UKC

Many would agree that the Bachar- Yerian (5.11c R/X) on Medlicott Dome in California's Tuolumne Meadows is one of the finest routes in the world, on the most perfect sheet of golden granite, in one of the most beautiful alpine areas in the world.

The Bachar- Yerian takes a stunning and knee-trembling line up this vertical 500ft face, protected by 9 bolts (a #4 Friend and slings over knobs), all placed on the lead by John Bachar. The climbing is characterised by pulling on a sea of chicken-heads or knobs, often the size of peanuts, that stick out from the rock.

19 year old George Ullrich of Kendal attempted the route without clipping the bolts.

See the video and read the extended report at: http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=07&year=2008#n45198

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
Bloody hellfire that chap must have big plums.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

That's very impressive.

In reply to tobyfk:

A fine effort on an amazing route. Shame the belay bolts can't be avoided as well, that would be a real statement.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Amazing effort, especially on such a reknowned route, the full length footage should be fantastic, fair play

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: John Bacher climbed this line on site placing the bolts i,m pretty sure he could of pre practised it and done it without.
Please dont reduce this fine test piece to pre practised head point.
This would be less of an achievement than the first ascent.
If the bolts were removed by a third party then it was attempted on site that would be news worthy.

The future of trad has got be ground up.

But a fine effort on doing the route.

In reply to Adam L:

It's only a matter of time before Alex Honnold free solos it.

In reply to J Dunne:

i think he onsighted it then attempted it sans bolts so that would be ground up.

Fair point but having the bolts still in is place is a nonesense.

In reply to J Dunne:
.

Even more newsworthy.


Seems the future is now...............especially from the likes of James McHaffie, Neil Dickson, Dave Birkett, Leo Houlding, Jack Geldard and others..

May 25: Neil Dickson - Hollow Man E7/8 & others On-Sight

http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=05&year=2008#n44491

Jul 14: LOCAL NEWS: McHaffie onsights Raped by Affection E7

http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=07&year=2008#n45199


May 22: Birkett - 'My Piano' - E8 Onsight

http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=05&year=2008#n44432


Jun 1: Belgian Duo on Fire at Gogarth - Second Ascent of Mad Brown

http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=06&year=2008#n44600

Neil Dickson - Margins of the Mind
by Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC Jun/2008
This article has been read 4,577 times

http://new.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1098

Gravediggers E8 6c - An accidental on-sight attempt
by Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC May/2008
This article has been read 5,149 times

http://new.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1021

Also Leo Houlding's latest.

A few weeks earlier Leo also made the second ascent of the South face of Mount Watkins with Dean Potter. Leo climbed the 25 pitch route, almost onsight, almost in a day after climbing the first pitch the evening before and taking a 40 footer off an easy pitch. However the 5 hard pitches, including two 5.13s (E7's) were done with no falls and were not chalked. The last pitch, a hard holdless slab he did in the dark.

http://new.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=07&year=2008#n45200

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Hi Mick. In a previous thread you said that no-one would ever establish something like the Bachar-Yerian from the ground-up, without bolts.

Do you now think that this could possibly happen? There is still a big difference between onsighting a new route and an established route but if it's E8 6b then surely someday someone would be able to establish such a route without bolts.

In reply to Ackbar:

Looking at what some of these young guns are doing it may be possible.

I suppose in the case of the B-Y you have to look at the nature of the rock - those knobs can break as Güllich and others have found out. I'm sure the B-Y is fairly clean now after many ascents - but it would be Russian Roulette to go into that territory if it was virgin and no bolts

As John Dunne said above - George had the luxury of clipping a bolt if he felt he was getting out of control, and indeed he did.

What's the hardest FA established ground up in the UK....didn't Steve Mayers do an E8 somewhere and Dawes' Hardback Thesaurus at Gogarth?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I'm confused about the grade now. I didn't hink 11C R/X equated to E6.

The Ent

PS - Dunnie is spot on. Passing bolt is ridiculous.

In reply to Enty:


Not perfect, but jumps in style happen in small increments as do standards. John knows that.

Some, especially across the Atlantic think that head pointing is ridiculous. Mant think the same about sport climbing.

A good example is all the headpointed routes in the UK, it's taken a while for a groundswell of talent to emerge but they have and these routes which were rehearsed are either getting very fast ascents with little practice, and in some cases ground up ascents and even onsights.

George's effort is audacious, hence the title of the news report. Small town boy has the audacity to attempt a boltless ascent of the Bachar-Yerian.

Not perfect by any means but I bet George had one hell of a trip.

