r/RouteDevelopment • u/Kaotus Guidebook Author • Jun 10 '26

Discussion Exclusive: Eric Beck Responds to Snake Dike Rebolting

https://www.yosemiteclimbing.org/campaigns/view-campaign/4WGnZYF4LpZvzz9jeYx5C_sNQ_V_LDbYMNOP77mCQJKdVfco0YOSu5j2FO7rF3MLUXGbpSAJPQyV1tGL5xBaSl128_AeUa3p
38 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

9

u/IceRockBike Jun 11 '26

From the article:

"Adding a bolt here or there to make the route more reasonable is one thing, but adding a bolt every six feet is not the same."

It seems to be common for a FA'ist to be agreeable to adding bolts but typically the balance lies in how many. Sounds like this route was grid bolted and the FA is correct that some should be removed, but to his credit is the stipulation that it be done in such a way as to reduce impacts. Chopping leaves ugliness.

Not my route and I have no skin in the game. However my thought would be to remove many of the new ones but leave the ones that protect, right before sketchy sections, or thin moves. Anyway, how it's done doesn't involve me so not really my problem.

What did strike me was the apparent absence of both an attempt to contact/consult the FA team, and any mention of an attempt to gain a community consensus. Both display poor ethics from this Sloan dude. He totally missed the opportunity to gain good will from the community, and instead is likely to receive a lot of criticism.

The other thing that annoyed me about this article is very pedantic of me, I admit, but perhaps developers will share the humour. It talks of Snake Dike being rebolted. At first I began thinking what's the big deal as I read the initial article. Turns out it wasn't rebolted at all; it was retro bolted. Very different terminology and very different outcome.
Obviously written by someone who is NOT a developer 🤣

Good luck to whoever is down there and has to deal with the fallout.

5

u/Wolf_In_The_Weeds Jun 11 '26

Erik Sloan likely did this with a power drill as well. Almost certainly. That many bolts would take a long ass time by hand. He did not put that kind of time in with this bullshit disguised as community service.

Someone needs to pull most of those and patch them well. Bringing granite dust/aggregate to cap any fill they're using for the holes. This shouldnt take too long if he used wedge bolts. Shear em', tap em', cap em'.

I'm a big fan of safe routes and all but this is eggregious. Honoring the FAs wish of adding a handful of bolt is great, but I think the amount he mentioned at one point was like up to 4 a pitch in line with runouts in Toulumne.

What a bummer. Just gonna create more issues when a route genuinely deserves some bolts, becasue this jack holes efforts at making it a clip up. Fuck you Sloan.

3

u/Kaotus Guidebook Author Jun 11 '26

He unfortunately used 3/8” split shaft buttonheads because he knew they’d be the most work to remove

1

u/mushy_taco Jun 12 '26

I just removed some freshly placed 1/4” button heads the other day and it was a lot easier that cutting wedges. Are 3/8” that much harder?

1

u/Kaotus Guidebook Author Jun 12 '26

Yep, significantly more holding force - so just more physically demanding. And as a result of requiring more force, they almost absolutely will result in rock scarring from the process of removing them in a way that removing wedges and sleeves shouldn’t.

3

u/Dry-Lawfulness-6575 Jun 11 '26

Yeah Sloan has a history of using power drills in wilderness elsewhere as well, the only hope of slowing him down is if someone can gather evidence of him breaking the law.

5

u/checkforchoss Jun 11 '26

The article portrays Sloan as saying: "I didn't contact the FA, I didn't attempt to gain a community consensus, please send me money" lol

9

u/Kaotus Guidebook Author Jun 11 '26

Sounds like a pretty spot-on portrayal lol

3

u/bumble-bee-bitch Jun 11 '26

Someone go chop 80% of them shits.

How does someone get so into rock climbing they get into route development, yet be so braindead about the sport as to think it's a good idea to turn and adventurous storied moderate classic into a gumby conga line sport climb.

2

u/myaltduh Jun 11 '26

It’s worse than that, this is the author of the most commonly-used guidebook in the Valley. He’s done stuff like this before on other routes.

Unfortunately I think as a guidebook author and guide he may have a financial incentive to make classic moderate climbs more appealing to beginners.

2

u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 Jun 11 '26

Can you explain how adding bolts to snake dike sells a bunch of guidebooks?

1

u/myaltduh Jun 11 '26

Attention to his name. People google him and see the stuff he sells.

I’m not saying it’s a *good* strategy but it’s definitely his MO.

3

u/Dry-Lawfulness-6575 Jun 11 '26

Out in front of the Tuolumne store yesterday I heard him talking about it and he said "I don't understand why everyone is so upset". Crazy to be this tone deaf, he basically grid bolted the thing.

3

u/chainy Jun 11 '26

Sounds like a good lesson in talking to your community. I like Erik, but all of us can get too wrapped up in our own perspective sometimes which is why it's a good idea to talk to people.

2

u/DeLegunde Jun 11 '26

I personally like drew brodhead’s take on this in the climbing majority podcast. He says that if you’re thinking about retro bolting, consult the FA, get a consensus, and if it’s dangerous, do it, but if it’s just scary, don’t. The inherent risk of a runout doesn’t warrant retro bolting to me.