Spring Cleaning

[BK]

I just buffed up a few routes:

Birds of Prey(Squaw) - retro scrubbed and pruned. Its a good pitch and now it might actually be enjoyable to climb it entirely on rock instead of mud and bush.

New Life (Lower North wall)- A major Hair cut and bolts. All stations are now bolted with chains, and there is 2 new protection bolts on pitch 3 and 4 which allows linking without rope drag. I got the nod from JM and TMc before drilling. Awesome route. sort of an Alaska Highway for mere mortals.

Yosemite Pinnacle left side (Tantalus Wall)- Pruned, scrubbed and bolts. One protection bolt was placed in lieu of a now deceased tree, just as you enter the squeeze. I also buffed up the start of Tantalus Crack and moved the belay up to the stump. Tricouni I hope you or Hamish have no issue with the bolt? I also booted off the dangerous rotten stump at the start of the Tantalus Wall, off of crescent Ramp. I think someone should place a bolt here as what was once a slung tree to start the offwidth, is now a 10 inch, flaring , grovel with a factor 2 potential onto the belay.
Yos left side still needs a final scrub when its dry, then it'll be a sweet 5.10 corner crack into a chimney.

[BK]

I just buffed up a few routes:

Birds of Prey(Squaw) - retro scrubbed and pruned. Its a good pitch and now it might actually be enjoyable to climb it entirely on rock instead of mud and bush.

New Life (Lower North wall)- A major Hair cut and bolts. All stations are now bolted with chains, and there is 2 new protection bolts on pitch 3 and 4 which allows linking without rope drag. I got the nod from JM and TMc before drilling. Awesome route. sort of an Alaska Highway for mere mortals.

Yosemite Pinnacle left side (Tantalus Wall)- Pruned, scrubbed and bolts. One protection bolt was placed in lieu of a now deceased tree, just as you enter the squeeze. I also buffed up the start of Tantalus Crack and moved the belay up to the stump. Tricouni I hope you or Hamish have no issue with the bolt? I also booted off the dangerous rotten stump at the start of the Tantalus Wall, off of crescent Ramp. I think someone should place a bolt here as what was once a slung tree to start the offwidth, is now a 10 inch, flaring , grovel with a factor 2 potential onto the belay.
Yos left side still needs a final scrub when its dry, then it'll be a sweet 5.10 corner crack into a chimney.

[slopr]

sounds awesome BK thanks for the hard work

[MarkR]

Sounds awesome, was planning on doing Bird of Prey soon as it dried. Thanks for the hard work man.

[jerblumel]

Is this the famous BK, Bruce Kay? Good lord Man, what a radical bit of spring cleaning that was, thanks a heap Dood, wow! Did you take a look at the big loose flake at the belay at the base of Bird's Of Prey's crux corner pitch? I've heard, as of last fall, that it had slid and was teetering against some tree roots. If so it's a threatening granite surfboard waiting to cleave parties off the route climbing the first two 5.8 pitches. Think of the scene from Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, remember the giant rolling stone ball? Ya, maybe we can life it off with BC Parks funds a la a helicopter and lend it to Twilight at Murrin, I'm sure they could work it into the story somehow eh?

[BK]

jer, Maybe they should make a location of it. Sonnie could get smeared off by the surf board and the vampires can lick off the remains. Actually i should have said I only scrubbed the last pitch on BOP so i know nothing of the death surf board. I didn't notice one last summer but what do i know - i'm a mountaineer. There is, incidentally, a death surf board perched at the very tippy top of Yos pinnacle left side which i chose to leave so as not to cream someone else's fixed line below, or risk removing more 5.15 slab holds and cause a scene. if you're a mountaineer i'm sure you can figure out a way around it, and who else would make it to the top of a squeeze chimney anyway?

[BK]

Did you say "BC Parks... funds"?

[scrubber]

Thanks for your time, energy, and bloody knuckles.

Kris

[Anders Ourom]

One protection bolt was placed in lieu of a now deceased tree, just as you enter the squeeze.

Not clear where you mean. The protection at the start of the offwidth/squeeze (second pitch) is first a large cam, low down, and then lassoing a sling over the chockstone. There was never a tree there to protect it, although there may have been a tiny shrub, useless for protection. There's a down-hanging cedar, a few m lower down, which provides a good belay, but it's well below the scene of the action. There were scraps of a long-dead and rotted tree or bush, essentially on top of that cedar, but again of no use for protecting the business.

[BK]

Anders, next time you're up there you'll see. I can hardly remember the exact details but it seemed prudent to place a bolt where you start thrashing into the 12 inch section while the only natural gear stopping you from a factor 1.5 onto the belay is some expanding loose flakes and gravel way in the back of the wide.

On that note, if anyone is really opposed to my bolts, chop away. I don't claim to own the rock. I'd prefer if you didn't of course, and i'd expect a good explanation. If anyone does chop, I over drilled so chop, punch and fill so as not to leave a bigger mess than you're thinking you're fixing.

A note on the left over blocks Anders mentioned in the chimney (the other post YOSLS), I think one can avoid them, and if they ever move they should re-jam lower as the chimney tapers down the lower it gets.

bk

[Anders Ourom]

Sounds like a trip there in the spring, once the route dries out, would be worthwhile. You lead, I'll follow. The climb has some unusual features - ropethrow at the bottom, semi-hanging belay off a cedar, the squeeze, lassoing the chockstone, etc. Nothing to be done about the cedars now, but I'd like to have a look. Who knows, maybe we could talk Hamish or Glenn into it.

Did you take any photos of the climb, before and after? Also, if you removed all the trees, did you install bolt/hanging belay, a few m below the squeeze?

On quite another note, I'm finding the new version of the forum takes forever to load on my computer. Is anyone else?

[squamish climber]

Anders,

What browser and version are you using IE7? Firefox? Please speak up if anybody else is noticing a big slow down. I'll look into this.
As for the pictures of Yosemite Pinnacle Left Side -- I'd like to see some. Can you post them here?

[BK]

sorry, no pics. I wanted no photographic evidence to incriminate me later. Yes, there is a bolt station above the cedar below the wide.

[crazymonkey]

Yes! The pages are taking forever to load! The little notice at the bottom of the screen starts off saying "(waiting for 500 items...)" Never had that problem with the old site

[Tricouni]

What browser and version are you using IE7? Firefox? Please speak up if anybody else is noticing a big slow down. I'll look into this.
As for the pictures of Yosemite Pinnacle Left Side -- I'd like to see some. Can you post them here?

The site is nice and responsive for me. Windows 7, Firefox 3.6.16 and IE8 (fast with both browsers). Latest release of Java.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of YPLS..... wish I did....