Finley Creek Ice Climbing

Had a day off this week, and decided to go out to Finley Creek on the back side of the Rattlesnake Wilderness. Rush joined me, as well as a guy I'd met at the gear shop, Travis Myers. The drive in was definitely a good time, and the approach was nice and short. As we cleared the woods and gained a small ridge overlooking the climbs in the canyon, you could make out 3 or 4 distinct routes, all in good shape, with nice, thick, blue-white ice flows ranging from WI2-WI5. We started on Weedeater (WI2+/3- depending on which part of the route you ascend) for a nice warmup. I led, placed a toprope, and sent Travis up. He had a blast, and it was only his second pitch of ice, so he started out a bit stiff and cautious but looked solid and confident by the end of the pitch. He lowered off, and we pulled rope. Rush led the thing (his first ice climb) and I cleaned screws off the pitch after. We moved on the Fox Corner (WI4, 5.8 drytooling) the right-side variant of Graineater (WI4). The ice was a little thinner here than I would like and probably felt a lot spicier than it actually was. Some tenuous hooking and rock magic landed me into fatter ice and I was able to place screws from there on. We only hade the one rope between the three of us (the climb is either a rope stretcher or two pitches depending on the length of the rope) so I placed a V-thread a pitch up, equalized it with a screw, and lowered. Rush went next, then Travis, then I snuck in another climb to clean the screw. Rush was hesitant about me rapping off from only one V-thread, so I drilled another, and equalized the two. Next up was Graineater, which was thinner than I'd like but still a fun lead. It's always nice to hear echoes behind the ice you're climbing and to have your tools pop all the way through the pillar! Looked for the bolted cave anchor but apparently was just in the wrong spot. Like an idiot I had forgotten my headlamp, and light was fading so I made a snap decision and lowered off two thin equalized pillars and cleaned screws on the way down. I felt bad for the other guys that didn't get to climb the route, it was tons of fun. But we'll be back, next time with pictures and more details!
Climb on!