(Part 1 of 3)
As I happened to be in the Bluies on the weekend, and with all the PR this route is getting, I thought we’d better go and have a look, so we (Yonnie and I) went and did this on Saturday.
The early plan – to climb as a three with Matt – was fortunately changed as Matt found another partner to climb with. We were at the top car park at 8:30 and walked in – first time at Pierce’s for me – found the rap ‘chains’ and were soon joined by Matt and others who were planning to do Bunny Bucket Buttress.
![](/upload/userfiles/gfdonc/ST186233.jpg)
Jen knew where she was going so she rapped off first, then I followed. We tried pulling the ropes but they were soon stuck tight, fortunately the others helped out. Matt found the knot on the rope had wedged itself into a crack, raving to us about the one-in-a-million chance. I did the second rap and got well out of the way to avoid the inevitable stonefall.
We bashed around the base for a while, and found the route just after 10am. This was a bit of a struggle, someone needs to buy Mikl a machete for Christmas. Tip: towards the end there is a very steep hillside/buttress with boulders, I suggest you should go up this rather than bashing through the thick scrub below it. Jen won’t be wearing a skirt to work for a while.
Jen led off, a gr 17ish slab to start, then the roof, allegedly grade 22. After a short struggle she pulled on a draw or two and continued. This confirmed the suspicions about the grade, since she regularly climbs 23 clean.
![](/upload/userfiles/gfdonc/ST186241.jpg)
There were more struggles with the off-vertical but thin face above, I couldn’t see properly so thought she was doing well until she admitting pulling on most of the draws on that part. A semi-hanging belay with 4 bolts - there was a biner and bracket on one of them, left for future generations.
I followed, complete with pack (3L water plus food and clothes), shoes and SLR, meaning I had low expectations. After a rest and a couple of shots I managed to second the roof part, but had blown up when I got to the face and shamelessly stepped on carrot heads to make progress more quickly – it’s hard to pull on draws when they’re on your harness!
For the record I thought the roof was hard 23, but then I can’t climb 24 so it has to be 23. Apparently you can use a leg jamb on the right, by the time we were on pitch 3 we decided that might have been worth trying, but it didn’t occur to either of us at the time.
(continued)
|