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

Yo Gang! .....lol sorry for the slow post my son's bday is at the end of the week so I"ve been busy.

At long last Half Dome's iconic Snake Dike route is being retrobolted. Woohooo! I"ve done the first three pitches - but that still leaves a lot to do!

I will post an updated topo of the route here and on the route's page in the next few days. What a great route I"m so excited to see this become a modern classic - and for all the whiners worried that there are not enough runnout slab pitches left in Yosemite don't worry - there are still plenty!

If you want to contribute monetarily you can paypal me at 

erik@yosemitebigwall.com

or Venmo

erik-sloan

If you want to get involved with the retrobolting efforts please email me erik@yosemitebigwall.com

Best, Erik

Rockclimbingyosemite.com

Are you bolting this for your soulmate Joe Evermore?

will you be asking for enough donations to fund the bolting forever wars that will ensue?

inb4 page 2

is this a bit 

Reach out to Steve Hoffman

I climbed this on Wed of this week - imagine my surprise when I arrived at the base to see way more bolts than were described on the beta I gathered two weeks before the climb. While it would be nice to get rid of the spinners on the upper pitches, I can't help but think it was pretty good as it is?

The main issue seems to be people not going around far enough on the traverse and instead trying to traverse too early looking for a bolt that doesn't exist on P2/3. 

FWIW, there were FOUR new bolts between the alt start and first ledge (on the left, where you would otherwise get your first cam in. Bolts were about 8 ft apart from what I recall. 

—DELETED—

(It is difficult to find a civil way to ask Erik to stop given the objections already raised in the “Half Dome has fallen” thread followed by Erik ignoring them here; it seems a classic route will soon become festooned with smashed bolts)

I don't like the idea of a guidebook author promoting adding bolts to a 60 year old established classic, and collecting money to supposedly fund it (when in fact bolts are cheap - FA people place them all the time and are not paid).  We know you will practically do anything for money, like pull YC bolts off of climbs and sell them.

In the original thread, people already organizing to chop the newly added bolts.

Even though Eric Beck has recently stated he is in favor of adding a specific small number of bolts, I personally do not think even that should be done.  There is too much shared experience in the 60 years people have been climbing this route to allow the FA party to make decisions like this.  It's way too late for that.

Clint Cumminswrote:

I don't like the idea of a guidebook author promoting adding bolts to a 60 year old established classic, and collecting money to supposedly fund it (when in fact bolts are cheap - FA people place them all the time and are not paid).  We know you will practically do anything for money, like pull YC bolts off of climbs and sell them.

In the original thread, people already organizing to chop the newly added bolts.

Even though Eric Beck has recently stated he is in favor of adding a specific small number of bolts, I personally do not think even that should be done.  There is too much shared experience in the 60 years people have been climbing this route to allow the FA party to make decisions like this.  It's way too late for that.

Don’t forget that erik sloan evermore is also one of the founder’s of ASCA. 

Daniel Shivelywrote:

> Don’t forget that erik sloan evermore is also one of the founder’s of ASCA. 

Don't forget that Erik Sloan was kicked out of ASCA, because he refused to stop using a power drill

Then they also had to drop by his place and retrieve their bolts, because he would not return them himself....

Matt Nelsonwrote:

.... While it would be nice to get rid of the spinners on the upper pitches, I can't help but think it was pretty good as it is?  ...

I agree with "pretty good as is".

I want to address the "spinners" concept though.

Usually when people mention a "spinner bolt", it indicates to me they think the bolt is bad.  Almost always this is wrong.

Way back in the 1960 and early 1970s, with 1/4" bolts typically placed from stances, sometimes a FA person would drill the hole too shallow, maybe because they were leading a slab and their feet were killing them?

When the hole is too shallow, then a typical button head 1/4" bolt stops short and does not hold the hanger down tight.  People carried hammers then (before nuts in mid-70s and cams in mid-80s), and some people would pull out their hammer and try to hammer the bolt in further.  This would weaken the bolt to some extent.

