Darrington bolts

[keenwesh]

climbed up there the last few days and couldn't help but notice there is a plethora of old rawl drives. how strong are these things? is it bad that I kept climbing routes with these shitty bolts? also, on the 3rd pitch of big tree 2000 the bolt protecting the crux moves of the third pitch has been chopped, made my guidebookless climb that much more exciting! I managed to get a small stopper in a flake ~15 feet below and too the right of the missing bolt, then just ran it out. any reason this was chopped? any active retrobolters up in that neck of the woods?

[summitchaserCJB]

Didn't Matt P retrobolt a lot of the routes on Exfoliation dome recently ?

[summitchaserCJB]

btw- as long as we're talking about Darrington bolts. We did the West Buttress of exfoliation dome yesterday. We heard that you shouldn't take the rap route for Dark Rhythm. Long story short, after rapping off the summit via the ascent route, we took the rap anchor at the base of the route to the summit and followed the descent rap. Pretty sure we took Dark Rhythm cause the rope almost got stuck on the third rap from the bottom. Anyone know if this is the case? Is there a better alternative besides the west slabs? If this was the rope eating descent it sure is dang intuitive.

[keenwesh]

did you climb exfo with mark?

these bolts were all on 3 o'clock rock.

[summitchaserCJB]

yep

[rocketparrotlet]

btw- as long as we're talking about Darrington bolts. We did the West Buttress of exfoliation dome yesterday. We heard that you shouldn't take the rap route for Dark Rhythm. Long story short, after rapping off the summit via the ascent route, we took the rap anchor at the base of the route to the summit and followed the descent rap. Pretty sure we took Dark Rhythm cause the rope almost got stuck on the third rap from the bottom. Anyone know if this is the case? Is there a better alternative besides the west slabs? If this was the rope eating descent it sure is dang intuitive.

 

I looked up pics- we actually rappelled Jacob's Ladder, a decent bit climber's left of Dark Rhythm. Phew.

[summitchaserCJB]

ya phew

[mountainsloth]

yea, there are a number of routes at 3 o'clock that have old bolts.

revolver on the north butt has a number of buttonheads that really make you wonder.

 

if i had the money and know-how I would replace them. i gotta learn that one of these days.

[mattp]

Didn't Matt P retrobolt a lot of the routes on Exfoliation dome recently ?

 

Last Fall a buddy and I added the two belay stations and two pro bolts that you used to reach the summit from the blueberry Terrace. I've also been slowly adding bolts to Jacob's Ladder since I first climbed it. I added one last year.

[mattp]

yea, there are a number of routes at 3 o'clock that have old bolts.

revolver on the north butt has a number of buttonheads that really make you wonder.

 

if i had the money and know-how I would replace them. i gotta learn that one of these days.

 

Those 5/16" buttonheads are mostly pretty good and can be damn hard to remove. I'll head up there and work on it with you, though.

[summitchaserCJB]

Didn't Matt P retrobolt a lot of the routes on Exfoliation dome recently ?

 

A buddy and I added the two belay stations and two pro bolts that you used to reach the summit from the Terrace last Fall.

 

I've also been slowly adding bolts to Jacob's Ladder since I first climbed it.

Thanks!

[mattp]

For those who want the original flavor, you can follow the line depicted in the Smoot guide. Head up the obvious right facing corner middle- left on the Blueberry Terrace, and yard on bushes or climb rock on the left to reach where it turns into a rotten little gully and then disappears into the bushes. Anybody who climbed the Dome in the "old days" probably went that way. There's plenty of tat, but no bolts.

[summitchaserCJB]

I think I'll stick to the bolts on that one.

[mountainsloth]

i should have been more clear...

the buttonheads don't look like they are going anywhere, but the hangers look god-awful. They are so thin and rusty-looking I am assuming any good sized fall would tear them in two.

 

then again, as I stated earlier, I have little knowledge and experience messing with and replacing bolts.

i will take you up on your offer though... when I have time and money.

 

[keenwesh]

mattp: I'd love to help replacing bolts too. hit me up with a PM if your going to go do that and I might be able to make my way up.

so those are 5/16 bolts! makes me feel a little better. I thought the hangers were all pretty good, stainless steel, no corrosion, although the vast majority were spinning freely. rapping off to the climbers right of Luke some bible verse there were a handful of truly awful bolts that instead of being replaced had been glued so the hangers wouldn't spin.

