All articles tagged with #first ascent
Climber and guidebook author Eric Sloan says he’s adding bolts to Snake Dike, Yosemite’s iconic eight-pitch 5.7 on Half Dome, reviving a long-running retrobolting debate. The piece recounts that first ascensionist Eric Beck long supported increased protection bolts but warned against defanging the route, notes historical bolt upgrades and a 2022 accident, and includes an update that Beck later pushed back against heavy retrobolting.
Eric Beck, a member of the 1965 Snake Dike first ascent on Half Dome, pushes back on the recent wave of retrobolting by Eric Sloan, arguing that the route’s protection was intentionally minimal; Sloan reportedly added about 13 bolts across pitches 1–3, far more than the original two protection bolts and a mid‑way anchor, prompting Beck to warn that the changes may exceed the route’s historical intent and that any bolt removal should be done by someone skilled at rock repair.
Kanchha Sherpa, the last surviving member of the team that first summited Mount Everest in 1953 alongside Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, has died at age 92 in Kathmandu, marking the end of a historic chapter in mountaineering history.