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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Dec 18, 2007 - 11:19pm PT
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I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that Todd Gordon had ever climbed at Pinns. I associate your name so much with Josh. Have you really ever climbed there?
And, BTW, I'm pretty sure your slide was scanned backwards. That looks like Discovery Wall, but in a not right way. Clint, does it look backwards?
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Dec 18, 2007 - 11:31pm PT
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over at the Monolith
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 18, 2007 - 11:44pm PT
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> Clint, does it look backwards?
Yep, I was thinking the same thing. View from the top of the Monolith, north to Discovery Wall.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 18, 2007 - 11:54pm PT
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Kev,
> On a side note has anyone climbed the one move wonder '10a' on the right of bad man mezanene? It seemed stiff to us.
Do you mean the "Gary and Phyllis Headwall"? (Formerly known as "Upper Bandit Bench"?) I have not climbed it, but I helped finish rebolting it after approaching from above. I think I tried bouldering out the starting moves - definitely tough.
> Shame the rock is so loose for the second half of the new 5.9 up there.
Full Throttle? Yeah, the rock on Machete Ridge can be disappointing sometimes.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 19, 2007 - 12:00am PT
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ec,
Yeah, Jody was trolling - he didn't leave even a smiley face as a clue.... He lived there as a kid, and returns occasionally.
1974 photo from Jody's website
http://www.sierramountainphotography.com/id23.html
That unfriendly west side ranger is long gone. As well as the daytime use hours that were a pain to deal with for a few years.
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kev
climber
CA
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Dec 19, 2007 - 12:02am PT
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Clint,
Yup that's the climb. The start is hard for 10a, we thought it more like 10b/c. Looks as if the start was prolly done on aid originally given the first clip is reachable from the ground and the next one is close enough to easily use for aid. Nice shinny new bolts-thanks.
The second half of "full throttle" is really loose. Such a shame because the first half of the route is good. I wish the anchors were much lower, not much sense in continuing to the end of the route and I suspect the 2 newer routes to the left suffer from the same syndrome.
Next time I'm bringing aiders and going to top out on Bills Bad Bolts (which looked shiny and new, prolly thanks to you) from Gary and Phyllis's Headwall.....
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 19, 2007 - 12:06am PT
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kev,
The first part of Bill's Bad Bolts was replaced by Bruce Hildenbrand (bhilden) and Steve York (spyork). There are still lots of old bolts on it, but the belays are good and I'm sure there are newer/bigger bolts every once in awhile. Bruce and I worked on the Gary and Phyllis' Headwall; Erik Bratton had already replaced a couple of the key bolts on it.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Dec 19, 2007 - 12:15am PT
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Yeah, but the three the newer routes on the upper mezzanine: Full Throttle, Red Line and Drop Zone, all have cool names.
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salad
climber
San Diego
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Dec 19, 2007 - 12:37am PT
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second bolt placed from hooks. its more like 5.9 as opposed to 10a, but behrens had climbed in the gym the night before and was feeling soft.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Dec 19, 2007 - 01:54am PT
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oh get off.
puh-lease
you busted a knob making it harder. don't lie.
(I don't think I called it 10a, actually. Though I'm pretty sure some stuff has broken. Left foot for the move to the second bolt?)
as for this...
"The second half of "full throttle" is really loose. Such a shame because the first half of the route is good. I wish the anchors were much lower, not much sense in continuing to the end of the route and I suspect the 2 newer routes to the left suffer from the same syndrome."
This comment has been made several times, and at this point if the sport factions want to drop the anchor, go for it. I had originally intended to go up and finish on the upper bolt ladder that was from a prior ascent. The anchor needed to be close to the bolt ladder but not so close as to be right under the leader.
Ultimately then, with the 13 bolt route down low, and it's connector pitch to the belay for Redline, etc. ( that lower belay not put in by us) and the old bolt ladder, one could eventually have an entirely new link up that goes bottom to the summit in a fairly straight line. Haven't seen the book so I'm not sure on which names are which, but I think the guys ended up finishing out the upper bolt ladder pitch. Did it go in the final analysis?
