Its hard to think of this route as a climb - its more of an experience. Looks for the line of bolts on the caprock, and climb it. I didn't have a stick clip, so my partner stood on my back and clipped the first bolt - this added immensely to the climb. The leader should leave a daisy or sling on the first bolt for the second. The route overhangs so much it is easier to reclimb it than to jug.
The summit is big and a good place to stretch out and relax. There are fixed rap anchors and interesting relics in the summit cairn.
The route is worth doing purely because it is so strange. I've never seen anything else like it.
Protection
A few biners and aid climbing hardware is all you need-the route is a bolt ladder. A stick clip is useful for the first bolt, but you get full redit if you clip it by standing on your belayer's back.
I soloed this route last month, sans stick clip. I'm 5'7", so clipping the first bolt was quite an experience. I had a tent pole in my car; but I'm very lazy, so I elected to use the tools I had with me. I interlaced some stoppers, a funkness device, and taped them to my hammer. Then I stood on two wobbly rocks, and jumped for the first bolt. Wee!!! Bring a stick clip--or a belayer.
Anyone got beta on the free route next to it? Looks like 5.11 - Mark
Steve Mathias and I climbed this route in around 7.5 minutes this past Saturday and then George Bell and I did it in 5m33s. That said anyone who is halfway decent with aiders should be able to crush this time - if they have George jugging. He jugged the route in 63 seconds! Stupid, silly, FUN stuff.
I was with my "Rock Guide Training" instructor, Rusty Baillie, receiving credit from Prescott College, in AZ. It was 1991, and I was 22. He was at least 62, and way harder than me.
A quick note on Baillie- He grew up in Rhodesia. He is pretty tall and lean, and his smile is broad. His climbing credits include the FA of The Old Man of Hoy (w/ Joe Brown on TV in Scotland- Baillie was on the rigging team), the 40th ascent of the N. Face of the Eiger (w/ Dougal Haston), and the FA of the Dragon route in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. He has some whole sport areas to his credit also, scattered about AZ. On winter mountaineering courses, he would anchor his students to a ridge, then jump up and down on a cornice (in skis), wherein they could practice self- arrest, then crevasse rescue.
Three of us scrambled up to the base: Baillie, me, and another student (whose name now escapes me.) This other fellow was psyched to lead the route, as he was up on his Bandito lore. The route was intimidating.
"Wait" you say, "It's just a bolt ladder- it can't be that bad!"
When we got there in '91, the first piece was a drilled 1/2" angle, pointing downward at about 70 degrees, the eye was about 1/2" out from the rock (probably bottomed- out). A huge drop to the age- hardened dirt waited below. The dude stretched from a stack of rock slabs to clip the angle, and then he set off on knotted slings in his flip- flops. The second placement was a 1/4" x 1" button- head, with the word "bandito" stamped into the home-made aluminum hanger. The dude was up it in about 15 minutes, then I followed, then Baillie. The dude descended to get a picture, then Baillie went down. When I came down over the lip, Baillie said "Stop there." I stopped, and he handed me the Hilti and bolt kit. The buttonhead came out with a few hammer- blows, and a 3/8" x 3" Rawl 5- piece went in (with epoxy) in minutes. Next came the angle. One hammer- tap, and the pin fell into my hand (I swear!) I had difficulty holding the drill at the right angle, and the hole was drilled in under 10 seconds. The bolt was tapped in and cranked tight, but the hanger didn't sit flush with the rock. About 1/2" of the sleeve is showing behind the hanger. These are the first and only bolts I have ever placed on a rock route. Baillie has the Bandito gear, probably buried somewhere in a box of climbing schwag.
Back in town, which consisted of one gas station and two bars, we sat at the bar and celebrated the last ascent of the Bandito Route. There were about ten Navajos in the small room, and us. After about the sixth round or so (I was really thirsty), this little white guy with a big mustache came in with a set of bagpipes. He set up in the corner, and started just whaling away. The din was mind-blowing. Baillie got up, grabbed two pool cues, held them over his head, crossed, then set them on the floor. He proceeded to do a sword dance, hopping through each of the four quadrants. The Navajos banged their glasses on the bar in time. I think I almost passed out. Baillie drove us home.
There is an article on the Banditos and a photo of this route in a climbing mag from the late 90s(?) The pin is clearly visible, with the leader hanging from it, presumably on the FA.
