Official Rebolting and Route Hardware suggestion thread

[clink]

This looked to be the best place for an anchor especially since the ball looks like it will head west if it goes especially if someone is foolish enough to try to climb all the way to the top.

How big is the ball?

Brad, did you touch the top?

[JC w KC redux]

Noal and I rebolted Lion's Head today after I led it.
The formation had another of those cool single drilled piton with giant rivet (same as Toadstool)
There was also a rusty, smashed end 3/8" wedge or split shaft with a paper thin Leeper.
I left the former in place and attempted to remove the latter - which ended up snapping off.

For an encore Aaron led Catatonic Stupor and Darkness Within.

The heat was sweltering - luckily there was a nice breeze most of the time and some overcast part of the time.

[Brad Young]

Clink, I'd have to go out and see the formation again to determine if I touched the top, and also to determine if I would have felt then that touching the top was necessary to make the route complete.

If I felt it was necessary to touch the top to make the route complete, I would have touched the top for sure.

Nice job on the rebolting campaign. "Sweltering heat" doesn't sound good though. I hope it cools off for my trip down there next Saturday though Monday.

(Plus we just had two more cords of firewood delivered up here - although that will keep until next year if that's what the weather decides to do.)

[Brad Young]

In case anyone doubted the extreme public good that comes from all these rebolting efforts, here's a link to an on-topic Supertopo thread (a 44 year old climber died there last week after a 5/16 inch button head bolt failed):

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2595487/Broken-bolt-in-Owens-5-16-buttonhead

But I doubt anyone here actually doubts that extreme public good.

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

Clint and I finished up rebolting in the Hanging Valley/Kasparek's Ridge area.  Based on the information in the Rubine guide and Brad's book it looked like we missed one bolt on the top of Teeter Tower (one bolt on top of 'Obvious' and one bolt on top of 'Original').  We re-climbed the pinnacle and after a lot of looking around the entire base of the 'ball' could only find the one bolt at the top of the crack on 'Obvious' which we rebolted last week.

We then went over to Sorcerer's Slab and replaced the bolt there(3/8" Star Dryvin, homemade aluminum hanger).

[QITNL]

interesting little thread:
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/pinnacles-route-history/110208434

[mynameismud]

Good Info.

Thank you

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

Here is a page out of the Ski Hut catalogue circa 1968.  As per the discussion about Longware hangers see hanger #4 and it's description.

[JC w KC redux]

On 4-11-15 Kat and I spent some time working on the Sponge. I replaced the hangers and added SS washers on the 5.0 after inspecting the bolts. I removed a 3rd “off-route” bolt Kat found while leading the route. It was about four feet up and right of bolt 2. Replacing that bolt didn’t make any sense. It was a  2 ½” long 3/8”split shaft way under-drilled and a few inches right of another snapped off bolt (couldn’t tell what kind). I suspect these two bolts may have been the original location for bolt 2 – but the rock quality was terrible - as was all the surrounding rock – hollow and dull sounding. I suspect whoever rebolted this route with 5 piece Rawls moved bolt 2 down to get it in good rock.

The Sponge anchor consisted of two bolts with chains – one star dryvin and one 5 piece Rawl (carbon steel). There was also an extra bolt with a homemade tab hanger.
I removed the extra bolt (star dryvin with aluminum tab hanger) and then replaced the existing star dryvin anchor bolt. Both of the existing anchor bolts had loose hangers. The 5 piece anchor bolt was in good shape. I removed and inspected it and replaced the washer. The bolt is solid and tight but hanger remains a little loose.
I put the old chain back on the new bolt (ASCA stamped powder coated hanger).

I replaced the hanger and added a SS washer on the first bolt of the 5.6 Left Side route (Bruce and Clint hadn’t done it b/c they ran out of hangers).

On 4-12-15 clink and I worked on Burgundy Dome.
I led the 4th class Regular Route and was surprised to discover an old bolt (a rusty 2 ½”star dryvin with Leeper Hanger) at the top of the “pillar” between the two summits. This bolt is not listed in the guidebook. clink replaced the bolt when he followed the route. The entire assembly pulled out in one piece and clink said it was probably the worst bolt he has ever seen at Pinns – in terms of placing a bolt in bad rock. None of the rock anywhere near it was acceptable for installing a replacement. The only suitable rock was on one of the two walls. We decided the left wall might cause people to go to the wrong summit. The right wall had a section of good rock where a bolt would provide protection for the step across to the true summit. clink had to stem across to drill but he got it done. I should also mention that we both thought the starting moves on this route are 5.5 and the upper parts of the route can be protected with medium to large cams.

After clink came up I tied off the rope and rapped a single strand down Vin Ordinaire to check it out. The top bolt was an inch and a half ¼” compression bolt/split shaft on a modern hanger (smc). It came out with a few taps of the tuning fork – no crowbar needed. The shaft was in poor quality rock one inch and showed no evidence of compression. I didn’t drill the hole out because the rock quality was bad. I found good rock about 6 inches up and right and drilled a new hole. The first bolt was a decent looking star dryvin. Bob said he and Jack had replaced that bolt about 25 years ago. I replaced it with shiny new stainless steel.

I’ve updated the master list. I plan to lead Vin Ordinaire soon.

[mynameismud]

Thank you

[JC w KC redux]

Thank you

You bet

A labor of love

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

JC,

nice work on the Sponge and Burgundy!

