Half Dome's Snake Dike is being retrobolted - get involved!

"Hi, I'm new to climbing and frankly a little scared outside of the gym. Could you please bolt everything so that the sport is completely ruined but perfect for ME (right now) in case I someday want to travel across the country to the route? If I get bored with a ruined sport I'm sure Insta will tell me what to do."

Of 95% of those supporting illegally drilled bolts, not ONE person that supports the retro-bolting has said it was wrong to drill illegally, iirc.

Change my mind.

Adam Byra wrote:

They can’t skip bolts because if they fall and gets hurt on a trad route they were being heroic, but if they got hurt skipping bolts everyone would think they’re dumb. Some people just can’t climb 5.12 so they have to stick to their heroic 5.7 trad climbs. It’s why the Europeans were so much better climbers back in the 90s. If Yosemite was bolted everyone could get in 30 pitches every day AND climb as hard as the Europeans. 

The jig is up.
Adam Byra was a well rounded climber who has been a mtn Proj member for over 10 years. He liked sport and gear routes and liked to travel to climb. He was available to climb “anytime”, so he was probably a fabulously wealthy trust fund baby.

Then something changed. A few years ago he advertised here for a new climber roommate. Shortly after that something very odd happened. “Adam Byra” had a series of posts that sold all his trad gear.

It’s fairly obvious what happened. The new roommate was a young, psychopathic sport climber who murdered Adam Brya, sold all his gear and took over his MP identity. 

James Arnold wrote:

Two Years After Broken Back, Molly Mitchell Returns and Sends 

  A real trad climber would have snagged that booty.

phylp phylp wrote:

The jig is up.
Adam Byra was a well rounded climber who has been a mtn Proj member for over 10 years. He liked sport and gear routes and liked to travel to climb. He was available to climb “anytime”, so he was probably a fabulously wealthy trust fund baby.

Then something changed. A few years ago he advertised here for a new climber roommate. Shortly after that something very odd happened. “Adam Byra” had a series of posts that sold all his trad gear.

It’s fairly obvious what happened. The new roommate was a young, psychopathic sport climber who murdered Adam Brya, sold all his gear and took over his MP identity. 

At this point it’s the only reasonable explanation. Though it’s still weird that someone who hates trad so much is bothering to comment so much… 

phylp phylp wrote:

The jig is up.
Adam Byra was a well rounded climber who has been a mtn Proj member for over 10 years. He liked sport and gear routes and liked to travel to climb. He was available to climb “anytime”, so he was probably a fabulously wealthy trust fund baby.

Then something changed. A few years ago he advertised here for a new climber roommate. Shortly after that something very odd happened. “Adam Byra” had a series of posts that sold all his trad gear.

It’s fairly obvious what happened. The new roommate was a young, psychopathic sport climber who murdered Adam Brya, sold all his gear and took over his MP identity. 

Holy, holy wow.

How completely, utterly clueless does someone have to be to trigger a sarcastic (but clever) response from phylp phylp?

Brad Young wrote:

Holy, holy wow.

How completely, utterly clueless does someone have to be to trigger a sarcastic (but clever) response from phylp phylp?

I made my post to amuse myself and others (while sitting in a doctors waiting room). I hope I amuse Adam as well, who seems to be amusing himself greatly by winding up so many people. 

Adam, happy to climb with you any time you get out my way. I’ve already done most of the routes on your CA and NV todo list but I wouldn’t mind repeating them. We won’t be doing Snake Dike because I’m too old to do such a long hike for a rock climb. 

Yeah let’s go climbing! I sold my old stuff to buy new lighter cams. But, if I could sell those and climb my fav climbs with draws I would. I hate having to worry about people busting into my car. I hate dragging up the weight. Crack climbing with gear is annoying, with your feet always pinching the rope, and cam placements blocking jams. Anyone who has climbed a bolted crack will tell you it’s a better experience. I didn’t start sport climbing till late in my career (coming from gunks) and was like wow, sport climbing is way less of a pain, the company is better (people don’t take themselves as seriously), and I can get way more pitches in every day. I really do hope trad gear goes the way of horse and buggy.

Edit: I guess trad in remote alpine areas is still kinda cool. 

Adam Byra wrote:

Yeah let’s go climbing! I sold my old stuff to buy new lighter cams. But, if I could sell those and climb my fav climbs with draws I would. I hate having to worry about people busting into my car. I hate dragging up the weight. Crack climbing with gear is annoying, with your feet always pinching the rope, and cam placements blocking jams. Anyone who has climbed a bolted crack will tell you it’s a better experience. I didn’t start sport climbing till late in my career (coming from gunks) and was like wow, sport climbing is way less of a pain, the company is better (people don’t take themselves as seriously), and I can get way more pitches in every day. I really do hope trad gear goes the way of horse and buggy.

Edit: I guess trad in remote alpine areas is still kinda cool. 

