[TR] Darrington - Exfoliation Dome - Blueberry 5/12/2007

[mountainmatt]

Trip: Darrington - Exfoliation Dome - Blueberry

 

Date: 5/12/2007

 

Trip Report:

Chad and I met up on Friday, grabbed some beer and headed out to camp up in Darrington. We got up early the next morning and headed to the trailhead. After my last attempt, I was convinced to not get destroyed by the approach this time. We followed the beta from my last attempt and we were able to walk right up to the granite slabs in about 30 minutes, and 30 more to get to the base of the route.

 

Besides some route finding issues on pitch 4 (head to the right set of cracks) the route went fine up to the terrace (all of the pitches were dry). After relaxing for awhile, we decided to try the final three pitches to the top although we had little information about them. We headed to the far left side to a set of anchors, and started up, first traversing to the left and then angeling back to the right to the top. The first pitch was mostly clean, but the remaining 3 were mostly covered in trees, moss, and dirt. We tried to get more to the left, and although clean, there was no gear anywhere. We topped out with the last pitch ending 20 feet from the summit.

 

Due to bad weather, we didn't spend much time on the summit and headed to the ~12 rappels down the east side (see notes).

 

Green Giant Buttress

 

3'O-clock rock

 

Ahhh the joyous approach

 

This beats bushwhacking any day

 

Chad on the granite slabs

 

Starting up pitch 3

 

Chad on pitch 4

 

Relaxing on the terrace

 

Gardening anyone?

 

On one of many raps...

 

Gear Notes:

Rack to 4", some slings are nice for the trees. Gardening tools if you do the wrong finish like we did.

 

Approach Notes:

The granite sidewalk is dry enough to walk without major difficulty.

 

Note on descent: The initial 5 or so rappels are best done with a single 60m rope. The last rappel before the major ledge is about 20 feet short of the next set of anchors requiring some scrambling or the use to two 60m lines. The remaining rappels are double 60m rappels. The very last rappel is also about 20 feet short, but easily down climbed.

[catbirdseat]

That crack on Pitch 4 keeps getting wider. It's only a matter of time before that slab goes.

[Rad]

That crack on Pitch 4 keeps getting wider. It's only a matter of time before that slab goes.

 

What did you expect on "Exfoliation Dome"?

[catbirdseat]

That slab is just huge. It's maybe 25 ft wide, 100 ft tall, and 10 inches thick. When it goes it will significantly alter the fourth pitch.

[turn_one]

That slab is just huge. It's maybe 25 ft wide, 100 ft tall, and 10 inches thick. When it goes it will significantly alter the fourth pitch.

 

...and whoever may be approaching via the granite sidewalk.

[waterboy]

Hi Thanks for the Trip report. I have a question about rapelling off the Blueberry route - you mentioned a single 60m for the first 5 and then two 60m for the rest. I noticed that you are using twin ropes in your photos - what is the length of them? I have the same ropes (edelweiss 8.5mm, I believe) in 37m length. How do you think twin 37m ropes would fare on the Blueberry route rappels?

 

Thanks!

[mattp]

Waterboy, the anchors on Westward Ho were set for a 50 meter rope. I don't think any of them are that close to the full 50 meters, but 37 meters is probably a little short. If you try this, you'll end up rapping off a single bolt somewhere along the line.

[catbirdseat]

I'm not sure how one gets to Westward Ho from Blueberry Terrace. Usually one gets there from the summit. Matt can it be easily done?

 

[mattp]

The Blueberry Route GOES to the summit, Catbird. However, you can rappel off the south end of the Blueberry Terrace to Westward Ho. In some respects this may be the easiest descent from the Terrace because once you get onto Westward Ho it is a clean shot back to the base of the West Buttress and there is no screwing around to get on down to the Sidewalk, but the first two raps are not entirely user friendly (I think it takes two to get onto the line of Westward Ho). By the way, I don't remember "racing" you down the rappel routes on the west side. I'm pretty sure we simply rapped as we normally would and I may even have done a bit of scrubbing on the way down.

[catbirdseat]

No it wasn't a race. But we were exceptionally slow.