Alexey
climber
San Jose, CA
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Climbed this route in the end of october - start of the crux 3-d pitch is wet for 2 -3 hard moves. You have to put your hands and fingers in totally wet crack.
Main pro for 10d pitch is red aliens and green camelots. I wish to have triple of them even 4.
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SuperTopo
Alert!
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DO NOT CLIMB THIS ROUTE
Due to recent rock fall, it is extremely dangerous to climb this route. In addition, the bolts and belay 2 may now be gone due to rock fall. It will be at least a few years before it is safe to climb this route.
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wondering
Novice climber
Mill Valley, CA
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would it be possible to go up above the route and sweep off all the debris?
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Master Blaster
Advanced climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Sure, you could sweep it up, no prob. Just bring lots of high explosives, maybe some heavy artillery, that should knock off the big blocks. Then rig some high-pressure water cannons on the cliff sides and start blasting. Shouldn't take more than a year and a few hundred million dollars (woops, I mean a few billion - this is the government yer talking to). Might be cheaper to let earthquakes and 10 years of nasty winters take care of it though.
Or just climb the dang thing - can't be worse than starting up an avalanche gully in the warm sunshine at 10am...and bring the bolt kit in case that 2nd pitch rap anchor is gone now. Don't bother with a helmet, the rocks coming off it can be heard smashing down from Camp 4.
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radical
Intermediate climber
Mill Valley, CA
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we climbed this route sunday. Looks like the impact of the rock fall hit the first pitch belay. It is very loose jagged and very dangerous, although if you climb slow and keep a cool head it is pretty easy climbing.With a 60 meter rope you can get to the second belay. I was glad I didn't lead it, but I woudn't be opposed to climbing it again. The second half of the second pitch and everything above is all intact and safe. radical
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Novice climber
Mill Valley, CA
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See guys?
He is RADICAL after all!
That's awesome- I have been wondering about that for some time & I wasn't able to pull 10d before that rock fall.
Thanks dood!
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valley rat
Novice climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Over the last year I've been awaken twice from a deep slumber in Camp 4 due to rock fall in this area. Although this was in the winter shortly after a big storm, in my opinion this is an active rockfall zone.
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Jimmy
Novice climber
Mill Valley, CA
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valley rat-
the whole valley is a freakin "active rock fall zone".
climbed many of the not-so-trade routes on the cathedral rocks?
what about el cap?
what about the 5 open books?
what about all the talus you walk up & down to every cliff in the valley?
eat right-
treat others right-
never pass on the right-
never vote right-
climb where you will & hopefully you will be ALRIGHT!
(MAKE ME FEEL ALRIGHT!!!!!...)
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valley rat
Novice climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Jimmy,
Sorry pal but I disagree.
Climb oblivious to the risks and criticize me for not, if you like, but this is a route beta page and I was only offering some beta.
Active rock fall is a geological term, albeit a fuzzy one.
I agree that rock fall hazard is a given in the valley, but there are varying degrees of danger.
Climb whatever you want, whenever you want.
I would only suggest that before you climb the Folly, stroll out to the river and take a close look at the fresh rock scar above it.
Climb hard but don't forget to think.
vr
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radical
Novice climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Valley rat is right..I am an idiot. It took me about 2 days to realize that fresh rock fall takes a unknown amount of time to become stable.
I had been thinking a lot about the knee jerk reaction to not climb on Glacier apron because of Rock fall 3 years ago. It seemed silly as there is rock fall every where in the valley and it can happen at anytime.
What I didn't understand is fresh rock fall is very loose. It takes a while for all the little left over bits to stabilize.
This Good book area is very unstable. A small rock whizzed by my head at the belay below the 10d corner. It came from the rock fall zone and missed my head buy about a foot. I had forgotten about that until a few days after the climb.
We also looked at the rock scar above the route a few days later with Bino's. It is a nightmare of loose boulders small and large, that could come off at anytime.
I am not sure how long it takes for fresh rock fall to again become stable, but in my opinion this climb is definitely not safe yet. radical
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Colt45
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Being unaware of the rockfall history, I got on this route last week. The pitch going up to security ledge climbs through some dangerously loose blocks. The bolts on the ledge, and the set at the top of the lieback pitch, are fine.
After reaching the top of the incredibly sustained lieback, we heard rockfall above us...then a cloud of fresh rock dust sprinkled down...and we rapped off ASAP!
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bones
Trad climber
San Diego
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I did this route in May '04 not knowing about the rockfall danger until on the route. First 60-70 meters are loose and somewhat dangerous (not counting the rockfall danger). The rest of the route seems to be intact except that there were no bolts on the last pitch OW as shown in the Reid guide.
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NoRushNoMore
climber
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We did this route this past weekend, May 2007.
First pitch is a bit loose one but not too bad.
Hopefully somebody will find a few min to clean up loose debris at some point and restore climb back to 5 star rating. The rest of pitches were clean and perfect.
First pitch is gear belay. Contrary to the post below second pitch belay bolts are just fine and in good shape so as the rest of the climb and stations
Area above looked stable and not a single rock fell down during our climb.
You can leave second rope on the ground if climbing with 70m rope. Third pitch is exactly 120'. Also rap straight from 5 to 3, about 115 feet.
Pitch 6 is about 95' with bolts gone, bring C4 #6 and #5 or run out about or 35'
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Aussie Dave
Trad climber
Stanford, CA
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Climbed this on the weekend using the Reid guide (probably wouldn't have done it if we had read this page first). 5 stars the whole way! P1 pro looks bad from the bottom, but is actually solid the whole way. Don't do P5 without a #5 (+ #6 for a little more comfort) - very nasty runnout on hard 5.9 offwidth. We backed up the P2 bolts for the the heaviest person to rapell first. He's 210 lbs and they held despite their rustiness. Definitely need replacing though
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cellardoor
Big Wall climber
The Sierra
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Has anyone climbed this thing recently? Wanted to know if the first pitch is a waterfall or not! Thanks a ton!
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mdanek
Trad climber
California
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Climbed GB on 4/14/2013. The lower section of the 1st pitch was a wet botanic garden. The loose flakes on the upper part of P1 did not inspire a lot of confidence either. P2 was covered with sand and silt - the crack at the start was slick and my partner took a nasty fall onto the ledge below when he tried to link P1 and P2. I suggest climbing P1 and P2 separately for the safety of both the leader and the follower (assuming no rock fall from above). The beginning of P3 was wet and bit grown but the rest was clean and dry. We did not climb the last pitch. The anchor on the top of P2 appeared to be hit by a rock but was solid. The bolted anchors on P3, P4 and P5 were good.
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The Folly after recent rockfall, 2000.Photo: Todd Snyder
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*What is "Route Beta"?
It's climber slang for information or tips on a route as in, "what's
the beta on that route?" As a service to fellow climbers we ask SuperTopo
guidebook users to post tips and updates to this website if they have relevant
information to share after a climb.
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