Exfoliation Dome-Blueberry Hill W.Ridge TR

[layton]

GenePires and I went up this climb yesterday. Somewhat of a "mystery" area due to lack of good info (thanks Jeff and Matt).

It is an "adventure" climb w/exciting routefinding and rappelling. The granite sidewalk is awesome and so are the views of the 3 fingers, Whitehorse, and the slab routes across the valley.

Looks like some really sweet other routes on Blueberry hill! There's a bolted line just to the left of W.Ridge that looks amazing, although pretty tough. Anyone know about this bad boy?

And who did the FA of the W.Ridge, Beckey maybe?

 

Bring 2 ropes to get off lest you be rappelling all day long.

[David_Parker]

Yeh, it looked really cool from Green Giant Butress yesterday. This is the best time of year to visit Darrington! It was absolutely gorgeous with the leaves just starting to turn and beautiful sunshine. We were the only ones up there and it's a great way to get into a pretty remote area for a day. Get an early start and make your turn around time at 4:00 lest you be walking out in the dark!

[erik]

mike,

 

the route next to the w ridge is called dark rhytm...not too bad of a route. a couple of .10 pitches...but it has more then enough bolts on it to keep the scare away...

 

i think it goes at .10c, i did it earlier this summer with mattp. good route but not even close to being scary or that hard...

 

then again it is all relative

[erik]

beer and scoth on the rocks!

 

[ 09-25-2002, 12:00 PM: Message edited by: erik ]

[genepires]

anybody know what the three other routes are like around the west buttress? There is one to the left of dark rythm and at least two to the right of the buttress. Matt Perkins? Is it time to release the good news of these routes? Thanks to you and your good friends for all the hard work up there.

[erik]

the other one to the left of dark rhythm is called a secret route....

 

i wanna go climb it someone climb it with me....lotsa cracks and slabs

 

the routes to the right of the w butt is the w slabs and some other thing....i dunno bout that

[DavidW]

Glad to see folks are having fun in Darrington! The route immediately left of the west butt on Blueberry Hill is Dark Rhythm, 5.10c/d put up by me, Chris Greyell and Mark Hanna in 2000 and the route left of that is RainMan, 5.10c put up by Chris Greyell, Mark Hanna, Mattp and me in 2001, it joins Dark Rhythm at the 6 pitch level. The route just right of the west butt is Westward Ho!, 5.9, put up by me, Chris and Mark in 2001. I'm working hard on the new guide for d-town (with a few breaks for trips to the valley!)...... I'd welcome any info, new or old on anything to do with d-town! Hopefully the new guide will appear in spring of next year.

[dberdinka]

Not sure what the weathers doing up there anymore but Rainman is one of the finest climbs in Darrington. It has 4 well protected 5.10 pitches in a row featuring a lazer-cut corner, a steep hand crack, cool underclings around a roof, sustained slabs (of course) and some fun overlaps.

 

An approach pitch about 150 yards north of the west buttress leads to an obvious, very angular left facing dihedral. It goes at about 10b. Followed by pitches of 10b, 10a, 10c then 2 easier pitches to the big tree ledge. Sweet!!

[dbb]

DavidW- Nice work on Westward Ho!, you guys really put in some work (and $). Makes the last half of descending down the West slabs a dreamy walk in the park.

[mattp]

quote:

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Originally posted by dberdinka:

cool underclings around a roof ... Sweet!!

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[jhamaker]

When was the last time Westward Ho was climbed? Are there still hangers missing (there were 2, mabey 3 missing as of a few months ago.

 

I notice the hangers that were flattened by rock-fall were replaced.

 

Be aware this route is geologicaly active and has been since Brooks and Whitelaw.

 

----------------

 

DavidW, whats up w/ the closely spaced bolts on Westward Ho? This climb is very different in caracter than other, older Darrington routes like the slab rt just to the rt of Westward Ho, and the older pitches of Rubber Soul, Silent Running, and Dreamer.

[robertm]

We did the West Butt route a couple of weeks ago and retrieved the blackdiamond rope that was lodged in a flake on the west slabs descent. ID it and its yours... looks like it might have been cut. Might not be a full 50m.

 

btw... this descent sucks balls. It took almost longer than the climb... find the psalms 23 descent and don't be suckered onto the west slabs (climbers right).

[mattp]

robertm -

I have nad no significant difficulty with the W. Slabs descent and while the first three rappels are certainly messier than anything on the 23rd Psalm, it is not nearly such a serious place to have trouble should you get a rope stuck or something, and it takes you back to where you came from. I believe both descents are worth consideration and that, as I note on my Darrington web page, neither should be considered straight forward. Because of its overall size and complexity, the exfoliating rock, and the need to make multiple rappels in terrain where a rope may get stuck, Blueberry Hill should be treated like a mountain climb in addition to a rock climb.

 

[ 10-02-2002, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: mattp ]

[DavidW]

There's been a fair bit of speculation about the hangers on Westward Ho. I've read in other places where a loosened hanger can wiggle back and forth and actually unscrew the nuts holding them on. It's my personal belief that repeated avalanches may be responsible for this. In the future I'm going to use LockTite on them and see if that helps at all.

 

With regard to the bolts on Westward Ho I can say that the route was put up almost entirely on the lead and engineered to be reasonable for a climber who was climbing at that (moderate) standard.

