On October 3, Ben Hoiness, Dustin Kisner, and I climbed a long new route on the west face of Silver Run Peak (12,542’), about four miles up the West Fork Trail on Rock Creek. Ben and I had attempted the line four years prior and bailed after finding difficult mixed terrain. Ben returned the following year and found the route to be completely out of shape, with little to no ice.

On this attempt, the three of us found a beautiful ribbon of blue ice reaching to the ground, which we followed for 500’ to a series of small hanging daggers. Both Ben and I attempted to climb directly out this steep pitch, but backed off due to difficult climbing and poor gear. Instead, we climbed around the ice on the right, up moderate mixed terrain, to a spacious ledge, from which we climbed a large chimney to the base of the ice headwall. Three wonderful pitches of blue ice up to WI5 led to a low-angle chimney that took us to the plateau at the top of the wall, which we reached five hours after leaving the ground.

We named the route Quantum Entanglement (2,100’, ~9 pitches, WI5 M4). We walked to the north and found an easy descent gully that led us straight back to the car, 11 hours after leaving it. 

— Justin Willis

[Editor’s Note: Aaron Mulkey and partners had also attempted this line twice in previous years, retreating both times from the steep middle section due to a lack of ice connecting to the upper headwall. In 2016 and 2018, they also climbed the two major lines to the left, Last Call (2,000’, WI4 M6) and Light Before Wisdom (2,000’, WI4 M6), both previously unreported in the AAJ.]