Helen's Dome is a large granite formation located west of Cheesman Reservoir. There are actually 4 separate rock formations - Sheep Rock, Helen's Dome, Baby Helen and Acid Rock. The climbing on Helen's Dome is predominately face climbing, with feldspar crystals providing welcome relief from pure friction slab climbing. A few crack climbs are found on Helen's Dome, while many of the face climbs have short sections of crack climbing. The protection on Helen's is mostly from 3/8" bolts. A light standard rack (small wires, tcu's and cams/hex's up to 2") should provide enough gear to protect the crack sections of the face climbs. A larger rack is necessary for the pure crack climbs. The majority of the climbs on Helen's are 2 pitches long with rap stations at the belays. Climbers can either rap the route or continue to the top of Helen's on easy, sparsely protected slabs (about 300 feet of 5.2-5.5 depending on the route taken). To descend from the top of Helen's, head right around a large block on top, downclimb a short crack (easier than it looks) and scramble southwest towards Acid Rock until you can easily step down to solid ground. Acid Rock and Baby Helen are uphill and behind Helen's Dome. The climbs on Acid Rock are both crack and face climbs of exceptional quality. Again, 3/8" bolts provide protection for the face climbing with natural gear needed for the crack climbs. Double rope rappels will get you down. Baby Helen has 3-4 nice climbs (crack/face) on it.
Getting There
From Denver, take Hwy 285 south to Pine Junction. Turn left on State Hwy 126 east towards Deckers. Turn right on forest road #211 (about 3 miles before Deckers, just past Wigwam Picnic/Campground). This turn is marked by a sign pointing towards Cheesman Reservoir, Molly Gulch Campground, and Lost Valley Ranch. Follow signs towards Molly Gulch and Goose Creek Campground. About 1 mile from Molly Gulch campground, park in a pullout on the left (sign indicates parking for Sheep Rock climbers). Parking can also be found for a $4 fee in the pull-through by the bridge/restrooms in Molly Gulch campground. From the Sheep Rock parking area, head south towards the stream. Where the trail branches above the stream, go right towards the campground. A bridge in the campground allows easy access across the stream. Cross the bridge and follow the trail along the creek to the right for a few hundred ft. and then up the steep hill to the left. The trail then trends right around the top of the ridge to end up at a drainage/valley at the eastern edge of private property (the Lost Valley Ranch). (Note that some branches in the trail go more directly up and over the hill to the same place.) Go left across the drainage and follow a faint trail straight up the hill to the lower right corner of Helen's Dome (as seen from the trail). The trail zigzags up the path of least resistance through a field of huge boulders. One short slab scramble and a chockstoned gully that is passed by climbing the short wall to the left are the only difficulties. At the base of the dome head down left and across a couple of large rocks to the base of a short crack. Scramble up the crack and face (5.3?) about 30-40 feet to a large shelf with trees which serves as the base for the routes Buffalo Tears to Spree. Approach takes about 30 minutes. The drainage can be followed further east (left) and then up the hill (bushwhack, faint trail) to approach the routes on the left side of Helen's Dome (Moss Toss, etc.)
There are three options to approach Baby Helen's or Acid Rock: 1: Climb a route on Helen's and continue to the top. 2: From the point where the trail reaches the base of Helen's Dome, go right up the trail to the base of a HUGE right facing corner/slab system with a big tree about 50 feet up the corner. (Locate a bolt about 15 feet up & right from the tree). This corner/slab can be climbed in 4 long pitches (entirely bolted - mostly easy, max 5.7-5.8) or simul-climbed in one LONG pitch as a warm up (bring lots of long runners). 3: Continue past the corner to the right (follow 3-4 cairns heading right through a rockfall) and head up and left along a faint trail for several hundred feet. The trail tends to stay close to the Dome. Stray too far right and enter no-mans land. If followed correctly (lucky?), this trail ends up at the walk-off from the top of Helen's Dome. About 45 minutes. This trail also serves as the walk down from Helen's Dome/Acid Rock/Baby Helen's.
Descent: 1: Reverse the trail. Beware that the trail crosses rock which becomes extremely slippery when wet. Take EXTREME caution when descending in the rain. The trail zigzags through a huge boulder field with deep crevices/holes. Get off route and potentially get in BIG trouble. 2: Rappel the simul-climb with double ropes (both 60m). I'm not sure if this is any faster. Last time down (in the rain), we walked down faster than a party of 3 who rapped the simul-climb.
Just to add some more info. The route Buffalo Soldier on Helens has been entirely retrobolted. It used to be that the first bolt was something like 30 or 40 feet off the ground. Now it is better protected than the routes to either side.
06/21/03 This rock is pretty sweet, however there is a lot of strange 5.5-5.7 bolted climbs on the lower face. Compared to all the other climbing in this area, these are piss poor FAs. This area has good trad climbing from the 5.7-5.11 range, and I have never seen anyone there. Be aware of gunfire thoughout the surounding area.
On Saturday night, August 30, a raging rainstorm washed the bridge at the campground away that evening. It is amazing the power of water even in small stream. Once the runoff from the storm recedes, the stream should be easy to cross for the fall season. Next spring may be another story if we have a good snow pack in the mountains. Unsure whether it will be replaced with all the damage in the area from the Hayman fire.
Some one has removed lots of hagars on the date route. Whats up with that. That route was put up for people to enjoy without the tipical death runouts in the platte.
My name is Mike Carrington and the route is fractured fairytailes. I am trying to get more info on the routes on the north side of Helens. Peter hubbel and a guy named Darren told me of a web site but I can't find it and don't have much access to the web. Any help would be much appreciated.
