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In 1965 Eric Beck, with Jim Bridwell and Chris Fredericks, made the primary ascent of Snake Dike (5,7, 8 pitches) on Half Dome. Snake Dike, a reasonable however wildly runout route, was the scene of a tragic accident this yr when New Zealand pupil Anna Parsons suffered an 80-foot fall that significantly injured her and led to the amputation of her left foot. The accident stirred debate inside the climbing neighborhood about whether or not the route needs to be retrobolted. The following letter is a response from first ascensionist Eric Beck.
Snake Dike is an old route of mine, along with Jim Bridwell and Chris Fredericks. On the primary ascent, we had been frequently anticipating a lot tougher climbing and had been conserving our provide of 12 bolts in addition to hoping to get down in a day. We left the route with single belay bolts and two safety bolts. We realized that this was completely inappropriate for a reasonable route, which we might already see could be in style because it was so fairly.
[Steve] Roper did the second ascent. We implored him so as to add extra bolts, which he did, admirably. He doubled all of the belay bolts and added a safety bolt on the runout pitches. He additionally obtained down in a day.
I requested different events so as to add extra bolts. I even put in a plug for this once I was talking at Oakdale a couple of years in the past. Ideally, I wish to see 5 safety bolts the place it’s run out. This is just like the routes on Dozier Dome in Tuolumne.
Roper as soon as requested, “Is every climb for everybody?” It could seem like I wish to defang the Snake Dike and convey it all the way down to the bottom frequent denominator, however the Snake Dike is just not a take a look at piece. It has no fangs. It is a stunning route on one of many nice monoliths of our planet. Had we had extra time and extra bolts, we’d have finished it ourselves [during the first ascent.]
There is a practice with which I concur that the primary ascent celebration needs to be the arbiter of fashion on a climb. Bridwell is gone and Chris has vanished from the climbing scene. So I’m as soon as once more asking the climbing neighborhood add some extra bolts to the Snake Dike.
