Golden Slumber starts just left of Sleepless in Boulder. Power up a series of cool lay-backing and face moves past several bolts to a short left-facing corner. Place gear in the corner, gain a big hold and clip a bolt below a thin crack. Climb the crack using gear and then climb past two bolts (crux) to a two-bolt anchor.
Protection
8 bolts and small-to-medium cams to a 2-bolt anchor.
Just for the record: I did the first ascent of this route sometime in 2000 with Dave Goldstein, entirely on natural gear. We thought it was 5.10+ or easy 5.11, and we would have given it an S rating for the loose rock near the bottoms and the sketchy traverse into the corner, past what is now the third bolt. I didn't name it.
I climbed right of Bob's line after the third bolt, staying in the obvious corners. In my opinion, this is more fun and logical climbing than the way it is bolted, and since you need to carry gear for this route anyway, give it a try and see what you think. At the top, I traversed left just below the second-to-last bolt, which is a tad easier than the bolted finish.
Just to be clear: I am NOT advocating that the bolts be removed. The bolts (and cleaning) have improved the first 30 feet of this climb, which was difficult and somewhat dangerous. Though the upper bolts don't really add any safety to the line I climbed, I'm not worked up over them either. The climb is a bit more fun now.
If anyone could explain exactly what is holding the big pillar in place, and what is likely to happen if any of the gear placed on the left side of it actually had to hold a fall, that would be interesting. Fortunately since that section is easy it's not likely we'll get an answer to the second part of the question. But don't pull too hard up there all the same.
By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO Jul 18, 2003 rating: 5.10d
What is holding the pillar up top in place...Well, to some degree the dirt back behind it, to some degree inertia, and to some degree, just plain slip Vs tip statics. Gear low on it shouldn't pull it off- gear up top might pull out, but I wouldn't think so. If it did, I don't think it would tumble the tower. Maybe I am taking about a different tower?
In any case, if it did fall, the absolute SWARM of bats back behind it would be really pissed off. On my way up there, I first smelled them, then they started tintering at me. I looked in to see about 50 of them crawling all over each other and further into or out of the crack. I moved on pretty quickly to avoid much more disturbance. They were probably Brown Moytis, but I'm not a bat expert, so maybe there is a look-alike of which I am unaware...
The route is not bad, but not that great. It still needs to clean up a little, and the bats take a little away from it. When (if ever) do they move out and go [someplace] warmer/drier?
The climb in general is more honest at its grade than some at the cliff. 10d seems fair [enough].
Should this route have been bolted, knowing about the sleeping bats (I am assuming that Golden Slumber and Sleeping Bats is not a coincidence).
Would it have been prudent to avoid the bats, knowing how fond our local public land managers are of protecting them and because we love them (the bats that is) and we love our continued privilege of climbing?
Having not made it to this area (yet) would it be a good idea to move the anchor below the pillar, that may fall with people cranking on it anyway, and we have a win/win, not to mention an example where we are doing the "right" thing?
We give up a crux of a climb for the safety and continued Golden Slumber of a colony of bats...this is good press, and seems to me (sitting here at my computer), to be a good/workable idea, maybe in real life there is a problem with doing this?
Paul, you assumed wrong. We did not hear or see bats when we did the climb, and this is the first I have heard about the presence of bats on the climb. Bob
Paul: Bats would rather live in cracks than sunbathe on slopers. Should we start closing all routes with bats in them? And if we do climb cracks, wouldn't it be better to use bolts along the sides of the cracks rather than sticking our bat-gaffing cams in there? Do you have a selective bat protection policy, biased against routes with bolts on them?...
Bad assumption, but now that we know there is a significant colony there, should we wait for the real bat activist to turn up or should we take matters into our own hands?
Alternatively, we could crowbar off the spire, bring a large can of BAT RAID and finish the cleaning job. I am sure that the bats would find a new home and survive (ok skip the BAT RAID), and we can continue to pull down!
I am not a bat activist, even though I may have suggested in another thread that we improve their environment through the thoughful application of an artificial christmas tree, I just know of bat closures in other local areas, and it would be a shame to have wasted all the bolts and time on this crag.