And as I said in the news report - the challenge remains.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Vickers and Parry's Broughton Power and, er, their other stuff on limestone, I think. George Smith's various E7s were all ground-up, as was HT as you say. I don't know about Steve Mayers - someone (Stuart Cameron?) did Extinction groun-up, but I think that was a repeat. In fact I think it's Steve M's route.

jcm

In reply to Enty:

From memory, when I climbed it in 1994, I'm pretty sure it was given 11d. The first pitch has a hard move by a bolt pulling through an overlap, then a runout (where Gullich took the whipper). E5 6b. The 2nd pitch has something like 4 bolts and I'm pretty sure was rated at 11c 'X'. It felt like E6 6a to me. The 3rd pitch was given 10c. I remember that because it felt like E5 6a. But then the grades on face routes in Tuolomne do feel tough if you're not familiar with the style.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
I must have been climbing well at the time because it felt like E4 6a for pitch 1 and then E3 5b for pitches 2 & 3 when i did it fifteen years ago. I have to say this smacks of spurious sponsored publicity. What is the point of eliminating the bolts on the lead when you are using the bolts on the belays?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
BTW is that streak to the right of the Bachar-Yerian still unclimbed? That looks like a 5.13 version of it.

In reply to dr evil:


I think that is Peace 13d

youtube.com/watch?v=h8FUFx_TmsY&

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Some fine B-Y pictures and stories here: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=375380&tn=0

"I got to climb with Simon Nadin a few times in Tuolumne, he told me this story about how he had just done the full route with his girlfriend, who was by no means solid at the grade, so he led, but that he assumed it was fully bolted with no need for trad gear so they just brought draws. Said he had to set up at least one "anchor" by wedging draws in a crack..."

In reply to duncan:

like this one.........

Kurt Smith

now this route brings back some good and bad memories... ed barry and i went to do the 3rd ascent. i lead the first, he lead the second and starting down climbing right below the first real bolt on 2nd pitch, (45 above the belay). a knob broke and he fell, right for my head, i moved right and he hit my shoulder and went another 40 ft before i caught him. he got to the belay pasty white! "I'm not going back up there man" was all he could say.. we waited a little while for the adrenaline to subside and then i decided to give the second pitch a try because i did not want to come back and lead that first pitch again! ed snapped out of his funk and went and sent the pitch. I broke a hold 40 above a bolt on the 3rd but hung on and made it to the horizontial and the cam placement that i really was happy to get. Then there are two more pitches of funky scary climbing to the summit. Most people rap after the third and i say that's bull shit! you have to do the whole route to call it a send!
It is an amazing line, bolts are far away and the climbing is COMMITTING! LIKE CLIMBING USED TO BE!
so go for it and realize you are climbing more than just a route, you are climbing a vision of the past that required first ascentionist's to have guts to get the glory..!
enjoy and yes there are new bolts there so no more 1/4 bolts to get you puckered...
ks

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Gulp! A great story...

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

5.11 C? and Tom thought the 10C pitch was E5 - is this the world's biggest Sandbag?

The Ent

First of all, congratulations to Gerge Ullrich for an outstanding effort. I saw the video clip and photos and it made my cajones shrivel.

I know he was trying to do the whole route without bolts but in my book he achieved a major breakthrough - even if he used the belay bolts he was able to climb the route without the protection bolts that were placed on aid.

The two protection bolts on the first pitch and the three protection bolts on the second pitch (four if you count the upper belay bolt at the first three bolt belay - I think I placed that one by hanging on the two stanced belay bolts but I honestly don't remember) were placed on hooks. Both belay stations were free stanced as well as the two bolts on the third pitch.

So even though he clipped the last bolt on the third pitch and used the belay bolts, he still accomplished something quite extraordinary - he free climbed past the 5 (or 6 if you count the uppermost bealy bolt on the top of the first pitch) aid placed protection bolts. Had this been done on the first ascent, it would have been (and still would by Tuolumne standards) considered a completely free trad route (i.e. bolts placed on stance and on sight, on the lead).

Quite a feat.

George - I still have some undone lines for you if you are interested!

Cheers, John Bachar

In reply to John Bachar:

Hi John,

Thanks for your thoughts on this....excellent to have someone so intimately connected with th route in question posting on here.

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Ditto!

I thought at 11C it was in the realms of do-ability, a dream route! After reading some of the posts above maybe not.
I once watched Russ Walling bolting ground up on a crag above Bishop. Gnarly!!

The Ent

In reply to Enty:


Russ Walling once watched me bolting ground up on a crag above Bishop. Even Gnarlier!!

He eventually tied me off and walked away.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Remember? little Egypt??? Seems so long ago now.

The Ent

In reply to Morgan Woods:

this is interesting, from supertopo:

Author: bachar

I didn't realize he did the route first. I thought he attempted it on sight....

Still a ballsy effort.... it would have been very much different if he was trying it on sight.

-jb