[Hide Comment] As I remember it the first couple bolts are a lot of fun and require a good bit of balance as you smear up the seam. The climb gets its rating fromt he crux moves at the white headwall above the seam. It it easier the taller you are but there are good spots to rest in before and after the crux that helped me a lot. From the bolt above the crux traverse up and left to get to the anchors. The traverse presents a minor penduluming danger but thankfully has fairly good footing to the ledge with the anchors. Nov 26, 2001

[Hide Comment] Some key beta for this one: First of all, Mighty Thor takes every inch of a 60m rope to TR. 2 - For some reason, I seem to remember that you need 14 quicks/slings to lead it, although I've only TR'ed it, so I'm not sure. 3 - If you're 8' tall, you should be all over this route. That crux move is an off-balance, reachy son of a... Apr 26, 2002

[Hide Comment] It might be as much as 14 QDs. Half the fun of this great route is dealing with rope drag and avoiding Z-clips through and above the crux section. Not that I minded the extra pro ... Jun 2, 2002

[Hide Comment] I think I counted you using thirteen draws on this route, Darin. It definitely behooves the leader to NOT clean the last three draws or so of this route, as a fall at the crux implicates a pretty good-sized pendulum (translation: the second would have a devil of a time getting back on route).

The crux move is in the middle of a fantastic sequence, when the main headwall begins to loom menacingly over the intrepid climber. You're gonna explore the limits of Stealth rubber on this one! Jun 5, 2002

[Hide Comment] Explore them I did as I took a pretty major whipper whilst attempting to clip the second bolt. It actually wasn't the stealth, however, instead my flight having its beginnings in the left hand that popped off of a pinch. A bad fall it was, too, for as I put my hand out in front of me the rope found itself wedged between it and the rock and glided along my palm giving me an unforgetable burn. Ouch! This route is amazing and tricky. I also love that old Garden drilled angle for pro thing. You'd think people would wise up and stop climbing in the Garden, eh? Not bloody likely! Jul 17, 2003

[Hide Comment] The scariest part about this climb is the heinous american triangle for the anchors. I say that whoever wants to climb it cut off the frayed cable and bring a couple pieces of webbing with them and rig the anchors correctly. The frayed cable is destroying the piece of webbing on there and would destroy any other webbing someone might put on it too. Aug 7, 2003

[Hide Comment] Cable anchors are in bad shape; one of the cable threads has snapped, and the remaining two or three aren't far behind. Also, the cable is placed in the "triangle of death" fashion. I left a short blue 1" sling equalized through 2 of the 3 pins, that being all I had at the time. Be cafeful.... Sep 5, 2003

[Hide Comment] Most of those cable anchors seem to be placed as triangles. Sep 6, 2003

[Hide Comment] Noticed about 4 of the pins were bent. I'm 6'2 and had enough wingspan to reach the bucket semi gracefully. I feel sorry for shorter climbers on this one. The cable anchor has been backed up by webbing and is safe. May 28, 2004

[Hide Comment] Mighty Thor has new anchors! Stewart Green and Brian Shelton replaced the old pitons (including some stamped 1952) with three 5-inch-long stainless steel sleeve bolts with stainless steel descending rings. Many thanks to Climbing Magazine and Petzl for donating the new anchors. The old ones were definitely a hazard with a frayed cable and brittle webbing. Jun 8, 2005

[Hide Comment] Thanks, guys! That frayed cable/random sling/old piton set up *may* have been safe, but it never looked it. Jun 9, 2005

[Hide Comment] There's a bail quickdraw up on this route as of today. FYI. Mar 29, 2008

[Hide Comment] I hate to say it but I busted a hold off the start of Mighty Thor. Somewhere around the 25 ft mark there is now a gaping flat spot where a beautiful blocky chunk used to be. It was a great hold for your left hand, but when I got my foot up on it it busted, depositing me into the arms of my belayer. Apr 14, 2008

[Hide Comment] If you plan to send bring 14 + draws and maybe a #3 TCU for the start. Don't forget your other rope, well protected crux, awesome. Aug 5, 2008

[Hide Comment] This is a fun and well-protected route (after reaching the first pin of course). If you don't have 14 draws, there are several spots where you can securely back-clean your last clip. Oct 2, 2008

