Frodo Lives

Frodo Lives

is a wonderfully exhilarating route with exciting exposure, solid holds interspersed with scary, broken quartzite, yet solid, bolted protection.

Start from one of two belay locations: a single bolt if you climbed the

5.7

2nd pitch route, or a double-bolt belay if you climbed the

5.8

2nd pitch route. While on belay, walk across to the base of the upper wall, praying that you don’t do something stupid like trip over your shoelaces and pitch down the gully to your right.

Climb over to, or up to, the first bolt (depending on your start). Clip it and traverse right and slightly up to the second bolt. At this point climbing up from the second bolt would put you on

Lord of the Slings

. Continue traversing right and slightly up to the third bolt of

Frodo Lives

. From this point head up to the fourth bolt, then bear left for the left edge of the roof above you (following the right bolt line puts you on

Shadow and Flame

, 5.10b).

The climbing to the belay anchor (located on a narrow ledge) continues through six more bolts of fairly sustained climbing; surmounting the edge of the roof and a bulge is a bit harder. Don’t forget to look down!

From the belay continue up through three more bolts of thrilling climbing, including probably the most exciting moves: getting over a small roof, well protected by the last bolt (but you still have a lot of that I-really-don’t-want-to-fall feeling because of the exposure). After topping out a two-bolt anchor is located on rock about 10 or 15 feet from the edge and on your left. There is also a shallow crack to the left of the one of the bolts in which I placed a number one BD C3 (because there was only a single bolt at the time).

On the upper wall of

Trilogy Buttress

the lowest bolt protects the start of all of the routes. For

Frodo Lives

traverse right after the first bolt for two bolts, then up one more bolt, then bear left and up.

Pitch 1: 10 bolts, hangers-and-rings anchor. I recommend slinging the first three bolts with double-length (48") runners and the next five with regular (24") runners This will help greatly with rope drag.

Pitch 2: 3 bolts and a two-bolt anchor with supplemental small gear. I used a 24" sling on the second bolt from the belay.

Helmets are a really good idea.