SummitPost.org

Yeah I remember when he put that route up. Pretty rad. A few of us tried it a few times and couldn't see it. I don't think any of us went that far out to the left side.

Josh has a number of unrepeated routes. Mostly Scott Cosgrove testpieces. Perhaps Chris Lindner will go on a quest, and do some more?

That's a good video clip. When Lindner was a kid doing hard routes we used to tease him, saying how all those holds would just keep getting smaller (as he got bigger.) Looks like we were wrong.

When I saw your thread topic I thought I was going to see Mike Paul doing Stem Gem barefoot facing out, playing air guitar. Ever see that one?

edit: What do you grade a Joshua Tree route at which took 20 years to see a second ascent even though it is in a prominent location and put up by a real player? Hmmm.

There is no grade, just do...

Awesome climbing. Awesome video.

But, I don't get it. That's only the second ascent, right? So, how did all those bolts get in the rock? Kurt Smith carried a hammer drill and a bunch of anchors up on the first ascent? I wanna see the video of that.

Well, either Kurt drilled ground up by standing on holds or hooking and standing in aiders or he rap bolted it. At this point only Kurt knows for sure. The top 2 or 3 bolts are from another route that was already there called The Terminator so he only had 4 bolts to put in I think.

This brings more questions into my head.

If he top-roped it, or bolted on rappel, why bolt it at all? Didn't they refer to the route as trad?

And if you can climb another route, then top-rope, what's so special about the second ascent of "Dunce Cap?" Why not just FA another route? Couldn't a nearly-infinite number of routes be conceived here?

Is the purpose of the bolts to prove that somebody once climbed that particular route?

I hope I am not coming across as sarcastic or belittling. I am asking because I sincerely don't understand it.