I’ve learned to always say yes when I get the opportunity to adventure with Cass. Any adventure with Cass is probably going to involve some pretty chossy rock and scary climbing, but it always proves to be a memorable and rewarding experience. So when Cass hit me up about trying to do a FA of a line he had spotted in the San Rafael Swell I immediately agreed.
We drove down late Friday evening and settled in for a cold night of sleep. The next morning we awoke to overcast skies but temperatures that seemed reasonable for climbing in. Now with daylight, Cass pointed out the feature that he wanted to climb, Mother Hubbard’s Shoe. This obscure butte lies just to the north of the more popular Window Blind Peak. There is some history of climbing on the feature, but the long approach and poor rock seems to have kept the crowds at bay.
The approach was long, taking about 45 minutes to walk through the wash to the base of the formations, and then another 20 minutes to make our way up the steep talus and through the short cliff band that guards the upper mesa between Window Blind and Mother Hubbard. There was at least plentiful distractions in the form of interesting boulders and far off faces. I had always spent prior trips to the Swell in more popular areas so it was fun to wander deep into the desert and get the experience a bit of the wildness the Swell is known for.
Gaining the upper bench we finally got our first good view of the face that Cass hoped to climb. The bottom quarter of the face was beautifully varnished but above that lay an expanse of light colored rock spattered with rounded features and massive huecos, good indicators of poor rock quality. We spent a bit assessing the face and decided to try to climb the obvious gash up the middle of it. The gaping chimney system looked intimidating, but the first pitch splitter looked amazing and we figured we might find protectable climbing higher up in the back of the chimney.
As we approached the base of the face we grew even more excited about the line we had chosen. The opening crack looked like something straight out of Indian Creek, gently overhanging with great looking rock. The terrain above remained hard to read but the gaping maw of rock appeared almost cave-like and definitely motivated us to explore.
We got to the base at 11:30am. We quickly organized our gear and were ready to blast off. Cass was nice enough to gift me the first pitch so I racked up and set off up the unclimbed crack. The climbing was shockingly high quality. Not totally devoid of sand and some choss, but mostly great jams on very good rock. I made my way up the slightly overhanging hand crack and fought through the widening crack for a burly exit over the upper bulge. Squeezing up the final section I couldn’t believe what I saw. The crack transformed into a chockstone filled cavern that probably continued back into the mountain around 20 feet. I made my way to the back of the cavern, gingerly stepping across the jammed pile of rocks, and built an anchor and brought Cass up.
Once Cass joined me at the top of the pitch we strategized next moves. There was a slot in the back of the cavern that looked large enough to squeeze through so we decided to move the belay to the back where I would be nicely sheltered from any rocks he dislodged leading the next pitch. I handed over the rack to Cass and watched as Cass slithered through the hole in the cavern’s roof and disappeared from view.
I settled in to my cozy spot and slowly fed out slack whenever the rope came tight. The protected belay spot ended up proving to be essential; every few minutes I would hear a crash of rocks and dust would trickle down into the cavern. I couldn’t see what was happening (and didn’t dare poke my head up into the opening to check) but I could tell Cass was battling some serious choss. Eventually after 45 minutes I heard Cass yell down faintly that he was off belay.
It was my turn to crawl through the opening and I emerged into a large alcove and got my first look at the terrain above. The rock looked absolutely horrendous and Cass had only managed to get a couple pieces in, one of which had wiggled out on its own and was hanging on the rope. Cass yelled down that there were some extremely loose blocks in the upper part of the pitch that he had had to climb around. They were so loose that he had decided to hold off hauling our bag all the way to him for fear of dislodging one of the blocks and slicing the rope.
I made my way up the sandy and wide lower chimney and stepped gingerly left onto the ramp leading to the upper part of the pitch. Even though I was on top rope the menacing guillotine blocks above my head had me treading extremely lightly out of fear that I would somehow weight the rope and it would dislodge one of the blocks. I wormed my way up the chimney until I got to the blocks and then held my breath as I inched past. I joined Cass at his anchor, a bit frightened but mostly just impressed at what must have been a super heady lead.
Above us the chimney system pinched down in the back forming a steep overhanging bulge. Luckily there was a reasonable sized crack leading around the right side of it and I was able to quickly lead over it. Above the bulge I came across another massive alcove/amphitheater formed by a widening in the chimney system. Even though I had only been leading for about 25 feet, the terrain above looked extremely complex and I was standing on a nice sloping ledge so I threw together a little belay and decided to bring Cass up.
When Cass joined me we talked through options. The chimney system above looked pretty messed up, borderline impassable so we decided to see if there were any other options. Cass traversed out right along the sloping ledge to see what he could find.
He located a rotten but featured corner system that lead upwards out of view. In many ways it felt less crazy than the overhanging caving that seemed to be awaiting us straight up, but the climbing seemed exposed and scary with the brittle rock and we weren’t sure if the system would connect to anything higher up.
By now it was 2pm which meant we only had a few more hours of daylight. Cass decided he would rather at least explore the main chimney system to see if it would be feasible to take to the top. I couldn’t believe he was signing up for more wide climbing after his previous lead but he truly loves this stuff.
The start of the pitch was mud crawling at its finest. It seemed as if Cass could almost kick steps into the rock if he wanted to.
He soon made it through the opening squeeze and into another large alcove. From his higher stance he was able to confirm what we had suspected below. The massive overhanging offwidth formed by the roof of the cavern looked impossible with the equipment and time we had. The shape of the chimney in the back wasn’t conducive to climbing, and even if Cass managed to get through that he would still have to navigate the unprotectable bombay squeeze above it. He decided to downclimb back to the belay so we could bail.
We had brought a bolt kit so we set about drilling an anchor to rap off of. A video of our extremely janky anchor is below.
For reasons we couldn’t explain the hand drilling took forever. Cass’s drill bit likely wasn’t the sharpest but it also didn’t look terribly dull. The first few centimeters of each hole went quickly but then progress would slow to a crawl. Despite the soft rock it still took us almost an hour and a half to get the first anchor in.
By now it was 3:45pm and we could tell a cold night was just around the corner. Our slow drilling helped confirm that we had no regrets turning around before reaching the summit. Cass rapped first and was able to dislodge the loosest block in the chimney below, the loud crashes echoing across the desert walls as it exploded down the chimney. This pitch would probably feel quite a bit safer to lead without that block (although it’s certainly no Yosemite chimney).
We were able to make it back to the alcove atop the first pitch and we drilled another two bolt anchor at the mouth of the alcove to facilitate rope pull and make it possible to climb just the first pitch. By the time we finished this anchor (another egregiously slow process) it was dark so we pulled out headlamps for the final rappel. Unfortunately our tagline got stuck deep in the crack near the bottom of the pitch and we had to chop the last five meters and leave it behind. We finally made it down to bags and started down the long hike out to the car.
The next day we took a closer look at the photos I had taken while approaching the face. Zooming in on the face to the right of the rock we noticed a promising looking crack just to the right of the corner we had contemplated trying to climb. It’s hard to tell with 100% certainty, but the photo makes it look like you could traverse back into the main crack system at the top of this crack via a low angle bench. It definitely looks promising enough to have us dream of returning to take it to the top.
Who knows if we will ever get back to finish this climb up, and who knows if anyone will ever get on it; its quality certainty doesn’t warrant the hike up. But the first pitch is quite good and the second pitch has a unique ambiance being buried deep inside the massive chasm. It’s certainly fun to get a small taste of the wild and remote climbing the Swell is known for. And always a dream to get another choss adventure with Cass.
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