Ticked another box on my to-do list: climbed Junior’s Farm on Monday, a little gem that a friend established recently. It’s remoteness will likely keep most of the crowds away for now - until more lines like this get established nearby (and there is so much potential!).
Mountain Project is the best source for beta for climbing in Clallam County, and it describes this route as 8 pitches. But I add the 4th class and 3rd class traverses as “pitch” worthy and deserve to be included in the count.
The Drive. Tyler Peak is located about an hour’s drive south of Sequim. I entered the exact pin coordinates from Mountain Project onto my phone’s map app and it took us right to the place. But contrary to the MP description, road 2870 never became 2860. At least, at the spur turnoff 1.2 miles from the end of the driving it was still labeled 2870. The spur road (270) isn’t labeled at all, so if you’ve saved that pin like we did, just know it is 1.2 miles from the end of the drive.
The Hike. 5 minutes from the car. You could potentially harness up at the car and never need a large pack. MP was spot on, and a great climbers trail is visible at the road’s edge. The trail leads right to the start.
The Gear. 11 quickdraws. We carried 10 + 2 “alpine draws”, but really only needed 1 alpine draw to occasional extend a clip and reduce rope drag. Almost every anchor is a pair of vertically placed bolts equalized with chain and a 20kn rap ring that’s excellent to use as a master point. We carried 3 cams and 4 stoppers in case the 4th class traverse (Pitch 5) required them, but didn’t feel they were necessary, and I wouldn’t bring them again.
This is just 50’ further up the road from the parked car. All but Pitches 1 and 2 are visible. The middle orange line is the 4th class traverse that I insist on calling Pitch 5, and the upper orange is the 3rd class traverse I call Pitch 7. Mountain Project doesn’t count these two pitches in their pitch count (watch out for that).
The Climb. Pitch 1, an older bolted line, seemed the crux to me. It is a consistently steep 5.8+, and more sparsely bolted than the rest of the route. There are three possible anchors - the original and top-rope anchors are lowest, the middle set is 20’ higher before the cliff rounds back into dirt and grass, and a third anchor is on the next wall, about 20’ back from the edge. A short bit of fixed rope helps move through the transition from rock to dirt. Pitch 2 starts 20’ to the right. NOTE: If you’re bailing from this grassy ledge, you’ll want to rappel twice - first from the high anchor to the low anchor, then the low anchor to the ground. From the high anchor to the ground is +40m.
Pitch 2 also had a short bump over to the anchors beginning Pitch 3.
Pitch 3 and 4 are straightforward fun. At the end of Pitch 4, I continued to the first bolt of Pitch 5, which was much more comfortable.
The top of Pitch 4. Kirah’s actually at the anchor - I chose to continue to the first bolt of the 4th class traverse because the ledge was more comfortable.
Pitch 5 is the 4th class traverse described in MP but not given a pitch count. When you finish Pitch 4, there are three fixed lines currently - a bail-out line left leading down out of sight, a straight fixed line directly in front of you, and a third fixed line traversing right. Take the right-hand line. I felt the bolting was appropriate for an exposed 4th class traverse, and we actually pitched this out rather than bother with coiling a rope.
Pitch 7 is more fun, leading to the second traverse. This is not bolted/fixed, but 35m of 3rd class climbing to the base of the crux pitch (Pitch 6 in the MP description). Again, we opted to pitch it out rather than mess around with the rope.
Pitch 8 is the second 5.8+ pitch, 10 bolts, ending at a hanging stance. Nice pictures!
Kirah just clearing the crux on Pitch 8. This is Pitch 6 in Mountain Project. Steep! The belay is a hanging stance, and there is a directional protection bolt immediately up and to the right of the anchor.
Pitch 10 has two choices. You can stop at the anchor, or you can continue into the trees. But to return to the anchor from the trees requires either rappelling off of a tree or down climbing 4th class terrain. And the ledge at the bottom of Pitch 10 is huge, so we opted to “sport-rope” the pitch - one of us climbed, lowered, and then the second climbed and lowered. Then we drank the rest of our water, changed into our approach shoes, and began our rappels: a strategy I strongly recommend..
The Down. All of the rappels can be accomplished with a 60m rope. Pitch 9/8 (Rappels 1 & 2) can be linked andrappelled in a full stretch 35m if you have a 70m rope. We did.
The next rappel leaves the route (#3) and follows a ramp and hugs the wall down and climber’s right for 30m.
Rappel #4 heads straight down, fall line. Look for the anchor to climbers left.
Rappel #5 is NOT STRAIGHT DOWN, but to the right over a slight rib and into the next “gully”. This is the “Somewhat hidden” anchor described in MP. DO NOT head for the big tree down and to the left - this is the wrong “gully”! GO CLIMBER’S RIGHT before the cliff steepens!
Rappel #6 continues down the gully.
Rappel #7 station is at the end of the gully, to the climber’s right.
Rappel #7 trends left, following the water-cleaned rock from the gully to the ground and a steep trail that will lead you back to the start of the climb in just a few minutes.
My rappel notes, jotted down at dinner that day. The numbers correspond with the written description above.
Rappel “tat” left by teams who missed the #5 rappel.