| Report Type | Full |
| Peak(s) |
The Citadel - 6100 |
| Date Posted | 04/10/2018 |
| Modified | 04/12/2018 |
| Date Climbed | 04/08/2018 |
| Author | Furthermore |
| Returning For More Mud Mayhem: The Citadel |
|---|
The CitadelApril 6-8, 2018 TH: Onion Creek (High Clearance) Max difficulty: 5.9 A3/A3+ via The Forrest/Briggs Indirect (The Mugacki Variation) sandbagged at 5.3 A2+.  It only took 2.5 years for my anxiety of climbing in the Mystery Towers to pass after Gothic Nightmare. Davids' accident, terrible bolts, missing bolts and horrendous rappeling experiences had me wondering why I would want to return. The summit allures. After some enjoyable days climbing at Shelf with Noah, we discussed a plan for returning to The Citadel. An itinerary was set into motion and we made the familiar drive to Onion Creek on Thursday where we met up with our other partners, friends of Noah's, Stanley and Yasik. We woke up and started the long approach up Onion Creek just before daylight broke over the towering sandstone walls of the canyon. Our heavy packs full of iron and ropes made the approach feel especially long. Yaski, Stanley and Noah on the approach.  Passing the Aliens, two smaller towers, The Citadel towered and teased us as we scrambled to the base. The Citadel is one badass MoFo. I was slated to lead the first 70 foot pitch. The Aliens (taken on sunny day 3).  Organizing gear at the base.  Citadel  Once I inspected the start, the first pitch didn't look as inspiring or as easy as I had imagined or hoped. The climb started with a free climbing, chossy, muddy traverse to a beak seam. If the first piece blew, I was already looking at a 20 foot ground fall. Hesitantly, I walked the dirty ledge and hammered my first of several peckers. I placed them more frequently than I would have normally, just to avoid hitting the ground if they decided to blow. Starting pitch 1. Is that the vein of fear in my neck? Gosh, I didn't think it was going to show like that. (Photo by Noah)  A few decent peckers with shaky pins guided me to an eloquently, mud filled, clean aid crack. The first 40 feet took an hour while the next 20 feet took 5-10 minutes. In the back of my mind, I said,''wow, this is actually quite fun.'' I felt fortunate to have a bomber cam to start my tension traverse to another beak seam. Once I tensioned traversed, I started swearing to myself. The fun was over. High on pitch 1. (Photo by Noah)  Starting up the next mud seam involved some serious mudfuckery. A half body weight, pika toucan buried in mud, equalized off a just-as-shitty #1 pecker allowed me to get my next, marginal-at-best pecker. Any piece blowing at this point wouldn't result in a massive fall but rather a bloody, road rash inducing 20-30 foot pendulum across rough sandstone and mud. More beaks guided me upward. The #1 Pecker (Photo by Noah)  I love Pika Toucans. (Photo by Noah)  That's a good #3 pecker. Look it doesn't even need a screamer! (Photo by Noah)  Just after the tension on pitch 1. (Photo by Noah)  After two ''great'' #3 pecker placements, I felt good enough to descend and alleviate the rope drag caused by the traverse. If any of the beaks blew at this point, I was looking at taking a massive, nasty fall. The seam started to widen, thus ending my peckers leading to small iron placements. I installed a baby angle pin and started pulling upward. When it was finally fully weighted, at that moment, I felt a drop as the pin shifted. Somehow the mud held the pin in place as I quickly started pounding in a longer, fatter Lost Arrow. The seam corroded away as I hammered the fattest Lost Arrow I had on my rack. The only option at that point was to start stacking a Knife Blade piton in hopes that the baby angle wasn't going to blow. I should have hammered one of my favorites in the mud instead; a z-pin. Stacking iron. (Photo by Noah)  Once I was weighting the stacked pins, I was relieved. A few more placements led me to ''good'' cam placements which guided me to the anchor. I was glad my lead was over. Now it was time for Noah to start conquering the long, super mud coated, rope-stretching 190 foot second pitch. Aid anchors. Any idea what's going on? Because I have no idea.  Doesn't Noah look excited for his lead?  His pitch started with plenty of mud excavating to get good cams. As he disappeared around a mud curtain, his mud jingus began. There was no solid rock as it was a several foot think mud curtain. Too much excavating would result in the loss of a placement. Tent style placed angles didn't work so he placed large cams in the mud holes and hoped for the best as the cam flexed in the dried mud. After the mud traverse, beaks led him to a good enough anchor to break his long pitch into two leads. Now it was Stanley's lead. Starting up pitch 2.  Looking down on pitch 2. (Photo by Noah)  Mud.....  The mud curtain traverse on pitch 2 (taken on day 2 jug).  