When I researched the 2007 guidebook I didn’t have to start from scratch. Clint Cummins had made most of the topos used in the 1995 guide and he let me use his originals. I used these as the basis for many of my topos (I did maybe 20 from scratch). He also kept a route list that he freely gave to me. I had to research lots of routes (and rumors of routes) but like the topos, his list was a big leg up.
I don’t have a copy of his early 2000s route list any more, but my memory of the events I’m about to describe is pretty good. There were two routes on his list at The Shepherd on the West Side. These routes, Lonesome Bolt and Sheepish, both started under a single bolt that was 15 feet above the ground. I think he toproped the routes out of curiosity about the one bolt. If I recall correctly he named the routes. He rated both 5.6. He didn’t claim or attribute any first ascent. Critically, on his list, Clint listed both routes as topropes.
I recently emailed Clint about these routes. I gave him my best memory and asked what he remembered. Basically he didn’t remember anything about them. He told me I was on my own as far as their history and what I might do with them.
Going back to the pre 2007 time period, I remember thinking to myself about how two routes with a bolt could be “toprope” routes. A bolt is lead protection and is completely not consistent with a toprope. I didn’t climb either route before the guidebook was finished, but I made a decision about how to list both routes in the book based on the one bolt that was there and on the “easy” 5.6 rating. Given the “easy” climbing and the bolt, these had to be leads, and so I listed them that way. Although they had to be leads, they were obviously run out, so I gave Lonesome Bolt an “X” sub rating and Sheepish an “R” sub rating. In the book, Lonesome Bolt is 5.6 X and Sheepish 5.6 R.
Soon after the book came out I was trying to “clean up” my own list of climbs as to some areas; to finish up routes I hadn’t previously climbed and, especially, finish up routes easier than 5.10. I led Sheepish. It seemed about right at 5.6 and was certainly run out enough to deserve the “R.” A few months later I led Lonesome Bolt (with Bob Walton belaying - thanks again Bob and sorry I scared you).
My ascent of Lonesome Bolt led to correction number 14 on the “Corrections” sticky thread on this site. Here’s a link:
http://www.mudncrud.com/forums/index.php?topic=1599.0This route most certainly wasn’t 5.6. It had sustained, sequential 5.8 well above the one bolt. The “X” sub rating was absolutely justified and I began to wonder. With Lonesome Bolt in particular it wasn’t “just” 5.6, and it wasn’t really a lead so much as a free solo. Maybe listing it as a lead had been a mistake? Maybe it should have been left as a toprope (certainly the only known ascent prior to my virtual free solo was, if I recall correctly from Clint’s list, a toprope ascent).
On another subject (that becomes related to the rest of this a few lines down) there’s been some effort “before the new book comes out” to bolt some existing toprope routes. This seems like a legitimate exercise. There are some exceptions to the effort, such as where a route should be left as a toprope because it would crowd routes to either or both sides (Lounge Lizard Arete between The Big Pucker and The Wet Kiss comes to mind). But I think it’s pretty well agreed that leading is a better style than toproping, and so creating a lead climb probably makes a “better” route overall.
All of this information led me to start thinking. Instead of relegating Lonesome Bolt back to toprope status, maybe it would be better to make it a lead? I’d already “led” it in its X-rated state and so it clearly could be led. But why not also put in enough bolts to “finish” the route, to make it something that normal people could lead?
This last weekend I finally decided to do just that. Sheepish is OK as a 5.6 R, but Lonesome Bolt absolutely had to go back to being a toprope, or be made into a real route that could be led. John Cook had recently replaced the one bolt that serves both climbs, 15 feet above the ground. He had led Sheepish and expressed an interest in Lonesome Bolt. So on Sunday he and I (and Kathy) spent the day bolting Lonesome Bolt. The sustained and sequential 5.8 surprised me (as in: WTF was I thinking leading it and how in God’s name did Bob “let” me keep climbing when I led it?). It’s now a fairly well protected climb, although it will remain at no stars (not very great rock quality over most of the climbing although the critical holds seem good). The overall result is a very accessible and now leadable 115 foot long 5.8 to a two-bolt anchor and a walk off.
I didn’t take any photos, so all this boring post will consist of is this new information and story. But I think I saw Kathy taking shots of John’s lead.
