Birdhunter Buttress 

"nice old bolts", is that an oxymoron? I have not done this route, but I've heard it and nearby Paiute Pillar are runout and a bit loose.

I did the Birdhunter Buttress yesterday and I think a few things should be added.

First, the route is approximately 13 pitches and is a solid Grade IV.

Second, there are some very old bolts on the route. Until these bolts are replaced I would strongly recommend against using them for anchors. My gut instinct is that most of these bolts will not hold bodyweight much less a fall. There are places to build anchors throughout the route.

Third, the route has a lot of bad rock on it. Should the bolts be replaced I think this route will see a lot of traffic. It is a great route in a great position. If the route sees a bit more action and the bad rock is pulled off it will become yet another classic moderate.

Fourth, the best descent is via Brown Recluse. At the top of the last pitch of Birdhunter Buttress you will traverse from the "belay bolt" around the corner to the left. There is a large ledge here with some vegitation on it. It appears that you could continue up a low fifth class gully from here. Instead look down the gully below the continuation gully. There you will see two bolts with chains. These bolts are some of the last bolts on Brown Recluse.

Rappel to the first set of chains you find. This set of chains are in an EXTREMELY awkward position, but if you don't stop at the chains you will not make the next set of chains. One of the books says to rappel with a seventy meter rope, I don't know how well that would work with this sketchy top section of rappelling and would recommend having two ropes for the descent.

After the initial awkward rappelling situation, the remainder of the rappels to the ground are somewhat straight forward.

I strongly recomend Birdhunter Buttress to those who are solid 5.9 leaders. You don't want to take falls on those old bolts!

Jason

I climbed the route with Jason and he is right on.

I gave the route 3 stars, but this could go to 4 if the bolts were replaced. The bolts are the original Urioste 1/4" bolts, totally rusted, and SUPER sketch. Don't fall, because any pro you can get in in the middle pitches is in kinda sandy white rock. The top pitches are stellar and actually protect very well along a right facing corner and up to a chimney.

Way to steal my thunder Jason...

(Edited in March 2008, see also the notes in my later post.)

Jason Martin, Stephen Schmid, Andy Davis, and I replaced 21 of 25 bolts on the first 7 pitches (bolts provided by the ASCA). We skipped a few bolts in the interest of time, and the upper pitches still need rebolting. With the appropriate strategy (maybe take a screamer, and be willing to supplement or ignore bolts in favor of your own gear) you can climb this route pretty safely.

Another 18-20 bolts have yet to be replaced. Most, but not all, of the old 1/4 inch bolts would hold 1-2 short falls in my opinion. However, based on the experience of removing them, a couple of those remaining probably will not hold a fall ... and you can't tell which ones are truly useless by looking. Fortunately it is seldom far to more pro. The old 3/8 inch bolts will still hold several falls each - once they begin to pull and bend, then they can no longer be trusted, in my opinion. The old 1/2 inch bolts just need new hangers - we gave up trying to get them out after a couple of attempts. As Jason suggests in his note above, there are gear placements that make some of the bolts (both lead and belay) redundant.

Despite rumors of loose rock, I thought everything was pretty solid for Red Rock sandstone. However, my partners kicked off a couple of small chunks on the face pitch (p3), so keep your eyes peeled, and put a helmet on your belayer. There is also some soft rock on p4 in the wide crack, but the climbing there is easy and bolted.

Approach

Description

Descent/Retreat

We had one or two peregrines swooping between belayer and climber around p5 and p6 on 9 January 2007!

(edit) And again in March 2008 . A great spot for bird watching!

this is an okay line up a great wall. i'd give 3 stars for the first 7 pitches, then 0 stars for the last ones. so my advice? rap after seven pitches (when the new bolts end). if you want to keep going for kicks, all pitches are easily linked with the one above making for a 7 pitch outing to the top of rainbow wall. the descent raps for brown recluse are easily found just above and left. you're looking for the chain anchors. 70m cord is perfect. big thanks to the guys that updated the hardware on the first 7. enjoy.

There are two photos elsewhere on this site that give good views of this route:

from Karsten
and from Gigette

We did a small amount of re-bolting on this route on 21 March 2008. This time the team included Burt Lindquist and Idan Peretz, with bolts again provided by ASCA.

All of the main belay stations and intermediate belay stations that have bolts are now in pretty good shape: they all have either a solid old 1/2" bolt or a new 3/8" bolt, and most have both. Most of the half inch bolts could use new hangers, and there are still old bolts that need to be chopped to return this route to its original 2-bolts per belay anchor status. If you are thinking about doing this route, feel free to contribute by replacing hangers - you shouldn't need a permit for that!

The most critical lead bolts were all replaced in our first re-bolting effort. Actually, it doesn't look like anyone has ever fallen on any of the bolts on this route. As you would expect in one of these Urioste routes, the emphasis is on fun, so the harder sections are tightly bolted or easily protected with trad gear or both. Where we have left old bolts, the climbing is either easy or it is not far to your next gear. In a few cases (notably in the crux pitch and in the dihedral below the chimney), the old bolts have been rendered less critical by the development of modern cams in finger sizes.

