Hells Canyon 2019

Hells Canyon

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Hells Canyon
Hells Canyon.

Been meaning to check this place out for some 8 years now. Original plan was to head to City Of Rocks for a weekend quickie. Friday night, somewhere by Pendleton, we realized that we were just not psyched enough about City climbing to continue the driving marathon and the Hells Canyon idea popped into our heads as a reasonable alternative. And so we turned north at Baker City.

Got a late (OK, very late) start on Saturday and headed up for the tallest looking piece of cliff – the west face of The Flatiron. Found some old beta from Chris Winter in our emails about two 3-pitch lines that he’s done on that face. We found those with little issues and headed up. Climbing was fun, very well protected and with a style that reminded us of El Potrero. Things got pretty hot once the sun hit the face. We were planning on camping out and climbing on Sunday but then we got a surprise: we started pulling off multiple ticks from ourselves and dozens of them off of Benny. The thought of being in a tent with our tick-ridden dog was less than appealing and so we called it good and went home. If we come back, it’ll be earlier in the season – too hot, too many ticks in early May.

2022 Post Script

Hells Canyon
Think You’re In Heaven.
Found some information on what it was that we climbed. First pitch (5.10b) is called Halfway To Hell. We the joined Think You’re In Heaven (But You’re Really In Hell) for its pitches 2 (5.10a) and 3 (5.11a). No wonder that third pitch felt noticeably harder.

Photos

Hells Canyon
Shirley and Benny starting the ~25 minute approach to the west face of The Flatiron (May 2019).
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The Flatiron as seen from the campground (May 2019).
Hells Canyon
Enjoying the late morning approach (May 2019).
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Views down Allison Creek drainage (May 2019).
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Shirley and Benny on approach (May 2019).
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The south face of The Flatiron (May 2019).
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Shirley nearing the base of the west face of The Flatiron (May 2018).
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Shirley and Benny at the base of our chosen route (May 2019).
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Leading pitch 1 of an unknown (to us) route (May 2019).
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View upriver (May 2019).
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Nearing the top of the pitch (May 2019).
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Shirley on pitch 1 (May 2019).
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Topping out on pitch 1 (May 2019).
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Starting up pitch 2 (May 2019).
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Shirley on pitch 2 with our car visible at the campground below (May 2019).
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Starting the lead of the crux third pitch (May 2019).
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Higher on pitch 3 (May 2019).
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Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 3 above the crux (May 2019).
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You bypass the obvious roof on its right side (May 2019).
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Nearing the top of pitch 3 (May 2019).
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Hells Canyon pano from the route (May 2019).
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Shirley nearing the top (May 2019).
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The views (May 2019).
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Shirley at the top of our route (May 2019).
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Shirley rapping off (May 2019).
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Starting the hike down (May 2019).
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Shirley and the Snake River (May 2019).
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Enjoying the sunshine on the hike down…the leash is to keep somebody from looking for rattlers (May 2019).
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The south face of The Flatiron from the hike down (May 2019).
Hells Canyon
A cool off (May 2019).
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Hiking back to the car (May 2019).
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The search for ticks begins (it would last 4 days; May 2019).
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A dip in the stagnant Snake River to round out the day (May 2019).
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A wet dog (May 2019).

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