The Awakening Wall (Sawed Off Heads Variation)

 It was on my first multi pitch trad route 2 years ago that I found myself in the presence of this great wall. Not on the actual route, but on a smaller, more simple feature just in front of it. My partner Brendan was guiding me up No Sweat Arete on a cold day in October. I was new to multi pitch climbing and very new to trad. I couldn't help but feel a sense of curiosity and slight fear when I gazed at the massive wall looming over us. Hanging off the anchor Brendan had built, I belayed him up the route, all while wondering about the giant wall just right next to us. When I climbed up to the next anchor and, out of fear, turned down the opportunity to lead the very easy last pitch on the route, I asked Brendan about the wall next to us. “Oh yeah that's the Awakening Wall” he told me. “Damn that looks wild” I probably responded with, as this was two years ago. We topped out the route and I took one last good look at the giant wall before beginning the walk off back to the creek. 

The Awakening wall 

  

Two years later I found myself again in the presence of this beast, but this time not to climb No Sweat Arete. This time it was to greet the beast, and ride it all the way to the top. I had been talking about trying this route for a while this summer until one of my co-workers at the UM outdoors programs, Livi, proposed we climb it on the coming weekend. Livi is perhaps one of the strongest and most competent climbers I know in Missoula, so when she proposed we climb it I jumped on the opportunity. Her and I drove out to Mill creek that morning with every piece of gear I own and marched to the base of the wall. I explained that I was still breaking into the 5.10 grade and she told me that this was a great route to do so. The route itself is 10 pitches and goes at 5.10+, however there is a variation to the Awakening Wall proper called the “Sawed Off Heads Variation,” which avoids the crux pitch of the proper route. The variation has two pitches of 5.10 and then links up with the rest of the route making it 8 or 9 pitches depending if you link the last 2. Livi had climbed it the previous spring and she knew what to expect. I, on the other hand, was quite anxious. There was one feature in particular that had me awake the night before thinking about it. The previous week, on a reconnaissance, I spotted what appeared to be a massive roof on what looked to be the 3rd or 4th pitch of the sawed off heads variation. It looked quite wide and the rock below it looked featureless. I laid awake imagining trying to climb that feature, and having to bail off of it or having to ascend the rope because I simply couldn't climb it. 

Looking up the beast 

We discussed that we would swap leads and that I would lead evens and Livi would lead odds. She racked up and set off on the 1st pitch. Like almost all the routes in Mill Creek, the lower pitches are usually R rated and either can't be protected, or follow loose choss to better rock. We had a hiccup on our route finding skills which led to Livi down climbing a little ways and then getting on the easier looking terrain to the left of us. She cruised up the choss and quickly after, I was being belayed up. 

Livi on P1

From the top of p1 you either punch it straight up to continue the direct route, or you veer off right to the variation. I racked up and then climbed off over very easy but dirty terrain. Soon I was at the next anchor, looking up at the Sawed Off Heads dihedral. I belayed Livi over to me and she quickly racked up and began up the first pitch of the variation. This pitch from the bottom looked quite fun but as I looked up it I realized that the big roof I dreamed about was not too far ahead. In fact it looked as if it were on the next pitch up, the one I would be leading. 

Livi on p3

She quickly made it to the anchors and started belaying me up. The climbing was good. Really good. On top of the bomber crack climbing, all over the dihedral were little face holds, and small ledges that worked great as foot holds. Before I knew it I was at the anchor staring up at the roof looking down on us. 

“Do you remember this roof being hard?” I asked livi 

“Yea it was a little tricky,” she said. “But I also had a backpack on, so it might have seemed harder.” 

“Cool.” I nervously said

“You got this.” 

I racked up and unclipped my personal from the anchor, ready to set off and face whatever this pitch threw at me. I was feeling calm and the quality of the first pitch had me excited for more. Right off the anchor I placed a piece and then committed to what felt like a boulder problem to get into the main dihedral crack system. Some excellent crack climbing led me just to right below the roof. I, out of intimidation of tackling the roof, placed a #4 and did not extend it. I just clipped it right to the cam, which I will never do again. I then placed a #3 and also clipped it right to the cam. After placing more than enough pro in this thing I took a step up and began my traverse under the roof. 

“Yea Nate!” I heard Livi yell from below me 

I was grabbing the edge of the crack under the roof and walking my feet along a very good edge that ran below it. It felt incredible and I realized that this roof problem wasn't as hard as it looked, just an all around great feature of the pitch. In my head I was imagining I looked like Cedar Wright leading that wild roof in Yosemite, however I’m sure it was not quite that awesome. 

