort, but eventually, I reached the top where Mike was belaying me to safety. Of course, I had to turn around and belay Steve, but once he was up on top, I was able unclip from the system and walk over to the safety on the north side of the ridge. It was 2:30pm when I arrived.
Like the 2nd pitch, the next rope team was a slower getting up, but the other two rope teams did summit, with the final person topping out at about 3:30pm. At the top, we had views of Mt. Rainier to our north, Mt. Adams in the southeast, Mt. Hood to the south, and Mt. St. Helens to the southwest. Mike remarked that we were in the center of four mountains, which we really were. After eating and hydrating, taking summit photos, and signing the summit register, we made our way over to the northeast side of the peak to begin our rappel.
Mike having led Pinto Rock a few weeks prior, knew that the rappel had to be set up in such a way where it would not get caught on any rocks as it was kind of diagonal direction down. So, he rappelled halfway down to a platform where he could redirect the rope where he wanted it. The plan was for the rest of the team to rappel down using the extended rappel with autoblock. After Mike, one other student and one instructor went down then I was the 4th person. I got set up and started the rappel, but I had problems before reaching the platform where Mike was at. I was really having to work to get the ropes through my autoblock and around my extended rappel and ATC device. At one point, I am dangling using all my strength just to get the ropes through the system. When I reached Mike, he decided to stop me, take off the autoblock, and have one of the assistants, Tai, have me on a fireman's belay as I completed the rappel down to the bottom. Mike blamed the system for the issue, but I also think, upon talking to other climbers, that my autoblock was probably too tight. Regardless, I got down to the bottom of the rappel safely and waited for the others to get down. It seemed like everyone was slow because of the system, but the important thing is that we completed the entire climb safely. The rest of the climb was to move around the west base of Pinto Rock on a climber's trail to get back to where we first set up as some of us, myself included, had left some of our extra belongings. We then took the 10 minute hike down to the cars. We were at our vehicles by 6:45pm.
All of us were tired, but satisfied. For the other two students, Brian and Claudia, this was the final event needed to complete the Basic Climbing course. And for me, it was the final climb I needed, but I'll still have to complete Mountaineers First Aid in the fall before I can graduate. We all congratulated each other at the cars, and then departed for home.
Pinto Rock Photo Album
