Quest for Mud (Special Edition)

[F4?]

Isn’t it getting warm there??

[Brad Young]

 Thanks everyone!

 I was wondering what I was getting into today. Great day new routing with JC and Brad, and it was phenomenal quality, north facing rock! When I left JC was drilling at about 100 feet up and with what looked from where we were, another 20-30 feet to go. I left at 4:30 and looking back at the vantage point of the reservoir, JC looked to have another 100 feet to go. They will probably finish tomorrow with KC (she is joining them tonight at the campground.) Can't wait to get the report.
 

What kind of a birthday wretch posts photos of new routes at Pinnacles on Supertopo... but not on Mudn'Crud?

[Brad Young]

^^^

We finished two routes. They share a start and then continue 103 and 95 feet to separate anchors. Both are 5.7* (and I'll get full descriptions up soon)**.

Two great days.

And Clink, you forgot your comb at the base.

** We all know though that the routes won't really be finished until Climberdude repeats them   

[clink]

What kind of a birthday wretch posts photos of new routes at Pinnacles on Supertopo... but not on Mudn'Crud?

 Yes, i am guilty. I posses the simple and easy technology to post photos from my phone directly to Munge's "The Power of Choss Compels You" thread.  Anyone is welcome to repost them here.

  JC will hog tie me at some point and my technological skills will be forcibly upgraded.

[clink]

And Clink, you forgot your comb at the base.

 That comb is for Cookilocks. For the above visor thatch.

 Where are the bad bolts pics? Hairy Potheads and the Half Placed Bolt.

[Brad Young]

 JC will hog tie me at some point and my technological skills will be forcibly upgraded.

Justified. And I'll help him.

It's not about technological skills (even I can post photos here). You're just being lazy.

[Brad Young]

 That comb is for Cookilocks. For the above visor thatch.

 Where are the bad bolts pics? Hairy Potheads and the Half Placed Bolt.

I didn't actually have a camera with. You'll have to wait until he returns from his additional bolt replacement work later today.

[JC w KC redux]

That comb is for Cookilocks. For the above visor thatch.

 Where are the bad bolts pics? Hairy Potheads and the Half Placed Bolt.

[F4?]

Well it can be a good bolt IF it one of them long ones.
If a short, it would slow you down.

[JC w KC redux]

Well it can be a good bolt IF it one of them long ones.
If a short, it would slow you down.

I have two lengths in my rebolt pile of old 3/8 inch split shafts.
The 2 1 /2 inch bolt has a 1 1/2 inch split portion.
The 3 1/2 inch bolt has a 1 3/4 inch split portion.
The bolt pictured is the longer version, so there is probably slightly less than an inch and a half in the rock.
Both bolts we found on this old abandoned route were underdrilled between one half and 1 inch.

The thing I find interesting is the corrosion pattern. Why does the top part of the threaded end look almost new?

[JC w KC redux]

JC drills the last bolt on Endeavor to Persevere





JC's 1st attempt at a stance for drilling the crux bolt on Whistlin' Dixie





Brad stems into the crux on Whistlin' Dixie

[JC w KC redux]

[Brad Young]

Both John and Kathy were climbing in pants and/or shorts that had visible patches. Wicked cool.

I so admired their patches that I'm going to try something new: wearing some clothes with patches. Vicki's doing some sewing right now - including sewing on some patches for me. Oh, and patches for my climbing pack's lid too.

[JC w KC redux]

JC,

There are two ways to get to the top of Cave Pinnacle, one that is fourth class and one that I would characterize as very easy fifth class.  It sounds like you and Brad did the very easy fifth class way that is on the right.  I carefully read the route description in Roper's 1966 guidebook as well as Brad's 2007 guidebook, both of which seem to describe the route on the left that leads all the way to the top as fourth class climbing.  There is a variation route on the right that goes up from a ledge below the cave up a ramp with a dihedral/crack on the left.  The ramp ends below the summit and then you do a scary and very exposed huck move on mossy rock to the top.  I also did this variation route, but felt it was harder than fourth class.  Roper's description of the Cave Pinnacle route describes the bottom as being very loose.  I felt that the left route had a very loose bottom section but the right route did not have any loose sections on it.

Thanks dude. The class 4 designation can be tricky. I discovered that yesterday at Doodlin' Dody. I either went up a new way or simply found an alternate way OR I went the intended way. Regardless, I stood on top of that thing. There may be two other ways to get there but the first one I looked at seemed about 5.9 and the other possibility I did not check out because I decided to try it another way. Launching into that, I found myself committed and it actually felt class 4 (after an exposed mantle move I did not want to try to reverse). For the second section, I would have liked to have one big cam (probably a #4) but of course I didn't have anything that big. The 5.9-looking boulder move would probably take a #2 camalot. All I had was some medium-sized stuff to do the 5.7 route. Ironically, I only ended up using a yellow alien on that route. The second larger placement on the 5.7 would have required climbing into some hideous looking rock to access the higher portion of the crack.

