St. Peters Dome – Day 4 | chossclimbers.com

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Sunday May 4th

Jeff and George at south saddle.

And so the same routine went down again though this time we were joined by Jeff Thomas and George Cummings. George had tried the Dome in the 1960’s twice but did not go above the 96-foot band. George climbed with Dave Jensen on the FA’s of some of our favorite routes at Smith including Sky Ridge and Sky Chimney (rest of our Smith favorites it seems were put up by either Jeff or Jim Anglin, rest in peace) and so Shirley had a good time hanging out with him at the saddle while Jeff & I cleaned off our fixed shit. I left about 2 or 3 of our pins fixed high on pitch 2 mainly because I thought that messing with those might bring half the Dome on top of me (and to mark our passage). We rapped down the Darr Route in one shot maxing out our double 70 meter lines. Once both ropes were on the ground, I felt as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders – The Dome had allowed us to climb her and to live through the ordeal. We hiked out happily knowing that we’ll never have to do that approach again!

Photos

Shirley (her 5th time hiking up this) and Blondie (her 6th time up) hiking up to the base of St. Peters Dome. Rock of Ages is visible above. Great Hike!!

Blondie always enthusiastic about hiking up to the backside saddle of St. Petes!!

Jeff and George at south saddle of St. Peters Dome (May 4, 2008).

Don’t touch, don’t make a noise or the whole thing will go. Example of vertical boulder field on south face of St. Peters Dome. Photo taken on May 4th when we went up there to take down our fixed ropes. Rock Of Ages is in background.

Pitch 1 belay bolt on our chosen line up south face of St. Peters Dome (May 4, 2008).

Jugging out fixed line. This is pitch 2 and the upper (60 foot) band…probably the crux of our chosen line (May 4, 2008).

LIttle St. Peters Dome as seen from the south face of (the Big) St. Peters Dome.

Jeff (left) and I (two red figures on the grassy ledge) atop the 52-foot band on the South Face of St. Peters Dome. This is day 4 on The Dome when Shirley, Jeff, George (Cummings) and I hiked up and cleaned the ropes off. Photo below shows my photo of Jeff at about this time (May 4th, 2008).

Jeff atop all the difficult terrain on St. Peters Dome (top of “52-foot band”) on the fourth day when we went up there to clean our stuff up. View is west here and Rock Of Ages dominates the background & a bit of the mighty Columbia shows behind Jeff. Long range shot of this moment from below is above (May 4, 2008).

Rapping down the original line of St. Peters. Photo by George Cummings (May 2008).

This photo provides the final confirmation that there exists climbable granite in Oregon! Jeff is rapping off of St. Peters Dome via Darr Route (original ascent line; May 2008).

Some pins that we cleaned from The Dome…can you tell which one is not ours/not modern (May 4, 2008)?

George and Shirley (& Blondie about to get tagged on the eyelid by a yellowjacket) relaxing at the south saddle on the backside of St. Peters Dome (May 4th, 2008).

Blondie got tagged by (I’m guessing) a yellow jacket on her eyelid on the final day of our Dome nightmare. Compare this shot from Turkey Monster. This is for our TR (May 4th, 2008).

Jeff, Shirley & yours truly after the ropes came down and we all realized we’re done with the nightmare that is St. Peters Dome (May 4th, 2008 at South Saddle). Photo by George Cummings – thank you!

Shirley hiking down at the end of our final day on The Dome (May 2008).

Shirley and Jeff hiking out on the final day of our St. Peters Dome adventure. Compare this shot with the one from early 2005 when the young forest was not there (and the approach was easier; May 4, 2008).

East face of St. Peters Dome as viewed from nearby Katanai Rock in winter of 2008. This GREAT photo was taken by Tim Olson (all copyrights belong to him) who also generously agreed to let me post it here (thank you very much!). The line we did follows the left hand side profile of the formation through the steep lower bands. For sense of scale, the trees you see are full size 60+ footers.

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