P.S. The minute details of this story have been dragged from an addled brain, and may be slightly off. After all, it is a Bandito route...
P.P.S. Baillie's Old Man of Hoy trip is in Tom Patey's "One Man's Mountains". This is a wonderful book, a must- read.
Russell, nice history, but I believe you're thinking of Rusty Baillie's FA of the Dragon Route on the Painted Wall in the Black Canyon, rather than the Rainbow Wall.
A couple notes:1. When I climbed this last year, as Stu Ritchie and got our stuff together in the parking lot, a family in a sedan pulled up next to us. The woman driving got out and told us her Dad had been up there in the 1940s or thereabouts. Apparently he and his drilling buddies dragged a large drill pipe up there and leaned it against the hat, and shimmied up it. I wish I'd gotten the guy's name. Royal Robbins supposedly found a cairn on top, so this does actually makes sense.
On returning to the Hat this week, someone had drilled a baby angle, three feet off the ground, straight into the vertical graffiti-covered rock face under the Bandito route. Why? Scores of parties have managed fine for decades, why drill a pin now? Perhaps the person placing this steadied him/herself by leaning off a cam in the perfect horizontal slot about one foot above this new pin. When we did route this I recall Stu crawling around the neck and tying off the whole neck. Is this so hard to do?Maybe this helps the belayer for the free route (Jeff Achey's route I believe), or maybe this helps folks shave seconds off their time. No big deal really, except for many non-climbers go up to this ledge. If I were a non-climber, I would really wonder what was up with a pin drilled three feet up. I'd be tempted to equate climbers with the graffiti artists who have chipped their names, and treat the very same chunk of rock (and other people visiting it) with such disdain.
Did it this may. Stopped the rafts on our river trip of the San Juan, walked up the hill and clipped the bolts. Lots of fun (but not climbing in any sense) and I wore a giant sombrero straight from ole Mey'hico. Sweet, sweet shade.
Class 3 A0. Maybe the only one in the world of the grade. Does that make it 3 stars?
Don't have the second reclimb it - just leave the etrier on the SECOND bolt so the second can get the weight off the first bolt. Note the angle of the quickdraw in my photo. I had to just haul on the draw to unclip the rope, and then (after some swinging) grab the bolt to unclip the qd. That sucked.
I led this route the next year (last March; 2004) and left the etrier on bolt 2, and the second (Chris Meloche, this time) said he had no problem jugging up. After the first bolt, there's no problem with the overhang.
Fun route for the novelty and the incredible views of the San Juan River, Cedar Mesa, Monument Valley, the Navajo Tapestry, etc. Make sure you take a good look at all the big, round sandstone slabs littering the valley floor around the Hat, and then at the crossbedded gypsum in the layer supporting the Hat. Hmmm.....
I climbed the Bandito Route again last week. A fun roadside distraction. I just wanted to post that the FIRST BOLT is VERY LOOSE. It is spinning in the hole and should be considered suspect. If it blows and the belayer has no belay anchor (as I have witnessed, Unfortunately) the outcome could be grim.PLEASE USE AN ANCHOR ON THE LEDGE. This is a short easy climb but a fall from the ledge to the parking lot would suck.
Bypass the shifty bolt with a hiking pole you carried up the hill for just that purpose. Bring a cam or 2 (red and yellow camalot?) for the belay. Someone should pull that "belay" angle and patch the hole.
having done the hat 4 times before the retro bolt 1st piece was rawl w/ leeper hanger 2nd was drilled angle 3-5 were rawls w/ leepers, #3 was spinner on top there were two bandito hanger, one I took and later sold on ebay for $24! (circa 2002)
Sixth Class Bouldering at its finest. Better bring a stick from home though, as there are not many to be found out in that country. For me: I have been carrying my fishing pole around on my rack for years, knowing that, in spite of the repeated protests of my climbing partners, someday it would come in handy. Thanks Mexican Hat, thanks for giving me my first aid lead. I will always remember you. . . .
By toddgordon From: Joshua Tree, California Apr 25, 2007
When I first did this route in the early 1980', one of the Bandito bolts came out with my body weight;.....I walked back to my toyota truck, got a baby angle , and whacked it in the empty hole; I can't remember if it was the 1st or 2nd bolt;.....I did this climb many more times, and my angle was still in;.....I don't know if it still is;.......always a fun stop off when in the area.
Mexican Hat
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