Frodo Lives is a wonderfully exhilarating route with exciting exposure, solid holds interspersed with scary, broken quartzite, yet solid, bolted protection.
Start from one of two belay locations: a single bolt if you climbed the 5.7 2nd pitch route, or a double-bolt belay if you climbed the 5.8 2nd pitch route. While on belay, walk across to the base of the upper wall, praying that you don’t do something stupid like trip over your shoelaces and pitch down the gully to your right.
Climb over to, or up to, the first bolt (depending on your start). Clip it and traverse right and slightly up to the second bolt. At this point climbing up from the second bolt would put you on Lord of the Slings. Continue traversing right and slightly up to the third bolt of Frodo Lives. From this point head up to the fourth bolt, then bear left for the left edge of the roof above you (following the right bolt line puts you on Shadow and Flame, 5.10b).
The climbing to the belay anchor (located on a narrow ledge) continues through six more bolts of fairly sustained climbing; surmounting the edge of the roof and a bulge is a bit harder. Don’t forget to look down!
From the belay continue up through three more bolts of thrilling climbing, including probably the most exciting moves: getting over a small roof, well protected by the last bolt (but you still have a lot of that I-really-don’t-want-to-fall feeling because of the exposure). After topping out a single anchor bolt is located on rock about 10 or 15 feet from the edge and on your left. There is also a shallow crack to the left of the bolt in which I placed a number one BD C3.
Location
On the upper wall of Trilogy Buttress the lowest bolt protects the start of all of the routes. For Frodo Lives traverse right after the first bolt for two bolts, then up one more bolt, then bear left and up.
Protection
Pitch 1: 10 bolts, hangers-and-rings anchor. I recommend slinging the first three bolts with double-length (48") runners and the next five with regular (24") runners This will help greatly with rope drag.
Pitch 2: 3 bolts and a single bolt anchor with supplemental small gear. I used a 24" sling on the second bolt from the belay.
Trilogy Buttress
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