Due to timing, Stanley started his jug up to Noah's high point two hours before dark. Spectres and peckers led him upward. Darkness settled as Stanley took 3-4 hours on his lead. The black night prevented him from finishing the long second pitch as he stopped 40 feet short of pitch 2 anchors. Yasik and Stanley at the pitch 1 belay anchors  Stanley leading on pitch 2. (Photo by Noah)  Nothing like a little night climbing.  I decided to bivy at the base of the route so we could get an early start and finish the second pitch. Just after first light Noah nudged me awake badgering us to finish Stanley's half of the pitch; we weren't sure where Stanley or Yasik were. We jugged to Stanley's high point which was the base of a fluted mud funnel. I tried my best to remain out of the constant bombardment of mud and sand as Noah climbed toward a notch. Cleaning/jugging pitch 2. (Photo by Noah)  Confidence inspiring hardware.  The route wasn't obvious due to a missing bolt. A few poorly placed spectres protected Noah's free climbing out of the notch where a bolt â‘ not a very good one â‘ was located on the other side of the ridge out of view. More free climbing up the notch led him to the hole from a bolt that fell out on the last ascent. Noah backed up the missing bolt with a #2 pecker in the bolt hole. He continued by committing to a scary mantle where his foot blew out just as he finished the move leading him to the anchor. It seems every mantle in the Mystery Towers is a ''Mantle of Doom.'' A good spectre.  I'd whip on that....  No bolt. No problem. How about a #2 pecker!  That's what I would call ''clean'' aid.  Maybe not so good spectre.... #notenoughscreamers  Noah prefers these when he free climbs.  Bolt hole.....  The actual missing bolt! Photo happily stolen from Paul Ganger's Instagram.  Our leads were completed and it was time for Yasik and Stanley to finish the tower. We only had 160 feet left with two pitches. Yasik took the lead and started scooting across a knife ridge of loose dirt and mud. Being short (~5'4''?), Yasik couldn't reach the first bolt standing on the mud ledge. Yasik, having completed over 600 pitches of aid in Yosemite, was stubborn and refused to utilize a stick clip. Instead, he tried several times to place a #1 pecker on a shallow divot. I was scared watching him step on the #1 pecker. If it had failed it would have resulted in a massive factor 2 fall onto our anchor. We got lucky and he was able to clip to the bolt before the pecker failed.  Yasik jugging to Stanley's high point. (Bolts are from the Forrest/Briggs lower pitches which we didn't climb) A questionable bolt ladder along with occasional pecker placements led him to the ''Double Exposure Ledge'' at the top of pitch 3. Since the pitch 3 belay was in such an awful position, Yasik continued linking pitch 4. The forecasted weather had predicted large amounts rain but the weather was holding out. There was no reason to stop short. Returning to aid on wet mud is far from a good idea. It's better to cut well-refrigerated cold butter with a dull knife (dry mud) rather than cut through butter that's been sitting out at room temperature for a day with a good knife (wet mud). Yasik preparing for pitch 3.  Mud saddle.  #1 Pecker to reach bolts. I'm glad I'm 5'10''  Yasik working up pitch 3.  Stanley jugging to the top of pitch 2.  Anchor bolts....  Does Home Depot sell these? Approved for climbing right?  Pitch 3 bolts.  Yasik finishing pitch 3. (Photo by Noah)  The crux of pitch 4 was a section of mud holes which took Yasik some time to work up through. When he reached the summit, he had been leading for close to 6 hours. To the west, the skies were darkening and the rain was incoming. Noah rappeled down from the top of pitch 2, Stanley cleaned pitch 3 & 4 and Yasik fixed lines from the summit. Noah and I would have to return in better weather for the summit. At least the stress of getting to the summit was over. All we had to do was jug. Yasik contemplating the linkup of pitches.  Yasik high on pitch 4.  No summit for me. But at least I can carry some iron out. Gothic Nightmare in the background.  As we drove to Moab, canyons were flash flooding and waterfalls tumbled off the cliffs near UT128. We spent the night in Moab and woke up early due to high forecasted wind. The jug was uneventful, the summit was amazing and the descent was a non-event. For the first time in long time, we completed a climb without some sort of nightmarish hiccup. I'm already planning for a return. I can't wait to get back. Jugging pitch 4. Noah at the top of pitch 2.  Summit shadow.  Noah jugging pitch 3.  Noah jugging pitch 4.  Gothic Nightmare and The Citadel. (Photo by Noah)  Gothic Nightmare from the summit of The Citadel. (Photo by Noah)  Rappelling from the summit. (Photo by Noah)  The Citadel. One bad MoFo. It was mentioned I should add this for reference. 
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow): 
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