Off_White Posted July 30, 2013 Posted July 30, 2013 Trip: Exfoliation Dome - Westward Ho! - needs a hanger! Date: 7/13/2013 Trip Report: After 30 some odd years climbing at Darrington I finally made my first trip to Exfoliation Dome. My son and I got a late start from Olympia, and left the car at 1:00, so we decided to do Westward Ho! rather than the longer Blueberry Route. Plenty of info on this fine friction outing, but here's a few current notes and reports. As Mattp noted from his recent rappel descent, there is a missing hanger. It's the second bolt on pitch 3. The threads are intact, it just needs nut, washer, and hanger. 3/8" stainless stud. Several hangers were loose, we finger tightened them, but I'm reminded that I want to add a double ended box wrench to my rack for just this sort of thing. I've heard this route is prone to loosening bolts for some reason. A wired over the stud did the trick, but it wasn't all that secure. We only did the first four pitches, opting not to continue up the adventure pitches. I'll have to go back to the Blueberry Buttress for my first summit of the formation. There was a party on the Blueberry Route, perhaps from Minnesota if their license plate meant anything. They were still a pitch shy of the terrace as we were halfway down the Sidewalk on the descent. Looked like they had a bit of an adventure ahead of them. All in all a fine bit of friction foonting, we had a great time and were back to the car in plenty of time to splash about in the creek and clean up on the drive out. As Matt noted in his recent report, this crag is great. Washington will definitely be worse off if the road in Clear Creek is closed due to budget cuts! Read about access issues on Washington Climbers Coalition website. Gear Notes: No gear used in the thin crack on pitch 2, only gear placed was a yellow master cam and a yellow C4 on pitch 4. Approach Notes: I think I need a guided trip up the Granite Sidewalk, we didn't find a great grotto bypass in either direction. Going up, we followed Whitelaw's "Weekend Rock" description of moving left into the woods, which was a bit of a bush thrash devoid of the promised "well worn path". Thinking he meant the other left, coming down we dodged into the woods on the other side, which revealed some trail traces, as well as a pair of shoes parked on the slab. The shoes were returned to their owner via the magic of the Lost and Found on this website. Quote
hanman Posted July 30, 2013 Posted July 30, 2013 Damn, that thing always needs a hanger. I swear I've replaced 10 on there since the FA, + a couple stations. Maybe we should bring some hilock nuts or sumptin...It would be fun to have a webcam up there to catch some avy action and the eventual detachment of the Blueberry Route as we know it. Welcome back to DTown, there are many great pitches to be had- Cheers! MH Quote
Riley81 Posted July 30, 2013 Posted July 30, 2013 I can think of a few bolts on that route I would not want to be missing on lead. Quote
curtveld Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 Actually I can't think of any bolts I wouldn't miss - it's a little on the sporty side. Nice TR Off Quote
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