The ominous route on which two people died about two years ago. This really
wasn't too tough, although because there has been some rockfall at the crux
in the last few years, it may be harder than 10a. Maybe more like 10b. It felt
a little harder than Super Pooper to me, and I had to hang briefly at the
first crux to figure out a workable sequence. Basically, both cruxes involved
a few bits of magic to get one's feet up high; tricky, but not too bad, with
very good pro everywhere. Out of superstitiousness or paranoia, I placed
something like four pieces of pro in about twenty feet right before the first
crux, even though I knew that the two people who died on this route fell from
one of the later pitches. As we climbed, Aaron and I both tried to imagine how
and where it might have happened. I had read all the details I could find on
the internet when it first happened, and later in Rock and Ice, but no one
ever figured out exactly what went wrong. Having now climbed the route myself,
I am fairly convinced that they had an anchor failure due to a factor two fall
on the very last pitch. There are two options for this last pitch: either go
left to finish on White Maiden's Walkaway (really easy) or go right to finish
on Super Pooper (significantly harder). Perhaps their leader took the left
option, didn't place any pro because it was so easy, but somehow fell; or
maybe he took the right option, didn't place any pro because he couldn't find
any (it looked runout to me), and then fell. Either way, I could certainly see
how they might have set a bad anchor before this pitch. There was a nice
little alcove that would feel secure to sit in, and there was at least one big
block that was completely detached, which you could probably place gear under
if you weren't careful. I'm pretty sure this is where their anchor blew. It's
sad, but it reminds me to always be especially careful when building anchors,
even if you think the chances of a bad fall are really unlikely.