St. Peters Dome – Day 3 | chossclimbers.com

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Saturday April 26th

Shirley and Blondie on approach.

Two weeks later we were back at it again this time we were joined by Jeff Thomas and John Leary whom Jeff asked to take some photos. Not sure if John knew what kind of screwed up hike he was getting himself into but he generously shot photos all day long. Shirley and I jugged up pitch 1 and Shirley made herself comfy with a belay seat – a good call as pitch 2 would take me 3 hours to lead. I started by traversing west to an adjacent trough on good rock. This would keep any shit falling from above (& there was much) away from my belayer. After mostly clean aid I was soon at the top of the 96 foot band.

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Shirley & Jeff on the summit.

I traversed the intermittent ledge west 20 feet to the base of what I guessed would offer best passage through the upper band. What looked like a decent splitter from below now had some warning signs of an expando flake. I would bounce extra gently on the small cams for the next 20 feet as I thought I might peel off the whole 20 foot column of basalt off of the face. Above the column the rock deteriorated drastically to its worst so far. I did a leftward run-around a loose façade above me – a 10-foot “wall” of rock separated from the dome by an inch of airspace. The rock around this was crap too: body-weight KB placements in deteriorating shit. Each subsequent placement took longer to find and would not take bounce tests. I kept thinking that the rock façade to my right was gonna go and sever my rope should I hit a KB too hard. I finally got a mid-size angle in shit rock that held a gentle bounce. I could top-step in my aiders. Nothing looked good until I started digging out carpets of moss. I found what looked like a yellow Alien slot. I placed it – two lobes engaged, two not so much. I wondered what would stop my fall. I eased onto the Alien and it held. Above, more mud and moss digging produced a solid-looking crack. Only now did I notice the horrendous rope drag that my run-around was causing. I could hardly move. I knew that the mantle would require free climbing on moss and loose boulders. It took me half an hour to pull up 15 feet of slack 2 inches at a time. When I finally had enough, I went for the free top-out – pulling on moss, blocks, branches and crawling through mud and moss of the lip. The approach gully below was getting carpet-bombed with hundred-pound rocks. And then my feet were over the edge on the 25-degree mossy boulder field atop the upper band.

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Shirley rapping off from St. Peters Dome.

There was a large block at the edge of my reach. It seemed fixed in place. I hand drilled a belay bolt, clipped it, dug my feet into the moss and boulders and yelled off belay. The suffering continued as Shirley had to jug on the rope hanging from my harness. Even the belayer takes on risks on this nightmare. Shirley dislodged some rocks which grazed her helmet and cut her earlobe while jugging. Once she topped out, she further cleaned the edge of big blocks. We hiked up and left to a huge tree 40 feet further and fixed the rope for Jeff, with our lone bolt keeping the rope off of the worst of the boulder field. The last pitch is lower angle on giant boulders securely held in place by moss. I led it, Shirley followed and Jeff free-soloed. Soon all three of us were on the summit flipping through the pages of the summit register. The partial register starts with a 1962 ascent and ends with Wayne’s 1994 solo ascent. We took photos of some of the entries and posed for summit shots for John on the Mystery Trail. We rapped down to the top of the upper band but then decided to leave ropes fixed in place for the following weekend as we wanted to rap down the Darr Route to scope things out.

Photos

Shirley and Blondie taking a break on (another) the hike up to St. Peters Dome’s south face (Apr. 26, 2008).

Shirley and I at the base of the South Face Direct route. Our fixed lines (pith 1) are in the background. Photo credit goes to Jeff Thomas (Apr. 26, 2008).

Racking up for pitch 2 of St. Peters Dome – heavy on the thin/short KB’s though not as heavy as it was for pitch 1. Photo credit goes to Jeff Thomas (Apr. 26, 2008).

Getting ready to jug our fixed lines up pitch 1. Photo was taken by Jeff Thomas who joined us on this second day of our efforts (April 26, 2008).

Starting the lead of pitch 2 of our line on south face of St. Peters Dome – unlike P1 (pure KB nailing), this was a mix of clean & hammer aid and was by far the crux of the climb. Total fucking nightmare (April 26, 2008).

Shirley belaying me on pitch 2 of our St. Peters Dome climb…she made herself comfy with a belay chair and a heavy duty down jacket for the 3 hours of it would take me to cover the next 60 feet (April 26, 2008).