AC at Boulder Public Library, if you don't have something useful to say, then why waste those valuable keystrokes?
Paul
By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO Jul 18, 2003 rating: 5.10d
A few points, since I guess I [stirred the] pot...
1) If the bats are what I think they are, there nowhere near endangered. Perhaps the first thing to do is for someone (I guess I can, if nobody else is better qualified) is to establish what they are so we can react with respect to what pressure the species is under. 2) The bats probably are NEW there. There was not the typical stream of crap and piss out of the crack, although it was quite pungent. The colony was large and LOUD. If they'd been present on the FA they'd have been noticed. Let's conclude that the moved in later. 3) There are no bolts directly on this section. Also, you don't need to stick your hands into it to climb it. It's gripping a flake. They got most upset when I stuck my head over there to look in on them to try to determine the species. 4) Aren't Bats seasonal? I can't imagine they'd [rather hibernate] in the crack living in [icy] runoff in the winter rather than in a mineshaft 400 yards away in the winter. They may move off and not return. I asked that question before so as to establish this possibility. 5) Maybe nobody should climb the route until late fall/winter and then see what the situation is. Since the primary source of info about this cliff seems to be this site, we can self-impose a closure of the route here. If we're worried about people just showing up and getting on it, we can clip a laminated notice to the second bolt (where land managers won't be, but climbers will see) regarding the request not to climb the route due to BATS. Thus we close this route and don't get an over-reaching and over reacting closure on the whole thing. [After all]- the closure of the cave was for a general area the bats were in. This crack is not so general, and the bats didn't even notice and had no reason to notice what was happening on nearby lines. A total cliff closure would just be stupid. 6) I brought this up in good faith that nobody would overreact. If people do, I will have learned my lesson in front of a huge community- that will all learn not to try to 'help' and just keep concerns quiet in the future. This would be an unfortunate and counterproductive result if the county freaked out this time.
Paul, I think you should at least go to the route in question, climb the route, check out the bat situation and then come up with some solution. So many people make comments on this site without first checking out the route or cliff in question!
Re: Climb first have an opinion later: Sounds reasonable, ok, I will get around to it, maybe, sounds like a p.o.c. though.
Re: Armchair comments: I know I was armchair commenting and said so, that is why I asked the question, made the suggestion, sought input, proposed a solution. Is this harmful to anyone or anything? (ok maybe some of our carpal tunnels are sore now).
Re: Angry at Tony: Is anyone angry about this? If so, let's tuck our nerve endings away and have a [reasonable] discussion, that is what this tool is for, no? (internet dysfunction aside).
Re: Migratory pattern of bats: Hell, I guess if they moved in after we climbed it, then it's their tough luck, we are further up on the food chain, that's good enough for me. Read: flying rat stew.
Re: Name of route: May I suggest a slight modification: Ozzy's Golden Slumber.
Sounds like (from further discussion) that this route may be a "must miss" anyway, so bolts and anchor may not increase the traffic significantly to disturb our distant mamalian cousins, plus it sounds like you need to bring PRO? too, good show!
I never noticed any bats in the crack when I did this route shortly after it was put up.... but then this was the *only* route on the wall that I really disliked and I would never repeat it myself.
Did this a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it, because:* Mixed gear and bolts. More interesting than just bolts. Even had a good sling on a horn.* Several long reaches to big jugs--that's always fun.* The swing right at the "hand crack"; I was perplexed at first, thinking I had to climb the crack, but instead, sink low and around to the right to a good stance.* The final, crux moves: Looks easy, because you start the crux with huge handhold footholds, but it's still hard.* No bats.
Most bats in this area are migratory and set up roosts in the same crag every year from around Memorial Day through late August/early September. While it may be a little unnerving to have a fuzzy, cranky, hypoglycemic beady-eyed beast hissing at you from your preferred hold, just think of all the mosquitos a colony can take out!
No bats did I see behind the crack when climbing this route last weekend. The tower half way up seemed solid to me, although I didn't give it a thorough look over.
Left Side
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