Helen Wheels

Helen Wheels is the longest way to directly climb the west face of Helen's Dome (5.9 sport). Helen Wheels has three ways to go. First, the integral combines Fractured Fairytales (P1, six bolts, 5.6 sport), Gettin' the Groove (P2, 8 bolts, 5.9- sport), and Helen Wheels (pitches 3,4,5, & 6, 5.7 sport). The harder second variation is Helen Wheels Direct (5.10 sport). Third, a worthy gear lead climbs the great dihedral of Knockin' On Helen's Door (5.5 gear crack to a 7 bolt, 5.9+ slab). To reach the summit, all three variations climb the pitch four headwall (5.6, 37 meters). A single seventy meter rope can be used to descend.

ROUTE TOPOGRAPHIC IMAGE (better zoom in image bank below) 

I made at least one mistake on the topo. The Great Dihedral is marked as 40 met ers. After rechecking, the Great Dihedral pitch is really just 35 meters.

APPROACHES   

 

Helen Wheels can be approached two ways, either the south side Fairytales Approach or the northern Helen's Gully. The Helen's Gully approach skips the first pitch of Fairytales by traversing from Disney Dad southward across the Lower Bench to Gettin' the Groove  (5.9). The belay bolts atop pitch one of Fractured Fairytales can be reached unroped.

To follow the Fairytales Approach from the Molly's Gulch parking; hike into the old campground, turn right (upstream) to climb the powerline trail up and over the creek-side slabs, descend the horse trail to the creek-side meadow, leave the trail for a friendly gravel crossing of Goose Creek and the grassy meadow, climb open forest to a horse trail that leads south to the fenced entrance of Lost Valley Ranch, turn left (north) at the fence onto another ranch trail, and then shortly, leave the trail at the house sized boulder. A path below the boulder easily climbs to the crux Class III slab walking, ending at a cave with possible belay anchor trees.

After the cave, the steep path becomes reasonable. Climb the fading path higher than the start of Fairytales to reach the base of the wall. Rope up here for the 5.4 first pitches of either Helen Wheels Direct or Knockin' On Helen's Door. Both first pitches require a little gear. To do the bolted 5.6 first pitch of Fractured Fairytales, descend along the base to the toe of the slab. Mario HS

For Helen's Gully, keep hiking past the "house-sized boulder" on a parallel "horse trail up, northward, to a gentle pass with a boulder garden. To begin the ascent up Helen's Gully, at the saddle, turn right on a smaller path up past nice boulders. Once out of the gully, roping up for the short slab pitch of Disney Dad (5.3, 3 bolts) avoids the traditional and very exposed slab soloing to reach the Lower Bench.

HELEN WHEELS INTEGRAL

To bag the longest, quickdraws-only and most direct route to the summit of Helen's Dome, start with pitch one of Fractured Fairytales (5.5, 6 bolts, 30 meters, two rusty belay bolts on a nice ledge). Morning sun in the eyes can make the bolts hard to spot. From the first Fairytales belay, it is possible to step left, unroped, onto the lower bench of Helen's main face to get a good look at the routes Helen Highwater, Buffalo Soldier, Scatterbrain, Beam Me Up, Scotty, Fools Gold, and Face Value.

Looking down the first pitch of Fairytales: 

Pitch two; climb the single pitch route, Gettin' the Groove (5.9, 35 meters, 8 bolts). From the first Fairytales belay, clip the bolt above and stay right, avoiding the second bolt out left (Spree). Instead, head up easy ground to a ledge and the second bolt of Gettin' the Groove. The crux of the whole route is at the second bolt (5.9-). After chasing four more bolts, 5.8 R, cut right and up past two new bolts to the Pegmatite Pothole belay (Camp rapidlinks).

The Pegmatite Pothole Belay from the Spree belay:

Pitch three climbs the easy slab up to the Wet Crack Belay (5.6, 7 bolts, 30 meters, two Fixe ring hangers).

