Alan Queen, Abbott King and I put up a fun bolted line right of the standard route on Slick Rock that should be a nice addition to the area. The route is 8 pitches (the second being only a half rope length) and requires only a 60m rope(50 meter ropes will be too short) and 13 quickdraws to climb. We have a rated the pitches 1. 5.7, 2. Class 4, 3. 5.4, 4. 5.7, 5. 5.8, 6. 5.8+, 7. 5.8, and 8. 5.7 (5.9 if you follow the bolt over the overhang and do not go left). The bolts are 12mm 3 1/2″ stainless fixed bolts that should last a lifetime. Rap stations are double Metolius rap hangers. We agonized over run-out and decided to add several bolts to make it safe for beginning leaders. We didn’t want any climbing injuries on our conscious.
I have climbed the standard route several times and tried hard to camouflage the bolts. Some of the bolts will be difficult to see on cloudy days. The bolts are not shiny and should not be to offensive to climbers on the standard route. Please give this climb a try and post a critique on your web site. Let me know what you think. It was our the first attempt at putting up a bolted line. If we knew how many times we would have to climb the rotten descent gully with 50-pound packs, the route would definitely not exist.
How to get there: Follow the approach trail almost to the wall where the large rocky ramp (starts left and diagonals down right) forces standard approach to go left and go right and up. Look for a rock cairn at base of wall just right of large nasty grungy crack. The first bolt is difficult to spot 15 feet straight up from the cairn. Follow the bolt line. The second pitch only has two bolts and is short. The climbing is only Class 4.
Kevin Caudill
Meridian, ID