Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: April 2004
A great second trip to The Ogre. Beautiful weather, though somewhat windy on the first 3-4 pitches. In my opinion this climb has significant runouts, mostly on 5.5 terrain. Not a good choice for a new lead climber!The hardest pitch (the ~180 foot pitch below the summit pitch) does have good pro. It's easy to miss the bolts at the top of pitch 3 (assumes you climbed a long 1st pitch), they're slightly to the left and include one modern bolt and one relic, though backup gear placements are available, and advised! If you belay at these bolts, the next pitch to the large ledge is only about 40-50'. Don't forget the 60 meter rope, otherwise you'll need two ropes for the rappels.
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: September 28, 2003
Beautiful day, perfect temp, clear sky and fun climb. Alan Kanaskie and I had a great time on the Ogre. No one else on the rock, some day hikers over near Castle Dome.
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: August 9, 2003
Fun climbing in a beautiful setting. Some of the pitches have pretty poor pro (pitch 1 and 3 come to mind) but climbing is easy. Also, the last pitch as the Laird guidebook suggests ("5.6 chimney" -- agree with John that it seems harder esp. when you compare it to other 5.6 pitches on the route) is unprotected (other than one manky piton) and is the crux of the climb. We rapped off the summit in one shot with two 60m ropes. My wife and I had the mountain to ourselves. The only people we saw all day (and that's a Saturday in mid-August!) was a group of hikers down below.
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: 31 May, 2003
Climbed with John; Don & Larry climbed before us. Amazing area, with beautiful views of the surrounding Klamath peaks, the other Castle Crags, and of course, Mt. Shasta. The rock wasn't quite Yosemite or Lover's Leap solid (it's also younger), but then again, either were the crowds (our 2 rope teams were the only ones on the mountain that day!)! A really fun climb, featuring moderate climbing, steep rock, significant exposure in places (esp. @ the summit, where one looks down @ 200' worth of rappelling down below!), and interesting pro'-placement opportunities, esp. on pitches 1& the book-recommended last pitch (exposed friction w/ minimal pro' for 1st 20' of chimney- instead, it seems a much better idea to just go straight up from the P5 belay-station notch). Some creative, interesting, and well-executed leads were done by John. Excellent day, great climb!
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: June 6, 2002
Great, fun climb. Route finding issues on the last pitch. Reached summit via knife edge ridge rather than a "low angle" chimney as described in Laird Davis' book. See picture below of summit approach.
Foxer - Jul 18, 2005 1:19 am
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: many timesThe last pitch can be climbed easily by staying on the face left of the chim up past the piton. Also, the ridge to the right of the chim is nice.
Gail J - Aug 15, 2004 1:24 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: Sept. 26,1998Fun. Thrilling exposure.
tahoe - Apr 15, 2004 5:38 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: April 2004A great second trip to The Ogre. Beautiful weather, though somewhat windy on the first 3-4 pitches. In my opinion this climb has significant runouts, mostly on 5.5 terrain. Not a good choice for a new lead climber!The hardest pitch (the ~180 foot pitch below the summit pitch) does have good pro. It's easy to miss the bolts at the top of pitch 3 (assumes you climbed a long 1st pitch), they're slightly to the left and include one modern bolt and one relic, though backup gear placements are available, and advised! If you belay at these bolts, the next pitch to the large ledge is only about 40-50'. Don't forget the 60 meter rope, otherwise you'll need two ropes for the rappels.
Sam Mills - Jan 24, 2004 4:28 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: May 2000A fun route with great pro on perfect granite.
Dave Dinnell - Jan 10, 2004 1:21 am
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: September 1996A great route climbed with friend John Pfeiffer.
SammyGrippe - Oct 1, 2003 1:32 am
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: September 28, 2003Beautiful day, perfect temp, clear sky and fun climb. Alan Kanaskie and I had a great time on the Ogre. No one else on the rock, some day hikers over near Castle Dome.
See trip report for more detail.
Bob J, Eugene OR
rpc - Aug 10, 2003 7:00 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: August 9, 2003Fun climbing in a beautiful setting. Some of the pitches have pretty poor pro (pitch 1 and 3 come to mind) but climbing is easy. Also, the last pitch as the Laird guidebook suggests ("5.6 chimney" -- agree with John that it seems harder esp. when you compare it to other 5.6 pitches on the route) is unprotected (other than one manky piton) and is the crux of the climb. We rapped off the summit in one shot with two 60m ropes. My wife and I had the mountain to ourselves. The only people we saw all day (and that's a Saturday in mid-August!) was a group of hikers down below.
Diggler - Jul 9, 2003 12:58 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: 31 May, 2003Climbed with John; Don & Larry climbed before us. Amazing area, with beautiful views of the surrounding Klamath peaks, the other Castle Crags, and of course, Mt. Shasta. The rock wasn't quite Yosemite or Lover's Leap solid (it's also younger), but then again, either were the crowds (our 2 rope teams were the only ones on the mountain that day!)! A really fun climb, featuring moderate climbing, steep rock, significant exposure in places (esp. @ the summit, where one looks down @ 200' worth of rappelling down below!), and interesting pro'-placement opportunities, esp. on pitches 1& the book-recommended last pitch (exposed friction w/ minimal pro' for 1st 20' of chimney- instead, it seems a much better idea to just go straight up from the P5 belay-station notch). Some creative, interesting, and well-executed leads were done by John. Excellent day, great climb!
jtree - Jun 5, 2003 3:30 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: May 31, 2003Great Fun!!!!
zzril - Nov 26, 2002 2:24 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Date Climbed: August 1998What a great climb. Definitely go for the ridge on the last pitch. Groveling up the chimney isn't that much fun.
rhlaird - Aug 3, 2002 1:56 pm
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall Date Climbed: June 6, 2002Great, fun climb. Route finding issues on the last pitch. Reached summit via knife edge ridge rather than a "low angle" chimney as described in Laird Davis' book. See picture below of summit approach.
Josh - Aug 3, 2002 11:24 am
Route Climbed: Cosmic Wall and some 5.9 to the right of it Date Climbed: Summer, 2000A fantastic hunk of rock. A very impressive summit, too!