[TR] Darrinton - Blueberry Route - Exfoliation Dome 6/9/2013

[mattp]

Trip: Darrinton - Blueberry Route - Exfoliation Dome

 

Date: 6/9/2013

 

Trip Report:

I scored a partner through casadeclimbers and we headed out there to find that, as reported, the road was open and there was still some snow left on the Granite Sidewalk (accross the valley we could see there is still that early season patch below Total Soul as well).

 

We hit the trail at the bright and early hour of about 11:00 a.m. but the forecast was for a cool days with mixed clouds and sun so we weren't too scared.

 

The Blueberry Route is fun but thost stacked flakes in the middle upper part of the route are not feeling any more stable with time. Its hard to tell when but, one of these days, there'll be some big stuff sluffing off the route and bombarding the Granit Sidewalk. I'd avoid the area on super hot days in the summer or during early season freeze thaw events in the fall. Seriously. Apart from climbers, extreme weather seems to help trigger things and some seriously big bad rockfalls may result.

 

The upper part (above the Blueberry Terrace) was fun and we descended by the West Slabs route. With about 4 or 5 single rope rappels followed by about 5 or six doubles, and some careful rope management, we got down without a single stuck rope and without knocking a single rock off.

 

Joe on the second to last rappel.

 

I noticed one bolt on Westward Ho missing a hanger - the second bolt on the third pitch, I think.

 

The Sidewalk was a little wet in spots, but not bad.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Standard rack and two ropes.

 

Approach Notes:

15 minutes over sandy boulders leads to the first slabs. 1000 feet of class three leads to the climbing.

[curtveld]

The Blueberry Route is fun but thost stacked flakes in the middle upper part of the route are not feeling any more stable with time. Its hard to tell when but, one of these days, there'll be some big stuff sluffing off the route and bombarding the Granit Sidewalk. I'd avoid the area on super hot days in the summer or during early season freeze thaw events in the fall. Seriously. Apart from climbers, extreme weather seems to help trigger things and some seriously big bad rockfalls may result.

 

Pretty common for a party to be hiking up the approach slabs while someone is up there climbing through those loose blocks. Yikes!

 

Sounds like the Buttress is due for a trundling project?

[Quarryographer]

+1 Trundle!!! Leave the gf a safe distance down the trail to warn others though...

[mattp]

I don't think a climber would be able to dislodge them but it might be worth a try. The worrisome ones are pretty large - like in the order of 40' x 20' x 4' or similar size and they are lying on a low angle slab.

[hanman]

Great that the road's open now! The blocks that Matt refers to are WAY too extensive to trundle :: , and will likely affect a lot of surrounding rock. In most places on Exfo, the layers are arranged like onion skin, hard to tell what's stuck or not when big rockfall happens. Strange things can happen in all directions when the next layer is decompressed. The GF or any others in any path below the sidewalk would be in a bad spot, all the way down to the road. Luckily, it seems most of these spontaneous events happen in the winter months. Let's hope the trend continues-

 

MH

[curtveld]

The worrisome ones are pretty large - like in the order of 40' x 20' x 4' or similar size and they are lying on a low angle slab.

 

I did the route in 2012 and had some concerns about some smaller blocks in that corner - maybe the size of a car hood or smaller? They wiggled a bit but seemed pretty well wedged for the short term anyway. Definitely not suitable for pro or big pull-up moves though.