Half Dome has fallen.

Rest of the pitches reportedly untouched, although I would assume the vigilante is going to bolt one pitch at a time. To be clear this is not my photo and I have not seen this in person but confirmed with the climber who took this. 

Dang someone should really reach out to the first ascensionist

Edit: Recent thoughts from Eric Beck

I definitely do not think it's ok to add bolts to a route like this and I think John Long said it perfectly in two separate quotes from the article I linked below:

• "If a route involves considerable risk and risk-management skills, it’s the climber’s responsibility to understand the stakes, and what such a route demands of them as a leader meeting those risks firsthand. Credible guides and teachers always teach self-reliance—that every climber is responsible for themselves and the choices they make. Climbing is voluntary. We freely choose to attempt a route or not. The fact that every route is not to our liking is nobody’s “fault,” and we can’t arbitrarily go changing things to meets our needs, tastes, or standards; the world doesn’t work like that. So we learn to make compromises, acknowledging one of the basic tenets of being a grown-up person: Nobody gets it all."
• "Here is where you run into the silly entitlement fluff from people who don’t have the psychological resources to shut up and climb a perilous challenge. Most of all, these people struggle being told—or facing a situation—where they have to climb boldly or they cannot play. In fact, the few routes that require something special from a leader have always been the talk of the town. Not every route is for everybody, nor should it be."

Paywalled but use a site like byebyepaywall to bypass it: https:/www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/retro-bolt-easy-moderate-rock-climbs-peter-croft-snake-dike-half-dome-debate

EDIT: Interestingly enough, the remaining first ascenonist Eric Beck said the following in March 2024 (read the very last sentence):

• "Snake Dike is an old route of mine, together with Jim Bridwell and Chris Fredericks. On the first ascent, we were continually expecting much harder climbing and were conserving our supply of 12 bolts as well as hoping to get down in a day. We left the route with single belay bolts and two protection bolts. We realized that this was totally inappropriate for a moderate route, which we could already see would be popular as it was so pretty.

  [Steve] Roper did the second ascent. We implored him to add more bolts, which he did, admirably. He doubled all the belay bolts and added a protection bolt on the runout pitches. He also got down in a day. I asked other parties to add more bolts. I even put in a plug for this when I was speaking at Oakdale a few years ago. Ideally, I would like to see five protection bolts where it is run out. This is similar to the routes on Dozier Dome in Tuolumne.

   Roper once asked, “Is every climb for everybody?” It may look like I want to defang the Snake Dike and bring it down to the lowest common denominator, but the Snake Dike is not a test piece. It has no fangs. It is a lovely route on one of the great monoliths of our planet. Had we had more time and more bolts, we would have done it ourselves [during the first ascent.] 

  There is a tradition with which I concur that the first ascent party should be the arbiter of style on a climb. Bridwell is gone and Chris has vanished from the climbing scene. So I am once again asking the climbing community add some more bolts to the Snake Dike."

  Source: https://www.climbing.com/news/snake-dike-half-dome-yosemite-add-bolts/

Cosmic Hotdogwrote:

I definitely do not think it's ok to add bolts to a route like this and I think John Long said it perfectly in two separate quotes from the article I linked below:

• "If a route involves considerable risk and risk-management skills, it’s the climber’s responsibility to understand the stakes, and what such a route demands of them as a leader meeting those risks firsthand. Credible guides and teachers always teach self-reliance—that every climber is responsible for themselves and the choices they make. Climbing is voluntary. We freely choose to attempt a route or not. The fact that every route is not to our liking is nobody’s “fault,” and we can’t arbitrarily go changing things to meets our needs, tastes, or standards; the world doesn’t work like that. So we learn to make compromises, acknowledging one of the basic tenets of being a grown-up person: Nobody gets it all."
• "Here is where you run into the silly entitlement fluff from people who don’t have the psychological resources to shut up and climb a perilous challenge. Most of all, these people struggle being told—or facing a situation—where they have to climb boldly or they cannot play. In fact, the few routes that require something special from a leader have always been the talk of the town. Not every route is for everybody, nor should it be."

