Leave Less Trace - Lost Arrow Spire Rebolting Project

LEAVE LESS TRACE!  This is a story about how we can make less of an impact if we are going to make one.  When I first climbed the Lost Arrow Spire over a decade ago, I couldn’t believe how much garbage was on the top of the spire.  Old rusty bolts never removed, just bent over, and more bolts installed that rusted within 20 years.  Year after year when I climbed the spire, I always felt sketched out trying to rap off of it with just core shot tat tied directly to hangers.  There was nowhere to properly clip into and building 3 highline anchors up there was always one big compromise.  This is a jewel of Yosemite and an iconic piece of our highline community.  

What have we learned from BoltBusters? We have now tested over 300+ bolts and plan on doing many more, and we have learned HOW bolts break, that rock isn’t always bomber, and that, if your glue is mixed right, just about anything is super good enough.  We learned a Fixe bell shaped glue in bolt has a nice bend radius, big enough eye, and holds at least 45kn when installed with a quality epoxy.  Each bolt is a 7:1 safety ratio and two is redundant, 3 is overkill and 4 is ridiculous.  When space is limited like the tip of the spire, that is when “leaving less trace” is ideal.  

7 of us went up there with redundant tools of everything we could need and BY HAND we removed and patched over 30 bolts on the spire tip and the adjacent walls.  We chose a quality epoxy that blended with the rock and not just used the latest fad of RED hilti v3 500.  We patched the rock with different color epoxy putties and mixed it with gravel so it made the previous holes we didn’t reuse almost disappear.  We reused holes on far walls and all but two holes on the spire tip.  We installed only two bolts per highline.  That is only 6 bolts on the spire instead of the 20 (mostly useless) bolts that were up there before.  We wanted this to be an example of “leave less trace” as each anchor can be backed up to the other anchors if one felt so inclined and each rappel rope on far walls can back up those anchors as well.  All are strategically located to equalize well and to put the master points on the flattest edges possible so as people bounce around, it isn’t abrading by grinding down an angled edge.  We added chains and a rap rings with a triple value: (1) the tyrolleon is now much safer, (2) flipped over can be used to fix the line for the follower after climbing, and (3) a soft shackle can be put through two chains for the classic highline master point.  We made an effort to consider climbing and highline needs when installing these bolts.

I encourage others to rig all natural and not bolt if not necessary.  If one needs to bolt, use as few as possible, 3 at the most and ideally 2.  Use quality bolts (wave bolts are too skinny and zinc plated shit won't last) and use quality glue and consider the color compared with the rock.  Hand removing bolts and hand drilling is not that hard and is required in national parks and really helps keep the bolting to a minimum.  Plumber’s epoxy putty comes in many colors and patching, not just removing, really cleans up an area.  If you must leave a trace, leave less trace.  

Troll Patrol:

*We did replace deans bolt.  It was a rusty piece of shit that I plan on framing but don’t want to highline on anymore.  Sorry, not sorry.  We replaced it with a long ass fixe glue in and it is sexy.  You still need cams to rig the flake side of the classic LAS line.

*Glue in bolts are not impossible to replace but hard to replace.  However, they will not need to be replaced for the next 100 years unlike the crap that was put in 20 years ago.  It is not common to use glue ins in Yosemite but not banned.  Many climbers used AC100 and wave bolts in other areas and Dean and Jerry placed glue ins for their highlines many years ago.  I don’t think Yosemite climbs need glue ins but they are amazing for anchors, especially highline anchors.

*Glue in bolts are required in areas where hangers are stolen often.  The granite on LAS was less than ideal so if we used the BYOH (bring your own hanger) policy, then the wedge bolt would start to lose strength after a 100 different times of being tightened.  We didn’t even spin them to remove the bolts (usually required to not break the stud).  Glue in bolts are way safer on the spire because of the type of granite it is.

*FYI… stealing hangers does not clean the area up and makes the metal stud you do see useless if damaged.  It’s not helpful to beat one's chest in the name of fixing areas by vandalizing the bolts that we do have available to us and if ruined, more holes would have to be drilled to install new bolts.  #nothelpful

*Yes, the chains, when used for the Tyrolleon rappel, are pulling sideways on the bolts.  Pulling sideways in our BoltBuster tests on fixe glue ins with epoxy did not twist and break them, but laid them over sideways and broke at full strength, at a force impossible to achieve on a highline, climbing whipper, and especially a simple rappel.  Chains over that rough granite edge made me feel warm and fuzzy during my rappel compared to core shot 5mm tat and the oldest carabiner on the last person’s rack.

*All bolts were detailed with qtips and toothpicks and checked after they were cured with most of them highlined on before we left.  Bomber and beautiful!

*The 50m highline now has two SS wedge bolts to use to rappel down to the highline anchor just like the 35m and the 17m.  

*The 50m far wall bolts are still the original 4 fixe glue ins installed by those who established it.  They were installed well and even though 4 isn’t necessary, no one sees them so there was no reason to reduce them down to two.  

*Waterfalls were not banned because of bolting.  It was because a small % of visitors do not like seeing our floppy ribbon floating in their view of the falls and when we rig the same waterfall 30x in a single season it causes problems.  I think a permit system or a few open weeks a year would have been a better solution than a full closure of waterfalls, but that is not the case now and something we can work towards.