We climbed through the middle of the penultimate pitch this time, and rapped the route, leaving slings and rap rings at the main belay stations. If weather or sloth makes it necessary for you to bail, it's pretty easy to back off.

First ascent 4/24/1982. "This route was named for an arrow head that was found on top of the first pitch." From Joanne Urioste's Red Book Supplement.

Birdhunter Buttress is in such an outstanding location and the adventure aspect is truly sublime. We pitched out the climb as recommended above by Doug Hemken. This turns the 12+ pitch climb into a more reasonable 7 pitches. The effort performed by the rebolting crew on the first three pitches was appreciated greatly. Pitches 4, 5, and 6 still sport the rusty quarter-inchers and provide a serious hazard to the climber.

Where Doug Hemken wrote: "The most critical lead bolts were all replaced... Where we have left old bolts, the climbing is either easy or it is not far to your next gear." I found this to be somewhere between a little disingenuous and a complete misrepresentation. Early in the day I was indeed skipping the "coffin nails" but on the upper pitches I was compelled to clip at least four or five in a row. Coupled with bad rock, a fall was plausible yet unthinkable. As far as I'm concerned, the rebolting is only half done, and until completed I give this climb a red flag.

That being said, the first three pitches were really fun, four star climbing. I think my favorite however was the chimney on pitch 6. I believe this was the overall crux and the only real 5.9 climbing on the route. A lot of back-to-feet chimneying over space, a little of the squeeze and then a unique down-and-out move to gain the slab. Unfortunately this pitch is made extremely sketchy, with long runouts on bad bolts.

We opted to bring double 60m ropes in case we found a need to rap the route. But that wasn't necessary because we made it to the Brown Recluse rappels. This was easily found only because we had Jason Martin's good information above. Doubles were a mistake and I would highly recommend a single 70m if doing this rappel route. This apparently possible based on multiple sources. Rapping Birdhunter would have been a nightmare given all the lower angle, snaggy rock. The Brown Recluse descent line was almost completely vertical and smooth - the anchors were a little "creative", but they got us down quickly.

A fun route, definitely should be linked-up as seven pitches. To fully finish the route, the last pitch ascends from the top of the pillar after the final chimney pitch, directly up through blocky terrain and then over the small roof (5.5, two "bolts"). Continue up another fifty feet or so until the 4th/5th class eases off. From here a short scramble gets you to the top of the buttress formation and beautiful panoramic views. Supposedly you can continue to the top of Rainbow Wall from here, but it looked like another three or four pitches of really chossy low fifth class - and then a long descent down Oak Creek Canyon. If you plan on rapping Brown Recluse, the top anchors are right up top as well and easy to spot (with no need for any scrambling around the loose gully as others have suggested if you head left too early on the last pitch).

For us the crux would have to be the last chimney pitch, but compared to other chimneys at Red Rocks (Epinephrine for example) was no harder than 5.8. While sustained, we felt the long face pitches were definitely soft for 5.9, even by Red Rocks standards. That being said, the last couple of pitches do contain stretches with only rusty 1/4" bolts for protection. Be confident at the grade before heading up this route.

Regarding the Brown Recluse rappel, it IS possible to do it with a single 70M rope. However, on at least 2 of the 9 or so raps, the next station was essentially at the end of the rope. Fortunately, the heavier of us went first to establish the next station and "tether" the lighter of us with his daisy chain (and secure the rope!). The final rap dumped us out, at the end of the rope, onto a narrow ledge 20 feet off the deck, but we were able to capture the rope end and scramble into a corner to downclimb. As mentioned above, the stations were difficult for us to spot from above, and the 2nd or so was positioned so as to require us to swing out in space and sort of deadpoint a daisy chain clip. Not sure I understand the rationale for that placement ...

Further note on the above - that rappel is far scarier and more dangerous than anything on Birdhunter Buttress itself. The stations have clearly been set up to allow the absolute minimum number of raps on a 70m rope, with no consideration given to safety or comfort.
The third set of anchors is not only "extremely awkward" as some have said, but downright dangerous and to be honest, a bit terrifying - requiring you to swing out over a big drop, desperately clip yourself into the rap rings and then literally dangle in open space.
The next set of anchors is directly below on the last ledge you can see, but completely invisible until you are at them.

After that we encountered two or three rappels where you clip into the anchor with just the last six inches of rope in your hand (sometimes while hanging!), one station where someone less than 5'6" would not be able to reach the rings, and one station consisting only of two bolts, various pieces of tattered cord and two non-locking binners. Many fully hanging belays as well, many aggravatingly just ten vertical feet past nice ledges.

So while a single 70m will get you down (unless your rope gets stuck in which case you will die hanging there since there is no way to climb up) take a six pack to the base cause you are going to need a drink when you get back to solid ground.

Does anyone know if the bolts on the upper pitches have been updated yet? Thanks.