[TR] Exfoliation Dome- West Buttress Blueberry Hill 7/30/2005

[catbirdseat]

Climb: Exfoliation Dome-West Buttress Blueberry Hill

 

Date of Climb: 7/30/2005

 

Trip Report:

Arrived at parking area at 7:30 am with friends Erin, Connie and Paul. Within ten minutes along came mattp, MCash, and their friend Dan, set to climb Dark Rhythm.

 

Our party of four, which was pretty inexperienced, went along at a pretty slow pace and settled for topping out at Blueberry Terrace, while mattp went to the summit.

 

We managed to drop a pack somehow on the first pitch, which we recovered, but not one of the water bottles it contained. We'd miss that water later on, as it was a warm day.

 

Erin, got to do her first ever trad leads on pitches 1 and 6. She did a fine job. The climbing was a bit challenging on the third pitch for Paul. He had a leader fall when he greased off a hold on the "pop goes the weasel" move. I saw him fall and was a bit worried for a minute, because I couldn't see where he fell to, but his gear was good and held the fall. He got right back on it.

 

A notable thing was that on the fourth pitch, things seemed different to me. I'd be willing to swear that the huge flake has shifted, because the crack seems quite a bit wider than it had the previous year. When that baby goes, it's going to be spectacular.

 

We rapped down from the left side of the terrace, while they rapped down Jacob's Ladder. Being a party of three they got down a little faster than we. On the third rappel, I had a nasty surprise. I'd forgotton that I'd cut a meter off of my originally 55 m rope. I was now a meter short of reaching the rap station and there was no knot in the end. Fortunately, the other rope was 60 m and it was the one that was through the anchor, so I was able to pay out just that rope and thereby reach the station. Had the knot been on the other side of the anchor, things would have gotten a lot more interesting.

 

By the time we reached our packs we were really parched. Water never tasted so good.

 

Someone from the other party hollered up that they were leaving beers in the pond. We thought they were joking. When we got there there was a carabiner marking the spot and three Black Butte Porters cooling in the water. We had a swim and enjoyed the beer.

 

Thanks so much Matt, Martin, and Dan.

 

We arrived at the car to find the right rear tire going flat, so I got to change it. The jack on that Jeep really sucked, but it worked just well enough.

 

Finished up with dinner at La Hacienda. The one who knocked the pack bought beers all around.

 

Gear Notes:

2-60 meter ropes are strongly recommended, 55 m minimum.

 

Approach Notes:

Road is in fine shape.

Edited July 31, 2005 by catbirdseat

[MCash]

Nice. Good on you for taking beginners out and showing them the ropes. Here is a pic I took of one of your party leading the second pitch.

 

[catbirdseat]

I think that is Paul. He looks like he's either a) trying to decide whether to put in another piece, or b) examining an interesting bug.

[mattp]

Trogdor has the lost water bottle. He and I went back yesterday and as we were walking back along the base of the wall we found it was on the trail.

 

By the way, we did your rappel route from the Blueberry Terrace yesterday. What an exciting rap line!!! Very impressive. On the third rap we skipped the intermediate station with only old slings, and went straight to the next one down. Our 60 meter ropes were just long enough with about a half meter to spare. It is a good one for tying a knots on the end!

[Toast]

That's the one Brian and I did a couple years ago, three bomber hangars at each station, right? What's the intended purpose of the middle hangar? I mean, there was either webbing equalized or we rigged up something to use the third hangar and back up the rap when we did it, but it just seems a little overkill.