Strom, bust out yer crow bar, drop that anchor, sporto. No one's going to do the upper pitches anyways. :)
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Dec 19, 2007 - 02:22am PT
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Billz Bad Boltz is plenty safe now.
I can attest that Bhilden works his arse off on the Pinnacles. I suspect Clint does as well. Thanks for all the work of you folks and others.
I like climbing there. My kid and I had a great time last weekend. But I have a pathetic life, so I fit right in.
OK, Kane and I have to go find the garbage can handle now. Sounds like a mission...
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Dec 19, 2007 - 02:57am PT
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Hey, thanks for all the kind words! Just as a bit of clarification, when I rebolted the second pitch of Twinkle Toes Traverse (the first pitch and anchor had already been rebolted by some unkown persons) with my friend Frosty Saufley I replaced three protection bolts and the anchor, but did not touch the garbage can handle. Don't know who did it.
One thing worth noting about the bolt at the base of the garbage can handle is that it is a wedge bolt. Personally, I don't recommend wedge bolts at Pinnacles. In general, the rock is too soft. There are many examples in the Pinnacles where the stud has come more than halfway out of the hole when trying to tighten the bolt. I have replaced all the ones (stud sticking way out) I have encountered except the one on Adam's Apple at the crux!
Like a fine wine, climbing at the Pinnacles is an acquired taste!
Bruce
ps - I replaced the first bolt on Gary and Phyllis Headwall in December of last year(2006) because the threads on the wedge bolt were trashed putting it in and I couldn't replace the old hanger with a newer one, thicker, one. The second bolt on Gary and Phyllis headwall used to be one of those 3/8" Rawl buttonheads, but it was replaced sometime around 2005 (maybe by Erik B?).
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climbrunride
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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Dec 19, 2007 - 09:44am PT
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> On a side note has anyone climbed the one move wonder '10a' on the right of bad man mezanene? It seemed stiff to us.
When did Upper Bandit's Bench get the name change? Was Gary and Phyllis Headwall the opriginal name? I always thought it was a *hard* 5.9, but never really wanted the rating changed to double digits; I just called it "old 5.9". It is a great route to learn about using runners. One can get sucked in to using quickdraws on the first three bolts, but you better use long ones higher up, or you'll experience one of the most amazing leg workouts.
As for the handle on Twinkle Toes Traverse, it should be plenty strong enough. The route is a low-angle slab through that section, plus it primarily traverses past the handle, and it is quite a few feew out from the belay. So if someone did manage to fall just past it, they would not really generate much force onto the handle. It's a very fun piece of history and I hope no one ever removes it.
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climbrunride
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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Dec 19, 2007 - 09:52am PT
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And thinking of Twinkle Toes and this thread's title, a fun story comes to mind. Ever think 'what if there was an earthquake?' while climbing? It happened.
I was guiding two beginners up Twinkle Toes. One was at the first belay with me and the other was getting close to us when an earthquake hit. The whole place rumbled. It was loud and shook a lot. I thought for sure that the crappy rock in the headwall above would start raining down on us at any moment. I'm not sure if I was more worried about my clients dying or me dying. They were understandably pretty freaked out and asked if we should go down. I thought about it and said no. I figured we were safer close in to the rock than around the base and moving out away from it, where falling chunks were most likely to land. So despite being super nervous, I lead on up the next pitch. And surprisingly, no loose rock came down at all.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Dec 19, 2007 - 10:29am PT
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To the left of Gary and Phylis Headwall on the same slab are the three new routes and one very old route. The new routes are all nicely bolted up to run out, easy slabs to a single anchor for all three. (I use "nicely" to mean closely, but not over bolted).
The old route is the Glen Denny/ Gary Colliver climb "Daedalus." Daedalus is the farthest left route of these. It takes two pitches to get to what Mungeclimber calls "the upper bolt ladder that was from a prior ascent." That upper bolt ladder is Daedlus' third pitch (and two more pitches follow).
