Birthday Tick Upgrade

One of the guidelines we set for developing routes at the North Rim is to preserve gear placements where they are obvious. With this in mind, we left one placement each on the Tick Farm's Tick Man and Birthday Tick. The Birthday Tick placement is at the start of the route, making it a long way to the first bolt with some semi-dicey climbing if you don't have the gear. This all makes perfect sense if you're a climber who throws a few cams in with your sport draws. In practice, however, we found that few are arriving at the Tick Farm armed with gear. Most come up with a rope and a clutch of quickdraws. In this sport climbing age, it's likely many climbers don't own trad gear at all.

As a result, our attempt to preserve gear on the Tick Farm now feels contrived. Out of the 8 bolted routes on the wall, there are only two gear placements in total. Climbers embarking up these routes face unnecessary runouts that are out of character with the rest of the climbing.

For these reasons, this past Thursday Dane and Ken added a bolt to the start of Birthday Tick, eliminating the need for a cam to protect the opening 15 feet. Birthday Tick is a great route with some surprisingly subtle and balancey climbing. This will allow everyone to focus on the climbing without being put off by that previously-runout opening.

Between Michael, Dane or Ken, one of us will also add a bolt to Tick Man to protect the runout between the 2nd and 3rd bolt. We had originally left that section for a 3" cam. Continue to expect the runout for now, but look for a safer experience in the near future.

On other news, Dane and Ken have begun redpoint attempts on QED. Hopefully a send (or two!) will be reported soon.

Friday Action

Seven climbers were at Mill on Friday. Eric, Brian, Hobbs, Dane and Ken arrived at the rock around 8:30 a.m. We started on the Tiger Stripe's Tiger by the Tail and Shere Khan. Eric and Hobbs dispatched quickly with on-sights of both climbs. Brian opted for toprope burns, claiming that he's out of shape, only to walk Shere Khan without pausing even once --impressive endurance on what is becoming a notoriously pumpy route.

Eric had to head back to town by noon. The rest of us turned attention to the main project of the moment: QED. We have all the bolts in, and the opening third's gear placements cleaned and sussed. The development is complete. All that remains is to climb the thing. The links are getting longer, but the climb is burly and very sustained with a ton of beta to refine and execute. We sessioned for most of the afternoon, with each of us getting spit off at least a few times.

Late afternoon Cole and Ben arrived at the Tick Farm. This was their first visit. Cole fired several leads with Ben following. As we hiked out at 6 p.m., they were setting up for the Tick Farm's hardest, Witness the Tickness.

Here are some images from the day:

Dane - Shere Khan

QED "Staircase" Feature. The Roof Comes Next.

Hobbs - QED Roof. 70 feet Climbed, 40 to Go.

Brian Lowering from QED Anchors

. . .

Sick, Phat and Ticktastic

Tick Sightings: None!!

Undeterred by a weather forecast of 90-plus temperatures, Michael, accompanied by Olin Martin, headed to the North Rim around 8 a.m. Saturday. Much to everyone's surprise, and thanks to a pretty stiff breeze, they were able to climb throughout the day and didn't leave until 6:30 p.m.

The day's objective was to bolt Ticktastic, the line Michael and Tim sussed out a week earlier. The line is located beneath the central obvious roof, right of No Dick Tick and sharing its anchors. From Michael's email report of the day,

We climbed the route several times, and ultimately decided at the top that we would put a bolt in the middle of what might be a couple of possible finishes. One, to the right, is probably 10b, but the other is harder than that, so our tentative rating for the route is 10b/c. It's a sweet route. It has 7 bolts and finishes at the No Dick Tick anchors.

First ascent credits go to Michael, Tim Karst and Olin. To read more about the day, check out Michael's graceful post about new routes, climbing and friendship at the Montana Adventurer blog.

Olin Martin at Work on Ticktastic (photo: Michael Moore)

The Tick Farm wall now has 8 bolted routes ranging from 5.8 to 5.11 and averaging about 50 feet in length. Worth noting are the 3 pairs that allow you to ascend an easier line and work a harder one from the same set of anchors. This is always a great combination for pushing your ability to new levels. The routes are:

Tick Man (5.8+) - Ticked Off (5.10c)
No Dick Tick (5.8) - Ticktastic (5.10b/c)
Birthday Tick (5.10a) - Witness the Tickness (5.11a)

In each case, the right hand line is the harder.

Two other climbers also hiked up on Saturday. Gunnar Cornwath and Brian French visited the area for the first time. According to Michael, "they pronounced it both 'sick' and 'phat.'" The pair climbed several Tick Farm routes, plus did the Tiger Stripe wall's Sabertooth. We're always happy when people top out the Tick Farm and establish on the ledge beneath the Tiger Stripe. The ledge is a great place to hang out and the Tiger Stripe routes, Sabertooth (5.10b), Tiger by the Tail (5.10d) and Shere Khan (5.11b) are some of the best sport routes anywhere in our region. The Tick Farm is great climbing, but the easily-accessible Tiger Stripe routes just shouldn't be missed!

For those looking for them, No Dick Tick, Ticktastic and Sabertooth are all too new to be in the guide, so here's a quick drawing showing their locations,

1-Shere Khan
2-Tiger by the Tail
3-Sabertooth
4-No Dick Tick
5-Ticktastic

Finally, here's a shot I found from last year that gives a good look at Kurt's Give and Take crack line. The crux involves strenuous moves out the horizontal portion of the crack. Initial efforts report it at around 10d. Kurt needs another visit or two to finish cleaning it up before it's ready for lead ascents.

Keith beneath Give and Take