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96 Degrees

5.10d, Sport, 60 ft (18 m),  Avg: 1.2 from 6 votes
FA: Orlando Romero & Jeremy Aslaksen 6/10 - Anchors Vaino Kodas 3/10
New Mexico > Socorro Area > Box Climbing Areas > Northern Box areas > Filet de Papillon Wal…

Description

This new route climbs up the chossy looking wall before you arrive at Dirt wall. Most of the holds are pretty good and the cruxes are short, the difficulty comes in trusting that the holds won't break and your hands and feet won't slip off the dirty holds. Start up an easy ramp for several bolts to a trickier section on slightly better rock. Traverse slightly right to a good horizontal rest, then pull the steeper upper headwall using dubious and slightly scary holds.

Maybe closer to a bomb in quality, but might be decent with some more cleaning. The grade is my best guess.

Location

Along the left on the approach as you hike up the hill to dirt wall. About 3/4 of the way up the trail. Starts just off the trail.

Protection

9 Bolts to Anchors

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Pic of me climbing 96 Degrees on Christmas Eve 2018. Great climb; I loved it.
[Hide Photo] Pic of me climbing 96 Degrees on Christmas Eve 2018. Great climb; I loved it.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

[Hide Comment] This route is 96 Degrees, as in,” "It was 96 degrees in the shade. So hot in the shade." from the Third World song. It was bolted by myself (Orlando Romero) and Jeremy Aslaksen in record 104-degree temps during June '10. We climbed it on TR to clean it and figure out bolt placements, but since Jeremy was recovering from a busted foot and I was on the verge of heatstroke, we haven’t had a chance to redpoint it yet. So technically, someone else poached the FA (maybe DTP?).
On that note, when we rapped in we found an existing anchor, not visible from the ground, to climbers right of where we intended to put our anchor. It looked good, though probably at least a couple of years old and we pondered whether or not to bolt, but after the TR we saw no chalk or signs of cleaning so we went ahead and put it up. Apologies to anyone if WE poached your project, but it had been untouched for years and looked very much abandoned, and, as previously mentioned, we were on the verge of heatstroke.
We cleaned HUNDREDS of pounds of rock off this thing before we dropped the bolts in, and we both agreed that we thought it would be decent with more cleaning, traffic, etc. Having said that, yes, it’s still a bit loose and it will take some more effort to get out of the bomb bay, but it’s decently long and moderate and we thought it’d make a good addition to the Dirt Wall. But we’ll see. And at the last bolt, DO NOT WANDER right onto the hanging gargoyle; hard to tell how secure that thing is, but it's probably best not to find out…
We guessed about 10c/d; I think it’s harder than New Kids, but then again, I think New Kids is 10a/b and I’m short. And, of course, it may get harder if crux holds break (a real possibility). The 9 bolts are 3/8 X 3-inch Powers (black hangers) climbing to a 2BA with chains (difficult to see from the ground). The first bolt is under a bulge, so use a long draw to avoid trashing your rope (sorry ‘bout that – again, heatstroke). Mar 16, 2011
Shirtless Mike
Denver, CO
  5.10d
[Hide Comment] Thanks for the info guys. Vaino installed the anchor in 3/10 and we TR'd it a few times, but didn't clean it up. I imagine the little bit of chalk would have washed off by then. I believe Vaino was planning on coming back to do the cleaning and install the bolts at some point in the near future. Hopefully with enough traffic it will clean up and be a good climb. Mar 16, 2011
[Hide Comment] Three months? Damn, those bolts didn't look that new and seeing that they were two different kinds of bolts, we thought for sure that it was someone's step-child project, at best. Sorry, Vaino, if we stole your line.
Might be a good idea to get Vaino's name into the FA. Just a thought. Mar 17, 2011