Mescalito, El Capitan Past and Future Climbers Call To Action!

Yo Gang! Hope everyone is getting stoked for Big Stone season......hey twenty years ago this July my partners and I replaced every single bolt on the first twelve pitches of Mescalito before I had an accident and we had to bail. I had already climbed the route in 2000, so never got back to replace the middle bolts though I did hike a huge load to the summit and rap down and replace the last pitch bolt ladder in 2003. In 2000 I climbed Mescalito with a Spanish guy in five days after fixing, and was appalled by how bad the bolts were on such a classic route. I was taking Spanish classes in college in Arizona at the time, and in my lack-of-juriprudence 26 yr old mind I thought it would be a great idea to go to Camp 4 and enlist a partner who didn't speak English, so I could practice my Spanish during the summer break from school. Homeboy was way under-prepared for the wall, as I probably forgot to ask any questions about his previous bigwall experiences, but he was able to follow ok and lead a pitch each day, and we made it to the top with only a couple mishaps (these were the early days of Chongo Nation, as Chuck was living in the trees below the Sea of Dreams route a few hundred feet east of Mescalito and not in the Tangerine Trip overhang of Chongo Nation lore, and I remember at one point while re-racking I straight up dropped one of the two #3 camalots I had brought for the route, and after some yelling Chuck got up and walked down and retrieved the cam from the base of the route, and a few days later I traded him some pudding, as Chuck had no teeth, for the cam back).

Right now the Belgians attempting the Dawn Wall have ropes fixed to just before the bolt ladder pitches on Mescalito, pitches 15-17. Now is the time to rally a crew and get these bolts replaced - some bolts have been replaced but the originals remaining are very poor condition and a couple have broken on climbers the last couple years! So if you enjoyed Mescalito or look forward to enjoying it's epic splitter-ness, let's show what the Yosemite climbing community can do to replace dangerous anchor bolts!

I've been having some health issues, also had knee surgery last October, so would prefer to stay as a support/mentor role on this one, but I"m here in the Valley and happy to help coordinate however I can!

Woot Woot! E

Ps. Ironically as we bailed we replaced many bolts on Adrift on our way down, took three days to get down because we had so much stuff and I was hurting so we took it easy. The Adrift pitches would become part of the Dawn Wall free climb, so the Camp anchors and all the belays were already fixed up for Tommy and Kevin on the lower pitches.

Anyone have experience using these anchors in construction applications? Would they be a viable rivet for El Cap where the bolt sticking out would be the same small size but they would last forever because the bolt screwed into a sleeve?

https://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/stainless-steel-concrete-drop-in-anchors/1040-004.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp1040-004-0002&sc_intid=1040-004-0002&gclid=CjwKCAiAsYyRBhACEiwAkJFKov0655RrMt-_9YYETdPTgwGYUiH_cLWc9t9IkDfZcC4Bg3IhYm3kUhoC2hEQAvD_BwE

I attempted this one month ago and broke my finger on pitch 9, catching it in an aider. Will definitely never use a one daisy system again, as the free climber instinct to grab is virtually unavoidable if you piece fails when your transitioning to the next. The recent interview with the speed record holders had me worried about blowing a rivet. It would be pretty cool if the route was doable without that worry. I brought a big cheater stick, it seemed like either that or a bolt kit which i didn't have handy. Having to bail near the top as a soloist low on supplies could be pretty screwed up.   

I’ve never done any bolting but I’m in the Valley (the only person on El Capitan right now, I think), and would be up for helping out for a few days when I finish soloing, if that helps at all.  It’ll probably be a week or so. 

tonymclane McLanewrote:

I attempted this one month ago and broke my finger on pitch 9, catching it in an aider. Will definitely never use a one daisy system again, as the free climber instinct to grab is virtually unavoidable if you piece fails when your transitioning to the next. The recent interview with the speed record holders had me worried about blowing a rivet. It would be pretty cool if the route was doable without that worry. I brought a big cheater stick, it seemed like either that or a bolt kit which i didn't have handy. Having to bail near the top as a soloist low on supplies could be pretty screwed up.   

I fell on a nut with a daisy chain attached and that snapped the cable. Big fall. Now I will not step off my current piece without clipping the rope through and I want to get the daisy off sooner than later.

Cool RandyLee! Which route are you on? So splitter here right now!

As per aid climbing technique, there are many wrong ways, as illustrated above, but only a few right ways. Since moving upward on aid is the #1 most important fundamental, you'd best learn it correctly from the beginning. 

I should write something like this, in detail, so folks don't fall and break fingers and stuff. I have met many over the years who have broken fingers or taken daisy chain falls, all completely avoidable. 

