Just wanted to mess with your head.
The photo originally barely showed the hardware. I had to play with editing (sharpen, brightness, contrast, etc. etc.) to make it somewhat show.
Since that was the first bolt on the 2nd pitch, I could have seen it from the belay, but I didn't either. Trust me -- we searched high and low. The problem is you can see the shiny new beefy bolt sticking out way above you, so you naturally want to search for something similar around you. In other words, you get completely blinded by the shiny 2nd bolt. It's the same case with the 3rd bolt on the 3rd pitch because the first two are new.
Here is where a seasoned climber shows his experience -- Ron placed a few pieces of gear. 1) a green cam before the 1st hanger on 1st pitch in a pocket behind a flake; 2) a knob sling before the first bolt (that he clipped) on 2nd pitch, which eventually fell off after he had moved higher; 3) a cam in a pocket after the two bolts he clipped on 3rd pitch.
Oh, I did eventually spotted the first hanger (shown in the picture) before it was too late. When Ron reached the 2nd belay, we counted six bolts he clipped on the 2nd pitch, and the topo showed seven, so he didn't think he finished yet. I put him back on belay and he was just about to keep going to get to the "real" belay. That was when the sun hit just right and I saw that 1st bolt and the rustic hanger.
