Helen's Dome 

Just to add some more info. The route Buffalo Soldier on Helens has been entirely retrobolted. It used to be that the first bolt was something like 30 or 40 feet off the ground. Now it is better protected than the routes to either side.

06/21/03 This rock is pretty sweet, however there is a lot of strange 5.5-5.7 bolted climbs on the lower face. Compared to all the other climbing in this area, these are piss poor FAs. This area has good trad climbing from the 5.7-5.11 range, and I have never seen anyone there. Be aware of gunfire thoughout the surounding area.

On Saturday night, August 30, a raging rainstorm washed the bridge at the campground away that evening. It is amazing the power of water even in small stream. Once the runoff from the storm recedes, the stream should be easy to cross for the fall season. Next spring may be another story if we have a good snow pack in the mountains. Unsure whether it will be replaced with all the damage in the area from the Hayman fire.

New bridge is back up, downstream of old one. What a fantastic place for views, climbing, solitude.

Some one has removed lots of hagars on the date route. Whats up with that. That route was put up for people to enjoy without the tipical death runouts in the platte.

Mike, Which route is the *date* route?

My name is Mike Carrington and the route is fractured fairytailes. I am trying to get more info on the routes on the north side of Helens. Peter hubbel and a guy named Darren told me of a web site but I can't find it and don't have much access to the web. Any help would be much appreciated.

The hangers were there a month ago.... Which pitches are they missing from? There is another route right of fractured (Way at the North end). 4 Pitches 5.9. It's the first part of the 5.9+/10- route on Acid. Another 4 pitch 5.8 in between the two was going to be finshed this weekend but it's a bit soggy.

The new route Matt is refering to is now called "Sticks'n'Stones" (5.8+/9-). Climbs the middle of the right side of Helens (starts about 200' left of big left facing flake) in 3 pitches and then some. The older route, "Roototop" (5.10-) (the other one Matt refered to), starts on the right side of the left facing flake. Roototop, ironically, climbs the far right side of Helen's, the middle of Acid, then you can run across the saddle to climb Velcro wall and top out on the very top of Sheeprock.

Both of these are slab routes with bolts for protection.

Regarding the protection bolts of Fractured Fairytales (AKA The Date Route): many of the hangers are gone, especially on the easier upper sections, but the belay anchors seem to still be there.

Fractured Fairytales-Many of the bolts are indeed gone. In fact, MOST of the bolts on the upper 4 pitches have been removed. All the anchor bolts are still there, but pitches that used to have 7-8 bolts now only have 2 or so. 20ft runouts are now 40-60ft. There are a few places you can supplement with gear- nuts, cams (BD#.5-3) and slings(4ft) for trees. But mostly it's just run out. Why are there people out there who just can't let others enjoy themselves? Why must they ruin things for everybody? Did they get picked last everytime for kickball in 4th grade? Rejected prom date? Not hugged enough by their mothers?

Why not just have a full-on hissy and remove all the bolts? Destroy all of someone's hard work not 75% of it. All you've accomplished is making the route more dangerous. And really, who benefits from that? Guess it's just not a hip-happenin time unless you can deck and kill yourself on a route.

In any case, it's a great and casual way to spend an afternoon. And it USED to be safe. But what fun is that?

I did Fractured Fairytales and the other new routes on the south face of Helen's back in July. Very fun stuff. I did add hangers to some of the bolts that were missing hangers so that you can climb the route with just quickdraws. It did seem a bit overbolted in places, especially since most of the route is fairly easy. Anyway, bring a selection of small wires to fit over the bolts with the missing hangers if you want to sew the route up. It's a good climb to do as a warm-up if you're en route to Acid Rock or to take rank beginners up.

Darren,

Was that you on the north face on Saturday? We were hiking out after doing west face routes, and saw some people on the route that goes up to the saddle below acid crack. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the route. The pitches go 11a (or 11b variation to left), 9, 9 or something like that. The second pitch is one of the best in the Platte. I think the route name starts with an 'a'. Dammit! There was a monster Toyota truck in the parking area, I thought it might be Mike and the old timer. Hope things are going well.

Slim. Yeah that was just me up there, except I was bivied and working on a new route to the LEFT of Ankar Gate and SolArian. You might have mistaken my haul bag as a partner.

