Trip Report
A Tale of Choss and Chimney- The FFA of Hidden Chimney
Tuesday October 17, 2017 6:02pm
Howdy Supertaco! Had an excellent adventure up an ancient obscurity this weekend with Elliott Robinson. Some of you may know him- lover of all things wide and holy, willing to go up anything covered in moss, and if it involves a shiver bivy... he’s in. He came to me months ago with the idea to quest up Ribbon Falls to an old 1960’s Les Wilson obscurity- The Hidden Chimney 5.7 A2. With hopes of bagging the likely 2nd ascent, and FFA. All we had was a very vague description from an old guide book. Les Wilsons son was also kind enough to give us the limited beta that he had on the route.
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Credit: Rausch
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We got a late-ish start and didn’t make it to the base of Chockstone Chimney till around 10am. There’s a great trip report on here by LeBruce that helped us greatly with Chockstone. This route was previously graded A2 as well, and turned out to be 5.9. This gave us hope that Hidden Chimney would also go free at a grade that common mortals could climb.
If you’d like a detailed pitch by pitch of Chockstone, again see LeBruce’s post.
Looking up P2. Climbing through the bush was definitely the crux.
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Greasy off hands crack
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Elliott questing through chockstones
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At some point we got off route and exited the chimney system into another perhaps Lionheart? The right crack was flaring tight hands. Hardman Elliott opted for the brutal squeeze that felt hard 5.10 with a nice dirt covered sloper to mantel off of.
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Credit: Rausch
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The nails hard dirt mantle
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We were moving slow. Some of the route involved cool tunnel-throughs. Although the route is one giant chimney, route finding was not as easy as we hoped.
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It was getting later in the day and we soon realized there was no hope at getting to Hidden Chimney by nightfall. We had no bivy gear. Just puffys and backpacks. There was also no hope that Elliott would let me bail. So we topped out on Sherwood Forest, which to our dismay was much steeper than we had thought. This made finding a suitable shiver bivy ledge difficult. But we survived the night and woke up bright and early ready to find this ‘Hidden Chimney.’
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Credit: Rausch
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In the morning we began wandering up the terraces of Sherwood Forest, aiming for the large water streaked roof that overhangs the upper right edge. It was not a cake walk, and was very 5th class at times. We opted to rope up for it. Nearing the top edge of the forest, we looked left to find the massive Hidden Chimney, right where we expected it.
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The route begins on top of a small pillar. A difficult step right through a bush and into a few steep moves to gain the first chimney. 5.9
Looking up at the first chimney, and into the second. Many loose blocks. The first section felt cake, but the second chimney was a tight squeeze. Glad we had the #5.
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At the end of P1, the chimney ends with a hand crack filled with bushes, and a very polished and spicy step to the right. Crux of route.
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You then wander up some steep blocks with a bit of mandatory tree stemming 5.8. Belay at the start of the massive bombay chimney.
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The final chimney is steep, tight and intimidating. Luckily, the route does not go up. Forego all gear on your harness, re-tie your knot atleast a foot out, and hope all the yoga your wife made you go to will pay off. Squeeze sideways 100’ (walking) into the darkness, focusing on the pinhole of light at the end. The chimney narrows so tightly that even the slightest beer gut will not fit. Claw your way out of the abyss and into the daylight through what we dubbed, ‘The Rabbit Hole.’ This hole was caved in with dirt and rock when we found it, and required some serious excavation. Belay if you want.
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From here, wander up to the rim through a mix of 3rd, 5th and heavy manzanita thrashing. Run 5 minutes down to Ribbon Creek like madmen, and pray you don’t get giardia. For the descent, we opted for east ledges. We made it from the summit of Ribbon Falls and down East Ledges in 2 1/2 hours. Some girls in an RV were nice enough to hitchhike us back to the parking lot.

Double rack to #3, single 4 and 5. Never needed a 6 for either route.
Overall it was a truly excellent adventure route. Full value chimney thuggery and tree climbing to the rim. Perhaps Elliott will chime in with some more photos.

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  Trip Report Views: 3,517
Rausch
About the Author
Rausch is a trad climber from Monterey,CA.

Comments
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
  Oct 17, 2017 - 06:13pm PT
hey there say, Rausch... very VERY nice adventure! thanks for sharing, and please share more, when you can... :)
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
  Oct 17, 2017 - 06:35pm PT
Way cool - thanks for sharing.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
  Oct 17, 2017 - 07:06pm PT
very nice!
at least I don't have to do it now!!

camping at the top of Chockstone Chimney is consistent with our adventure up there.

Soloing Hidden Chimney might be possible, soloing the approach would definitely be hard azzz!
MH2

Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
  Oct 17, 2017 - 07:21pm PT
I liked seeing this. The bivouac photo is scary. Were you watching carefully for dinosaur eggs? I think I saw one in one of the photos.
Fuzzywuzzy

climber
suspendedhappynation
  Oct 17, 2017 - 08:40pm PT
Excellent!!!!

And look at that beautiful stone!!

Cool adventure. Character building!!
E Robinson

Trad climber
Salinas, CA
  Oct 17, 2017 - 08:44pm PT
Nice write up Max! It was the perfect adventureneering weekend. I always remembered Chockstone Chimney as one of my favorite routes from BITD. It still offers full value and I recommend it for anyone with an overactive imagination. But Hidden Chimney was something I couldn't find any records of having a repeat...and the write up in the old Roper Guide sounded incredible.

