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Stephen McCabe
Trad climber
near Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 23, 2009 - 03:01am PT
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Clint. Thanks for the tip. - SM
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Alexey
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Apr 28, 2009 - 04:34pm PT
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We just climbed Hot Line last weekend.
Thanks for ST forum for information- without it would not have an idea that mortal can climb it in spring.
Everything was same as on Clint photos , except that there is fixed rope from bottom to top of p3. This rope is not on the way, but dangerously worn out in the middle. I regret that we did not drop it off.
Approach from Elephant parking took us down about hour, but we wasted ~20 min trying to find passage between Elephant Rock and Elephant Graveyard. We found one on way down and anther on the way up and build a duck.
there is basically no trail or we did not find one.
All climb in the shade up to 3:30PM
Climbing felt very remote - despite all routes on the Cookie across Merced was taken by climbers. Cookie cliff was looking exactly like on page 46/47 (Reid 1998) with climbers on Hardd , OuterLimits, MeatGrinder, NabiscoWall and Catchy. All guys who were there -you can make a good trail to Hot Line next weekend.
Plumb Line on east Elephants - looks very impressive- striking line . Anyone who climbed it before- want to share beta ( gear/crux) for Plumb Line?
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Alexey
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Apr 28, 2009 - 05:12pm PT
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Kevin, your comments about laybackin 10d ow pitch on Plimb line are not very encouraging, ha-ha.
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Alexey
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Apr 28, 2009 - 05:46pm PT
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Kevin, thanks. It looks from below that second pitch wide section not very long, like 25-30 feet and than become hands size?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 28, 2009 - 06:07pm PT
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Cool, Alexey - I'm glad to hear you got right on Hotline, and that the approach from above was not too bad.
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flamer
Trad climber
denver
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Apr 28, 2009 - 06:29pm PT
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Double..D Wrote:
"PS… did the crappy rap anchors ever get replaced? "
Yes.
A couple of years ago I went up with a partner and replaced 2 bolts.
1 On the anchor directly below the last pitch....and the lead bolt on the last pitch.
I replaced the lead bolt On lead, by hand...with out weighting the old one. It was an interesting way to do it!
I remember the rest of the anchors were good enough we didn't replace anything.
The bolts were supplied by the ASCA.
josh
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Alexey
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Apr 28, 2009 - 06:29pm PT
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thanks Clint for your trip report
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jsb
Trad climber
Bay area
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May 20, 2009 - 01:45am PT
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Hey everybody,
My partner and I checked out Hotline this Sunday, and I just wanted to echo what Alexey said... "there is basically no trail or we did not find one." The part near the rim is apparent enough, just walk straight out to Elephant Rock from highway 41 and then once you hit the rim walk east for 5-10 minutes until you see some cairns marking a chute down between Elephant Rock and Elephant's Graveyard. After that, sooner rather than later, things degrade into vertical meadows of poison oak and slippery leaves. At least we had a copious supply of animal spirit guides (mosquitoes). Actually, I have poison oak starting to pop up all over my body right now! I won't ever go back to do the approach from above. It sucks.
We climbed up to the bottom of the 10d flare pitch (first 5 pitches) and then did 3 rappels with two 60m ropes to get to the ground. There are bolted rap stations at the tops of P2, P3 and P5. Also, there's a slung block at the top of P4. We freed everything but P2, which we aided almost entirely. Doing it this way makes it very accessible to a 5.10 climber.
Also, I dropped off the fixed line from the top of p3, coiled it, and left it at the base. The biners used to anchor it were safely carried to the ground and left with the rope. It had a huge core shot in the middle... more than 6 inches of the core was completely exposed. In my opinion, it was also an eyesore. I'd have probably dropped it even if it weren't dangerous.
Embarrassingly, we were so fed up with the approach from 41, we decided to scope out the river and possibly try to swim across the Merced and then hitchike back up to the car. There are a few places where the river is calm enough and broken up by islands that it was very tempting to try (for future reference, we climbed the route on May 17, 2009). This didn't work. We also tried to hike out east along the river on what started out as a pretty good trail. This also didn't work when the trail died out somewhere past the Rostrum. Long story short, we had to bivy and then backtrack up to the car the next day, making our friends and loved ones worried sick (they had also called NPS when we hadn't shown up at home on Sunday night, prompting them to start looking for us.) So make fun of us or whatever... yeah, we're stupid, but maybe this info will be useful for somebody.
 Justin
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WBraun
climber
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May 20, 2009 - 01:52am PT
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Pitch 2 is a 5.10A hand crack.
