The weather forecast was looking like there’d be a weather window Saturday, perfect time to try Condorphamine Addiction! We woke up at 2:40 AM and started driving around 3:00 AM to get to the trailhead around 5:15 AM. It was seeming a bit chilly though, so we didn’t start hiking till 5:35 AM. Temps ended up being perfect!
The climb was really fun too! Just the perfect amount of challenging slab, and most of the pitches had some interesting moves with some holds that weren’t only slab! The approach and walk back is probably the only downside, otherwise it’s super awesome!
Key notes
- Communications are difficult when linking, couldn’t communicate from bottom to top of P3 (one pitch for us).
- Linking it all in 3 pitches is pretty great!
- Bring lots of alpines if linking (I think I had 7, could have used one or two more)
- 22 quickdraws is enough when linking, most you need is when linking P1-3.
- Two ropes for the rappel was worth it, rappelling in only 3 rappels was sweet!
- People seem to start hiking at 9:30-10 AM, we had it to ourselves starting so early!
- We didn’t see ANY ticks!
- Durations:
- 1:10 hr approach hike
- 2:10 hrs climbing
- 40 minutes rappelling (two ropes made it speedy!)
- 6:45 hrs car-to-car (chatted with a friend at the base for a while)
- Timeline:
- 5:35 AM – Started hiking
- 6:45 AM – Arrived at base (1:10 hr leisurely pace, it’s pretty steep though with a few class 3 little sections)
- 7:10 AM – Started climbing
- 9:20 AM – At top
- 11:20 PM – Walking back to car
- 12:20 PM – Back at car (57 min descent)
- Garmin ascent and descent track
Approach
The approach trail is easy to follow, but very steep with a couple class 3 sections. Quite a bit of deep and steep sand that you plunge step in on the way back down. My watch said +1,600 ft gain.
Finally the base!
Pitches 1-3 (195′)
We linked these as one long 200 ft pitch. I barely reached the anchor, right at the end of the rope!
The start 
End of P1, looking down 
Start of P2 
Midway up P2 
End of P2 
Start of P3 
End of P3
Pitches 4-5
These two are much shorter linking. Pitch 5 is the first crux pitch, but it’s super well bolted and involves some steeming moves, so I found it easier than P6. Thus, I found linking these two pitches worked well so I could start P6 close to the belay. I never really felt super far away from Alexis while climbing P5 either.
The crux moves for P5 only last for about 10-15 feet, and you can essentially always clip above you most of the time.
Start of P4 
End of P4 
Start of P5 
Just before P5 crux moves 
Looking up at P5 crux moves at the finish 
Just above some crux bits on P5 
End of P5 
End of P5, Alexis at the start of the crux moves
Pitches 6-7
I felt like P6 was the toughest… it had some really crimpy slabby moves, a few spots where I used my fingernails. But I surprisingly got it cleanly. It has one move where being around 5’10” or taller is helpful, Alexis couldn’t make that move unfortunately.
P7 is basically an easy walk to the top, definitely worth linking. This also was pretty short linked compared to the first pitch.
Top of P5 
Start of P6, steps around right and then up 
P6 just above really cruxy bit at the start 
Start of P7 
End of P7
Top!
The top has some really nice ledges to hang out on!
Descent
We rappelled the route in three rappels with two ropes (same linking as climbing up). That made it super enjoyable, 40 mins to the bottom. At the bottom, we ran into our friend Dan, who has done the descent gully, he said the descent gully isn’t bad, nothing memorably bad about it.
Here’s a photo looking at the start of the descent gully from the top…
While climbing and rappelling, we saw a goat hanging out in a small little cave all morning!
After we finished rappelling, we tried out the alternate start 5.10a… as we were doing that some climbers FINALLY arrived at about 10:30 at the base. People start late for this!
