This route climbs the face about 15-20 feet to the right of Rambo Santa (5.7). Most people, like myself, think they are on Rambo Santa when they climb this route for the first time. The climbing is high quality, but the protection is not. The mix of quarter inch bolts and death hangers add a little excitment. There are a few trad placements between bolts. P1: Head up the slab to the right of Rambo Santa. ([3] bolts, 150 feet) Belay at the bolts for that route. Descent: Rap with one rope to the chains of Arkansas Patriot or do a double rope rap to the ground. [Apparently, aka DMZ]
I'll have to climb this again and count the bolts. I thought there were 4 or 5. If you get off route at all you could pass them unknowingly.
By Guy Humphrey From: Fort Collins CO Jun 12, 2006
Thanks for replacing the first two bolts on this climb. With this recent change, the climb is no longer "R" rated. You can get good gear every 10-12ft. The 3rd and last bolt is still a 1/4 incher, but it can be backed up with the smallest Alien.
Bring gear to a #3 Camalot with emphasis on small cams. A brown tricam can be placed in a pocket right before the overlap half way up.
I rapped down the "Rambo Santa" anchor to look at the bolts for this climb and only located 3 total. There are 2 newer good ones near the beginning and 1 old 1/4" POS homemade thing just below the 2 bolt anchor at the top. There are actually quite a number of natural placements "near" this route, and it can be done relatively safely [no more than ~15 ft. between placements] if you have a good head and the correct gear. I would not recommend this route for someone climbing 5.8 at their limit. In fact, I do not think the original route is possible [safely anyway] w/out the "missing bolts". According to Rossiter, there use to be a total of 6 bolts on this line, so instead of taking the line where bolts use to be (?), it feels more natural to traverse a little to the right over to P2 of Tree Roof/Schoolmarms in Space. This takes away from the route, unfortunately. Does anyone know what happened to the original bolts? I couldn't find any trace of them (though I probably didn't look hard enough).
Gear BETA: I used everything from micro-cams (BD 0.1 and TCU #0) up to a BD #3 Camalot, and almost everything in between. Definitely bring the #2 and #1 Camalots, and a 0.4 Camalot, or a yellow alien.
All that said, I think once you hit the "ledge" you are basically on the upper 1/2 of P2 of "Schoolmarms in Space". Then you head up, clip the POS 1/4" bolt, make a cruxy move and hit the anchor. Guy Humphrey's advice above is right on.
Combat Rock
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