Cedar Wright climbing the Gravity Ceiling 5.13a in Yosemite photo by Jimmy Chin

I pulled around the roof into an offwidth dihedral and was really wishing I had put an extended double length on those cams but then was really wishing that I hadn’t placed that #4 at all. Looking up at the off width dihedral ahead I realized I had no gear to place. Looking around, it appeared that my next option was 15 feet up in an alcove just below the anchor. 

“Ah fuck” I wispered to myself. 

Trying not to think of the whip I took leading an offwidth pitch in Utah a year prior, I tried to calm myself and look for a way up. 

“C’mon Nate, you can do this” I kept telling myself. 

As I slowly moved up the rope tried its hardest to pull me back down. 

“Why the fuck didnt I extend those” 

Resisting the rope-drag and trying my hardest to pull it up with me, I inched up the oddwidth, using the array of face holds, and small edges on the other side of the dihedral. Finally I made it to the alcove and placed a cam avoiding a 40 foot fall and swing into the rock face below me. I then made the final couple of moves and was clipped into the anchors. 

“Livi off belay!” I screamed down to her. 

“You're Off!” 

Looking down from the anchor

I started trying to haul the rope up but the rope drag was too much for me to pull without it getting yanked back down every time I pulled. I had to instead redirect my rope through a micro trax that I clipped to the anchor and haul it up that way. After a very long rope haul I finally heard Livi yell up from below me. 

“Nate, that's me!”

I put her on belay and yelled back down to her. It did not take Livi long to climb this pitch, and before I knew it she was at the hanging belay with me racking gear for the next pitch. 

“Nice work” I told her. “You flew up that!” 

“Thanks, yea nice lead.” 

Climbing with Livi is fast and efficient, which I liked. I realized that when I climb with others we spend a lot of time at anchors talking about the pitch and various other things, which is not a bad thing however it does eat up a lot of time. 

Livi started the 5th pitch, which started with a wild looking move up a wide crack to a big ledge. I watched her do these first moves and then she was out of sight. I was now just hanging in space watching rope flow through my grigri. This was definitely the most “hanging belay” I had ever been on and after a while the exposure started to make me feel uneasy. I was hanging there too for what felt like a very long time which was strange because I figured that she would cruise to the next anchors. 

Hanging belay

The rope stopped flowing for a while and then began rapidly flowing through my grigri. I was waiting to hear her yell down that she was off belay, but heard nothing so I just kept feeding her slack. Once It was at the very end of the rope I said fuck it an took her off belay, assiming that she was at the next anchors. I screamed up to her,

“That's me!” 

I heard nothing in response, so I waited for a little bit before disassembling the anchor and beginning to climb.

“Climbing!” I screamed up.

I started to head up and was greeted with a rather challenging first move. I had to pretty much lie-back on this wide crack and walk myself up by stemming my feet out to the just next to the crack. This tough move was over pretty quick and I found myself on easier terrain for a little bit until I came to a section of very loose chossy blocks. The climbing here was quite delicate and a couple times I was standing on blocks that I was not too sure about trusting. It reminded me of climbing in Glacier. I came around the loose blocks and saw Livi standing on a nice belay ledge at the anchor. 

“Jeez that was a strange pitch” I said to her. 

“I know right, that part was so loose.” 

Once I got to the anchor we looked at the route topo and determined that we were just below the 7th pitch, the one that starts with the “mondo flake”. However for us, this was the start of our 6th pitch because we took the Sawed off Heads Variation. This pitch starts with a really cool looking flake that has a bolt towards the top of it. I racked up and began up this flake, using the edge of the flake to pull on and my feet and leg to wedge myself in there. Slowly I inched up towards the bot and clipped to it an extended single length draw. From here I climbed up a little more and then followed a bolt line out left. The climbing at this point had turned to face climbing and was quite fun! It wasn't until I got about 10 feet above the last bolt I started to feel a little nervous. I looked around for options and saw a very thin seam that went straight up to what looked like the next belay ledge. I saw several edges I could use and just slightly further up I saw some small looking pods for places I could put gear in. I was nervous to go any higher and began to get in my head about how far above the bolt I was. 

“Just make a move,” I said to myself.

I took a step up and found good feet and a good small edge to grab. After a couple more moves I realized I was significantly far above the last bolt and was reminded of being on a different route in Mill Creek a year earlier called Chicken and Doughnuts where I first felt what it was like to be truly run out. Using one of the pods in the thin seam I held myself up while trying to find a small piece to put into the pod just a little higher up. I found a Metolius 2 that I was able to jam in just enough to give me the confidence to continue. After placing this it was one move after the other. I was dancing my way up using the great crimps and ledges along the way until I came over the edge and saw the bolted anchors.

“Good god,” I said as I crawled over the edge with sweat dripping into my eyes. 

