Black Slabbeth 

Black Slabbeth is a route enjoyed by many. Not the highest of quality, but certainly not a choss pile either. In fact, after departing from the initial section, one finds fine-quality slab climbing with a hard patina surface. The route can be climbed in a variety of ways: there's a flake/crack on the left, and a flake/crack on the right with a narrow face between. The flakes diverge as one climbs higher on the route. Eventually the panel widens enough to abandon the flanking features. Continue up clean rock to the anchors. It is on this clean face where the 10a slab moves will be found.

Distances seem to be at issue here, but as an architect who works with dimensions day in and out I can assure you it's a lot wider than five feet. I don't doubt that one can climb either of the flakes pretty much all the way to the anchors without getting onto the face (although you'll have to reach pretty far to clip the bolts), and I suspect one would not encounter 10a climbing if they were to climb it that way. Indeed, when one lowers to the ground after clipping the anchors you'll have used approximately 60 feet of rope. Is it over-bolted or under-bolted? It seems there are many styles in which we all choose to climb. Some get a thrill out of a gonad-stimulating runout, while others might consider the same route dangerous. And that, my friends, is the beauty of our sport. Climbing is many things to many people, and I've always felt that variety IS the spice of life. If indeed you think this route is over-bolted no one is forcing you to clip all of them. By all means, if you think there are too many then clip every other one! Or every third bolt if it suits your fancy.

I climbed in the right crack until the final panel and it felt prety easy.

Some funky moves throughout the route. Watch your head when making your last move.

Good climb, but the left crack is definitely easier. Hard to reach the bolts from the left side, but cool climb nonetheless.

I believe the 10a rating is for the face climb. Stay off the flakes and it is a worthy route. The crux is just before the last bolt before the anchor, forcing the leader to commit to a sequence of 10a moves with the reward being the safety of a bolt. The price of failure is a clean 15 foot fall. So, if you want the 10a rating follow the bolt line up the face.

I agree with Joe. The only 10a moves on this route are probably on the face. The crack to the right of the bolts is fun though and probably goes at 5.9 only on the toughest move. It is a worthy route though any way you do it. A couple nice finger jams in the crack.

I totally screwed up this route on lead, bypassing one bolt on the right midway up and then missing the chains and climbing onto the ledge about 8 feet above the chains. Not a good idea as there is lots of loose crap on top. I sent a couple of rocks down toward my belayer and must have missed the 5.10 section.

This climb has a pretty contentious history from the past.

I was involved with many long series of posts that were deleted years ago by the mod's regarding this route.

Thankfully, someone has posted a few photos of the route.

http://imglarge.mountainproject.com/106309393_273edf.jpg

Clip from the right crack, clip from the left, chase the bolt's ???

Where is the actual route ?