Bruce

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

I ran into Mark Fletcher on the SuperTopo forum and asked him about his rebolting activities at the Pinnacles.  He said that he sent all his rebolting information to Clint back then(I am checking with Clint) and that he stopped doing rebolting back then because people were criticizing some of his work and also some of the new hardware he was installing (his own money, back before sponsorship from ASCA or ARI) was being taken.

Thank heavens people are embracing rebolting nowadays and also that ASCA and ARI is providing hardware!

[clink]

Thank heavens people are embracing rebolting nowadays

Certainly beats embracing Mother Earth at terminal velocity.

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

Last Thursday Clint and I did some rebolting on Machete.  We climbed the Old Original(someone has added a 3/8" 5-piece plated bolt and hanger at the very start of the route) over to the top of Bill's Bad Bolts.  I replaced one bolt on the first pitch (1/4" Star Dryvin), four bolts on the 2nd pitch (three - 1/4" Star Dryvin; one - 3/8" Star Dryvin) and one bolt on the third pitch(3/8" Star Dryvin).  I also removed two bolts from the belay at the top of the first pitch (two- 3/8" Star Dryvin), one bolt from the belay at the top of the second pitch (3/8" Star Dryvin) and one bolt from the belay on the third pitch(3/8" Star Dryvin).  There are two good bolts at each belay.

I also replaced the third and fourth bolts on the Bill's Bad Bolts Direct Finish.  Now, all five bolts are stainless 5-piece.  The fourth bolt was a bit odd.  It looked like a 5-piece Rawl/Powers, but it wasn't.  I have attached a photo of the two bolts.  You can see the threads on the actual 5-piece Rawl/Powers are more coarse and it is 1/2" longer.  Also, the sleeve on the odd bolt was aluminum and not steel.  The marking on the head of the odd bolt was LE.  It is probably a Lake Erie Products Grade 8 bolt. Hmmm.

Clint was a busy beaver as well.  He built an anchor and rappelled down Daedalus.  He replaced the two belay bolts at the top of the second pitch.  He replaced the three protection bolts and two belay bolts on the third pitch.  The only bolts we haven't replaced on this route are the first 6 bolts (of 7) in the aid ladder.  We will get to that sooner or later.

All in all we replaced 15 bolts and removed 4 extra bolts.

One thing I learned was that if you hit your finger with your hammer multiple times it really starts to hurt, a lot!

In the photo below, the top seven bolts are from Daedalus.



Here is the odd bolt on the left, 5-piece Rawl/Powers on the right.

[Brad Young]

Bruce, great work. Actually, great, great work.

But I'm confused about two things:

- Did you replace any bolts on Old Original, or did you just use that to access the other routes and replace bolts on those?

- The bolt at "the start" of Old Original is really at the start (i.e. it could be clipped from the ground)?

[Brad Young]

Clint was a busy beaver as well.  He built an anchor and rappelled down Daedalus.  He replaced the two belay bolts at the top of the second pitch.  He replaced the three protection bolts and two belay bolts on the third pitch.  The only bolts we haven't replaced on this route are the first 6 bolts (of 7) in the aid ladder.  We will get to that sooner or later.

Also, since at some point you two will work on the Daedalus bolt ladder, and since Clint has frequently contacted Glen Denny regarding his Pinns climbing, should we bring up the subject of the fallen pine tree with him (while he's still around to bring it up with!)? "We" of course means Clint in this context  

Recall that the start of the first pitch of Daedalus is a "chimney" between the pine and the wall. A climber then breaks up and right toward the first bolt. With the tree down now I don't know if that chimneying can be done. Maybe an actual rock climbing direct start is needed now? But before, when the tree was intact, one could tie off the tree near the end of the chimneying, and even with that it was still a serious run from there to the first bolt. If a real climbing direct start were to be attempted (aid or free - it would be interesting to see what would and wouldn't go), it might only be feasible with an added bolt (or more if it needed a ladder). Obviously no-one would ever add a bolt or bolts though without the permission of the FA party.

Would Clint be willing to raise the subject with Glen?

[clink]

All in all we replaced 15 bolts and removed 4 extra bolts.

A ton of work, thanks.

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

Would Clint be willing to raise the subject with Glen?

Brad,

actually, I have been spending some time with Glen.  I was up at his place in SF a few weeks ago looking over his latest project.  His book of B/W images that came out a few years ago started with an article I was writing about Glen for Climbing magazine.  His next project should be just as good!

I sent Glen the first four bolts Clint and I replaced on Daedalus so he knows we are working on it.  Do you have a proposal for what to do about the first pitch?

[Bruce Hildenbrand]

Bruce, great work. Actually, great, great work.

But I'm confused about two things:

- Did you replace any bolts on Old Original, or did you just use that to access the other routes and replace bolts on those?

- The bolt at "the start" of Old Original is really at the start (i.e. it could be clipped from the ground)?

Brad,

we only used the Old Original for the approach.  Over the years we have been replacing the bolts that needed it(mostly on the rappels).  All are 3/8" though some are clearly better than others.  The 2nd bolt on the 1st pitch is pretty rusty, but it is completely unnecessary and kind of puts the rope in a bad location for the second.  It was probably added after the FA.  The last bolt on the 3rd pitch is rusty as well, but it is a 3/8" and the climbing there is really, really easy.  It was probably added long after the FA.

The bolt at the start of the route is about one foot off the ground.  It looks like it was placed as a belay anchor.

Bruce