Erik Sloanwrote:

Anyone have experience using these anchors in construction applications? Would they be a viable rivet for El Cap where the bolt sticking out would be the same small size but they would last forever because the bolt screwed into a sleeve?

https://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/stainless-steel-concrete-drop-in-anchors/1040-004.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp1040-004-0002&sc_intid=1040-004-0002&gclid=CjwKCAiAsYyRBhACEiwAkJFKov0655RrMt-_9YYETdPTgwGYUiH_cLWc9t9IkDfZcC4Bg3IhYm3kUhoC2hEQAvD_BwE

With a minimum depth of 1" for the 1/4" I'd say it doesn't really match with the quick and go idea of rivets 

I haven't been on Mescalito, but I believe Tyler Karow & co replaced a number of bolts a few years ago? youtube.com/watch?v=yoPqVRe…

Tyler replaced 2 or 3 bolts, the 2.5 pitches of rivet ladders are still horrific. 

This route is so classic - easily one of the top 5 on El Capitan! ....Seriously no one is lining up to run up the ropes and fix the bolts? ......I climb the route 22 years ago, see horrific bolts, and organize an expedition that over two weeks (we fixed to pitch 9, and planned for seven days on the wall with a party of 3) was able to replace all the bolts on the lower half of the wall.....and with all of our communications, and connections, friends and followers, link-ins, groups, non-profits, etc. that we have now we can't easily connect the dots to get the old bolts replaced? Huh?

Erik Sloanwrote:

This route is so classic - easily one of the top 5 on El Capitan! ....Seriously no one is lining up to run up the ropes and fix the bolts? ......I climb the route 22 years ago, see horrific bolts, and organize an expedition that over two weeks (we fixed to pitch 9, and planned for seven days on the wall with a party of 3) was able to replace all the bolts on the lower half of the wall.....and with all of our communications, and connections, friends and followers, link-ins, groups, non-profits, etc. that we have now we can't easily connect the dots to get the old bolts replaced? Huh?

I think you over may be over estimating the number of people who have the skills, availability, and interest in doing this.

The route may be classic but it's also kinda not that interesting as a climb for those that have the skills to do the bolt replacement in the valley. It wouldn't really be mostly a fun adventure with some bolt replacement, it'd be a boring jaunt up the stone and time spent wholly for the purpose of benefiting the community (which is never a bad thing, and I'd love to do it if other commitments weren't eating up my available time, just more pointing to why people aren't "lining up" for it)

Unfortunately I think the time investment for something like this is a bit too large for most people. If I were able to, I'd for sure volunteer to come help out, but I already have a trip to elsewhere thats been planned for a month now that I might not even get to goto now, not to mention I haven't actually replaced a bolt yet, so I'd need to practice that and I don't have a car so I'd need a ride to the valley.

But hey, maybe if I get home from my family emergency soon enough to help out but too late to go on my planned trip and someone is willing to give me a ride out there from the bay area and give me a crash course on replacing bolts. But that is admittedly a far shot. 

Maybe we could figure out a way to get this done that involves Kevins 17 Portaledges and stringing fixed ropes up the entire Dawn Wall.. 

Quinn Hatfieldwrote:

Maybe we could figure out a way to get this done that involves Kevins 17 Portaledges and stringing fixed ropes up the entire Dawn Wall.. 

It's 14 portaledges. jeez. 

Fail Fallingwrote:

It's 14 portaledges. jeez. 

Yea... but Quinn knows that SEVEN is funnier. : - )    Case in point: See actor commentary form this scene.

Right on fellas, I hear ya free time is precious.....I guess i was thinking about the 30 unique people who have already summited Mescalito in each of the last 22 years (and maybe the future 60 climbers or so) and hoping that that pool could garner some interest in helping others have the experience that folks get to have on the first half of the route......but I get it's complicated. Keep the faith in preserving our Big Stones!

Woot! E

Yosemitebigwall.com

Perhaps a more advanced climber could climb Space, I hear its an amazing route. You can climb Brandon's new route Neptune as an alternate start to space. 

Lance is responding to the suggestion that Mescalito would be boring for a person with drilling experience in Yosemite (hand drilling so crude it takes about two hours to make someone an expert, so hardly out of reach, lol).......but each of those people climbed dozens of well protected routes to get to their level so getting to help out on such a classic EC wall should be a no brainer (and time on the Big Stone?.....forget about it so much fun!) - the Dawn Wall is the pillar of what we see from the meadow so such a worthy objective!

So that's the end of it? Some 20 something broke kid (I'd bet I didn't have more than $1000 in the bank at any one time until I was in my mid-30s) organizes an expedition that replaces half the bolts on one of  the top bigwall climbs in the world - and the rest of the climbing community in all of it's organized grandness: YCA, ASCA, Access Fund, AAC, AAJ, ARI - not to mention the companies who have featured Yosemite prominently in their advertising paths to riches like Addidas and Black Diamond - or the newly minted millionaires who have profited heavily off Yosemite - the Chins, the Honnolds, the Florines, the Rich's - no one can step up and finish the job when future Mescalito climbers are in severe danger as bolts have broken on multiple parties in the last two years? No one cares?