The title of this trip report pays homage to perhaps the finest TR on this site- Woof/tahoe523's screed on The Crucifix: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1533364/If-you-like-finger-cracks-you-need-to-climb-the-Crucifix

As a supplicant beneath the Sierra Nevada's finest chunk of rock, the sunset reflected off of the the Hulk illuminates my hand drawn copy of Dave Nettle's topo. Over 8 pitches I see "5.11" 4 times, "thin" 4 times, and "5.11+ thin" once on the last pitch. A few days earlier my friend asked what my plan was- and I linked her to Tradewinds. She said "oooh a Nettle route. I hear that guy goes hard in the paint." Good thing I have been getting into good OW shape!


This season started off in a big way for toettch and I- climbing the NEB of HC and then a week later after being inspired by the aforementioned TR we returned for The Crucifix. Toettch also sent the Steck-Salathe via the Flying Buttress Direct start (not on purpose hahaha). And most recently our adventure up the Harding Route on Conness ( http://www.supertopo.com/tr/The-Psych-Must-Flow/t11544n.html ). I can assure you all, after uncounted meters of squeezing and off-widthing- the psych still flows! To me, the next most obvious route would have to be Tradewinds- don't you agree?

This was my 10th time out at the Hulk. The previous 9 I climbed one of the supertopo big 3- RD, PV, and SSD. Time to step up.

The 20% tstorms scared most away- the other party out there took a semi-bad fall on RD and bailed early- so we had the thing to ourselves on a Sunday. Racking up I marveled at the feeling of carrying nothing bigger than a single #3. A wise man once said "let's not supertopo the beta for this route" and I am inclined to agree- so I will do my best.

The first pitch is 11a thin, and involves some outrageously cool stemming sequences. I linked this through pitch 2 for 200' of spectacular climbing.



Pitch 3 flew by via 180 more feet of perfect 5.10 rock, and then toettch took over for the "11 thin" pitch 4. More truly aesthetic sequential hard climbing- pillar dancing, secret side pulling, and improbable body positions over rps and tiny tcus brought us happily to the bivy ledge.



Toettch styles through the next 5.11 pitch- again- sequential climbing on perfect rock with small gear. I then get the pleasure of a 60' "5.9" pitch- yes that flake is as awesomely detached as it looks. I instinctively reach for the #5- oh yeah- we are not offwidthing today- what a sandbag!


We've cruised the climbing to here, but now I'm up for 140' of "sustained 5.11". This has to be one of the finest pitches in existence! Red, green, and purple c3s forever, with yet again out of this world sequences- heel hooks, arete piches, hard liebacking. I fall a couple times before getting to cryptic blank climbing to reach some bolt protected face climbing in the corner. At the last one I am faced with a "hard reachy move to the belay." My sar buddies had mentioned this- so I knew just what to do. Without hesitation I coiled up into the corner and all points off dyno'ed sideways to the belay stance- stick it?- aww hell yeah!



This is all going down too easy- so why not throw in some driving rain on the crux pitch? Fortunately for us there was no boom boom and the intermittance of the precip allowed for the magic alpine air to evaporate the wetness away with speed. Never the less- the added intesity reminds us that the Hulk always means business- especially on "11+ thin lieback". Toettch goes into beast mode and gets through the crux climbing and sends the rest of the sustained 5.10 through the venturi.


You know when you encounter some hard climbing- and you think to yourself- 'wow this is hard'. And then there's that other type of hard climbing- and you think to yourself 'arrg ooh ah oh so desperate wow so hard arg take arg arg!' Yeah, there's about 8 feet of that second one there. I need to climb more squeeze chimney and do about a billion more situps. The end of the venturi does in fact have 6 feet of 5.8 offwidth- where's the #5 when you need it? Sandbagged again.

The 80M rope gets us down in no time and I now have a new favorite route- and yet another route to aspire to send without any falls. The couple from RD left us beers packed in glacial snow- a gesture of significant civility. Climbing the Hulk breeds that kind of kinship. Tradewinds is pure magic- so you should definitely go climb it- you know- if you like offwidth.