Looking for a "Trad gear needed on bolted route" route

Tarvis Kalude wrote:

I appreciate the safety talk. 

Any other local route ideas?

Tarvis- not exactly “local” but it takes the same amount of driving time to visit- from the SFV, as Josh. 

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/107965156/fish-creek-rock

If you look at the page you see a host of 5.7, 5.8 climbs- these are the first pitches of some longer roots. This cliff was originally developed as a “school cliff” for a “outward bound type of group”.
So there are bolts placed that will “save your bacon” if your placements fail - this is unique in the world of climbing as far as I know of. It gets good in the early spring and has no hassle camping/free camping.

NJC also has some fairly EZ crack climbing.

I recommend you don’t trust gear placements in crap sandstone- like everything we have locally.
I learned this the hard way years ago.

Go learn “how to” at Tahuqitz rock. Josh works but a blown placement might put you on the ground. Several fatalities have occurred- sadly.

I don’t know how hiring a guide would work. The few times I have traveled for business to great places and tried to get one I was informed “no leading AT ALL for you” 

one last thing…. Just because a climb has bolts doesn’t make it a sport climb.

Good luck 

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

Bring a ladder and bounce test the gear, that's going to give a better idea of what's going to hold. For extra fun, bring a hammer and funkness device to test for outward pulls, just not too hard, maybe using a short piece of rope instead of a static funkness device. 

Safety talk applies here too. OP, if you decide to go this route, it's advisable to study up on safety tips for bounce testing so you don't get a stopper in the eye. 

Guy Keesee wrote:

Tarvis- not exactly “local” but it takes the same amount of driving time to visit- from the SFV, as Josh. 

...

Awesome info. I need to remember this somehow when I go up that way next.

Not sure what grades you are looking for but Invisible Touch in JT is good. You can see photos of the crack after the last bolts on MP. It's well bolted with a fun face move at the grade. If you blow the gear in the crack and whip you'll still be well protected. 

off the top of my head another would be Gray Cell Green on turtle rock. a sport climb, but you could get a finger sized piece in between bolts for fun. totally not needed. other than those you can top rope a bunch of stuff in JT and place gear. Also building crack climbing skills on TR or however will help a lot, so when you start leading trad you are not learning gear placement and crack climbing at the same time

j b wrote:

Not sure what grades you are looking for but Invisible Touch in JT is good. You can see photos of the crack after the last bolts on MP. It's well bolted with a fun face move at the grade. If you blow the gear in the crack and whip you'll still be well protected. 

off the top of my head another would be Gray Cell Green on turtle rock. a sport climb, but you could get a finger sized piece in between bolts for fun. totally not needed. other than those you can top rope a bunch of stuff in JT and place gear. Also building crack climbing skills on TR or however will help a lot, so when you start leading trad you are not learning gear placement and crack climbing at the same time

The Gargoyle in J-tree would be another good option. Bolted anchor at the top of a nice 5.6 hand crack. There's a bolted sport route to the left of the crack that's 5.6, too, and will easily get you to the anchors. TR off the anchor and place gear and clip in a second rope. That's a way you could actually get experience placing lots of gear rather than just a few pieces in between bolts. 

Humpty Dumpty @ Texas Canyon. Lead it on bolts and place gear as a mock lead. The first move is the crux anyway, getting up off the ground.

I do need to go TR in JT again...

I took my first real trad whipper last weekend at Thin wall (Josh - Real Hidden Valley).  That is a good wall to get on TR there. I feel like the ratings on that wall are .5-1 higher grade then they should be so its a confidence boost.

Andrew Rice wrote:

I'm curious about this post. I'm sure it's well intentioned. But how does one get "Real experience placing gear and leading on gear" without doing "any climbs that require trad gear whatsoever?"

Seems contradictory. All of us, at some point, had our first trad lead. 

I started by aid soloing! That's what the climbing anchors book recommended, albeit I don't think they meant solo, super fun.

look at the roost in J tree 

Adding a third rec for Corpse, once there is access to the area.

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/123651803/horizon-line