Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Cheyne Lempe and I climbed this very good, mostly moderate route, in three days from the ground (with bags pre-hauled to Mammoth) recently.
We cleaned all of the tat off the route, using a 25 foot, 5 mil cord, threaded directly through the eye of the bolt, piton, head or nut, to lower out with, hauled off a couple of cans and old water bottles and removed five adventure stealing heads, which we climbed past via clean gear.
Although the route is described as "moderate" I wouldn't suggest the route to climbers of moderate abilities. The route traverses a fair amount, climbing sideways, swinging sideways and has fairly awkward, but not difficult, free climbing on a few pitches. Moreover, someone could really ruin the second Headwall pitch by placing copperheads into it. Right now it's a beautiful, difficult A3+ or A4 beak pitch. Placing heads on it would be a real travesty.
As usual, the ST rack is more gear than you will ever use. I'd suggest cutting the pins by 1/3, taking no heads, and fewer cams overall.
I have to be snarky here, you don't need an 8 or 12" piece, just learn to free climb, it's really only 5.8.
The anchors on the route each have at least one modern, 3/8" bolt and no anchor is unsafe, but certainly antiquated.
The anchors there now suffer from a severe lack of planning. At one anchor there are four 1/4" bolts within a two foot span. If someone goes up there on a bolting mission, please, please, please, plan the anchors for hanging bags and portaledges from. My suggestion would be three 3/8" bolts, placed in a horizontal line, two feet apart, spanning a total of four feet.
Please, please, please, get a tuning fork from Greg at the ASCA or have one made. Don't go up there and fire in more bolts and make a bigger mess than there already is.
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