The quest continued over the weekend and into yesterday as Noal and I finished an exciting new route on Sunday and Kat and I climbed Bongloadash yesterday. Noal and I have been gettin' after it for weeks now (it's been really great reconnecting) and Kat continues to be super supportive of my efforts and love for all things Pinnacles.
PCAD is this coming weekend, so we'll have to suspend the first ascent activity for a weekend - but we should have some great new stuff to announce in the coming months.
Bongloadash was quite the adventure. Bit of a pain getting up to the start and the walkoff isn't much fun but the route is really cool. It takes good gear (take cams from 1 1/2 to 5 inches), the old bolts are in good shape and the climbing is really interesting. There are a bunch of surprise holds along the route - in particular there are a lot of holes that seem to appear just when you need them - both on the somewhat rotten back wall and on the hard, black streaked rock that defines the route. The runout is a bit of a head game. This is not a route for the faint of heart. A fall between bolts 2 and 3 would be disastrous but the climbing is probably only 5.5 or 5.6 depending on height. Knowing Pinnacles rock and carefully choosing holds is critical. I only found one hold on the entire route that was truly loose and I removed part of it and then just avoided what was left.
The anchor was one long 5 piece carbon steel bolt on a Metolius hanger and one quarter inch button head on a Leeper hanger. I placed a long 5 piece stainless bolt and ASCA hanger to replace the button head. I will go back and remove the button head and replace the three old lead bolts at some point. Lead bolts 1, 3 and 4 are all 3/8 split shafts with beefy homemade hangers and they are all tight and showing only light rust. Bolt 2 is a 5 piece carbon steel bolt on a Metolius hanger.
The anchor cannot be seen from below and neither can most of the lead bolts (the climb undulates). Kat said she could see bolt 2 from the base. I could see the first gear placement and the fixed pin - that was all I needed to get started
The anchor bolts are way too far back from the top of the climb to set up for rappel, so you have to walk off (which requires a few 5th class moves on a short chute/cleft - alluded to on guidebook topo). I did see some old tat (1 inch nylon webbing) laced through the kissing point of some huge chockstones in the enormous chimney to the right of the route - so someone must have rappelled in two phases at some point (or bailed off the route) but that would mean leaving a long cord like a cordalette at the anchor and then more webbing at those chockstones. There was no tat at the anchor but someone could have cleaned that before walking off. Rappelling with two ropes would be a terrible pull unless you left enough webbing or a cord to get the rappel point over the top edge.
The climbing is thoughtful and exciting. The rock along the black streak is excellent. The features and holes are really cool. The route is photogenic from the main trail (we often need a third party photographer). People were stopping to watch Kat follow. I would definitely give the route a star and an R. People that don't climb at Pinnacles often might not agree with the star because of the ongoing water flow and resulting deposition along the streak - but I did not think it was any big deal. The only "slippery" part was a couple foot holds out to the left - just above the start - that are somewhat rounded and water polished.
I made a photo topo showing the approach and descent (using Google Earth) and another one to show the bolts and anchor.
The guidebook topo also shows some arrows pointing toward these but the one I made has more detail if you're interested.
We took the shorter 3rd class way up (shown as 4th Class on the guidebook topo). The rocky part is okay but the grassy, loamy slope above is unpleasant. It's like hiking on slippery snow (the thick grass makes it slick) where the snow slumps and packs under your feet with every step. Really not that unusual for Pinnacles - I've been in plenty of other spots where moving off trail feels like that.
We went down the longer, alternate path (partially shown on my version and the guidebook topo) following deer trails across the drainage (above the waterfall) and eventually joining the first part of the Crowley approach trail near the back of The Flumes.
Here is a photo topo for the route. All the gear placements and the fixed pin are before bolt 1 (pin shown on guidebook topo).
