Yesterday J.C. finished replacing the last bolt on The Outcast (the whole formation, not just one route). In other words, between J.C. and Clink, every bolt on every route on the formation (ten or a dozen bolts?) are now bright, long stainless, 3/8 inch A.S.C.A. bolts. All this in only the last five weeks.
All but one of the replacements were installed in the original holes. Some of the old bolts were extremely rusty, 1 1/4 inch long, quarter inch buttonheads (which tells me that when I led all of those climbs, i did it on illusory pro). The ones that weren't were garbage of other types. I'd ask him to post some photos here of these ancient, crappy "things."
That's a lot of work starting with a 45 minute approach carrying all the bolting gear and all the bolt removal (heavy) steel.
Thanks.
As a side note, after he replaced the last bolt yesterday, he did one of the best leads I've ever seen him do - he led my first first ascent flawlessly (Catatonic Stupor, which I put up with Vicki in 1991, before we were even married!). I'd forgoten how heads up this route is, with five bolts in 110 feet, a fair amount of loose rock, and some great exposure (yeah, five, you read that right - the guidebook says six, but it is in error regarding my own route
). I really had no memory of how bold that damn thing was (the folly of youth or some such).
And talking about fine leads, while we were all there, Gavin did a strong lead of Mr. Mud's own route The Agony of Defeat (5.10a my ass). As is normal when someone does one of Dennis' routes on Knuckle Ridge, there were several rounds of "5.10a my ass," and "what the hell was he thinking running it out that far." You know, all the normal stuff about routes put up by a beyond the normal guy