You are saying you broke the first pitch into 2 mini pitches.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 20, 2009 - 02:26am PT
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The guidebook topo (1982, 1987 at least) breaks it that way.
I can see that linking those to the end of the traverse is better if you are freeing it, since you don't create a rest just before it starts getting hard.
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WBraun
climber
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May 20, 2009 - 02:40am PT
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It's wrong Clint.
The reason is because the FA party only belayed there because that's where they stopped free climbing and it is not a natural belay. It's slightly overhanging at that spot.
If you do the route free and you belay at that spot which is only about 60 feet off the ground and then do the rest of the pitch as a second pitch you've really rested in the middle of a real full pitch as you mentioned also.
That bolt there was removed at one time and someone replaced it. Kind of goofy way of climbing, hanging in the middle of a pitch.
On the Crimson Cringe Bachar removed Jardine's belay bolts at the start of the under-cling to make the Cringe a real full pitch instead of breaking it apart in so many different ways.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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May 20, 2009 - 03:16am PT
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Hey P-King, if you're still in the ditch you should go do Hotline!
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Alexey
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Aug 28, 2012 - 02:58pm PT
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Want to update this tread since I had opportunity to finish the route.
Last time we climbed - we stop short below the wild 10d bombay flare.
This time we climbed it. This pitch is something. Never had such brutal climbs before.
You basically paste your knee at one wall and feet and shoulders on opposite one. But configuration of the flare, its angle and absence of holds/features on the walls make upper progress very difficult. And when you move one knee up you feel excruciating pain on the other even with knee pads. The pitch is relatively short , but take a lot of skin away. There is opportunity for good gear placement in the corner, but it is not continues line and it has some gaps.
It is really difficult to find good comparable route for this pitch. Probably closest I climbed with similar moves and rating was- 1096 10d** -but it felt like cruiser in comparison.
Next time if I would be there I definitely will take Werner 11d variation instead. It looks that it mostly good hands with short roof (crux) which can be easily aded with couple pulls on gear.
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micronut
Trad climber
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Aug 28, 2012 - 03:06pm PT
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Hard core, man!
Well done.
"Never had such brutal climbs before...." Awesome quote!
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pvalchev
Social climber
Mountain View, CA / Calgary, AB
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Oct 18, 2012 - 02:15am PT
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Bump - thanks for the beta and photos! Everyone should do Hotline - the pitch 2 (or pitch 3 in original book) hand crack is orgasmic! Best 5.10 crack in the valley?
Pitch 1 - super fun spare the loose blocks, we aided the traverse (and the body length below it - damn, hard!) Pitch 2 - no words can describe it. Pitch 4/5 I linked (our 3rd pitch), but wished I saved my #3 for the end - 5.8 fists to the belay at the end. That pitch felt similar to Gripper's first pitch, easier but not by much and also had some loose blocks. Rapped from there, a nice afternoon. Have to return for the last pitch. I wish we traversed right & rapped like Clint described (and did that other splitter) - rappelling down the route there is a potential for ropes to get stuck on the first rappel - as can be witnessed by 3-4 kinds of ropes stuck behind a block. We had no issues, but were a bit nervous.
We didn't find the trail on the way up at all after crossing the river (there are too many "monster boulders" in my opinion), bushwhacked a bit (30-40 mins), on the way down it was easy to follow and very quick.
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cultureshock
Trad climber
Mountain View
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Oct 31, 2012 - 05:28pm PT
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Bump for hotline. Super cool route, was actually popular this past weekend.
Werner, can you fill in some history on the 12a fingers variation you did?
Luke
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velvet!
Trad climber
La Cochitaville
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May 11, 2015 - 10:11pm PT
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Any more specific beta on coming in from 41??
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Byran
climber
San Jose, CA
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May 11, 2015 - 10:59pm PT
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I wouldn't recommend coming in from hwy 41 for any of the routes on the Worst Error Pinnacle, unless you plan on doing that Cedar Wright continuation (Elephant Man 12a) all the way to the top of the formation. The descent from the 41 is to the east of the formation - a short section of 3rd class scrambling down a break in the cliffs and then a very steep hike down the forest on dirt and leaves. If you don't top out, then you have to slog all the way back up to your car.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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May 12, 2015 - 07:58pm PT
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Which beats f*#king around with the river!
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WBraun
climber
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May 12, 2015 - 09:39pm PT
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You can swim across the river. (I have several times)
The hike from 41 isn't that bad going down to the base. (because it's downhill)
The hike back up feels like a long ways. (I've done the hike up and down several times)
Or you can climb out on straight error to the top of Elephant Rock.
I used to free solo straight error all the time .....
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