Bang and Blame 

A song of the 1994 release by REM titled 'Monster.'

Pumpy down low, thin and technical higher up.

The first section of this line is awesome - nothing more needs to be said. Super bouldery, awesome holds... but at the 4th clip though, there is a huge triangular block (usually marked with an X) that causes some concern. It's a huge jug, but it looks like it may snap at any given moment - sending a hundred + lb. chunk of granite down at your belayer. It seems solid but you can see stress fractures on the bottom part of it.... Just a friendly warning to all. Belay bitches hug the rock, and climbers keep your rope out of the way so you don't get drug down along with the block if it does happen to break when you're cruising by it.

Frustrated with all of the crumbling sandstone in the GJ area, Ed Strang and I began searching out new stuff and eventually stumbled upon this radical piece of geology.

Ed and I bolted Bang and Blame in the spring of 1995 as soon I cashed my 1994 tax return and bought a brand new Hilti TE10a. It was the obvious first choice on the wall, so we started with it (note: it was the first sport route either of us had ever bolted, and I apologize for the non-stainless hardware and crappy anchor gear; hopefully it's been updated). Ed was crushing at the time so I'm sure he made the FA (with myself managing a redpoint after a few tries, or days later, or weeks, or never...), a pattern that continued with most other routes I climbed with Ed over the next few years.... Yeah, I know we were listening to REM at the time and the name seemed appropriate.

Over the next few months we bolted 7 other routes/variations there and climbed some boulder problems in the area as well.

I believe we called the two unnamed routes on the left side of the wall Divine Thing and Autobahn.

cheers,
Luke Laeser

Glued on hold is gone now. It does not change the grade.