Hidden Chimney is definitely worthwhile for the adventureneering value and all the chimneys spark your inner 8 year old playing in door jams hanging out in stems...and what 8 year old doesn't love a good tunnel that ends with excavating a rabbit hole.

The exit from Hidden Chimney that takes you through a slot from one side of the flake/chimney/bowels of the cliff to the other and out a hole into sunlight. It's 100% organically orgasmic.

A must-do for the lovers of obscurity.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
  Oct 17, 2017 - 09:40pm PT
I'm 99% sure you will never do the route, Warbler, so why worry over a silly decimal point?

Just sayin', amigo.

I enjoyed this romp immensely, Rausch. Good choice for yur partner.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
  Oct 17, 2017 - 09:52pm PT
it's a long way to go to find out the climb is harder than you could do.

Far from most of the goings on in the Valley.

I'd appreciate a good ratings assessment to update the route description for a little project I'm working on with friends...
NutAgain!

Trad climber
https://nutagain.org
  Oct 17, 2017 - 10:01pm PT
Guys, I've got a broner. For a few years I lived in fear that someone else would unearth this super-secret mega-adventure plan that I was hoping to be the first of my generation to rediscover. I used to dream about having an epic and gloriously sharing my exploits on Supertopo :)

And then when le_bruce and I were going for it, spring water blocked the proper start to Chockstone Chimney and I nearly bought the farm trying an alternate start. By the time I healed up and had time for another round, I moved to SoCal and have done very little in the valley.

Nice to see someone else finding the gems!
le_bruce

climber
Oakland, CA
  Oct 17, 2017 - 11:29pm PT
^ I'm so glad you didn't die on that fall, Nut.

What a righteous TR, thanks for posting it up. Looks phenomenal, and like a perfect extension to the rim. Routes that punch up to the rim proper are in a category of their own. Boy did we want this one back then. Doing it with a shiver bivy seems fitting. Got this pic of the area around Sherwood this spring from the West Face, thinking it might be useful for the Hidden Chimney project some day.


When Mark and I went up the Chockstone Chimney, we topped out at, not sure, maybe 5 or 6? Didn't make it back to the bottom of the raps until about 10pm or so. Those raps from Sherwood were hairy, with some jingus hanging anchors. Danger meter definitely tingling during those raps. A jaunt over El Cap and down the East Ledges in 2:30 seems appealing in comparison.

My understanding of the 5.10 comment is that the fellas ended up off-route for a bit while on Chockstone Chimney (a 5.8 or 5.9 line and no harder) and might have accidentally ended up in the 5.10 territory of the neighboring Lionheart route. Don't think they were saying they found 5.10 climbing on the Hidden Chimney.

The TR is actually my partner's from that day, PellucidWombat, another sucker for Valley obscurities:

http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Chockstone-Chimney-with-LeBruce-Photo-TR/t12154n.html

Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
  Oct 17, 2017 - 11:45pm PT
Les Wilson's photo trip report from the FA in July 1963:
https://tinyurl.com/y7g2z9vs
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
  Oct 18, 2017 - 12:21am PT
you should have just followed the blue taped route. ;-)


thanks to you for bringing us along!
E Robinson

Trad climber
Salinas, CA
  Oct 18, 2017 - 06:02am PT
So Warbler...I live by the idea that if your not too concerned about where you are, you're never lost or off route. Climbing and belaying off one of the big chockstones in the Chockstone Chimney was irresistable...and from there it just looked interesting to head up the features in the next system to the right before heading back over to the main chimney...why not? But that section was on Chockstone Chimney, not Hidden Chimney...so it's not part of the Hidden Chimney ratings.

Clint thanks for the link to Les' write up...tried to find that before we went up.
10b4me

Social climber
Lida Junction
  Oct 18, 2017 - 07:08am PT
Looks like an adventure. Thanks for the tr.
Gary Carpenter

climber
SF Bay Area
  Oct 18, 2017 - 08:32am PT
Very bad ass.
Did you have enough water? When Ed and I did Chockstome we didn't bivy at
Sherwood cause we were about out of water and rapped in the dark.
Zander

climber
  Oct 18, 2017 - 08:36am PT
Oh Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Thanks.
Tom Patterson

Trad climber
Seattle
  Oct 18, 2017 - 08:53am PT
Great TR!

Call me crazy, but that actually looks pretty fun!
Rausch

Trad climber
Monterey,CA
Author's Reply  Oct 18, 2017 - 10:00am PT
Thanks for the kind words amigos. I’m but a young valley climber with a recent interest in obscurity climbing, mostly fueled by tales of Elliotts past.
We were very low on water, and ran out half way up Hidden the next day. Luckily ribbon creek was flowing.
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
  Oct 20, 2017 - 10:22am PT
Most very excellent! Noting like uncovering obscure jems that shine in our faces.

Great tour...
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
  Oct 20, 2017 - 11:56am PT
This has been my go to for a few days now,
thanks and way to get after it, any way that you do is fine but looking for the real climbs where
neither chalk or lines of other climbers are, is my choice to applaud

SALUTE!
Burnin' Oil

Trad climber
CA
  Oct 20, 2017 - 11:52am PT
Fantastic report - inspiring.
NutAgain!

Trad climber
https://nutagain.org
  Oct 20, 2017 - 05:49pm PT
Re-reading and appreciating this one.

Bump with a beta note for posterity... here is one reason to avoid spring... we couldn't get past this to reach the start of Chockstone. I lightened up the pic to see the person for scale:
Go