Looking at the standard top out of No Sweat Arete from the bleay ledge

I built my anchor, yelled down to Livi and put her on belay. She was quickly on the belay ledge racking up to lead the next pitch. The next pitch started up onto a small ledge and then up a small seam that led to a flake feature which you could stand on. II watched as she made the first tricky looking moves up and onto the flake that seemed even tricker to protect. From there she started making her way up and right till she was out of sight. Soon the rope stopped flowing and I heard her yell down to me letting me know I could take her off belay. 

Livi leading up the p8

I was excited to be close to done as by this point my arms had begun cramping whenever I would pull too hard on something. This was probably because I had eaten relatively no food on this climb and certainly had not drunk enough water. It was also, at this point, close to 2pm and the sun was relentless on the south facing wall we were on. 

“Nate you're on bleay!” 

I started up the thin seam trying my best not to pull too hard on any move and have my arms cramp up. This climbing was quite hard, but I found it very fun! I pulled a tricky couple of moves to get on top of the small flake, which ended up being not the best ledge to stand on and then continued following the interesting climbing up sort of blocky terrain, and onto the next belay ledge. I looked up at the next pitch, which was mine to lead. It was a flat face with several cracks like lightning bolts that struck up the face. The cracks looked like hand cracks and all led to a couple of small roofs with smaller looking cracks above it. It looked hard.

“Jeez” I said 

“This looks hard.” 

Knowing I was quite worked physically and pretty worked mentally, I had my doubts about being able to confidently lead this last pitch and take us to the top. I looked at Livi and asked her, 

“Would you want to lead this?” 

She looked up at it and then said, 

“I would be psyched to lead this.” 

She racked up and began up the final pitch. She made her way up the lower hand cracks and placed a couple pieces before coming to the first roof. Stopping there she placed another piece and pulled the roof into the thin looking cracks and progressed up thin cracks towards the next crux roof. 

Livi negotiating p9

“Nice work Livi” I said to her as she pulled some tedious moves and was then right in the roof looking for a way over. 

“C’mon Livi” 

She placed a piece above the roof, reached high up and then with some good footwork and a hard pull she was over the crux roof. 

“Yea Livi, nice work!” 

“That was so fun!” She responded with. 

From there she kept moving up and then was out of sight. During this time I really took in the views from where I was. The top out of No Sweat Arete was far below us now and I couldn't help but reminisce about the first time I climbed that with Brendan. I thought I was on top of the world. Soon I heard a faint shout down to me, so I took her off belay and waited for the rope to pull tight on me. 

“Climbing!” I screamed up to Livi. 

This was it, the final pitch. I stared up the more mellow climbing lower on the face and followed up a nice hand crack for a ways until the first roof. This one was tricky to pull but not impossible. I found a good finger crack and some good foot placements and pulled myself over. This is where it got tricky. The cracks thinned and the edges for feet disappeared. I was using the thin finger cracks as foot holds to move upwards and after retrieving a few pieces she had placed I was at the crux roof. I retrieved the piece she had placed above the roof and started finding a solution. The feet were hard to find and the finger cracks were tough to work with. I reached really high and wedged my fingers in the seam above me. I then pulled on that seam and moved my feet slightly higher while looking around for the place I had seen Livi put her feet. I found a very good enough place and gave it all my trust, stepping up on it and pulling myself over the roof. Here I felt very insecure and kept on moving as fast as I could to get to a better stance. I pulled another piece out of the wall and followed the cracks to the arete where I found a great edge to pull on, allowing me to step around the arete and onto a small ledge. Once at the rest I looked up and was breath taken by the exposure.

exposure 

“Oh my god” I said to myself.

The "Proper top out of No Sweat" 

Below me was 1000 feet of vertical wall leading into a chute that separated No Sweat Arete from the rest of the wall. I could see the haze of the smoke faintly in the air making the scene much more dramatic. After carefully taking a photo or two I moved on and up the easier climbing to the final ledge and crack that led to the top out. Pulling over the edge I felt very glad to be off the route, and back on the ground. 

“Nice work Livi,” I said as I came up to the anchor.

“That pitch was insane, a really good lead.” 

“Thanks,” she said “That was really fun.”

“I'm very happy you led that,” I said. “I would have broken down if I had to lead that.” 

“Yea I’m glad I got to!” 

From here we packed up our stuff and walked down the canyon ridge back to the creek. We made it to the car around 4? (If my memory serves me right) So it was a lot packed into a relatively short day! I’m very excited I got to get on this route as it holds a classic status for the area and I would highly recommend for anyone into long rock routes to check this thing out. 

Thanks to Livi for climbing that day and for taking the last lead! And thanks to the FA party for envisioning this route!