On Saturday, Dennis Erik Strom and I did a few High Peaks routes at the
Pinnacles.  We originally planned to help work on the Machete Ridge trail,
but that project was cancelled (for Saturday, but not Sunday) at the last
minute.  Forced to climb!  Our project "If We Bolt It, They Will Come"
looked wet in the binos, so we headed up the High Peaks trail, with a guy
named Greg who had also driven down to work on the trail.

First item on the agenda was the FFA of The Wedge, a 40' trailside pinnacle
that overhangs on all sides.  I aided up the scary rusty bolts and spent
about an hour cleaning off some big loose flakes and most of the large holds.
Dennis was able to TR it at 5.9 without falling (although a foothold which
collapsed kept us in suspense).  We declined to bolt it, given the questionable
rock quality.  Greg and I declined to TR, preferring to move along to the
next project.

The FFA of Pluvius Pinnacle was our next goal.  This is an outrigger to
Burgundy Dome which looks really cool from some perspectives, and looks
very minor from others.  The high quality pockets on the Burgundy Dome routes
had our hopes high that Pluvius would also have great rock, and we saw a few
good pockets using the binos.  The first (and only?) ascent had been done
with a rope toss and prusiks some years ago.  I first attempted a direct
lead of the outside arete.  I was stopped fairly low by a move around a
corner with some questionable rock.  Not wanting to commit to bolting this
low, I backed off.  Dennis tried a chute further right, but again, a bolt was
required low.  So we just did the "Rappel Route" 5.7 *** on Burgundy and
rappelled to the notch where Pluvius rose up its final 15-20'.  Unfortunately,
it looked quite loose and we didn't feel the 2+ bolts would be justified for
just an FFA that wouldn't be worth repeating.  So Dennis and I soloed back up
the 5.7 route again (superb incut pockets), and Dennis and Greg TRed Vin
Ordinaire 5.9 **/*** (more great pockets).  One of the very few routes that
I'm willing to solo in the Pinnacles.

To milk the day of its remaining climbable daylight, Dennis led The Monga
Bonna Memorial Route 5.10a * on the North Finger.  Greg and I tried to simul-
following in the rapidly fading light, but it quickly became too dark, so
Greg downclimbed and untied, and I managed to follow via a lot of Braille
technique.  I thought it was more like 5.9 **, and a #1 Camalot is useful
to protect the start.  It was a nice starry summit experience, and the register
even had Ed Barry with an ascent back in 1971.
Only my single headlamp for the descent, and fortunately the few wrong turns
by the lead guys in the dark didn't result in any plunges!

Clint