Echo Rock Traverse @ Great Falls, VA

July 21st, 2009

It started with a picture from 1944. 


In the Potomac Mountaineering Club's "Climber's Guide to the Great Falls of the Potomac" guidebook lies a picture from September 17, 1944 of 4 men attempting a traverse of the area known as Echo Rock.  

This section of high cliffs is located farthest downstream at Great Falls, VA and has heights upwards of 70 feet with an assumed total lengthwise width of around 600 feet. 

And so, with this new found challenge and adventure the call went out to PMC's listserve searching for a partner.  Mark Mangrich answered the call and we met at 4 PM in the climbers lot at Great Falls National Park.

After sorting through gear and deciding on rope, we made the 1 mile hike along the Carriage Road to the upstream access area of Echo Rock.  A number of teenagers were jumping the rocks on both sides of the river that day and seemed to be enjoying no school and the cliffs.

Mark jumped on lead for the 1st pitch while I belayed from a table sized ledge.  Communication was diffucult at first because of the teens yelling and the nature of the coves alond Echo Rock.  I guess we should have guessed that by it's name.  The first pitch starts easy along large ledges with good cracks and underclings from the roofs.  Long slings seemed very useful to reduce rope. drag, as this route wandered quite a bit.  The pitch ends along a near vertical section with good layback cracks and then gets a bit harder with a 8 foot hand traverse to a good ledge for the next belay.  Have a #3 Camalot and Red Alien (or smaller) for this belay station.

Pitch 2 moves up the rock before traversing left (downstream) and makes its way through another cove(ish) area.  Along here we found an old piton that proved to be a great psychological gear placement when downclimbing below it.  This lead to some easy 3/4 class scramble over to the 2nd belay station.  At this point we weren't sure how much further we could go on traverse, so with the sun almost down, we decided to swing leads and I started our escape.  This went up a combo of slabs and V0/1 boulder problems with little gear to go in.  After realizing I wasn't 100% comfortable leading the last 25 feet, Mark jump on and got us up, out, and into the woods.

We found the trail with the last remants of light and made our way back to start to collect our stashed gear.  This was not the case, as we found our backpacks were dumped and stolen.  The yahoos who took them left all of our gear and decided to just take the packs.  My guess is they didn't want the extra weight on them swimming back across to Maryland.   Unfortunatly, the only things they didn't leave behind was our car keys or head lamp.  So... a quick as we could 1 mile hike back out in the dark to the climbers lot was in order.  Back at the lot and after checking for a pay phone ( BEWARE:  there is NO payphone on Great Falls National Park property) we were able to stop a passing Fairfax County Police Officer.  He let me use my phone to call my wife, who started wondering if we were alive, and took down a report on the stolen items.  With my wife bringing my spare keys, I gave Mark a ride to a friends and he was off as well.

Besides the stolen packs, this is a worthwhile trip and something I'm looking to go back and complete in its entiretly.  Below is a picture of our route (blue), belay stations (red), and the projected finishing route (green).  Take into account that the water level is at least 10 feet lower than in these pictures.  Click on the picture to a larger version.