Facial Hair 

FA:  Mike Caldwell and Dan Ludlam Type:  Trad Length:  1 pitch, 160 feet Views: 140 page views Submitted By: Eli Helmuth on Jul 26, 2005 Add Photo  Add Comment

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BETA PHOTO: Gollums Arch

Description 

This is one of the forgotten classics at the Ridge. A bit of a sandbag at 11a- feels like a letter harder and somewhat runout as it was bolted on lead way back in '85. Also a little dirty as it has seen little action for the last decade or so. Facial Hair starts just 20' right of the mega classic Gollum's Arch at a left leaning crack just left of a big right facing dihedral (Latch Hand).

Mike Caldwell and Eli Helmuth replaced all four bolts in the summer of '05 with ASCA hardware. The first bolt, which was placed by an unknown person before the first ascent was moved down and left 3' to be in line with the rest of the route and to give even spacing between the crack gear on both sides of it. The thin horizontal crack above the first bolt has a hidden big slot just left above the bolt, and this is key as it takes a fat nut or small cam before committing to the crux slab section up to the second bolt. Steep crack climbing at the bottom and thin slab above give this route a balanced and testy feel. Scramble off to the west into the first gully for the descent- skiers right.

Protection 

Four bolts, full rack of cams to #2 Camalot. Small to medium nuts.