Adapted from Benjamin Wollant's trip report and AAJ Report
Long before people of European descent arrived in the Bitterroot Valley, the area was the ancestral homeland of the Bitterroot Salish. From the Bitterroot Valley, the Salish traversed the majestic canyons of the Bitterroot Mountains for trade with nations to the west, no doubt passing by many of the spectacular rock formations known to climbers today. Tragically, the Salish were forcibly removed from the Bitterroot Valley under the Treaty of Hellgate and lost much of their culture and history in the process.
I first experienced the Bitterroot backcountry over three trips in 2020 while attempting a new route on the west face of Mystery Dome. Initially drawn by unclimbed granite close to home, I found myself coming back, again and again, to exist in the place. Located 20 miles from a trailhead at the dead end of a 40-mile mountain road, the stretch of glaciated canyon Mystery Dome resides in holds an ancient power manifest in old-growth forests, hillsides littered with granite buttresses, the howls and tracks of wolves, and the constant rumble of Whitecap Creek. On my third trip, I was fortunate enough to put my project to rest, completing the first free ascent of the dome via Bitter Fruit (5.11-) just days before moving away from Montana indefinitely.
With distance and time, however, my thoughts often returned to a possible line on the south face of Mystery Dome. Prior scouting had revealed a singular crack splitting a clean headwall on the lower half which promised passage to the moderate terrain higher up.
The line lived in a liminal space between impossible and just maybe.
Reaching the base of the splitter was an unsolved puzzle. Long runouts were certain. The bolting ban on the Bitterroot National Forest would need to be lifted. So, the south face of Mystery Dome continued to haunt the back of my mind for nearly two years, only coming to the fore every several months when I pulled up photos of the line to ask once again, 'what if?'
In the summer of 2022, I decided it was finally time to answer my question. The bolting ban was still in place, but a few seasons on Yosemite granite gave me the confidence to try the route completely clean, in respect of the park's rules. I applied for and received a Live Your Dream Grant from the AAC and recruited good friends Greg Rickenbacker and Erika Smith to join.
We began the approach from Paradise Campground on June 27. Eighty-pound packs stretched the 20-mile approach into two days, forcing us to camp by the trail the first night and finish the final 1.5 miles off the path through brush and talus to the base the following day.
On June 29, we began climbing. We aimed to intersect an arching roof system that could take us to the base of the crack. A moderate first pitch led to a good ledge from which I led a dangerously loose half pitch to a good horizontal below the roofs (5.10 R).
I lowered down, and Greg took over for the second half on a two-hour A3 lead to reach the base of the crack. The headwall splitter turned out to be a beautiful A2 groove which Greg led in good style. We fixed our lines from the top of pitch three and returned to the ground for the night.
We woke early on June 30 and ascended our lines back to the top of pitch three. From there, I resumed leading and followed the crack as it dog-legged right before shooting up again into a right-facing corner capped by a roof.
Tenuous stemming out and left at the roof led to a good belay ledge (5.11b).
Two more moderate pitches took us directly to the true summit of Mystery Dome, where we added to the summit register and savored the view from the top before descending via a gully to the west and hiking out the following day.
Our ascent of the south face, The Liminal Line, 5.11b A3 V, covers 1650' of climbing over nine pitches. The headwall crack was freed on top rope self-belay at 5.12- and the A3 pitch would possibly go free at 5.12+/5.13- with extensive cleaning and fixed pins.
We want to thank the American Alpine Club and the Live Your Dream Grant, which greatly assisted in making this route a reality. We would also like to thank the first ascensionist of Mystery Dome, Steve Porcella, for his original trip report and encouragement. Lastly and importantly, we would like to acknowledge and recognize the Bitterroot Salish's connection to and stewardship of the Bitterroot.