Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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thanks Jake
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jakepramsey
Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
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I went to replace the right anchor bolt today and ended up replacing both. I re-drilled the right hole where the bolt failed and placed a 3/8” 5 peice. After I was finished I went to tighten up the left anchor bolt and after half a turn of the nut, the bolt starting spinning in the hole. I pulled the wedge bolt and got some spalling so I patched the old hole and drilled a new hole and placed another 3/8” 5 piece. The anchor is now two 3/8” 5 peice bolts with Fixie hangers that are equipped with doubled welded rings, provided by the ASCA. The lead bolt below the anchor is a similar wedge bolt and will probably need to replaced too. It tightened up fine but the rock is the same poor quality as above.
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briham89
Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
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Well it took awhile, but I've been trolled....haha
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briham89
Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
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Also keep in mind reusing holes is not a satisfactory method of placing bolts according to the manufacturers specs. Anyone who reuses bolt holes is jeopardizing the strength of the bolts as well is not in compliance with installation specs.
Reusing a hole with the same size bolt, I would think is not a great idea (wedge to sleeve might be ok). However, enlarging a hole to replace bolts is standard practice. Ie. 1/4" to 3/8" or 3/8" to 1/2".
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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here's a picture taken in January 2018...
I believe the two holes were drilled by a very experienced hand driller who's placed hundreds of bolts in the Valley. Clint's observation of soft rock is correct, so far I haven't come up with any good explanation for why the bolt came out.
A five-piece sleeve which is a deeper bolt might not necessarily need a new hole.
Hopefully we can get it replaced soon.
As far as I know, the bolt manufacturers do not spec the bolts for climbing applications. They are very particular about the specification of the matrix the bolt is being placed in, and there is no way to guarantee the condition of rock in the wild.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Thank you for the precise location.
The rock is pretty grainy/soft there,
and wedge bolts are not as good as sleeve bolts in soft rock,
because a wedge bolt concentrates the load on a small surface area within the hole.
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briham89
Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
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Hi Clint and Roger,
The anchor with a missing bolt is the one you labeled "1A". I have drawn a red arrow to it. It is not shown on either the supertopo topo or the newer Sloan book. The right bolt in the two bolt anchor is missing. The left bolt remaining is as of last Sunday backed up to a tree / bush right above it with webbing. The tree looked decent enough to rap off of as a backup, but isn't a great long term solution IMO. If memory serves me right, the remaining anchor bolt and the bolt a little ways below it that protects the climb (I labeled with a blue arrow), were both 3/8" wedge bolts. I want to say the hangers were Metolius but I can't really remember. The remaining anchor bolt and the lead bolt both had spinning hangers. It didn't seem like the bolts were actually loose, but I didn't have a wrench to check (just gave it the wiggle test.) The two remaining bolts are suspect IMO, seeing as how one bolt ACTUALLY failed, and the two remaining both have spinning hangers. If I was doing the replacement I would likely pull the two remaining and replace all with 1/2" (reusing the existing holes).
 Missing photo ID#530104
70m single rope RAP BETA:
Yes you CAN rap the route with a single 70m rope. *Notes* From the top of the third pitch coming back down to the top of pitch two, stop at the tree you belayed from (the tree on climber's left of the ledge). Once here, it's easy enough to just walk across this ledge to the other tree with rap sling / rings (the tree on the right side of the ledge). However, a fall would be deadly, so belaying across this while being careful to not knock any rocks off was our preferred method. From here you get back down to the ledge at the top of pitch 1. From here walk down to the anchors that currently only have one bolt (see above). If you want to be really careful, you can make an anchor in the crack at the start of pitch 2 and belay to the rap anchor, then have your second clean and go to the anchor. From here a 70m rope gets you back down to the ground from where you started (trend left, I don't know if the rope would reach to the right).
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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there are "new" routes just below the anchors labeled as "1A" in Clint's overlay image.
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Roger Brown
climber
Oceano, California
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Hi Natalieh,
Were you able to recover the bolt/hanger? If so, could you post a photo of it? If not, did you notice the type/size?
Any information you can provide will really help us figure out the cause of the failure. Glad you folks are safe.
Roger Brown
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Natalieh,
Could you please describe on the above photo the anchor where the bolt ripped out?
Is it at anchor "1A"?
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Natalieh
climber
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IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR THOSE TRYING TO RAP WITH A SINGLE 70
Yesterday (11/12/2017) my partner and I were setting up the last 70m rappel when one of the anchor bolts ripped out. We used the nearby bush tree to set up a backup with a cordelette and a biner, but with the coming rainy season, someone who has the know-how and tools should definitely go up there and replace the anchor bolt. My partner and I were really shocked it came out, and thankful neither of us were fully relying on it!
