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Description
P1) Some key bolts (6) with great gear opportunities in between lead to a 2-bolt anchor.
P2) Starts with bolted face climbing followed by great climbing through a series of small roofs and ledges leading to another 2-bolt anchor and the money headwall pitch of the climb.
P3) The crux pitch. The first bolt is right off the belay. Clip it, pull on a flake, and make a few moves to clip the next bolt. Balancy moves that force good posture take you through incredible face climbing to a thin crack, some more easy face climbing, and to a nice belay ledge.
P4) Essentially a lower 5th class scramble to the top.
Location
30 yards north of Bush Shark Spire proper. Look for a bolt 10 feet off the ground near a large boulder
Protection
Small to medium trad rack, several draws as there are a number of bolts supplementing p1-p3. Use caution if rappelling the route with a 60m rope, the rap down to the p1 belay station is definitely a rope stretcher.
[ADMIN NOTE: I found that the following rack was sufficient for this climb: Camalots, single set: #00 to #1 C3, and 0.3 to #1; Nuts; 11 draws/slings.]
The Big T is a stunning route for the Sandias. Rock quality is great. I found the last pitch to be harder than 5.10C even though it was my partner who lead that pitch (perhaps 10.d is more accurate), but then again I may be getting old.
From a historical note this route starts about 25 feet to the left of Threshhold (see old Hills sandia guide), which is again about 25 feet to the left of the bush shark spire start.
The first pitch ends at a 2 bolt belay and is about 25 feet to the left of the second pitch of Threshold. Big T follows the bolt line on the face up until it joins a crack system. The 2nd pitch of Threshhold uses the beautful hand crack on the right to work through the face, and then at the pin in the roof moves left to join the main crack system.
Big T joins the original Threshold route for the last 60 feet of pitch 2, ending in a 2 bolt belay. Threshold ends at the same spot, but was usually a marginal belay station with numerous small pieces - now you can use the big fat bolts for the belay!
Big T goes straight up with hard face climbing following the line of bolts. Threshold moves directly left from the belay to joint the large left facing dihedral-gully all the way to the top.
Note on these raps - the top bolts are very hard to locate. They are out on the point that has a tree, but are about 20 feet down the ledge, and are blocked from view above by a block... the gulley to the north can be done in about 15 mintues, bushy but is much faster than setting 2 raps.
By Anthony Stout Administrator From: Albuquerque, NM Aug 2, 2008 rating: 5.10+
This route made for a great morning in the Sandias. Most of the rock quality was great, and the third pitch was thought provoking with all the balancy movement required. Small gear is helpful on the third pitch.
I am questioning if we may have been off route for the final fourth pitch because we did not see any bolted anchor and belayed from a tree at the summit.
Climbing the third pitch, it appears that there is another bolted route just to the right of Big T that joins it at the third belay anchor. We initially thought it was the Threshold route but looking at Alam's note above, it likely was not. It sounds like the threshold route branches left after the second pitch, while this line of bolts was to the right. They use the same bolt hangers as Big T, so I am assuming that the same individuals bolted the route. Does anyone have any idea what this route is?
The route to the right is Blood in the Water. Which is full bolted but you will need some finger sized cams to set the anchor for your belayer at the bottom of the pitch, in the notch btwn bush shark spire and the wall.
The FA party for the Big T included, Lance Hadfield, Ian McMillan, Lee Brinckerhoff and I belive Marc Beverly drilled some of the bolts as well. The route was put up in August of 2005 over 3 days.
The first bolt of the second pitch does not tighten down (as of Spring 2008). I had a nut tool/wrench and it just spins in the hole. Also the second bolt of the crux pitch may be bad. I didn't try tightening it down, since it's cruxy there, but it was loose. Sure made the climbing seem harder, I thought it was .11-.
The first time I climbed the route (Summer 2006), the bolts looked fine. I assume someone fell on the bolt on the crux pitch to loosen it.
Bush Shark Area
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