The Druid
The Druid is a great climbing area, especially if you are looking to escape the summer heat. It is located at 8000' in a pine forest and is a very beautiful place to climb. Many of the routes are bolted face climbs with high quality rock.
Directions to the Druid can be found in "Squeezing the lemmon II..." by Eric Fazio-Rhicard.
"Corporal Punishment" is a bolted face route with a large block at the top. The roof move onto the face of the block is well protected with the bolt being right at the lip of the roof. The two chain anchors at the top of the climb are shared with "Admiral Throckmorton". The left anchor has two links and the right anchor has four links, both attached to cold-shuts with spikes. All of the bolt hangers are Metolius and are attached with spikes. Note that if you are careful, it is fairly easy to set up a top rope.
Warning: There is a large run-out between the third and fourth bolt (the bolt on the lip of the roof). If you fall while you are trying to clip the bolt on the lip of the roof, you could take a 40+ foot fall. I would recommend that you place a piece of gear at the base of the block until you get the bolt at the lip of the roof clipped - then go back and remove the gear once you are ready to pull the roof.
Note: Both "Corporal Punishment" and "Admiral Throckmorton" go over the big block at the right end of the Druid. EFR rates "Corporal Punishment" at 5.9 and "Admiral Throckmorton" at 5.8, but it is generally considered that "Admiral Throckmorton" is harder than "Corporal Punishment".
| Bolt Number | Bolt Height | Run-out | Fall Estimate | Ground Margin | Ground Risk |
| 1 | 15' 1" | 15' 1" | 15' 1" | 0' | yes - use spotter |
| 2 | 21' 3" | 6' 2" | 17' 4" | 8' 11" | yes |
| 3 | 29' 5" | 8' 2" | 21' 4" | 13' 1" | |
| 4 | 50' 1" | 20' 8" | 46' 4" | 8' 9" | yes |
| Anchors | 69' 1" | 19' 0" | 43' 0" | 31' 1" |
"Admiral Throckmorton" is the other bolted face route that goes over the large block right end of the Druid. Like "Corporal Punishment", the roof move onto the face of the block is well protected with the bolt being right at the lip of the roof. The two chain anchors at the top of the climb are shared with "Corporal Punishment". The left anchor has two links and the right anchor has four links, both attached to cold-shuts with spikes. All of the bolts are 3/8" and the bolt hangers are Metolius (note that there is a spike for the second bolt).
Warning: Like "Corporal Punishment", there is a large run-out between the third and fourth bolt (the bolt on the lip of the roof). If you fall while you are trying to clip the bolt on the lip of the roof, you could take a 35+ foot fall. I would recommend that you place a piece of gear at the base of the block until you get the bolt at the lip of the roof clipped - then go back and remove the gear once you are ready to pull the roof.
| Bolt Number | Bolt Height | Run-out | Fall Estimate | Ground Margin | Ground Risk |
| 1 | 12' 5" | 12' 5" | 12' 5" | 0' | yes - use spotter |
| 2 | 21' 3" | 8' 10" | 22' 8" | 3' 7" | yes |
| 3 | 31' 11" | 10' 8" | 26' 4" | 10' 7" | |
| 4 | 48' 4" | 16' 5" | 37' 10" | 15' 6" | |
| 5 | 54' 4" | 6' 0" | 17' 0" | 42' 4" | |
| Anchors | 68' 5" | 14' 1" | 33' 2" | 40' 3" |
"Jack the Slipper" is a fun, bolted face route on the left side of the Druid. It has five 3/8" bolts with Metolius hangers that end at two chain anchors - six links each attached to cold-shuts.
| Bolt Number | Bolt Height | Run-out | Fall Estimate | Ground Margin | Ground Risk |
| 1 | 11' 5" | 11' 5" | 11' 5" | 0' | yes - use spotter |
| 2 | 20' 9" | 9' 4" | 23' 8" | 2' 1" | yes |
| 3 | 29' 3" | 8' 6" | 22' 0" | 12' 3" | |
| 4 | 36' 9" | 7' 6" | 20' 0" | 21' 9" | |
| 5 | 42' 5" | 5' 8" | 16' 4" | 31' 1" | |
| Anchors | 49' 4" | 6' 11" | 18' 10" | 35' 6" |
"In Lightning" is a great climb on the right side of the Druid (to the left of "Corporal Punishment" and "Admiral Throckmorton"). "In Lightning" is a tall climb at 111' and has 12 bolts - it is sustained and is well protected. To climb it as a single pitch climb, a 70 meter rope is recommended. It can be climbed with a 60 meter rope, but down climbing will be involved. If you plan to use a 60 meter rope to top-rope the first pitch of "In Lightning", be careful and tie knots in the ends of the rope. With a 60 meter rope, it is probably best if you climb out the second pitch (see "Squeezing the lemmon II..." by Eric Fazio-Rhicard for more information).
