The furthest right route on the Gray Wall on the left side of Java Dome. To reach this wall hike the north gully past Atlantis dome. Follow a faint trail that descends from Atlantis into the bottom of the drainage and meets with the base of Java Dome at its lowest point. Scramble over a few boulders and up a 3rd or 4th class cleft in the slab for a few hundred feet or so. The routes will be on the right and fairly noticable since most have new bolts. Traditionalists at Work starts just right of a large tree. It is hard to pick out the buttonhead bolts at first glance. This route has very well spaced bolts and all are in good condition for buttonheads. Start in the cleft between the low angle slab and the gray wall, move left after the first bolt. The crux comes after the second. The angle eases and four or five more bolts lead to a two bolt anchor and an easy walk off to the left 170'.
About the buttonhead bolts, when Dale Hass and I put up this route in 1987, we used 5/16" Rawl buttonheads which were cutting edge (supposedly) at the time for lead bolting on granite (it takes sooooo long to drill a hole in granite). Recent experiences by the American Safe ClimbingAssociation (ASCA) indicate that these are a very good choice for lead bolting as they are pretty strong (AKA very hard to remove when re-bolting).
Good post Bruce. I'll also mention that you could not buy bolts everywhere like you do now, and that our choice was very limited. I was never worried about the strength of the bolts ... and I tested quite a few.
Trying to buy bolts at a climbing shop practically required taking a verbal test with the shop owner. They didn't hand them out without question.
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