Pack Animal / Pack Animal Direct

Pack Animal / Pack Animal Direct

Page Type Page Type: Route
Location Lat/Lon: 44.36680°N / 121.13631°W
Additional Information Route Type: Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing
Seasons Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
Additional Information Time Required: Less than two hours
Additional Information Rock Difficulty: 5.10b (YDS)
Additional Information Difficulty: 5.8 / 5.10b (direct)
Additional Information Number of Pitches: 2
Additional Information Grade: I
Sign the Climber's Log

Approach

 Pack Animal as viewed from...Pack Animal & Direct
Pack Animal DirectPack Animal Direct

Follow the directions on the main page to reach the riverside base of The Fourth Horseman. The route starts at the left edge of the formation (see photos for details).

Route Description

Pack Animal DirectP1 - Direct
Pack AnimalP2
Pack Animal DirectP1 - Direct

Much like Friday's Jinx, this route does not top out on any of the four summits (it tops out on the Misery Ridge Plateau just south of the Fourth Horseman). It does however provide two exciting pitches of climbing with a mix of required skills. The guidebook gives the first pitch an "R" rating. However, runouts are easily avoided - see below.

Pitch 1: 5.8, 60 feet. Climb 40 feet in the easy, low-angle crack/groove (c. 5.4) to reach a doubly bolted belay anchor atop a low angle slab to your left. You can either belay here or continue. From the double bolts, traverse right (10 feet). You can clip (stick clip works well:) a bolt that is directly 4 feet above you (the bolt is on an adjacent route). You will see a fixed pin at your foot level as you continue traversing. If you've clipped the above mentioned bolt, ignore the pin (it'll make the rope zigzag). Once above the pin, head straight up (crux) on thin face holds. Note that there is a bolt just around the corner to the right (extend your sling). Pull over this steep bulge and you'll see another bolt. Easy moves (another 15 feet or so) end the pitch at a doubly bolted belay anchor. Note that if you clip these three bolts you will not need to place any gear on this upper half of pitch one (there's very little opportunity for gear anyway) and the "R" rating that this route gets in the book will no longer apply.

VARIATION Pitch 1 (direct): 5.10b, 50 feet. This beautiful variation provides a much better (and safer in terms of protection) alternative to the meandering standard start. It's short but hard (IMHO). Start up directly below a small roof-capped dihedral (this low dihedral is below and just right of the dihedral of pitch 2; see here). 10 feet of easy (~5.7) climbing brings you to the base of the dihedral. Climb the smooth-walled dihedral with one or two poor "rest stances". Crack in the dihedral initially is thin and remains thin for most of the length but there are intermittent good finger "pockets" in the crack higher up. Just below the roof, step left out of the dihedral and onto the bolted belay stance (easy but somewhat reach-dependent move; top of standard pitch 1). Another shot of this route is here.

Pitch 2: 5.8, 60 feet. This pitch is the main reason to climb this route. Follow the crack-in-dihedral to the top. There's a bulge about 15 feet above the belay position (great finger jams make it fairly straightforward). The crux probably comes near the top as the dihedral steepens. Near very top, you'll pass a single bolt on your left. The route ends at double bolts 6 feet higher.

Descent: Rap the route. Two single (50m will do) rope raps bring you to the base. One double 60m rap will bring you to the ground as well. Note that one 60m rope will NOT be enough to get you down in one shot. Alternatively, if there are climbers coming up behind you, use the rap anchor atop the Cinamon Slab. See Friday's Jinx page for details.

Essential Gear

Pack Animal DirectDirect
Pack AnimalP1

First half of pitch one is easy and takes cams from 0.75 to 3 inch range. The upper half of pitch one MIGHT take some micro cams but clipping bolts is all you'll probably need (bring two long slings for first two bolts). Pitch two taks both cams and nuts mostly in the 0.5 to 1 inch range with one or two opportunities for bigger stuff (2 and 3 inches). There's a place for a 3.5-4 inch cam near the top as well.

For direct variation, I used one 0.75 Camalot, some small Aliens (from black to red) and a bunch of small to tiny stoppers. Shirley used almost all small cams (in that case, have extra black to green Alien). Optional (very optional) #2 Camalot can be used low on the route (as in 10 feet above ground) to protect the opening ~5.7 moves.

Helmets and a single rope (50m or 60m).

Miscellaneous Info

If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.


Parents 

Parents

Parents refers to a larger category under which an object falls. For example, theAconcagua mountain page has the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits' asparents and is a parent itself to many routes, photos, and Trip Reports.