The anchors on "In Lightning" have an anchor system that I associate with Scott Ayers - the left anchor is a chain anchor with six links attached to a 3/8" bolt and a Metolius bolt hanger. The right anchor is a Metolius "Pig's Ear" that is attached with a 3/8" bolt. All of the bolts on the route are 3/8" and have Metolius hangers.
Basic Mathematics: A 60 meter rope is 196.8' long. When used to set up a top-rope, the maximum height that should be climbed on it would be about half the total length - 98.4'. Since "In Lightning" is 111' tall, if you climb "In Lightning" on a top-rope with a 60 meter rope, the ends of the rope are going to be about 12' off the ground. If you climb "In Lightning" on a top-rope with a 70 meter rope, there will be about 4' of rope laying on the ground.
| Bolt Number | Bolt Height | Run-out | Fall Estimate | Ground Margin | Ground Risk |
| 1 | 18' 2" | 18' 2" | 18' 2" | 0' | yes - use spotter |
| 2 | 22' 2" | 4' 0" | 13' 0" | 14' 2" | |
| 3 | 27' 1" | 4' 11" | 14' 10" | 17' 3" | |
| 4 | 33' 1" | 6' 0" | 17' 0" | 21' 1" | |
| 5 | 47' 7" | 14' 6" | 34' 0" | 18' 7" | |
| 6 | 53' 7" | 6' 0" | 17' 0" | 41' 7" | |
| 7 | 60' 7" | 7' 0" | 19' 0" | 46' 7" | |
| 8 | 67' 2" | 6' 7" | 18' 2" | 54' 0" | |
| 9 | 73' 0" | 5' 10" | 16' 8" | 61' 4" | |
| 10 | 78' 7" | 5' 7" | 16' 2" | 67' 5" | |
| 11 | 93' 11" | 15' 4" | 35' 8" | 63' 3" | |
| 12 | 98' 7" | 4' 8" | 14' 4" | 89' 3" | |
| Anchors | 111' 0" | 12' 5" | 29' 10" | 86' 2" |
I had been climbing about a year when I first went to the Druids with Joe, Linda, and my wife. After we climbed on "Admiral Throckmorton" and "Corporal Punishment", we moved to "In Lightning". Joe led it and set up a top rope, Linda followed and cleaned the gear while I finished up on "Admiral Throckmorton". When I was ready to climb "In Lightning", Joe told me that there were two four foot draws at the anchors and that I would have to tie in, remove the draws, thread the rope through the anchors, and rappel off. This was very unusual so I asked, "Why are there four foot draws at the top?"
"Because the rope is not long enough to reach the ground without them", replied Joe.
Well, that didn't seem good to me so I asked, "Isn't that going to be a problem when I rappel off the climb?"
Joe said, "Don't worry, the rope will stretch as you rappel down."
Without doing much thinking, it seemed reasonable enough to me, so off I started climbing while they headed over to Lord Fowlesbain. (note that if you think about it, a doubled rope used on a rappel will stretch less than a single rope used on a top-rope). Whn I got to the top, I did as instructed. I threaded the rope through the anchors and dropped one end of the rope down for the rappel. I couldn't see the ends of the rope and I was concerned that it might have become hung-up on the rocks on the way down, so I yelled down to my wife, "How's the rope hanging?"
She yelled back, "It's fifteen feet off the ground!"
"Is it caught up on something?"
"No!"
Hmmmm... With a little inspection, I thought I could deduce the problem. The center mark on the rope was about four feet from the anchors. Thus, the rope wasn't centered and one end of the rope was higher than the other - the high end was fifteen feet off the ground but the low end was much closer, if not on the ground. So I straightened up the rope and yelled down, "How high off the ground is end of the rope now?"
She yelled back, "It's fifteen feet off the ground!"
"What the hell...?" It was cold and windy out and obviously there was some sort of communication breakdown. I figured I would resolve the problem when I got to the end of the rope so off I went. Sure enough, as I rappeled down, I could see that the rope didn't make it to the ground and indeed, the ends were way off the ground (Needless to say, as I rappeled, the rope didn't stretch enough to reach the ground).
When I got to the end of the rope, there was a reasonable ledge there, so I stood on the ledge, got off the rope, and down-climbed to terra firma. I often think of the things that could have gone wrong that day...