Denny and Colliver were extreme minimalists and left no bolt anchor at the base of the "upper bolt ladder." When I did it I belayed using the first bolt on the ladder and a so so cam.
I think, like most people who were aware of the bolt ladder, Munge and crew assumed that the old bolt ladder was a first, not a third pitch. So, if Munge intended that "The anchor needed to be close to the bolt ladder but not so close as to be right under the leader," then he's inadvertantly added an anchor to this pitch. (Mistakes like this aren't totally unheard of. I myself "added" a bolt to a Holmgren first ascent 8 or 10 years after he did it. He left no record of the route and nothing fixed, not even an anchor. Until reviewing notes with him I had no idea the route had ever been climbed! He retroactively OKed my bolt, so I left it in.)
So, there are two arguments for moving the anchor down: 1. Closer bolting on these three routes is followed by very runout but much easier slab climbing and, 2. The anchor is on a preexisting route.
Now, my comments might be moot, since Munge earlier commanded his worker bee Strom to do the work. Strom usually jumps right to it when told to by Munge, so the work may already be done :)
Actually, changing the anchor location would make the topo to this area inaccurate. Leave it where it is.
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billygoat
climber
3hrs to El Cap Meadow, 1.25hrs Pinns, 42min Castle
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Dec 19, 2007 - 11:19am PT
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I might be completely wrong, but I think Peter Carrick might have been the one to replace the bolt on the garage door handle on twinkle toes. Anybody else remember him saying so?
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Dec 19, 2007 - 11:28am PT
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As for earthquakes at the Pinnacles, Clint and I were putting up the route "Abner Bear is Everywhere" on Long's Folly a couple of days before Christmas in 2003 when that big earthquake on the San Andreas fault that killed two people in Paso Robles hit.
Clint was hanging off a hook drilling a bolt when the whole pinnacle started swaying like a palm tree in the wind. As you know, Pinnacles is right on the San Andreas Fault and the epicenter was probably only about 50-70 air miles away. It was really wild and kudos to Clint for hanging in there, literally, and finishing the drilling.
Bruce
ps - the name for the route comes from the fact that the late, great Pinnacles climbing ranger Andy Artz used to carry a little stuffed bear named Abner on his rucksack. We miss you Andy!
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Dec 19, 2007 - 11:48am PT
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billygoat, you're right, it was Peter who did that bolt replacement. And a great job he did, too.
That garage door handle is one of the funniest things I've seen climbing. I used to sling it, but didn't think it would really hold a fall. No sense of humor you have if you think it should be removed.
Another funny hanger can be found on the West Side--it's a Dinseyland Bottle opener...Anybody seen that one? I'm not sure which is more worthless, though, the hanger or the bolt holding it up on the rock.
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mrtropy
Trad climber
Nor Cal
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Dec 19, 2007 - 12:02pm PT
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I too was at Pinnacles durning an earthquake. We were on the top of Machete Ridge doing the Old Original Route. We felt the whole ridge shaking and heard rumbing in the distance but saw no rock fall. Kind of exciting and kept us on our toes.
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yosguns
climber
San Francisco, CA
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Dec 19, 2007 - 02:06pm PT
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"The Pinnacles blows! Anybody that spends any sort of time there or has spent time there has a pathetic life. Go somewhere with real climbing." Oh my God, this explains so much!!! I always suspected we had pathetic lives, so nice to finally be validated!
As far as lose rock on that new 5.9 "Full Throttle" off "Mezzanine" (or "Gary and Phyllis Headwall" or--formerly known as--"Upper Bandit Bench"), I joked when I got to the anchor that climbing in three and following two, the climb certainly went to at least old school 5.9 by the time I climbed. Found a sick sort of pleasure in the number of times we yelled rock, considering how loud a family was being down below... Sound sure does some strange things around there.
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