Clovis Hunter 

This is my favorite of the routes I've done in the cave. I thought it was much better than Cro Magnet-man, but I tend to prefer less-steep routes. The rock is excellent through the steeps, with good (but not too good) rests and nice movement.

Beware that around the 3rd or 4th bolt there is a bolt to the right in no-mand's land between this route and Native Rituals that could easily lead you off route. Basically CH trends up and right, and then abruptly heads back left just at the moment this bolt comes into view, so its easy to be mislead. Apparently this bolt was intended for what surely would have been an awesome link-up involving 28 inches of new climbing.

I climbed the original finish. I've done the upper roof before as part of NR, and it seems from what I recall that adding this finish would make the route more difficult. You can get a no-hands rest just below the roof, but turning that upper roof is pretty hard. Do-able with a 50m rope.

As of May 1 the 4th bolt is missing on Clovis Hunter. This makes the route a definite ground fall if you fall off the crux. Hopefully it will get replaced soon as this is one of finest 12s in Diablo. I'm not sure how or why the bolt is gone. I'm not sure when I'll be back so hopefully one of the locals with a drill will fix the situation.

Perhaps the block it was bolted to fell off?

The bolt has been temporarily replaced and tested to be sound. We are currently researching why the bolt is missing and how. We may choose to move the bolt again to a less vertical (roof type) position as the hard Diablo basalt does not favor these vertical bolt placements due to the lack of rock deformation from the mechanical expansion pressures of the bolt itself.

Adding the finish of Native to this route does not make it any harder because of the no hands rest, though it does add another spot at which one could pitch especially if Clovis is hard for you in the first place. It is a more asthetic and direct finish to a great route.

Adding to the refreshing excitement of this climb, the dihedral section directly following the first bulgy crux was cleaned (read...removed) on 4-5-09 to reveal a stunning section of slightly trickier face climbing and stemming. This makes the crux a bit more sustained and technical as well as cleaner and more aesthetic than it was (and it was pretty stellar to begin with) but no more than a letter grade difficult. Should justify the 12b rating and a proposed 5th star of quality.

Enjoy.