Cosmic Wall had been on my radar ever since hearing my good friend Harry's journey up it. He managed to thrown down a fast time and inspired me to try the route someday. Since I was in Mt. Shasta visiting my friend Ethan, it was the perfect opportunity to give the wall an attempt. We climbed the route casually the day before with another buddy so I could memorize the approach, climbing cruxes, and descent beta. Fun day!
The following morning at 8:02 I started charging uphill to Mt. Hubris. It went smoothly. The trail is well maintained and ascends a solid uphill gradient. From afar Cosmic Wall looks steep and intimidating, however from the bottom it reveals itself to be much less vertical. At the base I took thirty seconds to switch into the vertical mind. I always do this before soloing. I think its important to take ten seconds to catch the breath, ten seconds to switch mental channels from running to climbing, and ten seconds to remember to be safe for mom and dad.
The climb went great. It follows a long arching snake like dike up the center of the wall. The knife edge ridge top out is incredibly fun and exposed. I reached the top in about fifty five minutes. I downclimbed then began running back to the trail. Unfortunately I accidentally got a bit lost and found myself bushwacking through head high manzanita brush. Ouch. I redlined to where I predicted the trail was. I lost a couple minutes slowly fighting my way through the branches but at least gained a couple new battlescars for the cool points haha.
Once I found the main trail I let gravity do the work and just held on for the ride. The technical rock hopping was super fun. I managed to get back to the trailhead in one hour and thirty one minutes. I probably could have gotten sub hour thirty if I hadn't gotten lost but oh well just a reason to come back! Overall fun climbing, beautiful scenery, flowy trail and great way to start the day!