Camel's Head - photo from Tony Goen
June 2018
Summer adventure climbing Camelback Mtn, Suicide 5.5 - Eric and Marty.
Bees warning for Camelback Mountain Suicide and Suicide Direct area. Eric has been bugging me for an adventure so we decided on the morning of the day it will be 112 degrees out, we will climb the 4 pitch version of Suicide 5.5. Besides me leading at sloths pace because of the suspect rock and runout bolts, all was good times! I noticed the one bolt anchor for pitch three (boulder on ledge) a rock is missing and now the bolt casing is entirely showing. I was going to try to rip the bolt out with a draw, but left it alone (thats how bad the bolt is). Pitch 4 continues climbing right to channel at the top of Suicide Direct. Once we were there we needed to rap down to the chain anchors at the lip of the channel, but unfortunately a good size bee hive now resides at that anchor, basically already at our feet, and are getting excited because were standing in their home. All bees on Camelback are killer bees. Hmmmm. We could not go back to Suicide pitch 3 because there was no way we were going to rap off of that bolt.
I told Eric that we now have to find a different way off of this hill and we have one cup of water left. My thought was to rappel down the Ridge Route so we headed over to it but had no way to get onto the plateau because a bee hive blocked the route. So we hiked upward to escape at the Yellow Wall, but the only way onto the plateau had another bee hive in the only possible sketchy spot to climb up. At that point I knew we were becoming more in trouble - then were having fun. Hands went open and asked the Universe to please show me a clear path. There was nothing to anchor from to rap down into August Canyon so we hiked the entire distance to the South opening of August Canyon, still in climbing shoes. The idea was to hike back down August Canyon to the North end (over the Sacred Grotto Cave) and find a anchor that will get us down to the pitch 2 Suicide alternate anchor, which is off left and has chains and rings. By the time we got there I had nothing more to sweat, was dizzy seeing the floating orbs, and wanted to throw up but I knew if I could possibly create a anchor point, the 200’ rope as a single line will reach our backpacks where the water………and phone is. However it is necessary to double line the rope to retrieve the rope also.
In this type of situation climbing gear now becomes the tools for rescue. So my donation to the mountain today is two slings, quickdraw, brand new purple Camalot, also a locking and non locking carabiner. So the idea worked and a big angled rappel brought us to the Suicide Pitch 2 anchor rings. Resetting the rope for the final rappel took a little while as the rope felt like it weighed 80 pounds. Second rappel we only had a 60 meter rope with us but with rope stretch we were able to reach within 8” of the ground. Yes that water at base camp went down quick and has never felt more welcomed!!!! If I had to go through this situation again I hope that Eric is my partner. He passed….”the Karabin test”…. with flying colors!!!!
300’ route rated easy 5.5 in the middle of town and you are with the climbing guidebook author of Camelback Mountain….what could go wrong? No way will I rappel through a killer bee hive! I could have rapped the South end of August Canyon to the Neck to get to the main hiking trail, but would have had to hike downhill in our climbing shoes for another 1/2 hour and we still would have had to go get our gear at the base of Suicide. At least hikers would have shared their water. My other thought was to rap the chimney route to the Ice Box then walk back to the route base. However the route we took was more adventurous and dangerous but it put us where the water is, and my feet are already covered in open blisters so my feet pain was more pushing me to throw up than the dehydration was suggesting.
Summer adventure climbing Camelback Mtn, Suicide 5.5 - Eric and Marty.
Bees warning for Camelback Mountain Suicide and Suicide Direct area. Eric has been bugging me for an adventure so we decided on the morning of the day it will be 112 degrees out, we will climb the 4 pitch version of Suicide 5.5. Besides me leading at sloths pace because of the suspect rock and runout bolts, all was good times! I noticed the one bolt anchor for pitch three (boulder on ledge) a rock is missing and now the bolt casing is entirely showing. I was going to try to rip the bolt out with a draw, but left it alone (thats how bad the bolt is). Pitch 4 continues climbing right to channel at the top of Suicide Direct. Once we were there we needed to rap down to the chain anchors at the lip of the channel, but unfortunately a good size bee hive now resides at that anchor, basically already at our feet, and are getting excited because were standing in their home. All bees on Camelback are killer bees. Hmmmm. We could not go back to Suicide pitch 3 because there was no way we were going to rap off of that bolt.
I told Eric that we now have to find a different way off of this hill and we have one cup of water left. My thought was to rappel down the Ridge Route so we headed over to it but had no way to get onto the plateau because a bee hive blocked the route. So we hiked upward to escape at the Yellow Wall, but the only way onto the plateau had another bee hive in the only possible sketchy spot to climb up. At that point I knew we were becoming more in trouble - then were having fun. Hands went open and asked the Universe to please show me a clear path. There was nothing to anchor from to rap down into August Canyon so we hiked the entire distance to the South opening of August Canyon, still in climbing shoes. The idea was to hike back down August Canyon to the North end (over the Sacred Grotto Cave) and find a anchor that will get us down to the pitch 2 Suicide alternate anchor, which is off left and has chains and rings. By the time we got there I had nothing more to sweat, was dizzy seeing the floating orbs, and wanted to throw up but I knew if I could possibly create a anchor point, the 200’ rope as a single line will reach our backpacks where the water………and phone is. However it is necessary to double line the rope to retrieve the rope also.
In this type of situation climbing gear now becomes the tools for rescue. So my donation to the mountain today is two slings, quickdraw, brand new purple Camalot, also a locking and non locking carabiner. So the idea worked and a big angled rappel brought us to the Suicide Pitch 2 anchor rings. Resetting the rope for the final rappel took a little while as the rope felt like it weighed 80 pounds. Second rappel we only had a 60 meter rope with us but with rope stretch we were able to reach within 8” of the ground. Yes that water at base camp went down quick and has never felt more welcomed!!!! If I had to go through this situation again I hope that Eric is my partner. He passed….”the Karabin test”…. with flying colors!!!!
300’ route rated easy 5.5 in the middle of town and you are with the climbing guidebook author of Camelback Mountain….what could go wrong? No way will I rappel through a killer bee hive! I could have rapped the South end of August Canyon to the Neck to get to the main hiking trail, but would have had to hike downhill in our climbing shoes for another 1/2 hour and we still would have had to go get our gear at the base of Suicide. At least hikers would have shared their water. My other thought was to rap the chimney route to the Ice Box then walk back to the route base. However the route we took was more adventurous and dangerous but it put us where the water is, and my feet are already covered in open blisters so my feet pain was more pushing me to throw up than the dehydration was suggesting.
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Green is Suicide route - 4 pitch variation.
Yellow is how we got back down. Red dots are Bees. -Bees #1 blocked our main descent. -Bad bolt Suicide pitch 3 top on ledge. -Bees #2 blocked the Ridge Route. -Bees #3 blocked the path to ridge route anchors and Yellow wall. -Bees #4 blocked the drop down to August Canyon. |
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Camelback always presents its situations at times, but I have never experienced 5 in a row not leaving me with many options.
The awesome photo of Camelback mountain is part of a larger photo that Tony Goen donated to the museum!
The awesome photo of Camelback mountain is part of a larger photo that Tony Goen donated to the museum!