[TR] Intro to Darrington

[Crillz]

9/26/09

 

I had heard bad things from some people and good things from others about Darrington. "Long runnout slabs" was the description that stuck out in my mind. However, I was assured that the old hardman mantra had been somewhat tamed. So, it was decided that we (my visiting friend from France and I) would do Dreamer.

 

We got an early enough start, got to the end of the road with nothing more than a few scratches on the car, and headed off toward Green Giant Buttress. The approach was going fine until we missed the gully turnoff at the water slide area. We would discover the error of our ways, but not soon enough. In an effort to keep this TR short, let’s just say we spent a couple of hours bushwacking up towards the buttress, as we were unable to locate anything that would pass as a trail.

 

At the time, it seamed best to shoot for the closest rock and then traverse from that location toward the base of the route(s). We soon found ourselves traversing/ climbing the 4th class death slabs toward the steeper part of the wall. After one rap, and some sketchfest downclimbing, we had found the “base” of our route. What should have taken about two hours, by our estimation, had taken five.

 

Now at the bottom, we were unable to accurately find the start of any pitches. We thought we had seen the “white corner” called out in the route description. Hell, it was the whitest corner on the wall. At this point, we needed to haul ass, so we just started climbing up, agreeing to tie in when things got too dicey. We could see two other parties higher up on either Dreamer or Safe Sex (at this point we couldn’t make out the route even though we had the topo).

 

We finally roped up and convinced ourselves that we were going up Dreamer Direct, old bolts lead us to believe as much anyway. After one of the most F’d up gripped pitches I ever lead, and running short on rope, I was blessed with a crack, so I made an anchor. I got one piece of pro in the entire rope length. On this pitch I was aiming for an old ¼” bolt with faded tat (5.8/5.9 XXX). The next pitch had an offwidth crack which actually had good pro (5.8ish) and ended at an old ¼” bolted anchor.

 

Immediately off the anchor were two closely spaced rusty bolts (you could have clipped both from the same stance). Being gripped from the day’s adventure, we agreed that if the next pitch looked runnout, we would bail off the last bolt we could see – we bailed. We made one double rope rap and scrambled off. During all of this, we could see the other parties rapping (not sure either finished the route).

 

So, maybe some Darrington smarties can chime in (mattp?). What were we on? We were climber’s right of the huge corner that splits the main steeper wall from the slabby, bushy wall on the left (climber’s left of Dreamer). Bolts might have been from a Model-T. We rapped down two chimneys. I now know the approach, and the likely location of the start of Dreamer/Safe Sex (thanks to watching a few raps).

 

Gear: Napalm.

 

[Alpinechris]

I lived out that same say just 2 Sundays ago, well almost. Since it rained on Saturday night, we had to wait a couple hours for the rock to dry, therefore forfeiting our summit. Though we did complete the first 4-5 pitches (depending on where u start the route). Fortunatly for us, we did find that "trail" at the base of the 3 tear waterfall. Found the same set of rusty old anchors you mentioned also. It's is confusing as far as route finding goes. You gotta really love friction climbing to enjoy the Green Giant.

Nice TR!

[catbirdseat]

My best advice for Darrington would be for first timers to accompany someone who's been there before, at least if you want to do dreamer. First time I went was with Ade and it was his second time. He'd wasted too much time on the approach his first time and didn't summit.

[rocketparrotlet]

Or you could just go to Three O'Clock Rock.

 

Not that I would have known that, either. I just took my first trip to Darrington this weekend, and I had to be convinced out of Green Giant Buttress.

 

-Mark

[Pilchuck71]

I think Catbird is right.

I was introduced to Darrington by people who had been out and at it for a while.

Three o'clock is fun and I climb there at least a few times a season but IMHO Green Giant, Exfoliation Dome and SQW are really what Darrington is all about.

 

Edited September 29, 2009 by Pilchuck71

[rocketparrotlet]

I think Catbird is right.

I was introduced to Darrington by people who had been out and at it for a while.

