P1, fourth class up the main dihedral until you feel the need to rope up. We set up a belay just above a thorn bush (didn't bring the loppers...sorry) in a thin crack (blue-yellow TCU). P2, avoid the heavily vegetated corner by climbing the fist crack on the right face. Traverse back to the corner through a broken section. Face climb to a flake with a small bulge that may be easier (and less scary) now that the choss has been cleaned. Another fist crack variation exists on the right face here. A stemming crux awaits near the top of the route. There are some loose rocks on the belay ledge, so be careful not to kick them loose onto your belayer (we dislodged the loosest stuff). An enjoyable outing.
Location
Just right of the lowest part of the buttress is the start up a shallow corner which eventually becomes the main dihedral. From the belay ledge at the top, walk around the boulder and look for the yellow slings with rappel rings. A 70 meter rope is needed for the rappel.
Protection
Lots of #3 Camalots would be handy, I only had one and used it as my first piece. I manged to survive with a standard rack of medium cams. Belay from the ledge with a gear anchor and then walk around the boulder to the rappel station. There is no fixed gear on this route.
By Ryan Brough From: Arvada, Colorado Oct 14, 2007
Que Saudade (pronounced "kay sao DODGE ee") is a Portuguese expression for the feeling/emotion of missing someone or something. On the first ascent, I felt like I was missing a few things, like four more #3 Camalots. Ben must have trundled about 1000 pounds of rock while seconding. I'm hoping that it took out all of the vegetation. I was just happy that I didn't pull all of that choss onto Ben. The few rocks I pulled narrowly missed him. Perhaps I was missing some common sense, but the sense of adventure one gains while exploring the rocks would be missed even more if it were no longer an option to climb.
Not bad, not great. The climbing is fun and somewhat sustained, but it could use more cleaning of dirt and shrubbery. I climbed on the face on the right side of the dihedral for most of its length, good cracks, and moved into the corner above the chossy looking stuff. I brought two #3 camalots, a #3.5 and a green tricam and used them all. Nice find.
When I pulled up the rope to belay my partner I somehow dislodged a large rock which very narrowly missed my unsuspecting partner. I had no idea this had happened and was curious what was up when my partner exhibited signs of distress at the top. So needless to say be very careful of how you run your rope with respect to the looseness of any given route.
Lonesome Buttress
RSS Feed