[Hide Comment] Loved the route, I took my very first lead fall here. Once you pass the crux you have a beautiful, sidewalk-sized ledge to roll on to but with fiew handholds to get there.... The bomer took me 25-30 feet past the crux with a single four letter word echoing down to the Sunday morning tourists "I apologize". I do not recomend top roping Thor, the rope pulls you off to the right and away from the holds. Mar 5, 2009

[Hide Comment] Cool climb! Harder for shorter people for sure. I'm 5'8" and it involved some trickery to get to the jug, while my partner who was a little above 6' cruised it. Forget the cams. there are plenty of bolts. Too many perhaps. May 12, 2009

[Hide Comment] Top-roping can be done easily by redirecting the rope through a quickdraw clipped to a fixed pin above the crux move. Aug 15, 2010

[Hide Comment] Crux move looks worse than it is. I slipped while hanging off my right hand on the ledge jug only to realize that if you move your hand 6 inches right it is bomber. Safe clean fall if you miss it. Aug 30, 2010

[Hide Comment] Climbed this morning. Onsighted the route but was super gripped by the rusty pitons. There are a lot of them, but their condition is iffy. There are so many that I probably would have only clipped every other one if I trusted them, but I wanted the redundancy for sure. The anchor is pretty fresh looking stainless steel w/ good looking rap rings. The bolt on the left is a bit spinny and could use tightening if anyone has the tools feels inclined. Jun 14, 2017

[Hide Comment] The route was really my idea, & I did most of the drilling. I was 20 years old at the time & was climbing numerous 5.11s that summer. Still, establishing Mighty Thor was a very memorable & challenging first ascent. The route was established ground up. I recruited two visiting climbers, Murray Judge from New Zealand & Gugi Rygelis from New York, that were staying with me at my folks' house. We were later joined by my old friend & local Garden master, Bob Robertson. The lower half of the climb was drilled from free stances. The upper part of climb required aid to place the drilled pitons & clean loose rock. With the rock too fragile to trust hooks, we resorted to drilling a bolt (pin) ladder. Once the protection was installed, I led the route free. It soon became a classic.

What I realized after drilling at least 6 pins from aid is that bolting on rappel after top-roping is a better solution. Equipping routes on rappel allows for bolts to be minimized & placed in the best location. Cleaning loose rock on rappel is much safer, too. In 1979, climbing ethics are not what they are today, & bolting ground up was the accepted style. That soon changed in the Garden in the 1980s. Today, rap bolting is no longer controversial, as it was back then. In most areas, it's the accepted style.

That said, drilling the lower half of the climb from free stances provided a great deal of excitement & adventure. The route was established in the style of the 1970s. The first ascent of Mighty Thor was a great time shared with good friends from close by & far away.

I am glad that the original protection has been replaced with bomber bolts. I look forward to repeating it someday. I repeated the route dozens of times between 1979 & 1992. I don't think I've been back since then. Dec 30, 2018

[Hide Comment] Fun route, but when you are cleaning the route, you should use a carabiner on the last or second to last piton for redirecting so you are not swinging all around. If you don't, it gets a little sketchy. Jan 6, 2019

[Hide Comment] I love this route! Definitely one of my favorites in the Garden. Enjoyable, balancy climbing up to the headwall. The crux is a sequence of moves on the headwall face that goes to the left before coming back to the right. It is a crappy toprope though because the rope pulls you away from the crux holds. If you do toprope it, I recommend trying to redirect the rope on a draw near the base of the headwall. Then make sure you clean all of the draws on the way up. If you leave draws on the bottom portion of the climb, it will be hard to get back over to when you rap down. Jul 8, 2019

[Hide Comment] Bit of a sand-fest going up. Spent time brushing / blowing sand out of holds so that I could grip them / stand on them. Watch the hand holds when you stand up to the catwalk over to anchors; I pulled a large rock and fell. Standing anchor station, hard to belay on TR without significant swing / pull (although not unsafe). Found amount of bolts near crux move to be overkill. Dec 9, 2019

[Hide Comment] Loved this climb. Thought the crux sequence was beautiful with cool reaching moves and solid protection. Only complaint is the difficulty of cleaning it after a lead. Would be better to have a second come up and follow it... Great climb though with solid holds for the garden. May 12, 2020

[Hide Comment] A friend and I did this route for the first time today. Both of us are pretty short (5'8"), and neither of us thought that the crux was at the top - it was between the 2nd and 3rd pitons, where it's pretty obvious that some small foot placements have broken off. The top remains a total choss-fest, so be careful. Jul 22, 2021