Dreamer rap chains status check

[chris]

Dreamer, Green Giant Buttress, Darrington

So a couple of seasons ago I cut the tat and replaced it with chains and quicklinks up to the top of pitch 7. Can anyone tell me how they're holding up?

[MCash]

They looked good to me. Safe Sex is still an easier rappel with no rope eating flakes.

[chris]

Yep, but I hear more stories about people bailing on Dreamer than rapping on SS.

 

Thanks for the check-up, Mr. Cash.

[mattp]

People bail on Dreamer in significant part because the guidebook authors have suggested that the top pitches are not worthwhile. I disagree with this. The climbing is enjoyable on the last few pitches and the views are spectacular.

 

If you reach the upper pitches of Dreamer, I agree with Mr. Cash that Safe Sex offers a cleaner rappel route - even though you have to monkey around a bit from Dreamer's 8th pitch to get to the Safe Sex rappel route and there is a bush in the way when rapelling pitch 4 of Safe Sex.

[chris]

I agree with you Matt - the top pitches of Dreamer are definetely worth climbing. I want to do a little more exploring on the Green Giant, including SS and that alternative northern descent that you told me about.

[curtveld]

Chains were solid last month – thanks Mtnfreak!

 

People bail on Dreamer in significant part because the guidebook authors have suggested that the top pitches are not worthwhile.

I suspect this is because most are working from the Nelson-Potterfield Select book that came out before the bolted pitches up top were either there or much known of. Very worthwhile though, I agree. Rapping from the ridge crest anchor, we had a heck of a time getting far enough (skiers) left to reach Safe Sex. How is that done, Matt?

[mattp]

The bolted finish for Dreamer was in place at least five years before Nelson's book came out. Smoot left it out of his 1989 guide and I think it may also have been omitted from the first edition of the Travellers Guide. Smoot also left the bolted top pitches out of his 1999 edition, and he showed Safe Sex without the bolts so many parties still end up by mistake on Safe Sex after seeing a bolted anchor above Dreamer's fourth pitch.

 

I think the recommendation to bail after the second five nine pitch may have originated with Dave Gunstone, and I can only assume he had not been on the route after the finish was added. Before that, it was indeed wildly run out up there if you did not follow bushy flakes and corners as Greyell and Constantino did when they put the route up. The first time I climbed Dreamer that second to last pitch had unprotected 5.8 with a guaranteed 75 foot fall to a ledge.

 

To rap onto Safe Sex, you divert from Dreamer on the second rap, the one from a pair of oversize metolious hangers next to a tree that is maybe 120 feet below the crest. Instead of dropping to the next set of Dreamer anchors on the slab above the crux pitch, head skiers left to a station on a small knob next to the Botany 101 dihedral. From there, a short rap leads to a Safe Sex station in that dihedral, and you are on your way.

[catbirdseat]

While the last two pitches are not great, the summit is a pretty cool place to chill out a bit and enjoy the view. I think it is worth the effort to get there.

[mattp]

I always enjoy those last two pitches and I think they are in fact "great." The second to last has some amazing features on it, with a steep wall featured kind of like the top of Orbit giving way to a few slab moves and then a crack. The last is more or less a "gets you there" pitch, but there is nothing at all unpleasant about it and I always enjoy the relaxation that comes with easy climbing on top of the world. Besides, it is not until the last pitches that you start seeing Glacier Peak, and not until the very summit that you can look over at Three Fingers and Squire Creek Wall.