I hear that the "Rotten Log" is gone from the route. How is it completed now, for those who can free climb only up to 5.8?

-- COLE David (COLE.David@deq.state.or.us), February 25, 1998

Answers

I did the Arches in August 97. No rotten log to be found. Im not sure where the log was supposed to be on the route, but we didnt encounter any climbing harder than 5.8. The 'pendulum' is pretty mild, but it looks harder than 5.9+ to free. I thought route finding was the crux of the climb.

-- Jeff Gilbert (Gilbert_jeff@tandem.com), February 25, 1998.

Actually the log has been gone now for at least 10 years. The current Yosemite guidebook shows the corrected topo. It is only 5.7 or so to go around the rotten log pitch.

The number of people who remember the log is shrinking. When I first did the climb in 84, it was there, but it fell the next year as I recall.

-- George Bell (bell@advtech.uswest.com), March 09, 1998.

I did the route 3 times last year. The "rotten log" section is now completed by standing on top of a rock and reaching up and around to a small ledge. It's about 5.8 or so, not a hard move but a little exposed...

-- Jim Leininger (hleininger@vnet.ibm.com), March 25, 1998.