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R&D, 5.6**/Cocaine Connection, 5.7*

The Drive

We took the I-90 route and made it in about 21/2 hours. It's a pretty quick and easy route.

The Approach

Icicle Buttress is located up Icicle Canyon. It's a huge slab right on the side of the road. Pretty easy location to get to but the routes are not the best. It can be crowded on a nice weekend day. To get to the base of Cocaine Connection you just hike up the left side of the slab for about 150 feet.

R&D Route, 4 pitches

Pitch 1, 5.7 30 meters

We started with the Cocaine Connection variation of the route. You basically climb straight up the slab following a line of bolts. Slab always seems to be a little bit sketchy for me and I defiantly had times that I did not feel that comfortable. It can be hard to trust your shoes on the rock sometimes. It ended up being pretty basic climbing and if it wasn't for my nerves I would say real easy. Dylan was sketching me out a bit by following on an easier rib section of the slab which put him about 10 feet out to the side of the bolts. All I could think about was if he fell it would be like a giant cheese grater to his face as he slid across the slab. OUCH! He made it safely to the belay.

Pitch 2, 5.4 30 meters

I wasn't sure how to connect this pitch with R&D so I just started climbing. I clipped the first two bolts and then traversed left. The rock started to get a bit sandy and so I climbed up onto a ledge littered with Glacier Lilies. I traversed the ledge and set up a belay in a nice crack. This looks like where the fun was going to start!

Pitch 3, 5.6 60 meters

This was defiantly the highlight of the climb for me. It ended up being a full 60 meter pitch loaded with cracks and slab topped off with a chimney at the end. The cracks were pretty easy as I was still climbing on low angle slab. There were a couple of steep bulges to keep it fun. About half way up the pitch I looked to the west and saw a storm moving in quickly! I could see what looked like a wall of rain coming down the canyon. This made me decided to keep climbing instead of setting up a belay before the chimney. By the time I was in the chimney it started to lightly snow and the wind was howling. It made it feel very alpine as my fingers started to go numb. I threw myself on top of the chimney and searched for a place to put an anchor. I ended up basically just sitting down behind a large boulder and bracing my feet against it with two decent cams in behind me. Dylan quickly climbed up to the belay.

Pitch 4, 5.6 60 meters

The last pitch started with a steep crack followed by a never ending slab. It just kept going and going. It was pretty fun climbing and really moderate. Dylan is not that good at crack climbing and he enjoyed the challenges that the various cracks had. I climbed a full 60 meters before I could sling a boulder on the top of the buttress and belay Dylan up.

This was a fun route but not quite sure if it is repeatable for me. A few years ago I climbed the Ramp which is a variation to the right of the chimney, check that route out here.

BOB Wall

A few yards from the top of Icicle Buttress is BOB Wall which has a couple of great crack climbs.

Bob's Fourth Crack, 5.7** gear to 2 inches 28 meters

This is a great climb! It has a fun bouldery start followed by amazing crack and lie backing! I think that it is worth a visit even if you just hike to this wall from the road!

Bob's Fifth Crack, 5.8* (Top rope)

We top roped the corner as I remember it being a hard lead. I'm not sure if you struggle up the steep corner or if you exit to the left with a fat crack. I kind of combined the two and found it to be pretty hard.

We had a pretty good day in the mountains and once again I can't wait to get back out to the rock!

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