Machete Direct Trip Report 1/10/09,
(Edit; Pinnacles National Monument, CA)

I’ve always looked up at the Machete Ridge northwest wall and thought it would be cool to be up there but it wasn’t until I started really looking at the routes in Brad’s new guidebook that I thought Machete Direct would be reasonably within my ability. I wasn’t going to do it the 5.12 way but 5.8 A1 sounded good. Jaybro and I were going to do it in December but we both got sick that week. Saturday it worked out for Bob and me to give it a go.
It was really cold anywhere out of the sun. There was a lot of frost and ice on the walk in. As we approached the climb I took this pic.
The climb tops out at the right shoulder of the second point from the left.
We started climbing around 9:30. We decided to do the direct 10b start instead of the tree. The 10b is shown on the topo as between the first and second bolt but I think it may be just above the second bolt. Or maybe it was just because my fingers were so cold by then. By moving a few feet to the right I skipped this difficulty. I haven’t done much aiding so it took a while to get up the bolt ladder. I couldn’t find the 5.8 move at the top, though I tried a few different ways, but by putting a 12” quick draw on the bolt I stepped high enough to get to easier ground and the belay. Here’s a pic of Bob following.

The next pitch is 5.7 and more or less R. Bob thought it was maybe the best pitch of the climb. All about the same difficulty with the distance between the bolts requiring close attention.
Later Bob commented that the whole climb is about the same on the attention scale. Where the climbing is hard the pro is good and as it gets less hard both the pro and the rock quality gets less good. So full value all the time!
This is Bob leading up from the P1 belay.

P3 is a 5.2 and easier traverse, which doesn’t have a lot of pro but was pretty mellow. Though I’ve heard it can be wet it wasn’t this time. Here’s a pic of Bob coming around the corner towards the belay.
In the distance behind him, Clint and all are rebolting Lava Falls, one of the black water streaks.
P4 is supposed to be hard right off the belay. It’s harder now because two footholds broke off as Bob was negotiating this section. Fortunately I had him on a very close belay. I’m guessing that this is no longer a 10b move. When I followed I put a big biner in the bolt and then using it as a hold got up to the jug. Here’s a picture of Bob a few feet above the jug trying to spy out the right way to go.
The rest of this pitch is just more .7 fun cruising, especially if you are following.

Here’s a picture looking west at Elephant Rock.

The next pitch starts with a bolt ladder. I had figured out the aiding thing now, more or less, and soon I was on the top bolt.
The rest of the pitch is a gully sort of thing with easy climbing. It took a bit of care to find good pro but it is there. You take a sharp step to the right to get to the belay. I almost missed it. Here’s Bob even with the belay.
The rock is a bit funky here and for the first third of P6. Fortunately there are some good bolts and a few crucial pro placements. Here’s a picture looking down from about a third of the way up P6.
Here’s a pic looking up.

The route ends on top of Machete Ridge with big drops on both sides. I think it was about 3:00. I had done the Machete Ridge climb before and it was a lot of fun so instead of doing the standard descent we reversed the Machete Ridge route. Here’s a pic on the ridge looking back.
Just a beautiful day.
Here’s a pic looking back at the route on the way to the car. You can see the gully on P5 toward the top.
Here’s a pic of the setting sun on Machete Ridge.
We got back to the car about 5:00 or so. It was just a great day. This is an adventurous, very Pinnacles type route.
We took a 10.5 and 7 mil ropes. We brought some micro stoppers and some Tricams, which we didn’t use. We had one set of BD stoppers, which we did use, though nothing over #10. We took TCUs, grey to orange but didn’t use the two smallest. We had camelots #.3 to #4 with extra #1 and #2. You could leave behind the two smaller ones probably. We brought two aiders, which we passed back down on the bolt ladders. We had four quick draws, three screamers and seven 24” slings with two biners each.
See ya on the rock.
Zander