West Side Story 

Leave the hammers at home for west side story, it does go clean. Mark Hammond and partner(sorry I don't know your name partner), I think got the first clean ascent. Mark said there were some scary sections, but it goes around C3.

Climbed this route with Joe, Mike and Dave this past weekend. You MUST have tricams for this route. There a couple placements that will work ONLY with tricams. You WILL be bummed if you don't have them.

You have been warned.

Rapping the route sucks, don't do it.

Bring binocs and scope the Road Kill rap route before you set off. Rap Road Kill straight down the face to the ground!

If you do this bring a bunch or webbing, leaver biners/rap rings, some bolts and a hammer. Who knows what the Hell is up there as far as hardware is concerned?

Have fun!

I climbed West Side Story clean earlier this year. It wasn't too bad.

We did this route last week. We set off expecting to fix the first few pitches and then finish it the next day. but we got to the saddle and it was only 10:30, so we did it in a day. The route was pretty chill, nothing too hard and no pitches too time consuming.
-We did get off route on the last pitch and climbed a crack that was to the left of the route, don't do this; it was not fun.
-We also combined pitches 8 and 9 (with a 60 m rope) which was nice.
-We rappeled the route with one 60 meter fixed rope on pitch 6 and half of pitch 7. It was fine and would have been even easier if we did not have a small haul bag with us.
-We left the car with light, got back with light, and did not rush. It is deffinetly not a grade 6 like one of the guide books and this page suggest. Grade IV, or Grade V if your slow.
-An extra bolt on the anchors is not a bad idea. The anchor on top has only a drilled pin and a bolt(with a nut as a hanger) there was a inch long 1/4" that we pulled out with our fingers. You would be fine with out a bolt kit but it might be a good idea to bring one.
Ben

Yesterday Jeff Widen, Rich McDonald, and I did the route and replaced a bunch of stuff on it. In light of the Colorado Arete discussion, I left most of the time-pieces and science projects that had been used over the years so that the route retains its museum qualities. A few bolts were pulled, but they were mostly bad star drives on leeper hangers and exposed angles... not anything too exotic.

A number of lead bolts were replaced, but the route is still very spicey in this category. The traverse pitch still has 3 or 4 time capsules for all the new halfies. Many lead bolts were not replaced on other pitches cus they are not necessary with new gear. Its still C3 with that hard bit coming up high and in a traversing pitch, so if you fell and got hurt your partner would have a VERY difficult time getting to you. Considering the Moab area does not have a heli-rescue team, you might be toast and he might just have to give you the Simpson/Yates sendoff!

All the anchors on the main tower have at least 2 half-inch bolts (ASCA stuff) and are linked with camo-chain. No need to add webbing for quite a few years. The second anchor from the top, on the summit ridge, has been moved east to a spot directly above the next rap... you'll see it.

The rap that spans the traverse pitch should have, with hindsight, been moved. We had a hell of a time pulling the ropes and the traversy- rap is spooky. I would recommend that future parties go with two seventies, one for climbing and one for pulling. With a seventy (X2) you can rap from the top of the traverse pitch to the arete anchor. THis gives you a better pull angle on the rope.


We replaced one of the anchors on the lower section, below the saddle, with new chains. You can rap to this anchor from the saddle and then rap to the ground (Watch the ends) with rope stretch from it. That last one is all of the 60 meter ropes but would be casual on 70's

I posted some pics of our replacement stuff. We did not bring down all the webbing we could... we ran out of day light. In particular, there is an old fixed line running above the saddle that needs to be chopped. Its been there for years and muggles have legitimately complained.

All in All, I would have to say that this route now sports the best rap anchors in the Fishers... which is more than it deserves. I felt it was a great summit, with the highest pitches being the best. However, the majority of the route was pretty bland Fisher climbing.

A final note... in Thailand we have to worry about big, overhanging traversing raps a lot. The best way we found to do it is to have the first person go down and clip the gear on the way, sucking him in, and then clipping the ends real lose at the lower anchor. The second then goes down removing it and taking a big swing each time. For real big raps you need ascenders to pull yourself in and a prusik helps to get your hands free. The system works well in Thailand, but there are things to worry about. Each time you swing the rope could be rubbing on something... you could slice it or you could dislodge something that hits you really , really hard.

