Erratic Warm-up Slab

Air Force One

Long Way Down

Raining Tearer

Broken Ambience

4 pitches of solid slabby crack climbing on Blodgett Peak. A bit dirty but very solid, as long as you stay away from the loose blocky cracks in the dihedral along the left side of the face.

P1 - 5.9, 38m: 
Start under the large roof. Scramble up the shrubby gully to the right side of roof, clip two bolts moving out onto the prow of the roof, continue up the middle of the slab for about fifty feet until you find an old piton, take a hard right here toward a small pine tree to find a two bolt anchor on a ledge.

P2 - 5.7 or 5.9-, 35m: 
(5.9-) Climb straight up from the anchors following the thin angled crack until it ends, continue up and right on slab with a few bolts for protection to anchors on a ledge.
(5.7) We did not do this variation, Phil's Beta: Take the left fist crack until it thins, then trend right at the pin (50 feet). Keep aiming right across east slabs, and avoid climbing over loose blocks and the broken corner to your left. You’ll eventually end up on a nice ledge with a two bolt anchor.

P3 - 5.9, 36m:
Pull the roof, follow the spread out bolts over easy terrain, veering right until you find the large belay ledge with a two bolt anchor.

P4 - 5.5 or 5.10, 20m: 
(5.5) Climb up and to the left to the gully leading to a two bolt anchor on top.
(5.10) Climb straight up over some slab to the bolted dihedral and pull the best moves of the climb to top out at a two bolt anchor on a large ledge.

Descent:
A 70m rope can rap the route 
A 60m can rap the face using the anchors from Cheyney-Becker (Falcon route) to the right of Air Force One.
Anything shorter and you can scramble to the summit of Blodgett and hike off.

The route begins towards the left side of the rock face and follows a series of cracks up until it flattens out after the first pitch. Continue going up and to the right, and you will eventually hit the start of another wall. From here, follow the ridge up until you hit the summit.

This is a great route that still needs quite a bit of love. Place some gear, and step right over immediate exposure. If my memory still serves me, there is a slingable chickenhead near the beginning. Climb perfect holds past incipient cracks through a right-facing corner with loose rock. It could've been all the falling rock, but this corner seems to be the crux. Once on a ledge below the large and obvious tree, we walked around left to a small notch with a left-leaning, thin hands crack to gain the tree anchor for P1 (5.7, and possibly the technical crux). From there, it appeared you may have the option to walk off left (northwest) and back down the steep gully to the base, but we did not confirm this. You can also continue climbing the ridge trending slight right over very exposed but low 5th Class rock. If you choose to continue up P2 (5.3), it may be wise to practice your mountaineering and place a few pieces. Be VERY cautious as the rock is excellent, alpine-esque quality, but it is loose in many places including some large and inviting looking features. Check your holds, and wear a helmet. The difficulty slowly eases as you ascend to walking on the ridge top.

Hike down the gully west of the ridge to descend. The summit is pretty amazing if you have the time for it.

This climb slowly (and literally) ramps up throwing fun easy/moderate climbing at you along the way. Start up an easy short and wide corner onto the low angle slab. Follow cracks slight left to a small roof near the arete. Turn the arete, and locate 2 parallel 5.7 hand cracks. Follow these through some amazing flakes, and finish at the small pine growing horizontally out of the face that provides a semi-hanging belay. We slung it and left webbing and a couple biners for a first pitch due to nightfall.

Description

Routes in Blodgett Peak