Marbellous 

Marbelous is an awesome climb, when I did it, a fixed line from the equipping party was still there and bleached beyond recognition. We cleaned it off. The 2nd pitch was the money pitch IMO, and was relatively well bolted. I was scared leading it though as well....it isn't protected like a Gregorio route, that's for sure...good rock though on the first pitch especially!

James - you told me this was really cool and I always wanted to do it. Maybe you wouldn't mind fleshing out the description a little for us?

It seems covered quite well in the Ruckman Guidebook. Judging by how little other Main Wall routes have been reported or starred on this site...maybe I should leave that to more recent visitors/climbers. I mean, Hellraiser used to be on Pennings's enchainment/workout program (Triple Overhangs-Hogum's Heroes-Hellraiser-Black Streak in a day, and in that order) back in the day...the Main Wall doesn't seem to draw much attention these days, compared to the crags.

maybe its harder to rap bolt? that's a cool pennings factoid.

Harder? I was under the impression that Marbelous (Pitch #2 for sure) was rap drilled. I just read elsewhere that it was drilled on lead by the Ruckmans...guess I couldn't figure out what that fixed rope was doing up there. Different for that part of the Hellgate. Still a great route...you'll give it a star. Oh...It slipped my mind, he actually told me once he did 5 in a day...I guess he added something from Question Mark Wall into the mix while up in LPC before blasting over to Hogum Fork. What a force!

James,
First of all thanks for snagging that old fixed line off the cliff. My bad. I put that up myself after Marbellous was completed, in the fall of 1988. I was going to rap bolt a pitch to the right off of the top of the first pitch for a more direct second pitch. Then the weather hit and I moved away. So thanks again for removing the tat.

Marbellous was put up in three days, all ground-up by Bret R and I. On the second pitch I hung off a hook to place one of the bolts and Bret R added another one (on the second pitch) after we had lead it because he thought we had run it out to much. In 1988 Mugs Stump was kind of bumbed out that some of us were rapp bolting on the Towers. Marbellous was Bret's and my response to Mugs that we could also do the ground up thing. The last crack on Marbellous is a rotten mess, but the first 1 1/2 pitches are good. Bolts are getting old now though so be wary.

I still think that a more direct second pitch would be cool, someone ought to go for it. Bret had wanted me to go more directly on the second pitch, but on the sharp end I gravitated to the rotten crack.

Send me a message if someone is willing to rewrite the route description here - i'll reassign it to you.

For the life of me I couldn't see a bolt to the right of the 1st bolt on P1, so I didn't dare venture. I'd appreciate some info on where it is so I know how R it is and so forth. Anyone?