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Burnin' Oil
Trad climber
CA
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Friday in June. Overcast and 75 degrees. Nice breeze. No one on the route. Perfect day. We used a single 70 but I think a single 60 would do. The only issue is reaching from the pitch four anchor to the pitch 3 anchor. Rap the route to the big ledge at the top of pitch one. There is an anchor below the ledge that will take you 75 feet or less to another anchor at the top of a face climb. From there it is 75 feet to the ground.
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ox-man
Trad climber
winter park, co
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After 20 or so trips up this route in the past three years I will attempt to summarize it briefly.
P1-blocky with options. go past the seem at the top to the nicer finger crack to the right. Belay here, I always bring my mid to small offset cams for this belay.
P2- cruxy fingers to some grainy face slightly right to the wicked looking tight hand crack that is a flake on the right. Stem through the awkward hole and past the tree. Don't use the tree as you pass to its right and set a nice directional and head west on the ledge to the many branched tree that sits just below and climber right of the following large crack flake.
P3- Begin with wide crack easiness and traverse left to the dreamy hand crack that will warm your heart. Two bolts.
P4- more heavenly jamming and then a finger piece to protect the reach out right to another crack system that takes you through a hole and black streaked roof to two more bolts.
P5- (Crux) Make your own way up and past some grainy stuff until you find your perfect jam at the bottom of the 5.9 crux crack. Feeling weak today? use the crack on the right also until you are forced not to and finish up. one each of your small cams to protect your step straight left past some loose looking rope eating flake to two bolts.
When rapping the route, the last to leave the top should bring the knot with them until it is past the flake. Always pull left and use the tree over the edge and ready yourself for some ants. Kill them on sight.
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Sheets
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Since I've last been on this climb a new anchor appeared on the top of P1 and for some reason there's a bolt a few feet below it protecting the easy slab moves. Not sure the reason for the addition of these new bolts since it never seemed like there was a need for them before.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Paul Martzen
Trad climber
Fresno
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Climbed this fine route back in the fall of 2013. Enjoyed it very much. We had 70m ropes, so rappelling from the top, could reach the 3rd pitch belay easily. From there we rapped over the edge to the right (looking downhill). You can't see how far the ropes reach from the anchor, so I rapped down to the edge and could see that our ropes easily reached a big tree festooned with rap slings. If they had not reached I would have traversed back onto the line of the climbing route. From the tree, it was difficult to tell if the ropes reached the ground, but it looked at least close. Once committed a little ways, I could see that the ropes landed on a low buttress, so did not need to reach all the way. This descent route lands about 100 feet uphill to the left of the start of the climbing route.
But I am really writing to describe an event from the top of the climb. Augie was just over the crux of the last pitch when he called down to me, "Paul! Paul!" At the same time I heard a funny scratching noise and looked all around to find the cause.
There, 20 feet away from Augie, out on the headwall to his right, was a squirrel desperately climbing the lichen covered rock. (This headwall is nicely visible in Ed's photo in the post below.) Augie must have spooked it out of the crack. I was amazed that the squirrel was making scrabbling progress up the vertical wall. It even appeared to me that the headwall was a bit overhanging where the squirrel was having difficulty. Somehow it was staying on..... and suddenly it was not! It was falling free through the air.
The squirrel rotated and spread its feet as wide as possible, stretching its skin into a larger surface area, like flying squirrels. It was not flying though, only falling much slower. It could not make much forward distance and hit the wall about even with me. Again, it scrabbled with its claws to get purchase on the rock. The angle was lower, but it had too much speed. It was airborne again, spread out as best it could do. The squirrel stayed out from the rock along the route, which is not vertical, so it was making some forward movement. It was headed for the big tree at the top of the second pitch, and I thought it would be able to land in that tree. I was cheering it on, "Come on! Come on! You can make the tree!" But with its limited forward progress, it dropped just under the tree, missing the branches by inches. It hit the edge of the narrow ledge, bounced up, spread out again and dropped from our view.
Augie and I looked at each other in amazement. We still talk about it.
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Ed H
Trad climber
Santa Rosa, CA
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I like this climb! Awesome exposed location, and you can walk from the campground! We did the Trail by Fire 5.8 start to make a day out of it. Pitch 3-5 are on beautiful white granite crack systems. At the top of pitch 2, we moved our belay left to the crack, so we could link P3 & P4 and get a much more comfy belay station up high. Great adventure for folks pushing into the 5.9 grade.
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Nilepoc
Big Wall climber
NM
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The block mentioned two posts down is still there two weeks ago.