The hangers were there a month ago.... Which pitches are they missing from? There is another route right of fractured (Way at the North end). 4 Pitches 5.9. It's the first part of the 5.9+/10- route on Acid. Another 4 pitch 5.8 in between the two was going to be finshed this weekend but it's a bit soggy.
By Darren Mabe From: Goulder, CO Jun 6, 2005 Gear Alert
The new route Matt is refering to is now called "Sticks'n'Stones" (5.8+/9-). Climbs the middle of the right side of Helens (starts about 200' left of big left facing flake) in 3 pitches and then some. The older route, "Roototop" (5.10-) (the other one Matt refered to), starts on the right side of the left facing flake. Roototop, ironically, climbs the far right side of Helen's, the middle of Acid, then you can run across the saddle to climb Velcro wall and top out on the very top of Sheeprock.
Both of these are slab routes with bolts for protection.
Regarding the protection bolts of Fractured Fairytales (AKA The Date Route): many of the hangers are gone, especially on the easier upper sections, but the belay anchors seem to still be there.
Fractured Fairytales-Many of the bolts are indeed gone. In fact, MOST of the bolts on the upper 4 pitches have been removed. All the anchor bolts are still there, but pitches that used to have 7-8 bolts now only have 2 or so. 20ft runouts are now 40-60ft. There are a few places you can supplement with gear- nuts, cams (BD#.5-3) and slings(4ft) for trees. But mostly it's just run out. Why are there people out there who just can't let others enjoy themselves? Why must they ruin things for everybody? Did they get picked last everytime for kickball in 4th grade? Rejected prom date? Not hugged enough by their mothers?
Why not just have a full-on hissy and remove all the bolts? Destroy all of someone's hard work not 75% of it. All you've accomplished is making the route more dangerous. And really, who benefits from that? Guess it's just not a hip-happenin time unless you can deck and kill yourself on a route.
In any case, it's a great and casual way to spend an afternoon. And it USED to be safe. But what fun is that?
I did Fractured Fairytales and the other new routes on the south face of Helen's back in July. Very fun stuff. I did add hangers to some of the bolts that were missing hangers so that you can climb the route with just quickdraws. It did seem a bit overbolted in places, especially since most of the route is fairly easy. Anyway, bring a selection of small wires to fit over the bolts with the missing hangers if you want to sew the route up. It's a good climb to do as a warm-up if you're en route to Acid Rock or to take rank beginners up.
Was that you on the north face on Saturday? We were hiking out after doing west face routes, and saw some people on the route that goes up to the saddle below acid crack. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the route. The pitches go 11a (or 11b variation to left), 9, 9 or something like that. The second pitch is one of the best in the Platte. I think the route name starts with an 'a'. Dammit! There was a monster Toyota truck in the parking area, I thought it might be Mike and the old timer. Hope things are going well.
Slim. Yeah that was just me up there, except I was bivied and working on a new route to the LEFT of Ankar Gate and SolArian. You might have mistaken my haul bag as a partner. darren.m.mabe@lmco.com
Just took a couple of friends up the main section of Fractured Fairytales today. I found that someone had removed a hanger from the belay anchors at the top of both pitches 3 and 4, leaving a single welded cold shut as an anchor. Simulclimbing with a party of 3 was not an option. I've replaced them with new hardware. Removing hangars from a route is one thing, but removing them from belay anchors is bad form. If you're planning on doing this route, be sure to take hangars and nuts along with you just in case.
Mi Chica and I climbed Darren's route Sticks 'n' Stones on 6/5/06, and the same (or at least similar) chopper did some work to the route. They chopped the 1st bolt on P1 and chopped 2 of 3 bolts at the anchor atop that pitch. They also chopped the second bolt on the origional third pitch. All other bolts seem untouched. The ones that were chopped were simply pounded flat leaving a very unsightly and unusable stud.
Current route condition: P1 190' 16 bolts small cams or nuts for start, P2 180' 12 (?) bolts + nuts in bad rock at chopped bolt. 5.8+/5.9 sustained, fun, and interesting climbing.
I could not understand the purpose for changing the route. Darren put it up in good style, ground up, and the bolts were never close, with an average of 7 to 8 bolts per 100'. There are NO routes near this one. The 'cracks' that were 'near' the very first bolt wouldn't protect a fall very well. The second bolt on the og. third pitch was near a crack, that was however the end of a questionable attached flake. Basically, in both places a protection bolt was resonable. And why remove the anchor at the stance on top of the 1st pitch, creating a 190' pitch with significant rope drag since it traverses where the anchor was.
The person(s) who is doing this seems to be 'correcting' the routes to thier standards, without the FAs permission nor any explanation for thier actions. Yes, nothing speaks louder than action itself, however, when it leaves other wondering what language they are speaking, it needs an explanation.
So, if you or someone you know is doing this, please post here why or contact me yourself. Routes will continue to go in. Bolts will be replaced, and probably subsequently chopped. The rock looses and creates an unsightly scar for the ones who wish to climb them. Explaining why the person needs to correct the route could help the bolters/choppers come to an understanding and hopefully a compromise.
Casey Bernal c a s e y b e r n a l @ h o t m a i l . c o m
Casey wrote: The person(s) who is doing this seems to be 'correcting' the routes to thier standards, without the FAs permission nor any explanation for thier actions. Yes, nothing speaks louder than action itself, however, when it leaves other wondering what language they are speaking, it needs an explanation.
This shit has been going on in the South Platte for over 30 years. The sad part is that the choppers never exposed who they are and why they are doing it.
Biggest chicken shits I have ever (not seen) in the climbing community.
Helen's Dome
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