Darrington conditions

Anyone been out to exfoliation dome recently? How are the roads and trails?

This is Exfoliation Dome from the summit of Whitehorse on 3/15, granite sidewalk looks like a good ski run right now...

You won't even make it up the road. Also before anyone else says it, stay home. 

Nice photo, Lane!  I was up the road on New Years Day and it was fine, but there has been lots of rain and snow since.

Lots of snow right now

really a piece of absolute shit, tht dome

The earliest I've ever been able to climb at Darrington is in late May or early June, the base of the wall still had a good size snow drift on it (this was at 3 O'clock) so we had to climb up in-between some routes on dirty but real easy slabs before traversing into the route that we wanted to climb. After that the rock was great, still a little bit of seepage in some places with plants and stuff but a great day of climbing!

blueberry buttress goes in march with crampons for first/second pitch

Elias thts just a lie, i heard the hole dome slid and thrs a glacier in its place

After a slow start, this has become a very informative thread!

I was there on the weekend (May 8th), along with 6 cars of hikers. Snow is almost up to the first bolt on Silent Running...maybe 15 feet short of it. First 4 pitches looked dry and very climbable, as did most of the big tree route. We had to punch through a small moat to get to 'under the bored walk' route, but that just made the first bolt closer. We saw no one on the trails or at the crag. There is a large sign on the pavement that says all trailheads are closed...but there are no gates. Your mileage may vary. We filled up our tank in our town and didn't stop anywhere up and back...other than the trailhead of course.

Quite a bit of traffic on the 9th as well, probably 5-6 parties on 3OC, mostly on the N Buttress routes. We had the only vehicle NOT parked at the trailhead!

Curt Veldhuisen wrote: Quite a bit of traffic on the 9th as well, probably 5-6 parties on 3OC, mostly on the N Buttress routes. We had the only vehicle NOT parked at the trailhead!

WTF has happened out there? I haven’t climbed up there in 5 years, but in my half dozen visits To 3 o’clock I’ve seen exactly 2 people. 

They can’t go to Squamish and they can’t climb at Index.

Went up to exfoliation and traversed to salami slabs afterwards. Tons of campers but only one group of climbers on that fork. One group reported 15 cars at the 3 o clock rock trailhead (may 9th)  

The Squire Pass hike can fill the TH with cars, especially when the high country hikes are still under snow, as they are now.  

Go anywhere BUT the north side of 3OC and you will find solitude.   

Darin Berdinka wrote: They can’t go to Squamish and they can’t climb at Index.

I had friends at Index last Friday. They said Rattletale was crowded and they had to divert to the crag above Private Idaho. Things are starting to loosen up a little. I'm still carrying hand sanitizer and a mask while I climb, for what it's worth. But then, I'm old.