We had a friend stop in before climbing the class 4. He or she is sitting right on top of the crack that looked like one way to boulder up but it's completely undercut with a serious lack of footholds. A left hand jam and a knob on the right might allow a power move akin to Old Route. Left of the crack is a boulder that I did not step up on to explore the face above. That may be another way up. I think I got too focused on the crack. Morale of the story?







On the summit of Doodlin' Dody South Pinnacle Class Four. I mantled onto the shelf and then climbed the wide crack.
 

[clink]

We had a friend stop in before climbing the class 4.

 Caleb, blushing in a new overcoat?

[JC w KC redux]

KC got right on the sharp end on Friday. Here she is breaking bad on the crux of Endeavor to Persevere 5.7d* 





John and Brad later in the day at the anchor after finishing Whistlin' Dixie 5.7a*




Brad took off for home after we finished Whistlin' Dixie. Meanwhile, Kat and I went over to Old Route so I could get some proper chains on the replacement anchor. The old bolt was just too damn cool not to leave and incorporate in with the new bolt.

[Brad Young]

The photo of Kathy is a little fuzzy, but great nonetheless. She did an excellent lead on that route (patches and all).

[JC w KC redux]

The photo of Kathy is a little fuzzy, but great nonetheless. She did an excellent lead on that route (patches and all).

Yes and you are photobombing 

[JC w KC redux]

It would be cool to hang on a rope on either of those routes and take pictures of folks leading through the cruxes 

[JC w KC redux]

Our latest adventure. Doodlin' Dody.
The normal approach is completely choked out with Poison Oak.
Here is a picture taken from below Casino Rock, just past the switchback near the Don Genaro waterfall overlook.





Here is a photo topo made from zooming in on the previous picture. You can see the drill dust from the bolt replacements.




Disclaimer and warning - it looks like the pinnacle is not that tall.
This is a very tall pinnacle. A major portion of the downhill side is obscured by the nature of this downhill view and the brush. When you start down the notch on a skinny fin to gain easier access to the slab, the exposure is immediate.

Above the first bulge, a crumbly-looking stance gets you to a fixed stopper in a small slot.
Someone evidently fixed this piece and bailed, leaving an oval carabiner on it - likely years ago when they couldn't find the bolts or possibly freaked out from the rock quality.  
Unfortunately I did not have a nut tool, so I gave the stopper a good yank and it was fixed solid. It was a small nut turned sideways - maybe 5 or 6? on the BD scale (I should have taken a picture) and the wire was thinner than any nut I own. There wasn't enough room in the slot to place anything else, so I said Vaya con Dios (no one actually says that) and clipped the piece with a long runner. I had also clipped my yellow alien with a long runner. Moving out to the next stance completed the zag in my zig-zag and I was now set up for the hopeless rope drag. I don't think 4 foot runners would have made a difference. Maybe 6 or 8 foot runners. I have to wonder if the first ascent party didn't belay from the first bolt - that would absolutely work.  
Kat had been asking me the whole time if I saw any bolts.

Here is the most current route description: Move up and left past 2 bolts and over 2 bulges. It is possible to use small gear to supplement the bolts. The summit anchor is very old.  

Well...that was 2 bulges so far and no bolts. When I got to the next stance, I saw the 2 old bolts - 4 feet apart on the final, filthy, lichen-covered, loose slab. Sounds exciting huh?  
That second bolt was clearly placed by hanging on the first one.

I clipped the first old bolt and stepped up. You would think I would know better and would have pulled more slack into the system. The rope drag was so bad I almost didn't make it to the 2nd bolt (4 feet away).
I struggled past the second bolt screaming for slack the whole time (what a maroon!) - Kat kept yelling back that I had slack. One more dicey pull to get enough slack to move and I made it to a rest stance. From there I pulled out more slack to make the final run to the top. When I got to the top, I told Kat " that was harder than a sustained 10a!" In retrospect I should have just pulled out 20 feet of slack before trying to climb past the bolts.

Once at the summit, I rested a bit before starting the chore of replacing the anchor.
When the anchor was done, I belayed Kat up and then rapped down and replaced both lead bolts in their original holes.
The second lead bolt came out with my fingers after applying the tuning fork  

Here's the old anchor. (I left it for the sake of history)





The new anchor.





The replaced lead bolts - close enough to be photographed together while hanging from the rope