Mental Bankruptcy

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Rating: 2 - All bolts are 1/4"s and need to be replaced, including the 2 bolt semi-hanging belay. We missed the turn where you're supposed to start climbing up and kept on traversing the dike. Eventually we down climbed a low angle slab to some boulders and then climbed up an easy-5th crack/chimney to the summit. Took 4 pitches going this way.

The leader and follower should both be solid on gritty 5.10 slab. After the follower unclips the final bolt on p2 there's a couple 5.7 friction moves on questionable rock - a fall here would be disastrous. I had my follower leave a bail biner to stay clipped into the bolt as she made the moves. Then when she was on easier terrain she tied in short with an overhand on a bight and untied her fig8 to pull the rope through the bail biner.

Once on the summit we walked south (towards Jungle Cruise) and then scrambled down a large ramp heading towards the northeast corner of the formation. Here we found a single piece of webbing around a small boulder wedged in a crack. There was a rope tied to the webbing but the rope had been severed about 6 feet down?!? I used what was left of the rope to sling a larger chockstone and got it sort of equalized with the webbing. From here one single-rope rappel got us down. Def bring some extra webbing if you plan on going this way. The guidebook shows a different descent off the northwest corner but we couldn't find this, and I imagine it would either require rappels or 5th class downclimbing. All said and done, this was one of the more adventurous climbs I've done in Jtree, but a good one if cragging in Hidden Valley bores you.

Solid Gold

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Rating: 5 - Always in shade, nice run out to belay mantle. We bailed after first pitch because it was too cold.

Rockclimbing.com

Mental Bankruptcy

Solid Gold