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| Messages 1 - 9 of total 9 in this topic |
Mittens
climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 14, 2010 - 10:25pm PT
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How are the bolts/ anchors on this thing? How is the climb?!
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Mittens
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2010 - 09:24pm PT
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sweet... thanks for the info!
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Brock
Trad climber
RENO, NV
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Aug 16, 2010 - 01:50am PT
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Scariest roped solo I ever did! We rapped down these old manky quarter inch bolts with bleached webbing only to lose site of any anchor to be able to finish repelling 500ft down. We ended up climbing back up the route with only one or two bolts between 150' slab friction climbs. If the leader fell doubt the bolts would have held
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Aug 16, 2010 - 02:09am PT
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When Dan put up Nataraj and Crest Jewel Direct, he might have paid some attention to the Dakshina Anchors. I'll send him a link to this thread
Peace
karl
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Larry
Trad climber
Bisbee
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Aug 16, 2010 - 11:31am PT
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I helped Dan replace everything except for what's beneath the roof. Dan will have to speak to that part.
Edit: I thought we'd replaced everything, but Dan is probably right (below). I do remember a scary diagonal slippery I'm-gonna-be-hanging-off-that-big-overhang-in-the-dark rappel though.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Aug 16, 2010 - 11:49am PT
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Here the bolt beta from Dan Dingle
"In Answer to Mittens' question as to the quality of the bolts on the route, here's the beta:
There are very few bolts on the pitches leading up to and traversing underneath the large roof. Some of the belays were bolted. We used 1" long by 1/4" dia. Rawl button head drives with Leeper hangers. At some point on the climb we started using my home made stainless steel Leeper style hangers which were bomber. I wouldn't trust any of the remaining original button heads you might encounter. I would definitely recommend pulling any of the old bolts and replacing with 3/8" stainless. Bob Steed's choice of bolts is the best I've seen.
The last time I rapped off Dakshina, I noticed the bolt protecting the 5.10 face moves leading out of the overhang and onto the route above, was missing. The bolt protected some serious face moves up into an offwidth crack that led to a belay pedestal. This belay is shared with Nataraj. All bolts of the next pitch are 2 1/2" x 3/8" (some stainless), all with stainless hangers and are new. On Dakshina, we originally tossed a lasso around the large chicken head above the pedestal, then climbed the face up and to the left of the belay. Originally there was a long runnout directly above the belayer with only the chicken head for pro... very unnerving for the belayer. When Bob and I did Nataraj, we added a bolt to this face to protect against the potential for a nasty vertical leader fall onto the belayer. Two other bolts were added to this pitch when it was reclimbed as Nataraj. At the end of the horizontal dike traverse I placed a bolt to protect a move onto another dike running up and to the right. I added a 3rd bolt once I reached the steep dike running up and around a blind corner. If one wishes to repeat Dakshina without clipping into the new bolts, there is potential for a 40' vertical fall close to the lip of the overhang. In my opinion, the added bolts make the pitch more enjoyable, with potential for a 20' spill, the crux moves being over the bolts.
At the end of this pitch, Dakshina goes straight up past 2 old bolts to the belay. When Larry Scritchfield and I rapped the route a few years ago, I don't believe we replaced them because it was getting dark. Larry and I did the wildly traversing dike rap by headlamp.
So, at the end of the dike pitch Dakshina goes straight up, past 2 bolts to a belay, then the next 3 pitches are about 150' each, unprotected, ending in 2-bolt belays that are now 2 1/2" x 3/8" with stainless hangers. The bolts and hangers from these 3 pitches to the top are courtesy of ASCA and should have rings at each belay..."
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Aug 16, 2010 - 03:27pm PT
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I waited for permission to post this part of the story, which reflects how some of these routes go up and why. From Dan
"The long runnouts of Dakshina were the result of several different things going on, most important of which was a major difference in philosophy between Kenny Black and me regarding route protection. I wanted the bolts to be spaced just far enough away from each other so that someone could see where the route went, but not so close as to be unexciting. Since the difficulty of the climbing was well within both of our abilities, I saw it as less a matter of our needs as the need for a practical way of marking where the route went. As you know, when staring off into an ocean of slab it is sometimes hard to see where the route goes or where the next bolt is. Kenny clearly wanted the route to be scary, preferably life-threatening, merely for the sake of being bad-ass. Even though we were like oil and water on this issue, both of us ran out the leads, but for different reasons. I ran them out to get to the top as soon as possible so I wouldn't have to suffer through another minute with Kenny. He ran them out so they would be as scary as possible. Kenny would also eat mushrooms and drop gear on lead which was yet another reason I wanted to get down as soon as possible.
Dakshina was the only name originally agreed upon for the route but later, Kenny got it into his head that he wanted it to play off the nickname "Psycho Kenny" that others had apparently given him, so he proffered "Psycho-Killer" or some such after he later returned to do a clean lead of the 1 or 2 rests taken on the crux pitch.
The route was done in 2 days hauling a very heavy pack. I sympathize with Brock's fear. On one of the unprotected pitches, I remember doing a hanging belay with the heavy bag and Kenny out 150' with no pro.... and I hanging from two 1/4' button heads. Glad it didn't rain....
Since Kenny is not with us anymore... at least on this plane, I don't think he'll care what I said about him. On a positive note for Kenny, although he was often insufferable, he had endearing moments of charm. He was a good climber and had bizare stories. He was the brother of one of my closest friends. Cheers to Kenny's positive attributes, may he be remembered for them."
Peace
Karl
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Mittens
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 17, 2010 - 10:22pm PT
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Thanks for the info, guys!
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