ERT (Echo Rock Traverse) III 5.9 PG
ACB: Brian Haugli & Mike Dannhardt, October 9, 2011
Big thanks to Neil Arsenault, John Christian, and the rest of the Potomac Mountaineering Club for legacy beta, tips, and support. I've been after this traverse for 3 years.
We thought that anyone interested in doing this climb, now is the perfect time to do so. It's in the shade all day, was around 60-70 degrees with little humidity, and the water level was just right. Also, for such a large cliff area, it sees little use, but there were maybe 2 areas that were dirty. The recent high river washed away a lot of the debris we've seen on previous attempts.
We left an orange sling tied through the rock (as seen in the pics) and 1 #7 DMM walnut for a sketcky 30 ft section that required a rappel. Other than that, it went well with the rack listed at the link below. Mike D and I started at 9am at the Difficult Run parking lot, started climbing at around 10am, finished climbing around 4pm, and were back at the cars by 5pm. Long day. This thing gets the Grade III rating for sure for time and for 1200 ft of climbing.
I've created the Echo Rock Mountain Project page with the route info listed. I've also drawn a topo of the route, but it's 4 8x11 pages wide and I should recreate it digitally. As soon as I get that done, I'll post it.
Pics here
Winter ascent next?
Pics here
Winter ascent next?
