Brown Smoothies
5.11c YDS 6c+ French 24 Ewbanks VIII- UIAA 24 ZA E4 6a British
Type: | TR |
FA: | Tim Medina, 1990 |
Page Views: | 735 total · 8/month |
Shared By: | J Rees on Aug 26, 2010 |
Admins: | andy patterson, M. Morley, Adam Stackhouse, Salamanizer suchoski, Justin Johnsen, Vicki Schwantes |
Description
On south side of formation, right under the anchors. This route would have rated higher if it wasn't for the poison oak all over my face afterward. Watch your rope!
Update 2017: There is no poison oak at the base of the climb. There are a few instances of poison oak on the approach trail and the trail that runs (climber's right) up to the top of the El Dorado formation, but it is avoidable if you cautiously look for it.
Update 2017: There is no poison oak at the base of the climb. There are a few instances of poison oak on the approach trail and the trail that runs (climber's right) up to the top of the El Dorado formation, but it is avoidable if you cautiously look for it.
Protection
The route is top-ropeable from a new anchor on top of the formation (installed summer 2015) that has chains and rings, but requires very long slings (≈12' each) or a static line (≈30' long) to reach over the lip. The climb now has 5 lead bolts and requires topping-out the formation to lower or walk off. Bolts are Fixe Triplex (75 mm length). The old anchor is still intact but is very rusty and not recommended.
John Sep 14, 2010
Atascadero, CA
youtu.be/egTlSc7Ziyk Dec 22, 2015
Atascadero, CA
Atascadero, CA
Congratulations on the redpoint! That could be the first redpoint this route has seen.
I'm sorry to hear you had a near miss with the bolt hanger on Brown Smoothies. I've noticed the lowest bolt hanger on Olas Negras and the highest bolt hanger on Brown Smoothies becoming loose before, but never coming completely off. I think it is due to the overhanging and traversing nature of these routes (Olas Negras & Brown Smoothies' share two bolts: bolts 3 & 4 of Brown Smoothies are bolts 5 & 6 of Olas Negras). Overhangs and traverses cause quickdraws to pull on bolt hangers in directions other than the direction of a fall, and typically, bolt hangers are positioned accounting for the direction of a fall. The variable directions of loading can cause the hangers to turn, loosening over time. This is very common on the first bolts of steeply overhanging climbs. The nuts securing the hangers were treated with Loctite Threadlocker Blue 242 to hopefully prevent them from loosening, but it seems to not be a strong enough adhesive. I think stepping it up to a stronger adhesive like Loctite Threadlocker Red 271 is a logical choice and hopefully will keep the nuts from coming loose in the future. These routes are good candidates for glue-in bolts since glue-ins don't have removable hangers; replacing the Fixe Triplex with some glue-ins would be an effective solution if upgrading the thread-locker proves insufficient.
The nuts are 12 mm internal diameter and are made of 304 stainless steel. If you replace the nut, please make sure to use 304 stainless steel to prevent galvanic corrosion due to mis-matched metals.
Let me know if you'd like to meet up to fix up the route sometime.
Regards, Aaron Nov 18, 2017