New Bolts Right of Uhuru for Mandela

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 edwardwoodward 15 Jul 2022

To the person who has placed a line of bolts up the top slab right of Uhuru for Mandela (E2 5c).

The first 2 of these can be clipped on the existing trad route The Zuma Deviation (E2 5c). Please remove these 2 bolts. Thanks.

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 Mark Reeves Global Crag Moderator 28 Jul 2022
In reply to edwardwoodward:

Hi. 

Is this Paul Harrison who helped check with the new RF slate guide? If so I did send you an email about this in october 2020, but never received a reply, it was through the UKC contact form.

First off let me apologise and try and explain what has happened. First off, we appear to have missed Zuma from the guide, and it must have missed the first slate update I did, however just after I started making a slate film that was shutdown by covid and I never got back to it. I did however start making a Slate Historical section during Covid, which was built by exporting the UKC logbook which was when I first picked up on this route, and emailed you but got no reply.

Before this though as the lockdown restricted climbing to local stuff and safer sport climbing, I was out with many other climbers in this quarry and a few new routes and boulder problems were added. It was during this time that I cleaned and bolted this route. However before I got to climb it the world opened up and I we started climbing elsewhere and I forgot about this route and the issue of it encroaching on your route. Sadly I am now struggling to find the historical section I worked on as I found loads of new and interesting stuff that contradicts the older guides historical stories when interviewing many of the original slateheads.

I think prior to that and maybe prior to your ascent I had added a bolt to the top slab of Uhuru, as it was dirty and a little loose and as it was not really the meat of that route it did however make the top out safer but in no way a sport route. This has been a common thing during the redevelopment of the quarries and I think I may have contact Mark Boniface about adding the bolts not necessarily to this route specifically but some of his routes in general, but again hard to remember.

So when I cleaned the direct start to top hanging groove, I found the climbing about HVS at the bottom with gear but the top groove not very well protected. So added bolts to it trying to keep the route about HVS, so the bolts are quite spread out and again not knowing it had been climbed already.

Then last month I climbed with a random youth who was keen to climb a new route somewhere so I tipped him off about this 'project' again totally forgetting I had emailed you two years prior, probably because I had no reply.

From what I remember the meat of Uhuru would be the lower slab, and that your route would still warrant the E2 grade but the bolts added would make the top out of your route safer but by no means a sport route.

The two kids that did the first ascent thought that based on the description that maybe only the first bolt would be clipped on your route, which would be where the metal spike was, which to be honest I don't remember seeing.

Anyway, first off. Sorry for missing the route in the guidebook. Which if it is Paul who helped with checking I find even more embarrassing. Secondly sorry for 'retoring' the top of your route. Thirdly I was wondering whether you could see yourself to forgive this incursion, as I think it will make your route and this new route more enticing to climb. I am more than happy to add this whole saga to the historical section and add to the description in the next app update that the route was unwittingly retro bolted.

 

 Mark Reeves Global Crag Moderator 28 Jul 2022
In reply to edwardwoodward:

I found the slate historical section and added it to one of my websites as quicker than getting it up here or RF. 

https://snowdoniamountainguides.com/slate-historical-section/

 Paul Ha 29 Jul 2022
In reply to Mark Reeves:

Hi Mark, no not me but my brother Neil (edwardwoodward)

In reply to Mark Reeves:

Hello Mark,

I'm Neil, Paul's brother. I also worked on the guide. We did Zuma immediately after it was published.

As there was no reply to my original post after a week, I removed the bolts when I went up to lead Uhuru. I put one hanger on the bolt missing a hanger on the anchor. I still have the other one. I tried to hammer the stubs in, but the holes aren't deep enough. I left the top two bolts with hangers in situ. I think the top groove would still be about HVS in this state because the moves up to the iron rod and shothole are easy.

I've had an email from the random youth you mentioned, to whom I'd say, try and do the route as it is and see how it goes.

In my opinion, hybrid routes like this can be great fun to climb and should be preserved/encouraged.

Anyway, no big deal in the grand scheme of things, and thanks for the detailed reply.

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 Mark Reeves Global Crag Moderator 06 Aug 2022
In reply to edwardwoodward:

Hi Neil.

Thanks for your understanding. Sorry about the confusion. I’ll send the youth up there now as he didn’t want to upset you anymore considering it wasn’t his mess! 


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