 

plenty of routes to upgrade there, and even a couple unbolted slabs far over to the left side of the rock.

 

there was a steep 20 foot wall looked 5.11 going up the top right side of the great arch. I wanted to clean it and give it a try but we ran out of time.

[mattp]

I think you are referring to a short bolted thing, on the right edge of the arch. If that is the case, it used to be more "doable" but a knob broke off the last time I tried it.

 

This is not the first time I saw one of the Darrington knobs completely pop off the rock. The same happened to the original crux on Safe Sex, and I don't know of anybody who has climbed it since then (the crux finger-tip crack). I bet this is related to their origin as part of the mother rock and not the granite intrusion so it may not be entirely unlikely that they lack a complete bond with the surrounding granite.

 

I don't know for sure but I bet that little thing on the Great Arch is pretty hard now.

 

I'd be up for a weekend campout with celebration of DTown granite and a bit of maintenance effort. Trailwork and bolt replacement come to mind. I don't think we can replace the knobs, though.

[Pilchuck71]

This is not the first time I saw one of the Darrington knobs completely pop off the rock. The same happened to the original crux on Safe Sex, and I don't know of anybody who has climbed it since then (the crux finger-tip crack).

 

Are you referring the steep face, climbers right of the dirty but good corner? 4th pitch?

When did the knob come off?

 

 

I'd be up for a weekend campout with celebration of DTown granite and a bit of maintenance effort. Trailwork and bolt replacement come to mind. I don't think we can replace the knobs, though.

 

I know Smedley would be down for participating and it would be fun to meet some of the CC Darrington devotees, keep us posted if a plan develops! I would be happy to help with some unglorious trail work.

 

Hanman?????

 

 

[keenwesh]

name the weekend, even this one would probably work. the trail to 3 oclock was in fine shape, maybe cut a couple of maples growing at the base of the slabs. would we be using a bosch or a handdrill? either one works I guess.

[rocketparrotlet]

name the weekend, even this one would probably work. the trail to 3 oclock was in fine shape, maybe cut a couple of maples growing at the base of the slabs. would we be using a bosch or a handdrill? either one works I guess.

 

Don't forget, we're heading to Static Point on Saturday!

[Otto]

...the trail to 3 oclock was in fine shape, maybe cut a couple of maples growing at the base of the slabs. would we be using a bosch or a handdrill?...

 

You probably already know this if you're working with Matt. But any drilling at Three O'Clock Rock will have to be done by hand drill, as it is in Wilderness... If you're talking trail work, then it's hand tools only above the wooden sign, of course. Big thanks in advance to you guys for doing any fixup work! Three O'Clock Rocks!

[hanman]

Thanks Otto for the revolver work- I did the galvy chains and links up there to existing anchors ~5 years ago. You should have seen the original tat- WOW. Some suggestions for route work I would add would be Tidbits new chains/ tat removal, Broad Daylight bolt upgrade, and the second pitch of what I believe is Magic Bus (traverses right to access a nice rib/arete thing. Overall,the 1/4inchers up there are pretty solid.

 

I recently did some static destructive testing on several of the plated SMC thin hangers taken from previous 3:00 rock retro work, and as long as they were not cracked, they were reliable to about 2500 to 2600 lbs. Not strong by today's standards, but not failing under body weight either.

 

MH

[keenwesh]

mark- your right! also, my dad might be coming along. he's starting to get soft and I want to delay him from becoming a weekend kayaker for as long as possible. also. it could be either sat. or sunday...

 

still lets set up a weekend to go up and do some work. carpooling would be sweet, anyone in the seattle area able to pick me up at the park and ride?

[Otto]

hanman, those are good notes, thanks. And of course Thanks for doing the original re-work!

 

I know about Till Broad Daylight; I've been wanting to redo that anchor right above the Great Arch (top of third pitch) for a long time.

 

And it's funny you should mention Magic Bus' second pitch - my partner chucK looked up at that, his turn to lead, and said No way I'm climbing that! (I went back later and climbed it to check it out, you're right, they all need replacing!) When I mentioned this to DavidW, he suggested a route even more in need of some love is Dirt Circus' second pitch. Skeptical of the anchors on that. So, that's my next objective for cleanup.

 

Thanks for the nice comments, all!

Edited June 16, 2010 by Otto