As Lambone says, a 70m will get you to the anchor for the 5.11, and someone should put a quicklink on the right Bolt. I left a leaver biner there two weeks ago for someone to collect.
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Lambone
Big Wall climber
Ashland, Or
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I thought this was a great route, worthy of "classic" status. I also thought it was soft for 5.9...with only maybe 10ft of 5.9 at the top. (I would have called it 5.8)
Just a note on the rappels. A single 70m gets you down the first 3 rappels from the top down to the big tree. From there its one long rapp that requires two ropes to get down. However it seemed like the 70 might hit the anchors for that 5.11 bolted face climb right below. That route has two good anchor bolts but only one bolt had a quicklink on it for rapping. We used a tagline to pull our 70m rope from the big tree.
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Paul B
Big Wall climber
Sheffield, UK
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There is currently a block sat directly in the crack on the 4th pitch. Seemingly the mud surrounding it has softened so it's just sitting there. Take care.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California, now Ireland
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No Beta, but, when was this route first climbed? I am certain that Hank Ward, Craig O'Connell and I did it in 1975. We claimed no first ascent, but did do some gardening. It looked 'unclimbed', but we were not sure, so did not report it. There was no 'left over' gear, no bolts, but maybe I have the wrong route mixed up with one we did do. But...
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Brad Roth
Trad climber
Milford, CT
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Alain and I climbed this on the last Sunday in August. It has great shade for most of the morning, and thus is a good choice on warmer valley days. I LOVED these cracks and flakes. The flakes came to nice fin-edges for secure hand holds and lots of oppositional footwork. I somehow managed to stem past the off-fingers part of the crux crack on the top pitch (thank God... that sounded awful) and enjoyed the finishing moves.
We found the Swiss Family Tree full of red ants who enjoyed our presence during the rap down. Overall, great climbing. I haven't climbed in a year, so I appreciated the less-than-vertical angles, and the fact that the difficulty increased pitch-by-pitch, making for a good warm-up to the climbing and the exposure.
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kaholatingtong
Trad climber
The fake McCoy from nevernever land.
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the only reason this route could be only 3 stars is the first two pitches. and frankly, i thought they were only a little sandy but otherwise a perfect warmup. everything else was pretty f*#king awesome climbing. watch the ropes rapping, some rope eating flakes/cracks on the lower angle upper pitches .
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the stoked dane
Trad climber
colfax, ca
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fun climb. We never found the three bolts on top of pitch 1. Be aware of this for the rap - go to the "swiss family tree.." as mentioned in the tread below.
We linked pitch 1&2 (required 20ft of simul climbing w a 60 meter)
also linked p 3&4.
Overall a nice fun climb.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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If you rap straight down from top of 3 you end up in a awesome Swiss Family Robinson style tree with slings and rap rings and then one more rap puts you on the deck with 2 ropes.
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qinghai
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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No indications of the recent rockfall on the route. Nice fun climb. The last 15 feet are quite a bit more challenging than the first 500. However, I though pitches 2-5 were all quite good. There was some water running down by the belay and bulge/overhang atop of pitch 4. The loose rock on the ledges by the pitch 2 belay is quite miserable - be VERY careful of the rope and other parties below. Also, someone dropped a full water bottle from several pitches up Serenity that came within a couple feet of us at the pitch 3 anchors - quite scary.
I would recommend against using a 60m rope to rap the route as suggested below. After watching a party get their double ropes stuck, I tried using a single rope to rap back to the ledge atop pitch 1.
Even with a full 60m rope, you end up short of the belay anchors at the top of pitch 3. It is possible to clip the anchor with a long sling and/or build a temporary anchor in the crack - but much better and safer to just use two ropes. Just watch out that can getstuck.
Park Service closure list indicates that this climb is NOT affected by the Peregrine closures.
"Rhombus Wall- Above Ahwahnee Meadow. Closure includes all routes west of "Super Slide" to the Ahwahnee Ramps, including all routes on the Rhombus Wall."
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/climbingclosures.htm
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Just a heads up that there was a rather large rockfall at ~5:15 yesterday (Thursday) evening, between Serenity/Sons and the Rhombus Wall. Rock debris traveled along the eastern edge of the big talus slope there, apparently sweeping the base of Super Slide, but fortunately did not make it as far down as the Ahwahnee parking lot. I'll be getting more information today, but I wanted to let people know in case anyone had Super Slide in their sights for this upcoming (sunny) weekend in the Valley.
Greg Stock
Park Geologist
(209) 379-1420
greg_stock@nps.gov
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE FORUM
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=775200
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Brendan
Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
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Good for the aspiring 5.9 multipitch leader. Fun moves and good pro the whole way.
