This is a great route! As Cornachionne (sp?) says in his guide, "every pitch has character and excitement." The route is located on the west side of the Bridgers and summits the Bridger Jack Butte. As far as I remember, all of the pitches were less then 100'.
P1: Great hands splitter that starts off with 2.5 Friends and goes to #2 Camalots.
P2: Contrary to Cornachionne's description of this pitch, it is not dangerous or "r" rated. I can't remember exactly, but there might not be a fixed anchor at this belay and available pro might be less then perfect. Can't remember exactly, though. The crux is a bouldery sequence right off the belay, protected by good gear (finger piece). If you did blow this sequence, you would end up sitting on your belayer's head. Some people might find the low angle face climbing afterwards a little spicey, but there is definitely an easy way (and a hard way). My suggestion is to stay on the right side and not get lured out onto the face.
P3: This is where the fun really begins. Tunnel behind the pillar till you reach a gaping offwidth crack. Stem up until you can stand on the pillar and you are staring at the crack. Right here is a good place to use the #4 Camalot, if you brought it. I didn't have one, and had to push a #3.5 Camalot to a tipped out position to provide a little mental security for a slightly akward lunge into the offwidth. After one or two moves, you get good hands, though. The rest of this pitch is an awesome stembox with bomber hands in the corner.
P4: This is where Cornachionne's guide is seriously wrong, in my humble opinion. The book mentions something about sustained tight hands. Yes, there are some overhanging slightly sandy tight hands (#2 Friends), but they don't last long. After pulling the small bulge of tight hands, it quickly gets into cups, fists, and an occasional offwidth move. Pumpy pitch, but not sustained on the tight hands.
P5: A short jaunt up the last fifty feet or so of choss to the the top.
Rappel down to the notch on King of Pain, and then the same rappel.
Protection
A standard desert rack, meaning doubles up to a #3 Camalot, and one #4 Camalot. Seasoned hard desert climbers might not need the #4 Cam.
Make sure to continue P1 out of the pod and to a small ledge with a pin. Otherwise it is quite difficult for your partner to pass by.If you are "short" or not good at offwidth climbing (like me), the crux of pitch 3 is getting into the crack after chimneying behind the flake. A #4 camalot or wide cam is great for this. The rest of the pitch is quite casual and very cool!P5 is VERY loose to say the least. Overall Rim Shot is an enjoyable climb and in the shade most of the day which is nice if it's hot.
P1: definately don't stop at the stupid pod, contrary to IC guidebook suggestion.
We used a # 4.5, which corresponds to the new BD #5. It's not compulsory, but usefull twice:P3: when you exit the tunneling bit with a couple of unsecure wide moves. If you fell there, it's a 25-ft down and right pendulum into a narrowing chimney. You'd most definately regret it! P4: If you have the 4.5, you can always say you placed it to get the weight off your belt.
P5 is loose, but you're standing on a ledge, placing pro if you like, making a move etc. And your partner is not standing straight under. So, loose, yes, but not scary.
P3&4 form an awesome, unmistakable line which you can admire from the cliff base. Once at the belay between those two pitches, the panorama is stunning.
-- We linked Pitch 1 & 2 together with a 60m rope. -- Look for a single belay bolt on the ledge at the end of pitch 4 -- We didn't quite understand where P5 goes, you can easily traverse off and scramble to the summit. -- We rapped off the West side with 2 60m ropes, the last pull was difficult and we had to do ~20 feet of downclimbing.
Amanda and I climbed this on July 4th 2005. We were in the shade and were still really warm. We tried to do this a few months before after a few of the other Bridger Jacks, but we did not have a guide book and I climbed up the offwidth/chimney below pitch 2. I scored a #3 camalot on the bottom of the chimney that someone must have dropped while climbing the stembox. The straight up variation was not that bad, there was ok gear and it was a fun chimney.
The Bridger Jacks
RSS Feed