With modern 3/8" bolts, a "spinner" almost always means you just tighten the hex bolt or nut and it no longer spins.  It was never weak.  They tend to get loosened when at a belay and they are weighted at different angles.  If you carry a little wrench, you can easily do this tightening if it bothers you.

Clint Cumminswrote:

Daniel Shivelywrote:

> Don’t forget that erik sloan evermore is also one of the founder’s of ASCA. 

Don't forget that Erik Sloan was kicked out of ASCA, because he refused to stop using a power drill

Then they also had to drop by his place and retrieve their bolts, because he would not return them himself....

Thanks for the info Clint. I was not aware of that bit of additional grifting by erik sloan evermore. 

My apologies to ASCA for re-connecting a known shyster to your fine organization. Good call with the curb kicking. 

*tired sighing noises*

I thought every time this conversation came up everyone agreed after 12 pages of discussion that we should just put up a new sport route a few hundred feet to the side of Snake Dike. 

What happened to that idea? 

To be clear I'm not opposed to retrobolting Snake Dike per se, but if this were to be done shouldn't it be done in the vision of the FA? I may be misremembering but he said he wanted 4-ish bolts a pitch to be roughly equivalent to other runout valley and Tuolumne climbs, no? It seems very odd to me given one of the FA's repeated insistence on retrobolting it in a certain way to then retrobolt it in a way that the FA did not call for. 

Like, what's the purpose of this? If our rogue retrobolter was honoring Beck's wishes I would respect this to a certain degree, but even that isn't happening. 

Oi vey. 

Every FUCKING new bolt on this route will be SMASHED (edit to CHOPPED)
1. This subject was already discussed and conclusive a few years ago that NO NEW BOLTs are NEEDED.
2. The route is already overcrowded.
3. The mental part of the route is one of the main important intrinsic factors.
4. The person who had the major fall was off route and new bolts would not have helped.
5. Additional bolts were already added long ago. "Steve Roper on the route's second ascent (and with the permission of the FA party), added a few bolts.
6. Only one of the FA climbers said he wanted more bolts.  The others said they did not want more.

tom donnellywrote:

Every FUCKING new bolt on this route will be SMASHED.

If you are going to chop bolts, do it right. Pull and patch, matching color and texture. If you can't patch a bolt hole to where it disappears to anyone who doesn't already know exactly where the bolt was, leave the chopping to someone qualified.

Alex Rwrote:

If you are going to chop bolts, do it right. Pull and patch, matching color and texture. If you can't patch a bolt hole to where it disappears to anyone who doesn't already know exactly where the bolt was, leave the chopping to someone qualified.

It is much harder to properly remove bolts than to place them.   If someone doesn't remove them properly, then  guess what:  the BULLSHIT bolts will be removed no matter what.   This is something for the Asshole Bolt Adder to think about.  The bolt adder is the one who needs to properly chop and patch his MISTAKES.   In the meantime, what size wrench is needed to acquire this new source of hangars?  

The already existing new thread from just Yesterday. Yet Sloane decided he needed to retro-thread this subject. https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/203118563/half-dome-has-fallen

The thread from 2023: https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/123362153/retro-bolt-snake-dike?page=13
one of the quotes from that thread:  "more bolts will mean more beginner climbers, which will mean more accidents. Pretty much the only thing that is keeping the throngs of recently gym-certified leaders off of Snake Dike is the reputation for run-outs"

If you actually care about the route, put in the effort to do things right.

Alex Rwrote:

If you are going to chop bolts, do it right. Pull and patch, matching color and texture. If you can't patch a bolt hole to where it disappears to anyone who doesn't already know exactly where the bolt was, leave the chopping to someone qualified.

Amen. If you're trying to make it better, please don't make it worse. 

This retro is unacceptable.  The route has probably had 20,000 ascents and multiple parties do it every day. 

(eats popcorn)