Joyride 

Had to stretch to clip the second bolt from a good stance, would hate to be any shorter. A fall from here would be exciting. The move away from the second bolt also seemed at my fingertips, not bummed to be 6'. Agree w/Randy's star roundup.

Putting this on side comments. This thing is a sport route, and a good one. Was curious about the how others feel about "sport anchors" at JT. Especially ones that are fairly close to existing trad routes. This route ends about 6 feet away from an existing route ( Norwegian Wood ). One could easily top out and place a gear anchor. As it is it is a fixed pair of cold shuts, visible from the ground, through the rope in and lower, easy as pie. What do others think?

If you are shorter than Murf (I am), you have to do a funky no hands step up onto a slopper to clip the bolt. You definitely do not want to fall there. The crux is best done by moving left then up and then back right (particularly if you are not 6' tall).

In reference to the sport anchor at the top of Joyride, ... this was a decision of the first ascent party; in this case, Bob Gaines and Tony Sartin. This is the vision that the first ascent party had of the climb. Unless they are acting WAY out of line, the vision and the wishes of the first ascent party should be respected.Instead of scrutinizing the anchor,........ their vision, hard work, creativity, and time/$ spent on the route should be appreciated and a point of focus....From what I hear, the route is awesome;.... ...THAT'S what you tell Tony and Bob when you see them..... and they'll be happy that you enjoyed their efforts; they will feel appreciated and respected......focus on something else, and that will be the vibe...........Your choice.

Todd, good thoughts. I was trying to keep the "beta comments" clear of my sideline conversation, so those who aren't interested in such can ignore it. To do this, select the "Side Comments" when entering in your comment.

Don't want to over analyze this, but: (1) It is a sport route, so sport anchors seem perfectly OK (natural anchors would be over the top and back a ways), and (2) the anchors are not really all that visible being nearly 100 feet up and hardly obtrusive in any event (we didn't notice them until after we had climbed it and knew where they were).

Sport and trad routes can (and do) easily co-exist at Josh. They day we did Joyride, we also did Norwegian Wood (trad), Humerous, Crime of the Century (trad) and the two sport routes on the southeast corner of Little Hunk which Murf referenced earlier (The Maw 10a and The Paw 10b/c). The bolts were pretty well camoflauged and while some routes were better than others, that didn't really have anything to do about bolts per say.

If we are going to start questioning the position of bolt anchors, what about Big Moe (added many years later, natural gear exists 15 feet back), or Fun Stuff (bolt anchors added years later), or W.A.C. (same thing) or etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., ad nasium...????

Just some thoughts.

This is a very fun route and offers quality and thoughtful movement for most of it's length. More traffic will clean this up, but it didn't seem that bad to me (then again I like choss). Three stars out of five.

Poorly bolted in spots however, with a potentially dangerous fall before clipping the second bolt (move it down 8" and it wouldn't be an issue) and a definite ledge fall after the last bolt (move it up 12" or so).

Good route. The 2nd bolt is not too bad; I am 5'6 and had no problem clipping it. If you are short, you will have to make one more move to the bolt. A lot of Bob's newer routes are similar in this way, if you are short you have to really stretch for the bolt or clip in the middle of a crux move. However, if you want a lower bolt from the rest stance, you are always welcome to create your own route.

Bob, good work, you are putting up some amazing climbs in a place that most would have thought to be developed. Thanks

"...if you are short you have to really stretch for the bolt or clip in the middle of a crux move."

Are you serious?

Bob puts up some great climbs, but my original post was not a dig, just comments and some constructive criticism. Well-thought out bolt placements should be the norm, not the exception and accomodate, if possible, the wide range of climbers out there.

give me a big AMEN on the following..."Well-thought out bolt placements should be the norm, not the exception and accomodate, if possible, the wide range of climbers outthere."......oh how I agree.......seriously!!!...

CLIPPING the 2nd bolt can't be that tough; I stood there for about 20 minutes and hand drilled it. The move UP TO that stance might be scary for some people (a 5.8 friction move with a ground fall potential) and it seems like some tall folks are really stretching to clip the bolt without making the move. I didn't intend to make it real scary, it's just the way it worked out when we put the route up with a ground up, on the lead style. I've talked with Tony Sartin, and we plan to lower that bolt placement to make it less scary when we get a chance.

Good to hear your point of view on this Bob, and to see that you're open to suggestions. It just seems silly to have a potential grounder (even on relatively easy terrain) when the rest of the climb is so well protected.

Bob: Glad to hear you might move the bolt. While it may not be a real hard move to the second bolt (5.9?), it is insecure and falling is not really an option. Since the route is otherwise basically a sport route, lowering the bolt a bit would be more in keeping with the nature of the climb. (Also, agree with Chris about moving the last bolt up a bit too, while you are at it).

Bob - very cool, thanks for chiming in and for just thinking about moving the bolt.

Tony and I moved the second bolt down about a foot, thus eliminating the scary move up to the stance to clip it.

Right on, thanks for being open to change Bob.

Great route! BG, thanks for moving that bolt down a bit. I'll go with 5.11c because it feels a touch harder than Oyster Delicacy, which is approximately similar in nature (thin face). The top half is super fun, with a little punch right at the end!

Hard reachy move for 5.7, certainly better technique will be your friend. Found the route difficult and was thankful for the TR weigh-loss program my belayer had me on getting beyond the 2nd bolt Fun and technical with a little something extra up top.

If you can't lead it (as I certainly could not) it makes for a nice TR while in the area. Challenging.