West Butte - Northeast Face

I do not recommend this climb for anyone that does not love obscure climbs and loads of manky choss. The mud on the technical pitch is rotten, dangerous, and crumbles under the slightest touch. A free ascent is impossible, requiring aid techniques to be used. The original pieces of "gear" are a century old and have eroded severely making them extremely unreliable. A fall would almost guarantee a quick trip to the ground (warranting the A4+ rating). Also, the anchor possibilities to belay and rappel are poor at best.

With that in mind....

Approach the West Butte via the standard trail. As you pass below the imposing south face, make sure to look up and be amazed that this whole tower is held up by mud. Leave the trail on the east side of the formation and do an ascending traverse around the north side. As you ascend, look for the obvious weakness in the lower cliffs and work up towards it. When you get close, the original pins will come into view on a NE face.

Ascend the steepening and unprotected mud cone (extremely unstable and follows very eroded chipped steps) to gain access to the vertical wall. Make several scary aid moves up the slightly overhanging wall to gain a small ledge. On the ledge, mantel up to the slightly higher shelf and perform a dangerous leftward traverse on small mudhorns to reach a "belay stance". Bring up your second while imagining your anchor is much better than it actually is. From here, perform a delicate scramble up through more loose terrain to reach the slopes below the summit cap. The cap's weakness is on the west side and pick whichever way you want to reach there. Try not to think about the descent too much because it will ruin your stay.

To descend, merely reverse the route and pray as you rappel on the worst anchor I've ever trusted.

Look for the line of pitons up the NE face.

Only pro are ancient (100+ years old) pitons eroding out of the mud. We placed one nail (literally a 10" nail) for the ascent and placed 3 nails as a belay/rappel anchor.