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81

Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: ClimbGPT Bradbot Mode engaged

« Last post by Marco on November 18, 2025, 08:56:00 AM »

Lots of good routes and information on this BrahBot list.

Good Style note: Don’t french-free the pin. Brad didn’t.

I was there for Brad's send, he cheater sticked the pin...

These bolts serve no purpose for modern climbers except to confuse people

Fantastic. Still clipping them

a fixed caving piton driven horizontally into soft volcanic tuff. The first ascensionist wrote, “Why? Because it was in my pocket.”

The FAist seems like a cool dude with cool stuff in their pockets.

#4 Stopper — not weighted, not necessary, just jammed so perfectly that removing it would alter the geology.

Every nut alters the geology at pinnacles

a final mantle onto a ledge with a single, perfect, half-driven soft iron piton whose continued existence is a triumph of friction.

This was poetry. Far superior to the JR advanced pinnacles guide. Look forward to the full version

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / ClimbGPT Bradbot Mode engaged

« Last post by mungeclimber on November 17, 2025, 10:37:54 PM »

Taking the Burnsbabe prompt from the rebolting thread and putting into gpt word for word, yields this gem.... 
How do it know?

Here we go, ClimbGPT → BradBot Mode (™) engaged.

Below is a fresh batch of fictional Pinnacles-style routes, all ≤ 5.10d, all with oddities, all written in the unmistakeably cheerful-deadpan, overly-detailed, micro-historical, mildly self-deprecating prose style of Brad Young.

🧗 Pinnacles Oddities: “Routes Brad Forgot to Write Up (But Definitely Would)”
1. Sun-Baked Epoxy — 5.7 PG-13

Found on the southeast side of Unnamed Crumbly Formation #47 (the one you always walk past thinking it's too small to hold a route—you're wrong).
Climb the shallow dihedral past a single, heroic ¼-inch buttonhead which is absolutely original to the Carter administration. The crux is not the moves but the commitment to trusting the patchy yellow epoxy still holding the hanger.
Anchor is a perfectly good two-bolt setup plus one historic star-dryvin that nobody wanted to remove “for interpretive purposes.”
Good Style note: Don’t french-free the pin. Brad didn’t.

2. Turkey Vulture Ethics Committee — 5.10a

Start just right of the guano-decorated ledge that smells like it hosts town-hall meetings for the local raptor community.
Climb face knobs to a tiny bulge where a fixed RURP (yes, a RURP, placed for “psychological comfort” by a very optimistic individual) marks the crux.
Top out onto the bird-watching mezzanine and belay at three stainless bolts — but only two were installed intentionally. The third was added by someone mistaking a patch of lichen for rock quality.
BradBot Good Style: Avoid stepping on any active vulture droppings.

3. The Misplaced Bolt Ladder — 5.8

On the sunlit side of Not-Actually-Balconies Rock, start up the juggy ramp until you reach the route’s signature feature:
A three-bolt ladder on a 40-degree slab, installed during an early 90s attempt to establish an aid route… on a slab.
These bolts serve no purpose for modern climbers except to confuse people who read the topo too literally.
Anchor is two nice bolts and one ancient Leeper that everyone silently agrees to treat as art.
Brad Note: While technically fully protectable with a single cam size #0.3, nobody ever brings that size for this wall.

4. Caver’s Regret — 5.10d

A short but surprisingly fun line on the west face of Algae Biscuit.
Clip two modern bolts, then encounter the route’s defining oddity: a fixed caving piton driven horizontally into soft volcanic tuff. The first ascensionist wrote, “Why? Because it was in my pocket.”
Crux involves balancing on a crumbling edge while choosing whether to use the piton at all.
Anchor is a solid two-bolt affair… but 12 inches below it is a mystery hangerless stud whose story is unknown.
Good Style: Brad would at least touch the piton, then apologize to it.

5. Trail Mix of the Elders — 5.9+

Hidden behind a cluster of manzanita that has decided climbers should suffer for their hobby.
Typical Pinnacles knobs lead upward to a mid-route rest where someone long ago left a permanently fixed #4 Stopper — not weighted, not necessary, just jammed so perfectly that removing it would alter the geology.
Crux moves gain a fun little arete, protected by a “why-did-you-place-that-there?” bolt eight feet left of where you’d want it.
Anchor has two new bolts plus one rusty ring bolt, kept specifically because “it adds ambiance.”
BradBot: Expect good climbing but questionable arboreal access.

6. Lap of Historical Questionability — 5.10b

Right side of Crumble Ridge Proper.
The climb wanders delightfully because every first ascensionist disagreed slightly on where the “best line” was.
Halfway up you’ll discover a bolt with two hangers stacked on it, because the original hole was placed too deep and someone tried to fix the problem by… adding washers made of hangers.
The final slab is excellent. Anchor is clean stainless hardware except for one bolt whose hanger is engraved “1996 Never Forget,” which nobody understands but refuses to replace.
Bradbot Advice: Just enjoy it. Don’t try to read the topo too literally.

