[TR] Exfoliation Dome - West Buttress 2/21/2010

[kinnikinnick]

Trip: Exfoliation Dome - West Buttress

 

Date: 2/21/2010

 

Trip Report:

on sunday jordi v and i climbed the west buttress of exfoliation dome. here is a pitch by pitch breakdown of the route as we climbed it:

 

p1: climb the low angle, low-fifth slab split by a wide crack to a cedar belay.

 

p2: climb above the tree into a left-facing dihedral. jam the 10 foot dihedral then undercling traverse left then up the 3-4 inch crack. a tricky leg-eating offwidth leads to a cedar belay. a fun pitch!

 

p3: the technical crux. climb directly above the belay and into a right-facing corner. establish a semi-hanging belay beneath a weakness in the roof. the crux moves are slabby, bolt-protected and kinda awkward. a bit soft for the grade. imo maybe 5.8 for a couple moves.

 

p4: the mental crux. pull through the roof right above the belay and follow offwidths, hand cracks, finger cracks and flakes with some runout to a waist-deep exfoliated flake. i ran out of cams and rope here and jammed myself in the flake and belayed jordi up.

 

p5: a short maybe 30 foot pitch up to a ledge with trees.i think most people simulclimb the last 30 feet of p4 but i wasn't in the mood seeing as i had no more pro, was a good 20 feet above my last cam and knew that jordi would be pulling through the 5.8 roof and might fall.

 

p6: easy climbing right above the belay with some runout until a flake system is reached. belay from the top of the flake from a ledge.

 

p7: traverse right and into a right-facing corner with a handcrack in the back. whitelaws topo calls it a thin crack...maybe freeze-thaw cycles have widened the crack over the years? the corner is about 15 feet high. runout low 5th and 4th class slabs lead to blueberry terrace.

 

jordi on the infamous granite sidewalk:

 

 

jordi on p3:

 

 

the bombproof body cam anchor at the top of p4:

 

 

Gear Notes:

a rack of cams from .3-3 and a purple tcu. doubles in 2, .75 and 1. set of nutz

 

Approach Notes:

a lot easier than rumor has it

Edited March 1, 2010 by kinnikinnick

[Dirtyleaf]

Nice to see a D-town trip report. Looks like an excellent time! I just have to tilt my head sideways..

[zoroastr]

ow! ..my neck! wait. that's better...i tilted my monitor.

[mountainsloth]

looks like a good time!

[benmurphy]

that's a great route alright...looking forward to getting on it again soon!

nice job!

[kinnikinnick]

i wonder how hard you babies can send if its painful to tilt your neck sideways to view a picture i have a severe case of technoretardation and will figre out how to fix the photos when i have time

[Tobias Green]

My neck hurts too! I'm jealous dogg.

[dirt_dog]

My homemade topo of the route as we climbed it. most of the belays are trees, but I ran into that same situation where I was out of rope and slings behind a big flake. Fun climb with a unique approach. Way to GO!

 

[rocketparrotlet]

Looks awesome! I'll have to get on this when the weather clears up.

 

EDIT: I'm looking for a partner for tomorrow March 6th (probably the best weather we'll see for a while), PM me if you're interested.

 

-Mark

Edited March 5, 2010 by rocketparrotlet