Paywalled but use a site like byebyepaywall to bypass it: https:/www.climbing.com/culture-climbing/retro-bolt-easy-moderate-rock-climbs-peter-croft-snake-dike-half-dome-debate

I am not into the lore of the Snake Dike, but IIRC John Long was not the FA?

Here is what the FA said about SD in the linked article right above yours:

Snake Dike is an old route of mine, together with Jim Bridwell and Chris Fredericks. On the first ascent, we were continually expecting much harder climbing and were conserving our supply of 12 bolts as well as hoping to get down in a day. We left the route with single belay bolts and two protection bolts. We realized that this was totally inappropriate for a moderate route, which we could already see would be popular as it was so pretty.

[Steve] Roper did the second ascent. We implored him to add more bolts, which he did, admirably. He doubled all the belay bolts and added a protection bolt on the runout pitches. He also got down in a day.

I asked other parties to add more bolts. I even put in a plug for this when I was speaking at Oakdale a few years ago. Ideally, I would like to see five protection bolts where it is run out. This is similar to the routes on Dozier Dome in Tuolumne.

Roper once asked, “Is every climb for everybody?” It may look like I want to defang the Snake Dike and bring it down to the lowest common denominator, but the Snake Dike is not a test piece. It has no fangs. It is a lovely route on one of the great monoliths of our planet. Had we had more time and more bolts, we would have done it ourselves [during the first ascent.]

There is a tradition with which I concur that the first ascent party should be the arbiter of style on a climb. Bridwell is gone and Chris has vanished from the climbing scene. So I am once again asking the climbing community add some more bolts to the Snake Dike.

So, there you have it - FA says ADD MOOORE BOLTS!

Tanner Jameswrote:Rest of the pitches reportedly untouched. 

I bet you it’s only untouched because they haven’t gotten around to it yet. 

I've heard interviews with a fair number of notable first ascentonists where they seem to take a more muted approach as they get older.  Yaniro for example said something along the lines of:

• The first ascentionist already had their experience, in the way they wanted to have it, so whatever happens afterwards is irrelevant to their experience.
• They don't think by nature of being their first they have the right to lock up that piece of rock for all eternity based on their own desires at that time.  Subsequent bolts or changes don't alter the experience of the first ascentionist.  If you want to climb it in the same style you can.  If there are more bolts added, you don't have to clip them.
• The first ascentionist rarely if ever will be maintaining the bolts or the route in perpetuity so whatever people want to do afterwards is fine.
• This one I have heard numerous times in person "The route has x bolts because that is how many I had that day.  If I had more I would have placed more." OR "I was running out of time that day so ended up placing less bolts because hand drilling took forever" OR "Bolts cost money, and on that day I chose to eat instead of place more bolts"
• Some version of "I'd rather bolts be added and a route be climbed instead of left as a museum piece that no one does or does every thirty years because of the choices the first ascentionist made decades ago (and often has no recollection as to why they made those choices)"

I am somewhat torn on the issue.  My current goals in climbing have a lot more to do with volume than difficulty per se so a normal day at the crag for me is go to the wall and start on the left end and climb all the routes I can within my abilities.  That type of climbing leads me to experience a lot of cracked hangers, old bolts, rusted hardware, and otherwise forgotten gear that has never been thought of since the first ascent.  I don't know what service that provides the community; establishing routes in a style that means they are rarely repeated so the hardware never gets maintained and becomes unsafe and the route eventually becomes obscure and unclimbed.

Just some thoughts 

amariuswrote:

I am not into the lore of the Snake Dike, but IIRC John Long was not the FA?

Here is what the FA said about SD in the linked article right above yours:

So, there you have it - FA says ADD MOOORE BOLTS!

Correct yeah, John Long was not one of the FAs, but he's a legend in his own right (and very well may show up in this thread since he's on MP). 

I'm just saying I agree with John's perspective. The FAs were Eric Beck, Jim Bridwell, & Chris Fredericks

Ben Vwrote:

Dang someone should really reach out to the first ascensionist

Well there's what Eric Beck said:

Ideally, I would like to see five protection bolts where it is run out.