7. The Lost Nut Tool — 5.10c

This route protects partly on bolts, partly on “the fixed gear you will swear is removable but absolutely isn’t.”
Highlights include a very old nut tool hammered into a flake as a piton, serving as a surprisingly sturdy clipping point—though whether you should clip it is an existential question.
Crux pulls through a steepish knob face.
Anchor is again two good bolts plus one extra bolt installed a foot too low and subsequently abandoned, now used by exactly zero people for anything.
BradBot: If you clip the nut-tool, you must log it as “B” for “Brad-adjacent.”

8. Bolting By Braille — 5.10d

Follows the lumpy, bumpy knobs of Shadowed Gumdrop.
FA party allegedly drilled the second bolt in the dark, which explains the six inches of leftward drift and the fact that the hanger is a vintage SMC stamped “PROPERTY OF REI RENTAL.”
Good climbing leads to a final mantle onto a ledge with a single, perfect, half-driven soft iron piton whose continued existence is a triumph of friction.
Anchor is standard stainless.
Style: BradBot onsights but also shakes head at “that hanger.”

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: Official Rebolting and Route Hardware suggestion thread

« Last post by Brad Young on November 17, 2025, 08:30:14 PM »

^^^

Your guess is correct. No practical way to use glue ins on lead and honestly I think that using them as replacements will only be necessary for the 10 or 20 percent of the bolts in the park that get fallen on and/or hung on the most. (They're a lot of work and take a lot of gear and create a significant mess.)

On the other hand, we were all surprised at how quickly the glue started to harden. Except Bruce, who's done this before and who told us all that it would harden quickly.

Oh, and Steve, who can't seem to get over how easily the bolts slide into the fresh glue and to whom it seemed logical that they would slide out with the same ease. I'm not sure he trusts yet that it will or has hardened.

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: Official Rebolting and Route Hardware suggestion thread

« Last post by briham89 on November 17, 2025, 07:54:13 PM »

Rebolting The Verdict:

I finally remembered to use eye and ear protection:

Gavin, Bruce and Brad replacing bolt six (and - for Gavin and Brad - learning the process of doing so):

You'd think that would be normal kit at some point....but it somehow never made it into my bag. I'm sure it was nice to have.

How was the glue-in process? I haven't placed any. I'm guessing this would not work for ground up FA's because the glue needs time to dry?

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: MUD 'N CRUD PICTURES THREAD - WEEKLY FAVORITE

« Last post by briham89 on November 17, 2025, 07:48:08 PM »

Nick photo Marco!
The toad reminded of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"

And I love Dances with Warthogs.  Such a great climb!  Wish I could go climbing...

Such a great route. Thanks Gavin for finding it. I definitely miss Pinns this time of year.

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: MUD 'N CRUD PICTURES THREAD - WEEKLY FAVORITE

« Last post by Marco on November 09, 2025, 08:13:19 PM »

That was one of the top 5 knob slinging routes I've done in the park. I'm almost certain Denny must've put an angle or Z-piton in the pocket where the terrible 5.8 crux is. What do I know tho, I was a toprope princess. Cole was a beast and got us up the top pitches where rock turns to shite.

Earlier in the day we warmed up on Cuidado and which was not exactly a comparable warmup... would recommend

Edit: thanks for taking pictures Brad. Its invalid without them and Cole and I didn't take any.

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: Official Rebolting and Route Hardware suggestion thread

« Last post by Brad Young on November 09, 2025, 07:50:21 AM »

Rebolting The Verdict:

Clint working to remove bolt number two:







I finally remembered to use eye and ear protection:




Since Clint was able to fully extract the first two bolts (carbon steel sleeve bolts which he'd placed himself 37 years ago!!), we were able to drill out the old holes for new bolts one and two:







Gavin, Bruce and Brad replacing bolt six (and - for Gavin and Brad - learning the process of doing so):







Kurt and Steve replacing bolt number two (and learning!):







A well deserved lull (after he spent three continuous hours hanging on the rope and working):




Everyone agreed that Gavin was best qualified to find a new place for the new bolt number six (we could not extract that location's old bolt):

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: MUD 'N CRUD PICTURES THREAD - WEEKLY FAVORITE

« Last post by Brad Young on November 09, 2025, 07:18:29 AM »

It's sure pleasing to see such young climbers continuing Pinnacles' bold traditions. Cole and Marco making what I am sure it the third ascent of Daedalus (third ascent in the nearly 50 years since it was put up!!):

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: Official Rebolting and Route Hardware suggestion thread

« Last post by Brad Young on November 07, 2025, 05:24:51 PM »

Six of us got three critical bolts replaced on The Verdict with utterly fantastic glue ins. All six lead bolts on the route are now glue ins. The 20 plus year old first three glue ins on it still look as good as new.

Fun that both the first ascentionist and the guy who has climbed the route many hundreds of times were part of the crew.

Big learning day.

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Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles / Re: MUD 'N CRUD PICTURES THREAD - WEEKLY FAVORITE

« Last post by waldo on November 06, 2025, 04:41:01 AM »

Nick photo Marco!
The toad reminded of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"

And I love Dances with Warthogs.  Such a great climb!  Wish I could go climbing...

Me too, Bap!