Just took a couple of friends up the main section of Fractured Fairytales today. I found that someone had removed a hanger from the belay anchors at the top of both pitches 3 and 4, leaving a single welded cold shut as an anchor. Simulclimbing with a party of 3 was not an option. I've replaced them with new hardware. Removing hangars from a route is one thing, but removing them from belay anchors is bad form. If you're planning on doing this route, be sure to take hangars and nuts along with you just in case.

Mi Chica and I climbed Darren's route Sticks 'n' Stones on 6/5/06, and the same (or at least similar) chopper did some work to the route. They chopped the 1st bolt on P1 and chopped 2 of 3 bolts at the anchor atop that pitch. They also chopped the second bolt on the origional third pitch. All other bolts seem untouched. The ones that were chopped were simply pounded flat leaving a very unsightly and unusable stud.

Current route condition: P1 190' 16 bolts small cams or nuts for start, P2 180' 12 (?) bolts + nuts in bad rock at chopped bolt. 5.8+/5.9 sustained, fun, and interesting climbing.

I could not understand the purpose for changing the route. Darren put it up in good style, ground up, and the bolts were never close, with an average of 7 to 8 bolts per 100'. There are NO routes near this one. The 'cracks' that were 'near' the very first bolt wouldn't protect a fall very well. The second bolt on the og. third pitch was near a crack, that was however the end of a questionable attached flake. Basically, in both places a protection bolt was resonable. And why remove the anchor at the stance on top of the 1st pitch, creating a 190' pitch with significant rope drag since it traverses where the anchor was.

The person(s) who is doing this seems to be 'correcting' the routes to thier standards, without the FAs permission nor any explanation for thier actions. Yes, nothing speaks louder than action itself, however, when it leaves other wondering what language they are speaking, it needs an explanation.

So, if you or someone you know is doing this, please post here why or contact me yourself. Routes will continue to go in. Bolts will be replaced, and probably subsequently chopped. The rock looses and creates an unsightly scar for the ones who wish to climb them. Explaining why the person needs to correct the route could help the bolters/choppers come to an understanding and hopefully a compromise.

Casey Bernal
c a s e y b e r n a l @ h o t m a i l . c o m

Does anyone know the current status of the bolt condition of Fractured Farytales or Sticks 'n' Stones? Thanks

Did FF about a month ago and all bolts were present, except of a missing hanger on the last pitch that tops out at the base of Baby Helen's. This bolt is basically on flat walking, but you can still girth hitch it with a stopper.

We found the directions to the parking area a bit confusing - to clarify: At the turnoff from Highway 126 to FR 211, there is a sign sticking out of the rock cut. At the parking area, we did not see a sign indicating "parking for Sheep Rock climbers", but the lot is 7.7 miles from the pavement.

The 1st pitch of Fractured Fairytales ends at the Spree anchors and is a good approach to the ledge. You can also rap from the Spree anchors w. a 70m rope and be deposited on the approach trail.

Found the directions to Helen's Dome to be a bit confusing and possible incorrect. But again, it could have been just me. We never did find Molly Gulch Campground, and I feel that this could be attributed to the fact that the NFS closed this campground? Either way, we drove all the way to the ranch and never found a campground. So, we just parked due west of the dome and walked from there.

I tweaked the description above to add Kent's mileage to the pull-out (and remove that you can pay to park at Molly Gulch CG which isn't there anymore...).
It's been awhile since I've been back there. If anybody has any other beta (e.g. what's the current stream crossing set-up), let me know and I can update the description.

Yo D. log crossing (last time I was up there in 2010(?) looks something like this:

Log. Submitted By: Darren Mabe on Mar 21, 2012

Haha Darren - you crack me up, man. That could be any one of say 10,000 log crossings in place since the Hayman. That should narrow it down tho. ;)

Glenn. glad you got my humor. ;)

(Even though in reality, this is THE log you cross to get over to the Sheeprock and Helens formations downhill from Molly Gulch. It's a big one.)

Oh, speaking of Molly Gulch, here is the climbers parking area just before what was Molly Gulch Campground:

Wintery conditions at Sheeprock, May 2010. Submitted By: Darren Mabe on Mar 22, 2012

Thanks, Darren - I've tweaked the description some more.... You oughta tag those photos as "beta" photos for this page!