Three o'clock is fun and I climb there at least a few times a season but IMHO Green Giant, Exfoliation Dome and SQW are really what Darrington is all about.

 

Speaking of Exfoliation Dome...

I was thinking about climbing it via the West Buttress route. I can follow 5.9, lead 5.7. It looked like all the even pitches are 5.7 or below! Think I could swing leads on it? What's the runout like? Also, could I camp at the base of the first pitch?

 

-Mark

[shapp]

I think the first mistake was associating with a frenchman; secondly I would recommend taking a certain Darrington midget to lead all the pitches.

Shapp

[Off_White]

Anxious sketchy slab groping is character building. There may be some bolts, but you sure can't call it sport climbing. If you have a hankering for friction climbing though, Darrington is a great destination.

 

My first (and only thus far) visit to GGB went pretty flawlessly, aside from sleeping in a little too long. Approach beta worked just fine, existing topos handily got us up the safe sex start and traverse into Dreamer, but a need for my partner to return to PDX in a timely manner dictated that we had to rap off after the Blue Crack. Of course, I've served plenty of time over in the 3 O'Clock & Comb areas, and have loved that slabby stuff long time, so it wasn't like I was green to the Darrington thing.

 

I gotta go back & clean that one up one of these days.

 

 

[Buckaroo]

There's been threads on the beta approach, start, and variations to Dreamer

 

believe you were to the left of Dreamer

 

basically you go up the gully then up and right about 200 ft. the start is to the left of a left facing dihedral. The top of the first pitch has a fixed anchor but you can't see it from the ground because it's at the back of a ledge. Just get up one pitch and look around for the anchor, then you know your on route. The good variation is about 3 pitches up, a bolted 5.10 slab and it's not really runnout.

 

Nelson's has the topo showing a right facing dihedral, there are none.

 

I would put Dreamer right there with Outer Space. It's just harder to find and it rains more. I got rained off twice and the 3rd attempt hit with a graupel storm on the 6th pitch.

 

and watch out for that offwidth crack when rapping off, it's about the 4th or 5th pitch up and it eats ropes, there's about 6 of them down in there if you look.

[counterfeitfake]

As I said elsewhere, the approach to GGB is far worse than it was a few years ago.

 

I agree Dreamer is as good or better than Outer Space. I think it is a lot harder though.

 

The warning about the rope-eating flake is very apt. To get down, I suggest you just move climber's right and rap down Safe Sex.

[catbirdseat]

Speaking of Exfoliation Dome...

I was thinking about climbing it via the West Buttress route. I can follow 5.9, lead 5.7. It looked like all the even pitches are 5.7 or below! Think I could swing leads on it? What's the runout like? Also, could I camp at the base of the first pitch?

 

-Mark

Mark, there is one pitch, I think the 3rd, which is 5.8. The others are easier. If you take the even pitches, you will be fine. The climbing is not run out at all. No water at base of first pitch. Not necessary to camp. Camp at the road if you like, but get an early start and you'll be fine.

[rocketparrotlet]

Speaking of Exfoliation Dome...

I was thinking about climbing it via the West Buttress route. I can follow 5.9, lead 5.7. It looked like all the even pitches are 5.7 or below! Think I could swing leads on it? What's the runout like? Also, could I camp at the base of the first pitch?

 

-Mark

Mark, there is one pitch, I think the 3rd, which is 5.8. The others are easier. If you take the even pitches, you will be fine. The climbing is not run out at all. No water at base of first pitch. Not necessary to camp. Camp at the road if you like, but get an early start and you'll be fine.

 

That sounds beautiful. I might just have to try that out sometime!

 

-Mark

[j_b]

It sounds like you were on Giant's Tears. The first pitch is 10+ or .10 A0 (reason for the 2 closely placed bolts). Stellar climbing but the 30+ year old 1/4 inchers are likely scarier today. You were about one pitch away from the blue crack pitch on Dreamer when you bailed.