Helm's Deep Rock Climbing

I found this wall in the spring of 2021.   I bushwacked in the rain for several hours making it past the seasonal waterfall to a bench filled with old growth.  Worked my way uphill catching the stench of dead fish and noticed a rotting goat carcass.  A large bird of some kind that had been feeding took off.  Alone in the dark forest I felt some trepidation but was psyched by the prospect of climbable rock.  I pushed on to the wall and was amazed to find it steep and dry!  It was like some version of the World Wall.    Later, after numerous rainy missions (special mention to Alex C for helping me get the first rope up), I had one line bolted and some semblance of an approach trail.  I had my eyes set some wonderful looking rock out left.  Getting to the top felt unrealistic so I used a self-belay technique to traverse in on a ledge and hang a line.  On my next trip I generated a core shot by jugging and had to abandon the line, to make matters worse my gri-gri jammed on the dirty rope.  Alone hanging in space on a core shot rope in the rain with a jammed gri-gri I questioned my priorities. The approach at this time sucked and everything was taking so much effort.  I decided to look for more accessible rock elsewhere but threw some photos online.   In the spring of 2022 Micah messaged me about the wall and I told him the approach sucked but nonetheless we planned a trip.  With Daniel in tow we shwacked up to the wall and climbed the one line I had managed to bolt ("Breach the Deep").  We got psyched.  Micah's commitment to join me in developing was the key missing catalyst. He and I made it up to the wall every few weeks for much of the summer.  We made another trip to the top and did a fair amount of aiding to add more routes.  The rock naturally suits itself to climbing.  The steepness, calcite deposits, and sections of congruent rock lend greater difficulty to some of the routes.  In the fall of 2022 the "STD" crew of Shawn, Trevor, and Daniel began to contribute their vigorous development energy.  In the winter of 2023 many hours were spent improving the approach, I made the discovery of a key abandoned logging road then Daniel, Shawn, and myself improved it for hiking.  Now as of late 2023 the approach isn't that bad and there are 30+ pitches of high quality climbing with more in progress.  - Aaron