Approach: Park at the Awanhee, follow trail east for 100m then cut north and uphill. Continue Northwest on climber trails to base, cut west and uphill about 10-15m past a large offwidth to the base of the chossy start to this route.
Rack: Slings, few larger TCUs, full set of nuts
1-2: .5", 2: .75", 2: 1", 2: 2", 1: 3", (optional)-1: 3.5" (BD#4)
Belay 1: Crack at base of pitch 2 on nuts.
Belay 2: I suggest placing your longest sling on the rap-rings around tree at end of crack system, and traverse 10m left to other tree. Sling trunk with Cordalette.
Pitch 3/4: If you sling the far tree as an anchor like I mentioned above, I would suggest running the two pitches into one full length 60m pitch. Be aware that this link-up takes almost every foot of a 60m rope to finish, so use very long runners. Belay at rap-rings.
Belay 5: Belay is up and left of prominent crack at rap-rings.
Descent: You can rapell the route with one FULL LENGTH 60m rope. The rap from belay of pitch 4 to 3 takes the WHOLE length of rope. BE SURE TO TIE KNOTS AT THE END OF YOUR ROPE if you have a 60m. Even still the last time I climbed this route I had to down aid on #1,2,3 BD camalots anchor in crack I built to get to the Rap rings at end of pitch 3. Rap from belay 1 is off dead stump of Manzinida with webbing, 60m rope does not reach the ground. Descend right side and trend left on rapell from belay 1 to second rap bolts half way down. If anyone has some leaver biners, they would be nice to donate to the naked bolt hangers on this rapell.
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strangecargo
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Quite a few (big) loose rocks on this climb. There's a totally detached block in the chimneyish section after the splitter thin hands crack at the top of pitch 2, as well as a loose flakey chockstone right below the rap anchors on pitch 3.
I couldn't find the marked belay at the top of the second pitch. I thought I identified the tree to the right of the marked belay, but that tree was quite dirty and has a fairly large loose block below it that slid loose and almost trundled down on my belayer. I ended up building the belay at the base of the 3rd pitch crack.
This climb can only get better as the munge is gradually worn away.
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steele
Trad climber
CA
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3 stars if it's dry and not in closure season. An easy solution for the bolt situation is ask the FA party or leave it as it was originally. I saw the need for very few bolts, belays can be placed about anywhere; with a p1 solo, you might be able to stretch a 60 meter rope and do the next 3 pitches as 2. Bottom 3 pitches about 2 stars, last 40' is good 5.9 hands/fingers needing TCUs/Jr. cams-- last 40' is about 5 stars.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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I rapped from the top of the 3 to the "upper tree" (climber's left) and then I rapped to the anchors on Rupto Pac. I didn't reverse Trial by Fire.
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chumbawumba
climber
SF, CA
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August West
You might want to clarify which tree you went to with the 70 Meter Rope. It sounds like you reversed the route and rapped down past Trial by Fire. (I did this a few weeks ago with a single 60 which was definitly too short and resulted in exposed downclimbing - a 70 would be fine) Many people rap from the top of the 3rd pitch, off the slab, into into a tree on climbers left, if facing the top of the climb. If you go to this tree you might get stranded without two ropes.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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This had some good sections and some so-so sections. But nothing that unpleasant. Maybe the traffic is cleaning it up some (more would help). I thought the wide finger finish had too many good footholds to be 5.9, but it was fun (if short).
We got down with one 70m rope (watch your ends!). Including rapping to the upper tree (it was free of ants). From here, we rapped to the anchors at the top of the 5.11c slab (that completely shut me down on toprope). At least when the tree is free of ants, I didn't find anything unpleasant about this rap route and there didn't seem to be much danger from the rope catching (although I am with Karl on prefering bolts over rapping off trees).
If you don't mind wide cracks, Trial by Fire is a good approach (don't be too worried about the 5.6 munge).
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Duke-
Trad climber
SF, aka: Dirkastan
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This climb was memorable for the last 45' of splitter crack! The previous pitches were of less quality, but still fun. If you have not done it, then you should.
-D
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Just did this climb for the first time in years. Two stars is generous but the climb has this going for it
1. Shady until early afternoon
2. Nice exposed feel
The final 40 feet are great but the rest is merely OK. There's still plenty of dirt and loose blocks on this route.
Personally, I think it's lame those bolts on pitch one were chopped. We should be getting away from rapping off trees.
