etrier wrote:
Mule Hollow Wall
Approach: About 100 feet left of Jam Crack
3D Double Cross
F.A: 6.23.05, Kris Pietryga and James Garrett
Protection: QDs and small selection camalots
Pitch #1: Start in a clearing at one of the bigger sections of the wall. Climb pockets and edges past 4 bolts to a two bolt belay. 5.7, 30m.
Pitch #2: Continue straight up passing three bolts to a ledge and two bolt belay. Cool sculpted rock and pockets. 5.6, 30m.
Pitch #3: Aim for the left edge of a bushy ledge passing 2 bolts on the way. 5.5, 30m.
Pitch #4: The face becomes quite broken. Many protection options exist, but you may find one bolt protecting this pitch. 5.4, 30m.
Pitch #5: Romp up the final 20m to the top of the wall, no bolts, but two-bolt belay. 5.3, 20m
Rappel the route
We climbed this yesterday...some notes:
P1: five lead bolts. Second bolt probably should be moved. Its in kind of a depression, and, puts a bad load on the biner. Also, for consistency, I thought another bolt past the 5th might be better (as you have the first bolt, then some bomber trad pro for a couple of placements, then a tight string of 4 bolts in a row, then 15 or so feet of blank face runout that seems out of character with the 4 bolt string).
P2: Only saw 1 bolt. 5.5?
P3: Got the 2 bolts, but, on rappel, we came up 10 feet short of the p2 anchor. I guess I should remeasure my rope...? Anyhoo, I'd call this 33 meters...and folks should think about using a 70m rope for this route, perhaps (that is, if they decide to rappel the route, after doing so, standard descent might be quicker).
P4: found the 1 bolt. Might be 5.5.
P5: I'd probably call this 5.5 or 5.6ish.
All in all, good route. Some of the bolts seem a tad out of place for the natural line (ie, first bolt is too far left, then the others are too far right) if you try to follow the local weaknesses, but, not so much as to be annoying.
I do think, ahem, that you may have bolted a line that had been climbed before. Seems very close to "the central face" at 5.6R. But, you can almost climb anywhere on the face. Ton of gear possibilites too, most within a few feet of them bolts...
Be nice to replace the 8mm trail line with chain at the anchors. Also, them cheap ass chain links are kinda bad. Low grade, and, thin. Not bomber. Also, plucked the SMC hex, as, it was pretty loose and them bolts are bomber.
For gear, we used a set of stoppers and cams from 0 TCU through #2 camalot which seemed plentiful.
Cheers!