[TR] Dome Peak - Southwest Peak - South Face to Southwest Ridge to Summit Traverse 9/10/2012

[Bill8]

Trip: Dome Peak - Southwest Peak - South Face to Southwest Ridge to Summit Traverse

 

Date: 9/10/2012

 

Trip Report:

Climbed what might have been a couple new pitches on the far left side of the south face of the Southwest Peak of Dome on Saturday. I'm still somewhat uncertain about the names of the features we climbed , but I'll do my best to describe the route we followed.

 

To get to the start of the climbing we descended southeast from the Dome-Chickamin Col on rock bands and snow. We then traversed on exposed and gravelly fourth class ledges to the far left side of the south face of the Southwest Peak.

 

Our climb began with two four star 200 foot pitches. The first climbed a series of cracks, one 5.9+ finger and hand crack that involved some arete climbing and a sketchy loose flake, a perfect 50' 5.8 splitter hand crack, and a cool 50' 5.9 squeeze with a finger crack on the wall for pro.

 

The start of pitch 1:

 

Below the squeeze on pitch 1:

 

The next pitch was 5.9+ hands followed by some nebulous terrain that included a nice 5.9 lieback section.

 

Hand crack on pitch 2:

 

These two pitches deposited us on some third and fourth class terrain on what I believe is the southwest ridge. We unroped and scrambled about 300 feet to get to the bottom of a broken face. I think this is the face mentioned in the description for the 1992 Southwest Ridge route that is in the green Beckey Guide. A delicate section of 5.10a slab, corner, stemming and lie-backing with thin pro lead to easier but loose terrain. Another pitch of loose mid fifth landed us on a tower south of the summit.

 

Some down-climbing and traversing lead to the bottom of a perfect 5.8+ white granite dihedral with a good finger crack. We climbed the dihedral and escaped right using a fun undercling flake to avoid a large roof.

 

Beautiful dihedral:

 

 

Two more pitches of loose low to mid-fifth brought us to the summit of the Southwest Peak.

 

From the summit of the Southwest Peak we began a simul-climbing traverse. This traverse is in the Beckey Guide. The climbing ranged from enjoyable and exposed hand-traversing on good knife-edge granite, to horrifying sections of crumbling knife-edge dirt and loose rock.

 

Traverse:

 

 

Our late start meant that we completed the dirt traverse and some of the other final sections of the ridge by headlamp as massive lighting storms lit up the sky in the south and east. More than a bit nerve-wracking, but it all worked out. At the end of the traverse we descended to our camp just below the summit of Dome.

 

A few bonus photos...

 

Glacier at sunset:

 

Ridge at sunset:

 

Bivy at the col:

 

Descending the Dome Glacier:

 

Gear Notes:

Doubles from small sizes to #2, 1 #3, 1 #4

 

Approach Notes:

Rode bikes 9 miles up Suiattle River Road, then approached via Downy Creek and Bachelor Creek. The trail up Bachelor Creek was not as bad as I expected. Camped the first night at 6.5 Mile Camp. Camped the second night at the col below the summit of Dome. From 6.5 Mile Camp to the Col took about 12 hours. Awesome bivy spot, but very exposed and windy. Trickles of running water. Hiked and biked out from the Col to the car in one brutal shot. Took about 14 hours. The final mile of the bike ride, by headlamp in the rain, was a bit surreal.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Bill8

[Le Piston]

Some stout climbing there gentlemen! Thanks for the TR and pictures. Sounds like a character building exit out.

[Rad]

Cool outing. Sounds like quite an adventure.

[mountainsloth]

every time i see photos of this place it blows my mind. it looks like Washington's own mini Bugaboos.

Thanks for sharing, it looked like a great adventure.

[layton]

wayne and I couldn't believe the potential when we went in there. still tons to do - some of the best rock ANYWHERE

[Sol]

Inspiring climb! Thanks for the TR.