Shirley hanging out at the pitch 1 belay (~15 feet below the top of the 96-foot band) on our south face route on St. Peters Dome. Rock is much worse than it looks and it looks like shit. Photo was taken by John Leary (all copyrights belong to John Leary) on Apr. 26th, 2008.

Leading pitch 2 on our south face line up St. Peters Dome. Photo was taken by John Leary (all copyrights belong to him) from somewhere up on the parent cliff and is used here with permission (thank you John!). I’m in red and Shirley (in yellow) is belaying from top of pitch 1. Vertical field of choss. Summit day, April 26, 2008.

Leading pitch 2 of our St. Peters Dome line. South face visible in shot with Shirley in yellow (hanging atop P1 belay on the “96-foot band”) & yours truly in red starting up into the “52-foot band”. The mighty mighty Columbia is below. Photo credit and copyright belongs to John Leary – it was posted with permission (Apr. 26, 2008)!

Pulling up slack (bad rope drag) for the free topout on the 52-foot band. Photo by John Leary (all copyrights belong to John Leary) – thank you! This was horrible – carpet bombing campaign with 100 pounders against the approach gully down below…those boulders above my head now can be examined at base (Apr. 26, 2008).

Above the crux on pitch 2 on south face of St. Peters Dome. Now just have to tunnel through carpets of moss and mud to mantle onto a 25 degree boulder field. Shirley belaying at hanging stance atop P1. Photo taken by our camera set on timelapse function (Apr. 26, 2008).

Who is this asshole? Self-portrait on the boulder field above all major difficulties and after tunneling through mud and carptes of moss. A fucked up pitch (Apr. 26, 2008).

A bolt and a fat ass wedged into a hanging boulder field – a perfectly SRENE anchor for fixing the rope (Apr. 26, 2008).

We retrieved much booty on this climb, like this here a perfectly good rap webbing (Apr. 26, 2008).

Jeff atop the 52-foot band on the south side of St. Peters Dome. John, our kind photographer, can be seen below on right (descending the talus field of the Mystery Trail; April 2008).

Shirley staring the final pitch on St. Peters Dome atop the 52-foot band. Photo was taken by John Leary (all copyrights belong to him) from somewhere up on the parent cliff and is used here with permission (thank you John!). Note that the trees are pretty “fully sized”. The tree down below is on the Darr Route atop the 96-foot band (Apr. 26, 2008).

Shirley on the final, low 5th class (though a tad loose – boulders securely held in place by moss) pitch to the summit of St. Peters Dome. Photo by Jeff Thomas (who free soloed this section). In the background is the Rock Of Ages (Apr. 26, 2008).

Jeff loving the summit of St. Peters Dome…the Mazama-sponsored register box is also visible (Apr. 26, 2008).

Jeff signing the summit register while Shirley is busy picking dirt out of her eyes (Apr. 26, 2008).

An excerpt from the summit register atop St. Peters Dome…these are not the oldest ascents but the funner reads…is there a common theme here. We probably climbed a variation of the route put up by the Kirkpatrick brothers by the way (Apr. 26, 2008).

Shirley (in yellow), yours truly (red), and Jeff (blue/gray) on the summit of St. Peters Dome. Note Shirley’s belay seat hanging atop pitch 1 (blue dot). Photo was taken by John Leary from somewhere up on the parent cliff. All copyrights belong to him (Apr. 26, 2008)

Shirley and I on the summit of St. Peters Dome signing the register. First entry dates back to 1967 and the latest (5th entry) dates to 1994 (last known ascent prior to ours and first solo of tower). Photo by Jeff Thomas (Apr. 26, 2008).

Shirley loving the St. Peters Dome climb – classic, soooo classic!!!!

Shirley starting the descent from the summit of St. Peters Dome. This is looking roughly SW (Apr. 26, 2008).

Shirley rapping off from St. Peters Dome in the afternoon light. The photo also shows the steepness of the 96 & 52 foot bands (which sometimes is hard to see when looking up…early May 2008).

Post climb (summit in the bag) junk food with John the photographer (left) and Jeff (busy eating). Oddly enough we found the Mazama annual with Jeff’s article on the history of St. Peters Dome climbing in our mailbox that evening.

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