And the rap is a hassle. If you rap toward the base from the bolts on top of 3, you get sucking into a complex tree. When I visited there, there were tons of rope-eating branches and it was crawling with piss ants that you couldn't escape from. I was afraid to rap to a lower tree cause it looked like the upper one would eat the ropes. The passage to rap through the upper tree looked problematic too.
So I swung over and rapped to the ledge where the bolts used to be. I hung out while my partner rapped to the tree with slings next to the "loose flakes" on the supertopo. It's a full, full 200 feet to the Trial by Fire anchors from there. If your ropes are shorter, there is a tree with slings higher and west.
I could see this climb being a fun, non-burly but trad adventure to those breaking into 5.9.
But it left kindof a bad taste in my mouth
Peace
karl
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Closed for the Birds until later in the Summer
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ricardo
Gym climber
San Francisco, CA
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those bolts were chopped last year .. you build a fine belay on that ledge though .. so the bolts were not neccesary ..
.. i really like this route -- and think it is 3 stars ..
... if it gets more traffic, the dirt and vegetation will fall out ..
.. 2 years ago we trundled quite a bit of loose stuff on pitch 3 and 4 .. made the route much better ..
.. i wonder if the route is in the peregrine closure this year.. anyone know?
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Dapper Dan
Trad climber
Redwood City
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another vote for this route being 2 stars plus , 3 is pushing it. all pitches were dry , there are no bolts at the top of the approach pitch (5.2) , supertopo says there are but we did not find them . the last pitch is rad but climbing 4 pitches of semi veg to get there may or may not be worth it. the route is shaded until about 12:30 .
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malabarista
Trad climber
Redwood City
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3 stars is pushing it for this climb. The last pitch leading up to the 5.9 splitter is so full of dirt and munge that I had to constantly clean the bottom of my shoes and stem to avoid dirt clods. This route could be much better if this stuff cleaned out.
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Greg Barnes
climber
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It's up to the NPS to post beta on the closure at Camp 4, and possibly a sign along the base of the wall. If it's not on the board maybe I'll put a note this weekend.
But posting it on the internet is better than nothing, hopefully word will get around!
Chris, sure looks like it'll go higher...and there's other stuff on that wall that looks doable. But most of the cracks are pretty vegged...
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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anyone have any beta on what goes on above the last pitch. i think and original aid route goes out left through the roof. and there are a few bail slings up and right. Possible extension some day?
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Nor Cal
Trad climber
San Mateo
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Super slide had lots of folks on it on saturday, as well as at least one party on friday. Does everyone check supertopo to find out about route closures or will the naturalist post signs?
It is vague from the posting that Chris put on the site if Super slid is off limits or not.
Greg, you summed it up, but how do folks know who dont check ST?
I bet we can find people on it next weekend...
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Greg Barnes
climber
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Just heard back from Mark Fincher (head climbing ranger), and Super Slide is:
OFF LIMITS DUE TO PEREGRINE CLOSURE
Please do not climb this route until the NPS notifies us that it is re-opened (usually late July or August).
Here's what Mark had to say:
yes, the closure does include Superslide- but not Peter's out or Trial by fire. Since Superslide seems to be getting more popular, I talked to our wildlife biologist to make sure it was necessary to close that route. He felt it needed to be closed. we will try to keep a better eye on it this year so we can open it as soon as the chicks fledge (its always easy to volunteer Lincoln for more work when he's out of the country...)
cheers,
mark
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Nor Cal
Trad climber
San Mateo
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When we climbed the route three weeks ago, there were bolts with chains on top of the 5.2 1st pitch (this would allow a rappel down to Trial by Fire), there were no bolts on top of the second pitch, the tree did have slings around it. The top of the 3rd, 4th and 5th all had bolts, just as the Supertopo indicated.
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FTB
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Thanks for clearing that up Greg. And thanks for pulling the bolt next to the crack. Once again, you all are bettering the Valley's climbs. Not only by replacing original first ascent bolts, but by pulling the now un-necessary ones that have been placed.
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Greg Barnes
climber
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There were no bolts on top of the first pitch when we replaced the 1/4" bolts in '99. Haven't been back there since, the 3-bolt belay shown in the Supertopo is probably either an error or someone added & chopped them in the last 4 years. Don't see why anyone would put them there, my guess is that it's an error.
As the Reid topo shows, there was originally a protection bolt on the 4th pitch, but it was only a foot from a perfect #1 camalot crack in solid rock. We removed the bolt, it never would have been placed if the FA had been done after Friends came out (it was done in 1971).
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FTB
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Good for the bolt choppers!!! All those damn convenience bolts, right next to natural pro, need to be gone. STOP the madness. There was no reason for them. You can rap down to the anchors on trail by fire and get off.
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