Old routes disappearing into obscurity

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Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Jul 18, 2007 - 06:32pm PT

Tom mentioned the Punch Bowl:

"Another candidate for redoing: Punch Bowl on Glacier Point Apron, apparently with smashed or missing bolts from rockfall. I'm a bit biased on that one as it was a first ascent way back when ..."

I enjoyed climbing the Punch Bowl a couple of times in the late 80s.

Here is a photo from 2004:

The route is directly in the path of the 1999 rockfall which then rolled east down the talus slope and killed Peter Terbush belaying on Apron Jam:

http://www.srcfc.org/terbush.asp

The route looks relatively cleaned by supsequent winter rains, but the release area of the rockfall is still directly above the route (with more flakes waiting to release, according to helicopter observation), and there may be rockfall debris on Glacier Point Terrace above the route which slides off randomly as well. So going up there could be a somewhat higher risk than other spots on Yosemite for awhile. Climbs further left, like left of Mr. Natural and possibly including Mr. Natural, are probably OK.

[Edit 7/26 to add photo of original rockfall from USGS:]

http://landslides.usgs.gov/recent/archives/1999yosemite.php

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Jul 18, 2007 - 06:53pm PT

I'm back climbing at the Apron but you wouldn't catch me near the Punch Bowl. IF ANY route is death over there, that's the one.

A shame though, I bailed on the Punch Bowl long before the rockfall because other rockfall had already taken out critical bolts.

Mr. Natural is safer but does show signs of getting substantial rockfall since the big slide.

Peace

Karl

Melissa

Gym climber

berkeley, ca

Jul 18, 2007 - 06:54pm PT

"Clint, this sounds about right. We slowly replenish the routes that have a high profile."

What do you consider a high profile? Although there are many bad bolts remaining, a number of routes on the Arches and Middle have seen bolt replacement (substantial or complete), and none of them seem very high profile or get done much even with new bolts.

Was there a specific route that you thought would be non-obscure if the bolts were updated? Maybe it's already on someone's fix up list, and they could get in touch w/ you.

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Jul 18, 2007 - 07:05pm PT

I agree with Melissa - the highest profile routes were mostly rebolted first (Nose and other El Cap routes where you are hauling on the anchors!). Now routes are being rebolted pretty much independent of popularity. (Except for some hard/runout routes which are hard to access except by leading them).

LongAgo

Trad climber

Jul 18, 2007 - 07:17pm PT

Thanks to Clint for photo and Karl for warning about the area around Punch Bowl. Humbling to have a first ascent wiped out. Good reminder about how temporal all is, even something made on stone. And how strange if Punch came back someday, part new, part old (shall it be Punch Again?), which also might speak volumes ...

Tom Higgins
LongAgo

Gary

climber

Desolation Basin, Calif.

Jul 18, 2007 - 08:02pm PT

Ball joint separators do a good job popping 1/4"ers. Readily available and heavy duty. We've been using them with great success out at the Pass.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

sorry, just posting out loud.

Jul 18, 2007 - 09:51pm PT

Quicksilver!

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Jul 19, 2007 - 12:18am PT

Thanks for the beta, Kevin - that will be very helpful. We should be able to do SB as well; that one is very easy to get on top of. (Then you and Steve can focus on p1 if you want).

henny

Social climber

The Past

Jul 19, 2007 - 01:16am PT

FYI: Walk of Life has been repeated at least once.

henny

Social climber

The Past

Jul 19, 2007 - 12:11pm PT

Kevin -

Hi.

Yeah, it's been awhile since the Rainbow days hasn't it? Fun times (out of curiosity, do you remember a problem we did called "Speed of Lead", with Mike I believe - I always remember that one because of the crazyness with gunshots).

You're doing well I hope. Sounds like it. Good to hear. You guys should definitely fix up SB, give that thing back to the land of the living. Wish I could help with the Middle replacement - what a great place that is to climb. Has to be one of my favorite places in the Valley.

Yeah, I'm still quite active. My main focus right now is putting up new routes in the Whitney Portal. Good fun.

I did do Walk of Life. I remember it being a pretty good route, well worth doing (and a bit sporty, but then that's half the fun isn't it?). By all means someone should replace it.

Regards,

Darrell

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 19, 2007 - 12:11pm PT

Kevin, I've looked at that corner, Beautiful.

When I last did Quicksilver, the first face pitch sported new bolts, but the second did not. On Freewheelin', the ASCA site sez:

Freewheelin' Replaced all 8 bolts until pitch 4 2000 James Selvidge, Bernie Rivadeneyra

What's up with that? I count 7 lead bolts on the topo, but what about the belays? I guess you gotta go up there to find out...

bvb

Social climber

flagstaff arizona

Nov 21, 2008 - 10:45pm PT

bump for an underappreciated climbing thread.

sibylle

Trad climber

On the road again!

Nov 22, 2008 - 10:07am PT

I saw the big rockfall at the Apron in about 1998. I was on YOSAR then, so we went on search that night after the rockfall, to see if people had been squished.

Walking near Curry Village resembled a moonscape - we had rock dust half to one-inch deep on the ground and falling from the leaves. We found one man who'd been squished by a tree.

The next morning , we searched more, again near Curry. they would not let us near the base of the Apron, as rocks were still coming down.

The wind blast from the force of the rockfall blew over hundreds of big trees, one to two feet in diameter. It looked like someone had played pick-up sticks near the river and thrown big redwoods around like hay.
That rockfall took out a climb hear the left edge of the Apron, I forget which one (but I had climbed it a few years earlier).
I haven't climbed on Glacier Point Apron since I observed the aftermath of that rockfall.
I don't know if the downed trees are still lying around or if they removed them. It may be worth observing the damage before someone goes up on the Apron.

rincon

Trad climber

SoCal

Nov 22, 2008 - 11:06am PT

Getting squished would suck.

pyro

Big Wall climber

Calabasas

Dec 11, 2008 - 06:51pm PT

K-MAN ~old route will only go away for a little while.

one day some kid who has the healthy diet of smoking pot and drinking beer will get the guts to climb them. (with a cool-mans style).