Might head up to Cathedral on monday. Wondering if anyone had done the Prow and/ or the Mordor wall. If I was to only do one which would you do?

Toby

Check out the trip report for the Prow on Ghiz.org. Looks interesting (haven't done either.)

Yeah I saw that the other day, pretty good. I haven't really found anything on the Mordor wall though.

Thanks

I've done the Prow a quite a number of years ago when it was 85% equiped with fixed pins (intentionally, by Paul Ross, as a practice aid route). I understand that now most of those are gone. I've been back to it twice since then - once for photographing friends and once to repeat it. I've often considered but never got around to doing the Mordor, but I did try to get beta on it.

There's quite a difference in difficulty between the two, with the Prow being A2/C2 at most, and only in a few spots. The Mordor was A4 at one time. I don't know if it's gone clean yet, and I'm certain the cracks are pretty beat out, but it will still be harder - there was just bunches more hard aid on it than the Prow. There's the expando flake and thin crack on the first pitch (now 5.12-something), the bat hook traverse (now with multiple chicken bolts but still with flared out holes) followed by the one-time RURP and tied-off blade crack (additional chicken bolts) on the second pitch. The third started with more thin nailing. I don't know the condition of these now nor how well cam hooks, offset aliens, z-friends, Lowe balls, and other modern trinkets would work.

The Prow on the other hand is basically very straight-forward cracks that range from thin fingers to small hands with maybe a hook here and a bolt there. A number of the aid pitches do go free at less than 5.11. At one time the first pitch was a mixture of rivets and bolts up a steep slab, but that was chopped some time ago. There's a 5.7-ish alternate start a little to the left of the original.

Which is better? I dunno. The Prow always struck me as the more aesthetic line, but the Mordor is more striking. Depends how hard you want your aid. As always, YMMV.

Unless you don't mind climbing when it is completely soaked you might want to wait a little while before you go up there. I was up there on Tuesday and everything was dripping, the whole valley has been completely socked in since last friday and nothing is even remotely dry. Plus it rained pretty good last night. If you are looking for more info on the Mordor Wall go to neclimbs.com. Check the forum or trip reports, if you don't get what you are looking for put up a post in the forum and I'm sure you will get some info pretty quick as most of the people on that site climb mostly in the Mount Washington Valley.

Yo Toby!!!
What's up man?!? How was Yosemite? You want to do some aiding? Jeremy and I are headed to cannon to hit up a grade 5 if you are interested next week. I also want to get on Mines of Moria and Mordor Wall on Cathedral. Mines Goes at 5.6 A2 and mordor is a reasonable 5.8 A2 now since bolts have proliferated on the bathook traverse. Give me a call or send an email!

(I have bathooks for the traverse if you want to try it sometime)

Careful about relying on bolts at Cathedral. Many recent bolts that have been placed have been chopped as there is a mini bolt war going on. Just the other day a two bolt anchor on Pendulum was chopped. There was also some talk about chopping bolts recently placed on the Mordor Wall.

I did a search on neclimbs.com for Mordor Wall and found the following:

last time I looked (2 years ago) the bolt ladder on P2 of Mines was terrible.

mordor as of july01:

P1 fixed nuts and cams on are ok (bring small aliens and rps)
p2 there is now a bolt every "bat-hole". the heads above were good then - but who knows today - bring some?

everything else is shiny bolts and A1 cracks until the roof. I think that was fixed with pins - i would say bring an assortment of cams to supplement those rusty old badboys - and mabye some short loops of webbing or draws, too.

I saw a guy fall and rip 2 or 3 bashies on the mordor wall ladder last summer and I'm not sure whether he replaced them or not. so

a) they are either newly replaced

or

b) they are missing and need to be replaced


On the second pitch traverse there are three bolts and one rivet. Everything in between the bolts are bat hook moves, roughly three or four between each pair of bolts. The bolts are new and are set up with a ring for lowering off when cleaning the pitch, so your second does not need to leave a biner. A couple of years ago there were eleven or twelve copperheads, even if one or two blew you should still be able to reach the next one. There is one bolt halfway up the copperhead ladder. The third pitch has shiny bolts all the way to the C1 crack to the sidewalk belay.


And as Coppertone mentioned, there's a huge discussion about bolting in the area. The new bolts above the Pendulum roof have been removed and the ones above the Mordor Wall roof either have been or probably will be soon. Follow the links to the photos at:
http://www.neclimbs.com/reports/current_report.shtml

...but this one is the most telling



If you guys do either one, let us know how it went.

Thanks MarcC. I didn't know about neclimb.com. Sounds like they have a bolting issue going on there.

I saw this on there message board didn't know if its been posted here.....

Monday night a somewhat large (maybe the size of a garage door) slab fell from the VMC DD. It came from about 100'-150' above the fourth belay of the VMC DD. It pulverized the base of the route. The trees were still covered with dusty mud Tuesday and since it had rained hard the night before, it seems clear that it had happened late on Monday night or early Tuesday morning. The main impacts were around the fourth belay of the VMC DD and fortunately and/or unfortunately, the three bolts are all intact despite four or five collision points each within one or two feet of the bolts!

Yeah, that rockfall on the direct direct happened in late June. It's probably ok. I'm the one who posted on neclimbs concerning the Mordor wall. I saw the guy rip the bashies, so you would probably want to carry a head kit in case you blow some, but if they all hold - it's A2!!!!! Otherwise you'll have to bail and go to IME and get a head kit. HAHAHAHA