Opening Day at Blueberry Hill

[catbirdseat]

Climb: Opening Day at Blueberry Hill-The West Buttress

 

Date of Climb: 4/4/2004

 

Trip Report:

Erden, Jim, Carl and I left Seattle in two pickup trucks with four wheel drive at 6 am. We had a snafu when we got separated and lost about 45 minutes. Road 2060 has had a lot of water washing over it in places and it is very rough. Only high clearance vehicles can safely pass.

 

Taking the left fork of the road, we encountered a patch of 8" deep snow in a shady spot but busted through in four wheel drive. Now that there are ruts, one could probably get past with two wheel drive.

 

About a mile from the Blueberry Hill parking area we encountered a downed log, but it was rotten and we just rolled it off in sections. There was also a 25 yard section of sagging alder trees which we made quick work of using saws and loppers. The first wash is rough and narrow, but passable with four wheel drive. The second one just before the parking area is no worse than last year after we tossed aside few branches and other debris.

 

The Granite Sidewalk has a lot of water coming down it, but it can be avoided. There are still a lot of loose rocks here and there and you have to pay attention to where you are stepping or you might find yourself on "ball bearings".

 

The West Buttress is dry from top to bottom, however the upper pitches of Dark Rhythm is wet and you will get your rope wet rapping down that way. We chose this way, shown in the topo, because there was still snow on the sloping terrace below the Rap Route and we didn't want to deal with that. It took us as long to rap off as it does to climb the route. We thought that as a party of four it would be nice not to have to carry a rope, but the extra time for the rappels negates any advantage. On the fifth rap we decided to experiment with simulrappel and it worked well, but after that, the raps traverse quite a bit and we decided that it wouldn't be safe, because if one person slipped and pendulumed he could take out the other person. The simulrap might work well on the Rap Route because it goes straight down.

 

Pay attention to rope drag on the third and fourth pitches. If can be avoided by thoughtful location of gear placements and use of shoulder length slings (or double ropes).

 

Gear Notes:

Standard Alpine Rack with a few tricams, twelve slings. It's nice to have a couple of larger cams in the 3"-4" range, but you can get by without them, if necessary.

 

Approach Notes:

See Mattp's website:

www.seanet.com/~mattp/Darr

[catbirdseat]

Erden Eruc leading the fourth pitch, 5.7, of the West Buttress (5.9) of Blueberry Hill.