But would it go to the top?
The guano would harden the rock?
I assume you've read what's in the 2007 book? And seen the topo? (These are on pages 328 and 329.)
While working on the book, I thought there was a route up this whole "crack" (more of a rotten, overhanging cleft?) based on what Gagner put in his book and what was on Clint's master list of routes. I don't have Clint's master list any more (I may have a paper copy of it in a big box in the attic, but I'm not gonna get it down). But I do have Gagner's book. At page 108 that book has a photo that shows the west side of Machete. On that photo is a line marked with the number "5." This line clearly designates the cleft that is Pigeon Crack. Below the photo is a list of Machete routes. Route "5" is called "Aid Route:"
When I was writing the book, it was of interest that, although Gagner lists this as a "route," there is no description of it at all in the book (his was mostly a written-description-of-the routes book).
If I recall correctly, Clint didn't have any information about this route either, other than what he'd seen in Gagner's book. But he had a distinct memory of there being three fixed pitons at the top of Crackaphobia when he and John did that route. How did those pinns get there? Neither of us knew, but that would be a logical place for a first pitch of this "Aid Route" to end.
When I talked with him, Paul had no memory of any route there and no memory of how he'd concluded that there was in fact one. Yet he'd called it a route. Had he talked to someone who'd climbed it? Had he seen evidence that it had been climbed? He didn't recall (it's no big surprise that he wouldn't remember details like that either; one of the more obscure routes at Pinns, more than 20 years later!).
So, with this little bit to go on, I checked it out myself.
It looked like someone had climbed at least a first pitch (starting from near the base of the route West Face to what are now the Crackaphobia anchors, all as drawn in on the 2007 topo). I could see where one might climb. All the bolts drawn in on the topo were there (although the "second" bolt - the grouping of two - was actually three really crappy bolts when I first saw the route; more on this below).
In the season before the book came out I tried to climb this pitch with Dave Harden. I made it to the grouping of three bolts (concluding that the climbing was only loose and dangerous 5.6 to there). Once at that point I could see no other bolts and no other pro possibilities at all until the next bolts that are drawn on the topo. These next bolts are about 50 feet, maybe 60 feet further. Yet the climbing looked no harder than what I'd just done, likely it was easier. And these upper bolts weren't more than 15 feet or so from the Crackaphobia anchor.
But the three bolts I'd climbed to were so bad that I wan't willing to go further. Instead, I placed a new, long 3/8 inch bolt, pulled (very easily) the two worst of the old bolts and then lowered off (this is why there are two bolts shown in this position on the topo - there were two when I got done with it).
Based on what I'd seen and on this effort, I concluded then that, more likely than not, this pitch had been climbed before. This conclusion resulted in this being a listed route in the text and on the topo.
But what about the upper part? This part of the West Side was the last area I needed to research for the book; I was pushing to finish, and so I had some limits to the time I could spend. I knew I wouldn't have time to try to climb the upper part, but I could at least scope it out carefully with binoculars. I did this from multiple locations on the ground, and, while making my third ascent of Son of Dawn Wall, Jeff led while I hung and scoped leftward with binos, looking for any sign that the upper part of Pigeon Crack had been climbed (I was also hanging so as to get the actual Son of Dawn Wall topo done correctly).
Keeping in mind that Paul showed the "Pigeon Crack" route meeting up with Son of Dawn Wall, I figured that I would have to see at least some sign of passage if it had actually ever been climbed (most likely I'd see bolts if anything - there certainly didn't appear to be any other way to protect the climbing up there). Even if I didn't see stuff lower, I'd have to see stuff (bolts probably) as the two routes converged wouldn't I? I saw nothing at all (and I spent a lot of time looking). I concluded that the upper pitches had never been touched, and so I wrote what I wrote about those pitches in the 2007 book.
After the work on the book was done I went back to try to finish climbing what was now a route in the book (gotta climb every route in the park). The events of my second attempt, combined with more asking around, have made me think that my first conclusion (that the first pitch had probably been climbed) was more likely than not incorrect.
More about this in our next installment...
