Well, I went left around the roof, and from above, I could see that it turned out that the FA team went right. Not to worry, though, they ended up moving mostly up after than, and I was able to connect back up with “them” and get back “on route.” What a joke… this thing has turned into nothing but a line of holes! These guys just drilled hole after hole into blank rock and then pounded big blobs of aluminum (bashies) into them. So, it’s jut a bashie ladder, except that they jerked most of the bashies out, leaving blown-out, worthless holes. I don’t have these euro-only bashies, and I’d have to redrill the holes even if I did. And they drilled then about every 18 inches, which is ludicrous! I’m getting more than five feet between my rivets! Yes, I’m just drilling rivets alongside the holes to create a repeatable route. Their line of holes is useless, and the mud flows are already obscuring them.
Within a few years, the mud will have covered their holes, and my rivet ladder will be sustainable and repeatable.
The problem is that I simply don’t have time or motivation to drill a rivet ladder for 1000 feet! And I don’t even have that many rivets! So, the whole route is turning into a joke! These goofballs didn’t know ANYTHING about how to do a first ascent.
Basically this route was supposed to be the hardest technical rock climb in the world. It was put up by two Spanish guys with little US climbing experience. They should have had MORE! In short, this route is NOTHING like it was hyped to be. It is MUCH easier, from a technical and difficulty point of view, than they claimed. However, it is MUCH more time-consuming and tedious than it should be, because these goofballs really botched the route, so making it into something repeatable is a very frustrating project.
So, long and short is that I’m in far less danger than I expected to be in, but I’m also doing FAR more grunt-work than I expected to. I mean, they named the climb: “Look Out! Danger!” But instead of being dangerous, it’s just difficult to follow because of the tactics they used. The whole thing turns out to be nothing but an over-hyped ego-pump for the first ascent team’s climbing career.
I don’t know if I’m going to finish the route. I’ll go up another couple of hundred feet and then decide. But the tactics I’m having to use are entirely unappealing from a climbing perspective. It’s basically just a hole ladder! If it continues as it has been so far, it’s just not worth repeating. So, the route can just go down as a historical footnote of what not to do on the first ascent. LOL. But, I’ll see if there’s anything worthwhile higher up. Perhaps some genuinely featured climbing will turn up. But if it turns out to be primarily a hole ladder, that’s a complete waste of time for me and ANY second ascent team. In that case, the route will not even be worth “fixing” to make it sustainable. So, the mud can just flow over and obscure it, but the truth about the supposedly “world’s hardest aid climb” will be known, nevertheless.