The Wet Crack Belay:

Pitch four is the steepest (5.6, 38 meters, 11 bolts including skipped rap anchor, two Fixe rings at the belay). After a direct start past a few bolts, traverse out right on jugs and then back left on more big holds. In the middle of the leftward Headwall Traverse, the bolts have been arranged closely to keep the rope away from a solid-but-detached two-foot-wide flake shaped like an ear. Finish the lead by climbing past two Camp-Rapid-Link equipped bolts up to the nice belay ledge with Fixe ring hangers (used for making the rap to Wet Crack 35 meters). Beware of the sheep sized boulder perched down left of the belay.

Pitch five heads straight up to the flat area called the Football Field (5.7, 3 bolts & needs two more per comments, ring & rapid link belay, 30 meters).

Looking up at pitch six:

Pitch six is easy slab past one bolt (5.0, 1 bolt, 40 meters to double rapid-links).

Pitch seven is marked with green dots on the topo because most climbers walk the summit slabs unroped.

Ed Quesada on the summit:

Richard's summit photo shows the 5.5 solo down-climb that begins the connecting hike to Acid Rock, Baby Helen's, and the upper Helen's Gully (one rap bolt to replace the snatched rope anchor). Big Horn sheep solo this!

HELEN WHEELS DIRECT VARIATION

Pitch one of the Direct starts 40 meters up right of Fairytales, where the approach path reaches the dome's base. There are some flat rocks to rope up on. It has no bolts and can be protected with gear to pass a bulge on perfect rock. Cross Fairytales at that routes' second bolt (a few cams, 20-meters to Fixe rings). To climb the longest line on Helen's, start with pitch one of Fairytales, clip the rusty belay bolts and continue up right past a couple Fairytales' pitch two bolts, then belay from the Fixe ring hangers.

Pitch two has a bulge at the third bolt requiring hard pulls and wicked yoga using tiny sharp and breakable holds, (5.10). The climbing slowly eases past five more bolts and ends at the Pegmatite Pothole Belay (8 bolts, 30 meters, double Camp rapid links). Grabbing the draw helps a little to pass the crux.

KNOCKIN' ON HELEN'S DOOR VARIATION 

Pitch one starts the same flat rocks as the Direct, but angles right to belay at the start of the Great Dihedral on the Pine Needle Ledge (bolts with rapid links).

Pitch two, the Great Dihedral, liebacks the clean 5.5 dihedral with cam protection. I like having a couple of #4 C4s, because they require less yoga to place than using just smaller cams. After the easy dihedral, seven bolts lead to a "Shallow Pothole Belay" (5.9+ thin face, bolted closely, 35 meters).

Pitch three joins upper Helen Wheels. A bolt out left of the "shallow pothole belay" connects to the third pitch of Helen Wheels, ending at the Wet Crack Belay (maybe 5 bolts, 25 meters). Then, go up the pitch four headwall and beyond to the summit.

 Alternatively, climb directly above the shallow pothole belay all the way to Ed's Place (5.5, 6 bolts, 55 meters). From Ed's, connect to the "pitch four headwall" of Helen Wheels via "A little Piece of Helens" - a traverse north from Ed's Place to join the middle of Helen Wheels' "pitch four headwall" (five small cams to 0.5, long slings, 6 or 7 quickdraws, 35 meters). From Ed's Place, it is also possible to walk right on the ledge and finish via the upper pitches of Fractured Fairytales.

RAPPELLING

Rappelling Helen Wheels can be done with a single 70 meter rope.

From the summit of Helen's Dome, 30 meters of easy slab walking reaches the rappel-rigged belay bolts atop pitch six. From here, the first rappel ends on what we've called the Football Field, an exaggeration for the large flat area above the pitch five anchor. The flat area is safe, even a bit of a depression, so if anyone passes out un-roped, they hopefully won't roll off. Both 60m and 70m single ropes make it to the flat area and then a short walk to the next anchor (30m & 35m raps). An 80 meter rope makes it across the Football Field to the pitch five belay bolts.

The pitch five rappel is 30 meters to a choice of anchors.

