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[TR] Harrison Bluffs.... - Lead Bolting 101 3/20/2010


marc_leclerc

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Trip: Harrison Bluffs.... - Lead Bolting 101

 

Date: 3/20/2010

 

Trip Report:

So I thought I would put this up.. just to follow up my 'how to lead bolt?' thread a while back.

 

I had a couple projects I wanted to bolt, and one I wanted to actually send... and Scott called me up as he wanted to get some photography in on Saturday. Scott has a drill, so it just worked out perfect!

 

Tamara came out to belay and I just hopped straight on Proj #1. This one I had originally wanted to highball as it is only 20ft of hard moves before it joins another bolted route, but the landing is brutal and a friend mentioned it would never get traffic if I made it sketchy, so I decided to make a compromise and lead bolt it!. I climbed up a decent stance and Tamara was actually able to hand me the drill by standing on a tree stump uphill from the base, and I put the only bolt in, surprisingly hard to do from a 'not perfect' stance. I went for it and fell at the crux, lowered pulled the rope... fell again.. tried again and sent! Called it Midget Love' and it goes at solid 5.12, with one hand slap on an arete and tricky sequential feet. I thought I was going to fall on every move as I could feel my feet slipping, but I moved fast enough to just scrape by. After the crux there is a wee runout on easier ground to where another route joins the arete and you get a couple more bolts.. classic!

 

then Tamara took off to go work and another friend who was clibming came out and gave me a belay on 'The Matrix Project', the slab I was reffering to in my lead bolting thread earlier. There are intense boulder problems between decent stances in pockets, so I could pull the drill up and bolt between hard sections and it ended up being like a regular sport climb for the first third, then you can just go for it and punch through 15 feet of really desperate moves without worrying about hitting the ground until you reach out into a crack and have easy moves and good pro to the end. I got all the bolts in but had to stand on a lower bolt to put in the last one as I started slipping and didnt want to fall with the expensive drill... I am not even close to sending it though, it is by far the harderst slab I have ever been on, absolutely desperate!

 

Lead bolting is hard, thats all I have to say :) Thanks everybody for helping me out and I am stoked on the new line and the new proj!!!

 

 

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FA of Midget Love... awesome fun!

 

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Just hanging out... I look like a cocoa puff... Tamara is always happy...

 

 

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The Matrix Project.. so sick! Totally doable but absolute desparate, long term project for sure.

 

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purty colors

 

 

 

I will get more pics up when I get them...

Edited by marc_leclerc
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It looks like it would be hard even on hooks :grlaf:

 

I remember rapping down after doing Shark Tooth Flake thinking "This won't go" :laf:

 

Well I was there today, I know all the moves now! There are two cruxes, a crazy highstep rockover at bolt #2... and the deadpoint to the mono at bolt #3. Its funny how both cruxes require totally different strengts!

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Good job Marc...so, I'm getting stronger myself...I can now climb a solid 5.9 with a pack on my back...and not tweak my shoulder...

 

Nice work.. good to hear your shoulder is healing up nice and strong!

 

 

Here's is the raw footage of my send. Pretty shaky... taken by Tamara's 12 year old brother, hene some funny comments.

 

[video:vimeo]10492007

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Holy Crap Mark, that looks really hard!... What your opinion on the grade?

 

Nice send!

 

Thanks... It took me about 3 weeks of intermitent rapping down, looking for holds, trying sequences... training my mono and crimp strength, flexibility, TR'ing then finally trying to link...... I've never had to work this hard to train up to and figure out a route. I more or couldn't do any of the moves when I started trying it...

 

because of the style of the climibng its really hard to give a definite grade, and it all needs confirmation. but I gave it a 5.13a for now, I've been on lots of other climbs that grade and I think this is definitely on par... but we will see with attempts and hopefully some repeats.

 

 

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