Thank you to an incredible team who put in a lot of work to make this happen.  @Bobby Hutton @Kyle Lovett @Alonso Rodriguez @Greg Kommel @Nick Day @Ryan McBurney

Liquid Roc 500 pictured?

shawn, how is he doing anything wrong by cleaning up and patching holes on 20 crap bolts replaceing them with a lesser number of bomber bolts? and who are you to be so much  better than the guy cleaning up the mess and fixing it? 

Shawn, could you please explain what you think was done wrong? Yelling at people with no logic attached makes you come off kinda crazy. I mean, ALL your post make you seem crazy but this one doesn’t make much sense. There are LESS bolts up there now, correct? 

Shawn Snyder wrote:

This message is to every climber that visits mountain project. I am done with all of you people screwing up our majestic areas with your bullshit bolting. If somebody doesn’t step up and get a hold of people like Ryan and stop the destruction he is doing I am personally going on a rampage and ripping out every bolt  I see at every crag I come to good or bad. We need to step up now and put a stop to these people. And if not I will start the war of removing bolts everywhere. Have a good day people. 

Hilarious. 

Someone needs their meds upped

Shawn Snyder wrote:

This message is to every climber that visits mountain project. I am done with all of you people screwing up our majestic areas with your bullshit bolting. If somebody doesn’t step up and get a hold of people like Ryan and stop the destruction he is doing I am personally going on a rampage and ripping out every bolt  I see at every crag I come to good or bad. We need to step up now and put a stop to these people. And if not I will start the war of removing bolts everywhere. Have a good day people. 

The world could do with fewer fanatics.

Shawn Snyder wrote:

You had no right to do what you did Ryan. You just Did the biggest disrespect you can ever do To Yosemite national park. We had an agreement you were not to touch lost Arrow spire. You do not have the skills to fix a majestic area like that. And your work you just did proves it. Those will all be ripped out by me. I would say peace but there is no peace between me and you. You just fucked up big time. 

We did not and do not have any agreements.  I do not consider your threats agreements.  If you damage bolts or remove them, then that area will have to be replaced or fixed or whatever leaving that area uglier and more dangerous, not cleaner and safer.

Hahahaha good ole shawn..... back on a highline FB page he'd say a bunch of crazy shit and leave threats all the time. Pretty entertaining. Pretty fucking crazy. 

Super clean Ryan! This is the kinda stuff that needs to be done everywhere that needs it. Bobby and you are much appreciated!

Excellent work Ryan and crew. Cleaning up old outdated hardware, providing safer and more efficient permanent protection is a noble contribution for the community. Financial support has been sent via Patreon. Keep it up.

You Rock!

Good work!

Shawn Snyder wrote:

You had no right to do what you did Ryan. You just Did the biggest disrespect you can ever do To Yosemite national park. We had an agreement you were not to touch lost Arrow spire. You do not have the skills to fix a majestic area like that. And your work you just did proves it. Those will all be ripped out by me. I would say peace but there is no peace between me and you. You just fucked up big time. 

If you remove all the bolts on the LA, how do you intend to get down?

Ryan Jenks wrote:

We did not and do not have any agreements.  I do not consider your threats agreements.  If you damage bolts or remove them, then that area will have to be replaced or fixed or whatever leaving that area uglier and more dangerous, not cleaner and safer.

..and more people like Ryan.

Yeah...Ryan...I’m loving what you and Bobby and everyone else are doing.   Less is best!   Shawn seems off his kilter or just an armchair troll...

I’m sending you funds as soon as I can!  Your work is very appreciated.   

Jon Hartmann wrote:

Shawn, could you please explain what you think was done wrong?  

This!  Shawn, help us see and understand what was done poorly here?

I genuinely thought that Shawns post was sarcastic until I scrolled down and saw the next comment removed...

Oh no, Shawn has a long long long history of stealing people’s project draws, fixed draws and apparently bikes as well. There’s a video on YouTube somewhere of local climbers confronting him in the parking lot and plenty of pictures of him aiding up sport routes in the early morning with a stick clip just to steal people’s draws so he could sell them. He’s completely unreasonable and I don’t know if the guy actually even climbs. Does anyone know if he even has the ability to drive to Yosemite and get on top of Lost Arrow Spire to remove the new bolts? I mean, it’s kinda hard to do a tyrolian traverse without a partner isn’t it?

Jon Hartmann wrote:

Oh no, Shawn has a long long long history of stealing people’s project draws, fixed draws and apparently bikes as well. There’s a video on YouTube somewhere of local climbers confronting him in the parking lot and plenty of pictures of him aiding up sport routes in the early morning with a stick clip just to steal people’s draws so he could sell them. He’s completely unreasonable and I don’t know if the guy actually even climbs. Does anyone know if he even has the ability to drive to Yosemite and get on top of Lost Arrow Spire to remove the new bolts? I mean, it’s kinda hard to do a tyrolian traverse without a partner isn’t it?

Curious on the link to this video if you can find it.

'John Rose wrote:

Curious on the link to this video if you can find it.

It looks like the vid was pretty well purged from the internet.  It was originally on Vimeo and was picked up by a couple of the online publications; they no longer have it either.  If you simply peruse his relatively short commenting history, you can see some of the antics that he was involved with.

Just Googling his name brings up other articles about him.

Here's one.

I already tried to dig it up but I couldn’t find it. If I remember correctly it wasn’t labeled in Vimeo very well. Like, Video 67533 or something. I think it’s gone unless the people who originally posted it would see this forum and send a link to us.