Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001

Replaced bolts on the Monolith yesterday with the help of Dave Buchanan (who 
helped and donated bolts for Mickey's Beach).  Also ran into John Steinmetz 
who drilled one of the holes and helped rig a rope.  Lots of people there 
yesterday (almost no one Monday).

We started off on Cantaloupe Death, which has super-hard rock.  Replaced all 
five bolts - they were Rawl red-sleeve expansion bolts.  I tried to pull the 
first bolt but it broke, and I ended up scarring the rock with the hammer.  
I also broke the claw on my claw hammer, so we decided not to try on the 
rest.  Turns out the holes were deep enough that after unscrewing the 
hanger, a couple taps of the hammer sent the bolt in flush with the wall.

Since the rock was very hard we drilled 3" holes and used the 3" titanium 
glue-ins.  Took a while to drill the holes even at 3".

Next was Feed the Beast.  The 4th bolt was very loose, shifting 2-3mm up and 
down from finger pressure.  Shitty rock, and the bolt, a very long Rawl 
6-piece (3/8 x 4" I think), shifted so much that the whole length of the 
hole was widened and compromised.  Drilled a new hole there, and I was in 3" 
in about the time it took to go in 1" on Cantaloupe Death, and 6" probably a 
bit faster than the 3" on Cantaloupe.  The 2nd (crux) bolt also shifted 
about 0.5-1mm in the hole, a very bad sign.  The 1st and 3rd appeared solid. 
  I decided that it just wasn't worth it trying to pull the bolts and that 
we were better off drilling new ones.  We started drilling and the first 2" 
or so of the rock on all the first 3 bolts was quite soft, drilling quickly. 
  Then we hit harder rock, but still not as hard as Cantaloupe (or Verdict). 
  So I decided that 6" was the way to go, and now all 4 of the Feed The 
Beast bolts are the huge glue-ins!

Done with that by 3, we replaced the first two on the Regular route (harder 
rock than Feed the Beast, but softer than Cantaloupe) and the one bolt on 
the slab on the 2nd pitch, all with the 3" titanium glue-ins.  The heads of 
the bolts look very different so it'll be obvious which are 3" and which are 
6".  I painted the 6" stainless steel heads tan before installation, while 
the titanium 3" ones are titanium colored which is very mellow and 
non-shiny.

I also unscrewed a Leeper hanger and the bolt from a huge old Rawl-drive to 
the right of the belay station for Feed the Beast/first pitch of Reg. Route, 
and I pulled a very rusty but surprisingly strong 1/4" thread-head bolt with 
Leeper on the wall between the direct start of Cantaloupe and Feed the 
Beast.

Some of the holes on Feed the Beast still need to be patched; we needed the 
bolts to keep us in to put in the glue-ins, but since you have to be very 
careful not to touch the glue-ins while setting, couldn't hang out after 
unscrewing the old bolts to patch the holes.

In any case, now Feed the Beast has the best bolts at Pinnacles, and 
Cantaloupe Death, Regular Route, and the middle of Verdict are bomber!

We've been talking with the guys at Ushba and they may start making a 100mm 
bolt (4"), which would likely be the standard bolt for replacement at 
Pinnacles on most routes.  The 6" for really bad rock or super-popular 
hangdogging bolts on less than very hard rock, and the 3" for normal bolts 
on hard rock.

Greg Barnes