To quote Doc Holliday: 

“I think I hate him. No, I’m sure of it, I hate him.”

This is an all time loser take. You hate everything about trad; go be a sport climber then. Why the F would you want to make trad into sport? Just go do sport. Instead, you want the whole thing to cater to YOU. Unbelievable. 

And I’ve climbed bolted cracks and didn’t think they were better. Theory disproved.

Did Sloan come out with a topo yet cataloging his extra bolts? I wanted to compare it to the previous bolt count. 

I’m trying to be a sport climber but the other people have been complaining about the bolting that’s going on. 

I climbed Snake Dike (and Royal Arches!) over my weekend. Sloan has shamelessly rap bolted a classic like a toddler with a marker, left alone in a museum. 

On the left variation first pitch, the first bolt he placed was a few feet from a cam. The next 4 were placed out of line and reach from the natural flow of the climbing. These were hastily chopped, and I opted to not try punching them in to patch, as I feared they would just mangle and mushroom. I was hoping by trying to rush up to be able to avoid this, and leave some of the new bolts to help discourage a bolt war. 

The first bolt (wedge) on P2 that was chopped has maybe just enough thread left to spin and pull. I think it should have been left. 

On the rest of P2 and 3, he randomly alternated between placing buttonheads, wedge, and sleeve bolts. What is even more frustrating is just how apparent his lack of thought into the placements was as I clipped. I recall clipping 4 new bolts on P2, and 8 on P3. 

I found a stud with bolt and no hanger, and a bolt with hanger and both P4, and again on P5. 

The way Sloan mindlessly threw bolts in is egregious and trashy. Providing G rated access to get commited on the (still) extremely runouts upper pitches was reckless, and bound to get someone killed. The evidence of his usage of power tools was left first by a sawzall all through the shortcut between Liberty Cap and Broderick, then with his bolting style to the top of P3. 

All that said, after reading through many of the discussions over the years and climbing the route, I don't think that holding onto ethics in a black and white way and running up there to remove all his bolts in the heat is the right response. Snake Dike is a very fine outing that was put up in haste, and guards access to the rest of the potential moderate terrain on that side of Half Dome. Considering this, and Beck's blessings for a retro, it's a real shame it wasn't given one with the taste and style the route deserves, and it really sucks the community was never able to find some middle ground before this happened.

Hopefully we can find a way to stop the in-fighting, keep the route from becoming a mangled mess, fix what Sloan has done to be in line with Beck's desires, and let it provide access to a more pedestrian "modern classic" that the community deserves.

Thanks for the report Russ.
Yes, it is unfortunate what has occurred.
I for one think a middle ground approach is acceptable, and have stated so previously. If this route is taken, it could be done in a reasonable way, maintaining some level of adventure. Like keeping the additions somewhat minimal.

Damn, sounds like those Bay Area gym bros kinda did a shoddy job on the (entirely justified) bolt removal... that sucks :( Thank you for your efforts Russ!

Hey Russ, would you post some photos of the protruding bolt studs?  This will help those with specialized tools better prepare their kit to cleanly remove and patch.

Looks like the time between retro bolting and the chopping was well within one month. Isn't it Sloan's pattern to just find a new retro project? Hopefully he will give up on Half Dome. Jesus, what a shit job. And who the hell places buttonheads anymore? 

Tim Stich wrote:

Looks like the time between retro bolting and the chopping was well within one month. Isn't it Sloan's pattern to just find a new retro project? Hopefully he will give up on Half Dome. Jesus, what a shit job. And who the hell places buttonheads anymore? 

It was on purpose. They are a PITA to remove.
He's just threw another layer of shit frosting on his fecal cake, cause why not just be even more of an asshole.

It’s called Yosemite national park, not boomer national park. People should be able to recreate how they want to. It’s everyone’s park. If someone wants to clip draws, it doesn’t stop other people from placing gear. Taking out the bolts that someone put it stops other people from enjoying the park the way they want to.

Adam Byra wrote:

It’s called Yosemite national park, not boomer national park. People should be able to recreate how they want to. It’s everyone’s park. If someone wants to clip draws, it doesn’t stop other people from placing gear. Taking out the bolts that someone put it stops other people from enjoying the park the way they want to.

What if someone's idea of recreating is hanging out removing bolts? 

Adam Byra wrote:

It’s called Yosemite national park, not boomer national park. People should be able to recreate how they want to. It’s everyone’s park. If someone wants to clip draws, it doesn’t stop other people from placing gear. Taking out the bolts that someone put it stops other people from enjoying the park the way they want to.

Maybe if you go back and reread* the entire thread you'll grasp some understanding of what the issue is on SD. 

*: assuming you bothered to read it at all.

NaCl - wrote:

What if someone's idea of recreating is hanging out removing bolts? 

I could totally see a boomer at boomer national park doing that.