Originally, rappelling pitch four was a dangerous 37-meter stretch to reach the rings of the Wet Crack Belay. To do a 35-meter rappel, extend the pitch five rappel down a few meters to the Camp rapid-link anchor just below the best part of the pitch four belay ledge. So far nobody has jammed a rope but pitch four has a lot of rock horns and even worse, a sheep-sized boulder perched a few feet left of the rap anchors.

Rappelling pitch three from the Wet Crack to the either the Pegmatite Pothole or Spree Ledge anchor is about 30-meters. If packs are stashed on the Lower Bench, swing left from the Wet Crack anchors to the Spree Ledge anchor, instead of using the Pothole anchor.

Rappel pitch two from the Spree anchor down to Lower Bench and the rusty anchors atop pitch one of Fairytales, 35-meters.

From the Lower Bench, the last rappel is down pitch one of Fractured Fairytales, about 30-meters.   

With an 80-meter rope, from the Pegmatite Pothole, a 40-meter rappel can combine pitches one and pitch two of the Direct or the Great Dihedral.  Another benefit of an 80 meter rope is that the Lower Bench can be reached from the Pothole anchor - useful for top-roping the Direct's 5.10 pitch.

BTW - From Ed's Place, a 35-meter rappel just makes it to the Wet Crack anchors. From Wet Crack, a 20 meter southward diagonal rap' reaches the belay atop Great Dihedral. From there, a 35-meter rappel reaches the Pine Needle Ledge. Finally, a 20 meter rap reaches the ground above the Fairytales' approach.

To get down safely with a 60 meter rope, traverse 50 meters north from the pitch four belay of Helen Wheels, across the Upper Bench, to the Helen Highwater descent (exposed Class III to four 30 meter rappels). The uppermost anchor rings are just under a prominently perched five-foot table boulder (visible in the topo above).

HELEN'S DOME TO HELEN'S GULLY

To descend Helen's Gully from the summit of Helen's Dome; rap from the single bolt, slab-walk past the Fairytales' summit pools, climb the 3rd Class chimney in Graham's photo (red), pass the south side of the giant "Diamond In the Rough" boulder...

Photo by Graham Fillo including the "Contrived & Worthless" variation (yellow

)...cross back over north to a saddle, then finally down.  

 

Stay close to Helen's huge walls, hopefully passing an old sawed off fallen log. Stay out of the boulder choked gulch below Baby Helen. The crux is a short awkwardly tilted chimney - easier and safer than the Fairytales Approach. Turn left at the horse trail, right at the fence, across Goose Creek...and pray your car starts because it's an hour+ drive to Verizon service (Buffalo Creek).  

PROTECTION

Helen Wheels has been climbed as a gearless sport route. Ten or twelve protection quickdraws can be enough for doing Gettin' the Groove  or the Direct all the way to the domes' summit. I'd bring a few cams; 0.3 to 1.0, especially for pitch five. 

The Great Dihedral pitch could use up double C4s in the hand-to finger size.  Some place just a few pieces instead of a double C4 rack.  I like a couple #4 Camalots because the large pods require less yoga to place large cams.  Seven protection draws for the 5.9+ face that ends the Great Dihedral pitch (35-meters). Bring nine protection draws for the pitch four headwall. Odious cams, used for the Great Dihedral, could be stashed at the Wet Crack belay for pick-up on the return journey.

On Gettin' the Groove , the bolts are stainless wedge style 3/8" bolts. Above that, all the bolts are stainless 1/2" by 2 & 3/4" Powers, like at Narrow Gague, about 40 total. There is no camo-paint, because we know many climbers with impaired vision. All the belay stances are comfortable.

This route, and its variations, took three months to complete in a style that increases access - rather than the old trad style of decreasing access. We modeled our route after the multi-pitch sport routes of; Castle Rock State Park, Idaho; Staunton State Park, Colorado; and the Narrow Gauge Slab @ Jefferson County Open Space's Pine Valley Ranch. Hardworking volunteers Richard Aschert, Tyson Ferryman, Ed Quesada, Jeff Buhl, Tal Wanish, and Dave Dangle could have done this route with less bolting, but I insisted on my TACO style (Trout Always Chickens Out).

Jefferson County Open Space video about Narrow Gauge.