Nice to hear you got up there Bruce and Co. If only the whole route was like the first or top 4 pitches. I just got back from a few weeks of travel and came across the discussion here and on SuperTopo.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1618401&tn=3740
It looks like there were a few questions in that discussion that I could possibly clear up. First though, I would like to say thanks to those who support the idea of this route and the others who have abstained from chopping it so far. Ten years ago Jamie and I did a route that was similar in grade to this ground up following dirty crack systems on the west face of the mountain. I’m pretty sure it has not and probably won’t be repeated any time soon.
Extra Bolts
Most of the times I have been up in the Tantalus I have only brought a few pieces of gear, with the goal of climbing moderate routes. The extra bolts on D on D are so that you can still go into the range with the small alpine rack…just bringing an extra half dozen draws, shoes and chalk.
I agree that a lot of the bolts are not needed. In fact due to a tactical error while we were up there we actually did the first ascent of the first 5 pitches ground up with a rack that consisted of two shoulder slings, two cordelettes and a #4 camalot. I also think it would have been pretty easy to pull our ropes and climb the upper face following natural features and protecting it with the gear we brought.
Instead, we bolted the climb so that others could enjoy it. We were looking for a “multipitch 5.10 sport climb”. In true Euro style it ended up at 11b, 10c obl. I too think it might be more aesthetic with less bolts…but I think less people would get on it. We skipped many of the bolts on the FA. Some bolts are there solely as “trail markers”, because we forgot to bring reflective orange diamonds. I agree that I would feel a little vulnerable being up there without any rack other than draws but I guess if things went really sideways and you chopped a rope you could still get off by going down bolt to bolt.
The one thing I do feel bad about is putting an anchor in the middle of the SW buttress route. We spent a few hours at this point hiding from the sun and talked about this anchor at large. We bolted it considering the following:
1. It provides a rap station for all the routes on the face as well as the couloir. If someone comes down the couloir and finds the bergschrund impassable you can now walk out the ledge behind the towers to this anchor and do 3 rappels (60m rope) down around the schrund.
2. Natural rappel anchors are available at this point but two bolts are less unsightly than a mess of tat. IMO!
3. The route up to this point also provides an alternate start to the SW Buttress as well as a bunch of the west face routes when the schrund is impassable.
4. The bolt anchor is in a more user friendly position than the original anchor on the SW Buttress which is at feet level over an edge in boulders or it can be avoided if climbing through.
Please feel free to chop this anchor if you feel it preserves the SW Buttress route…which is a great climb!
Parks
We were conscious of the park and I had looked through the publicly available management strategy before we went up there. The route was, as we could see, outside the park and nowhere was their mention of a power drill ban.
If you wanted you could actually land at the big windscoop just south of the base of the couloir about 15 minutes from the base of the route. This would be no worse than landing at the base of the west face of Dione or the SW flank of Mt Currie as many do every winter. I strongly advise against this as you will likely land on top of someone and ruin their day. The Heli companies are very reluctant to land here anyway because of an old agreement with Parks.
Climbing with boots and crampons
It is a bummer having to bring the boots up the route. We did look around for a rappel option, the best of which looked like the buttress to the south of the couloir. In the end we felt the current rappel route down the Y gully further south on the ridge was the safest option. On the weekend we did it, it was warm enough that two days in a row we did not have to bring up crampons, 5.tennies were fine.
As we had a drill up there we also thought about replacing all the sling and tat rappel station on both the upper part of regular SE Ridge route and the gully descent. After a lot of debate we only added one rap anchor in the middle of the normal rappel line. Contrary to the park mandate we left the ugly tat anchors because we felt that they were a lot easier to see than a pair of bolts and chain…thus a safety issue. Imagine coming down at night as I know many have and missing a set of bolts!
Opinions and comments
Mighty Hiker, one day I will call you when a seat becomes available and invite you on one my of my heli hiking adventures. You really gotta try it! You’ll love it. I’m sure we can get you to pose for the odd photo too. I’m also all for via ferratas and gondolas….it is all about location, location, location. Standing in Squamish or at the Haberl hut you can’t see the bolts on Dione!
I did Infinite Bliss last year and it was brilliant. I only wish there was a walk off. Nobody would ever go to this face if it wasn’t sport bolted (note there are several pitches with no bolts or gear).We spent as much time rappelling the 2500ft face as we did climbing. I have an updated topo of it if anyone is interested.
GF, in 2002(?) on the west face we climbed 6 pitches of rock left of the lower west face couloir, which put us on top of the left (north) fork of the chute. We then followed the buttress straight up. It was about 300m north of your line. On another note , we read in the hut log that Madaloni and company freed the Zwecker/Spagnut variation to your route at 11b a couple of years ago.
Cheers
C
Let us know!