Shadey Grove (unfinished)

[ "Editor's" note - after re-reading this I decided certain passages needed bold-ing. R Hall Admin. 2022 ]

2002 I climbed straight up the moderate (5-5) slab unprotected until I reached an arch. Followed up right moderately (5-5) to break between arches then up break to arch and then a long easy (5-0) walk to the right. Here I belayed Craig down from the walkway about twenty feet into a nice depression on the slab. Next I led through the moderate (5-5) break in this arch and made moves left to the base of an excellent central corner crack system. This system I went up to a small inclining wall that is much easier than it looks (5-5) but the exposure is high and gear is inadequate. Often protection is a mixed bag of good and bad or who knows what will happen when fallen onto these placements. Whatever I didn’t find out and I don’t want to know when a crazy long run out begins after such protection. It doesn't really matter because of the run out, it's easy (5-2) on solid rock to a great belay. Craig arrived and we made a big cairn on the rock garden wide ledge against the cliff to rid ourselves of the danger of sending a rock down on us during rappel or retrieval of the rope after rappel. It looked like we were making a hiking trail. It is a route I’d highly recommend to climb but probably it won’t be done because of where it is.

2003-The third pitch to Shady Grove was started with hit the deck (5-6) face moves up left and then across right intimidating walk like an Egyptian 10ft up to a (5-8) short strenuous finger crack (pin) that I led. After that I went left over a very exposed outside cornered void gingerly not touching the large loose block poised there to go off the cliff. Then a highly exposed easy (5-2) ramp slab face was climbed to a stooped platform ledge system that stopped me beneath a corner of the blackened rock head wall. I put in a bolt ending the attempted pitch. This wall is definitely free climbable. Needs 2 more bolts. That’s as far on this climb as we have gotten. I belayed Craig up and he nudged the block off the cliff.

Then I lowered Craig and the #1 stoppers I had put in to belay him up with blew out of the crack because of our combined weight of force was too much onto them. Oops, but we were also belayed on the bolt. We both dropped several feet into air from this occurrence onto that bolt. I lowered Craig down on our one point of protection and rappelled myself out of there. Craig hasn'’t returned to Cannon Cliff since then with me, and he pretty much quit climbing crags a few months later.

I would like to finish the climb up this blackened head wall and there will be a ramp to traverse left across to the gully like path of Fafnir’s Ice flow to a belay below the large buttress between this flow and the Black Dike. From there on, excellent rock to climb up and off the cliff. A rappel anchor below the summit would be much easier than crashing bushwhacking through the stunted pine trees to the W.G.R. trail. It is a route I would highly recommend to become finished but it probably won’t be, because will anyone else besides me, firstly go where this climb is? At least you all know it's potential exist now. Holds are similar to the W.G.R.