And then there's whatever the hell Tanner's photo is showing.

Ironically tightly bolting a 1st pitch is a great way to get people hurt who would have otherwise realized they're in over their head and bailed before it gets actually dangerous.

Since the FA has, apparently, always advocated for adding more bolts and would have done so if they had time, that should end the debate. Should others pay for the original “mistake”, or should we establish the original intent?  

Free hangers? Sick! Im running low

(If) The bolts are in. They should stay. Rather that than some jackass going up and scarring the rock over a bolt war, or under experienced parties getting over their heads when bolts they anticipate being there are gone. Too many bolt vigilantes though; these will inevitably be chopped

Someone get up there and chop that shit!

Perfect! Now I can have someone safely lead it for me and my 7 year old so we can jumar up!

They’re going to turn it into a via ferrata and sell tickets and photos of “climbers” on the route, like a ride at Disney.

Aaron Waitwrote:

Someone get up there and chop that shit!

If the first ascentionist placed the retrobolts himself (rather than just giving his blessing), would you still want them chopped?

Take 'em out!

Once again we have an opportunity to observe the irony/hypocrisy within us. We claim the FA establishes the ethics of a climb, but refuse to yield to their intention if we happen to enjoy the climb. It sounds like the FAs have asked for more bolts since the day after they established it, not something they changed their mind about decades later. That may be worth considering.

We love to talk about the mental fortitude climbing gives us, then may proceed to lose our mind at the existence/non-existence of a bolt/bolts. Perhaps we should ask ourselves what happened to the mental strength we thought we had cultivated. 

When something goes wrong or good pro becomes bad, we emphasize cultivating mental fortitude and an acceptance of the present reality, but if bad/no pro becomes good, we no longer value the mental fortitude needed to accept that present reality.

I think this is a wonderful chance for climbers to reflect on our own ego and see if one can accept a present reality that sits uncomfortably within us — regardless of the preference our egos have chosen.

Change is difficult, let's see how we can handle it.

lame as fuck

chris hinsonwrote:

lame as fuck

What is lame as fuck? - are your talking about FAs opinion that extra bolts were needed since the party had no time to place bolts nor bolts to place?

A few thoughts:

About whether more bolting is planned - maybe not.  Most of the standard first pitch of Snake Dike is off to the right of this new line of bolts.  Presumably, the way of the standard first pitch has Not been bolted.  So the bolter may have felt like they could get away with this bolted line since the standard way is untouched (?).

Before these bolts, this way was promoted by Erik Sloan in his guidebook (2020 copyright) as the "best start".  I've led it sans bolts.  By a long shot, that was the spiciest part of the route as we did it that day and would Not call it the "best start" for someone leading at the grade.  Maybe bolting the line cements this way as the "best start" for the masses.  Or maybe bolting this line was  motivated by a guide not wanting to stress clients over a possible pendulum fall the standard way.  In any case, there is reason to believe this is all the bolter plans to do.  We don't know.

My intent above is not to justify the bolts.  My vote is to remove them and patch the holes.  They change the character of the overall route and implicitly open the door to anyone else bolting higher up on Snake Dike.  The ASCA's guidelines - if that matters here - are to get general agreement by the local climbing community for which no attempt was made apparently.  

About the FA-ists opinion - Roper did retro-bolt Snake Dike after an FA advocated for adding more bolts. And then it has been climbed for decades with rave reviews - see MP quality ratings.  Did Beck climb it again after Roper's retro-bolt, afterwards judging that even more bolts were needed? Or was Beck just emotionally reacting to that terrible life-changing accident a few years ago when a leader got off route on a pitch higher up. I don't know.

I suggest trusting Roper's judgment.  More generally, I advocate that the weight of an FA-ist's opinion should fade over time - decades in this case - for frequently climbed classic routes like this.

I’m trying to think of a more expensive and embarrassing way to waste your own time as a rock climber than retroing a fucking 5.7 FA’d 60 years ago. Shameful