 

Funny Silent Running should be mentioned as what is nearly the oldest pitch in Darrington (3rd pitch) has more bolts than almost any other route and actually had 2 more bolts than it currently has at the time of the first ascent.

 

For what its worth I've had a good number of "bravo's" about Westward Ho and even two complaints that the cruxes on the first and third pitches were a scary distance above the bolts.

 

Obviously its a matter of perception and I've been aware for many years that putting up routes and attaching my name to them is most certainly an exercise in pinning a target to ones chest and running around a rifle range.

 

Sorry you feel the route is out of character but I do welcome your thoughts and critiques and will in fact consider them in future projects.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Hey Dave I had fun climbing silent running. I think it is bolted fine.

 

You can't please everyone around. I can only say that I admire your work ethics and good attitude. It seems you have a grasp to me on overbolting and such. Climb on

[klar404]

DaveW has put up some great climbs ( + cash for bolts). He also cracked me up by flippin' me shit this year after I crashed through some willy-weeds to the base of three o'clock rock!Here is a (alright) picture lookin' down from Westward Ho:

[Cpt.Caveman]

right on klar I want to explore more there. Magic Bus looked fun as well as many others on 3:00 Rock.

[mattp]

Cavey -

What you saw is just the tip of the iceberg. Half lthe climbs at Darrington are not in any guidebook, and you will be amazed when you see what Dave is trying to produce for publication in the Spring. Compared to what is available today -- Washington Rock Climbs, the Traveler's Guide, my webpage, Select Climbs I and II -- it will include not only a whole host of new climbs that have been going up over the last fifteen years, but more accurate portrayals of many older Darrington climbs as well. Meanwhile, I have prepared a drawing of the routes that Dave, Chris and the gang have been working on and which were discussed in this thread (sorry it doesn't display very well on the screen, but it should print OK and I don't know how to manage the HTML so as to get a good screen view).

 

click here

 

[ 10-02-2002, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: mattp ]

[jhamaker]

DavidW

 

I hear there are two versions of Lock-Tight. One that you can sort of get the nut back off, and one that you can't. I cannot reccomend one over the other.

 

I realy do love Westward Ho, though it has more bolts than West Slabs. I don't suppose everyone is comfortable w/ 1 (bolt) between belays ; )

 

If avalanches are responsible for the FLATTENED hanger I saw two? summers ago, I think there is also lots of rock involved. Anyone noticed new scars durring the summer? The scars, rock shards and powdered rock I've seen in the summer make me think that mabey the rock came down after any climax avalanches when the snow was melted out. I would like to hear any other theories on how active that open book/gully is.

[mattp]

All of Blueberry Hill is actively shedding rock -- indeed all of Darrington (the granite outcrops there are all on features called "exfoliation domes" for a reason). I don't think that gully is much more hazardous in this regard than anywhere else but next time you are up there, look up at the flakes that are the West Buttress route -- that gully makes a "slice" in the onion that allows you to see the layers peeling away -- and realize that this same process is going on throughout the area. As you probably know, the exfoliation is what causes so many granite peaks to develop domes and spires.

 

In addition to rockfall, some of the damage to trees and the bending and flattening of bolts looks to me as if it may have occurred not through not a rapid avalanche but downward snow and ice "creep" during the winter months.

 

By the way -- if you ARE into slab pitches with one bolt between anchors, let's get together some time. You'd probably think a pitch with two old quarter inchers was "fat" and you could lead me up some of those old classics.

[DavidW]

jhamaker...... hey thanks for the tip on the lock-tite..... i didnt know there were two kinds, seems like maybe the more permanent might be better but I'm open to ideas.

 

surprisingly enough a year or two ago we found the bolts for the very first rappel down the 23rd Psalm with the hangers half flattened. It was amazing as there is hardly any altitude above the bolts to develop force...... seems matts idea about ice "creep" may be a more accurate model of what going on up there...... its certainly curious to say the least.

[Dru]

snow/ice creep can involve TREMENDOUS shear forces enough to rip bolts right out of the rock. this happened on many climbs in the Darrans in New Zealand.

 

A friend did her MSc on snow slab shear and the forces were enormous but develop slowly over months. Tens or hundreds of times higher than the max force a bolt can take. especially if the bolt freezes into the ice and moves as a mass with it when it shears.

 

It kind of tells you why when you notice how smooth those slabs are and figure what it was that keeps them that way.

[Greg_W]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dru:

snow/ice creep can involve TREMENDOUS shear forces enough to rip bolts right out of the rock. this happened on many climbs in the Darrans in New Zealand.

 

A friend did her MSc on snow slab shear and the forces were enormous but develop slowly over months. Tens or hundreds of times higher than the max force a bolt can take. especially if the bolt freezes into the ice and moves as a mass with it when it shears.

 

It kind of tells you why when you notice how smooth those slabs are and figure what it was that keeps them that way.

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I'd be interested in seeing some of that information; very interesting.

[Dru]

Most onerous on low angle slabs. Yak Peak has shear on the slabs below where the bolts are but the bolted part is too stteep to hold snow.

[mattp]

Yes, it is on lower angled slabs in Darrington that I have seen the effects of this. And the famous Darrington knobs are most pronounced on steeper walls, with greater development on south-facing steeper walls.