Actually, the safest thing is to just not climb in the Fishers.

Thanks for taking the time to replace the anchors. That must have been a helluva job. That fixed line has been up for at least 5 years. Did you replace the last bolt leading up to the summit block? I thought I remembered that one being a little suspect. Thanks again.

Thanks Sam. I was wondering who was up on Cottontail that day. West Side really needed some maintenance.

I'm not surprised to hear of your struggles with the traversing rappels. I thought most folks rapped Roadkill. Roadkill itself does not look very good (lots of 1/4-inch rivets following seams, this being done in the pre-Birdbeak days), but it is a very direct rappel line.

Thanks again for putting in the time and effort. Looks like a nice haul of old webbing.

Tom Dickey and I climbed this route on October 14, 2007. The rap anchor at the top of the 7th pitch needs to be fixed - it's in a terrible place. We left a draw with a roller biner on it to facilitate pulling - which helped tremendously. Someone should move the shoulder anchor over so you can rap straight down to the top of the 6th pitch. We left a 7mil fixed on the 7th pitch.

Our recommended rack was:

8x rivet hangers
1x stoppers - mostly med-lrg
1x #5 HB offset
1x Tcu's - nothing too small
1x .25, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5 Camalot
3x .5 - 3 Camalot
Two tie offs
shoulder length slings
15 draws
50 biners

Didn't have or need any tricams.

Suggest bringing a bolt kit to replace any of the old bolts that might pull - there are a bunch that are pretty manky.

Paul, the anchor was placed there because that is roughly the place the first ascentionist placed theirs. Its a very bad pull, but we did not want to alter the route.

Hey Sam - Long time no see. Hope you are well. Yes, I figured that was what you guys did. Someone is going to epic on it so it may be prudent for a future party to try and straighten out.

When I looked at it I thought the correct thing to do was to have another party rap down Road Kill and equip it with chains. I believe Brad B and Ben K. did that and had no problems. It would be nice if the next party used chains... I will provide it for you if you want to do this.

Matt and I rappeled West side story, It was really not that bad. I think that rap stations down Road Kill is a good idea. Moving anchors on W.S.S. seems silly when you can go straight down the face. The reason we didn't was because we didn't have a bolt kit, didn't know the conditions of the anchors and were afraid.

ben

I'd have to agree with the Ben Kiessel. I've rapped Roadkill twice, once in 1989, once again in 1992. It's the best way down from both West Side Story and Brer Rabbit. Both times this was fast and efficient--straight down each time, and easy pulls. The first rap down the face is pretty spooky, as you can't see what you are aiming for. The fixed gear at the belays is--or at least was--an old-school assortment of pitons and bolts with webbing. Best to have a hammer for resetting the pitons, and fresh webbing (and maybe knife) for backing up the existing tat. There again, 15 years later, who who knows what's up there now.

Had I known I would have done Roadkill anchors. As is, it is a hard pull. Here is what we can do. The next person up can take a hand drill and a 1/2 inch bolt. ITs only about 30 minutes to drill the hole. I will provide the hardware, including the chains (we need chains folks). This will get ROadkill set up for the long haul and get the tat down that is so visible. Anyone planning on doing these towers should drop me a line... I"ll provide the gear.

In the middle of March, Rob Pizem and I put a week of effort into freeing this. At the end of the day, we lead every pitch free except pitch 7, which we freed on toprope after I took a lead fall and broke two bones in my foot. I returned in late April with Craig Jacobs to complete the first one-day all free ascent. Craig was amazing enough to belay me as I lead every pitch clean and he jugged behind me. Can't thank you enough buddy! The route goes free somewhere around 5.12/12+. Piz and I also replaced a dozen bolts, though we left some in their original condition as we were limited on both time and gear, replacing every other or every third or so on the bolt ladder pitches. Bolts were provided by the ARI and Climbing Magazine, thanks for the donation!

Also, mega props to Sam and the ASCA for replacing most of the anchors on the route. Thanks a ton, it really helped give us the balls to try this thing in the first place.