Climbing Snake Dike 5.7 on Half Dome

Snake Dike has recently received a lot of attention due to a large and injurious fall that a competent climber took a few years back. Many have called for a retro bolting of this route and lots of information has been shared on each side of the debate. Having now climbed this I learned a handful of things that I wasn't able to learn from lurking through forum posts:

- The current (2024) bolts are needing replaced. There is not a single stainless steel bolt on the route and occasionally there is only one button head protecting you.
- Getting off route is difficult, but skipping an anchor hoping to link pitches is highly inviting and in some cases could leave you out of rope and far from protection
- On an average week day mid season there were 12 climbers on route
- The remaining 1000' of the route is not nonconsequential and there is near zero protection
- Descending the Cables Route while the cables are down (without the giant hikers prusik) is potentially sketchier than taking a screamer off Snake Dike
- There are a couple spots where you could sling a chicken head for extra protection
- The party in front of us said they were newer climbers and successfully climbed this with approach shoes only and a massive backpack
- This route and approach is way more of an undertaking than I had predicted
- There are 6 pro bolts on route, and one rap anchor off route you could use for extra pro if needed. There are bolted anchors all the way to the top of pitch 6. Gear Loop Topos is what we used and it was 100% accurate
- The most important thing I learning is that everyone pees in the freaking hole on pitch 5. Which is great if you want to store urine. If not you can pee off route on the slab and it'll evaporate in 5 seconds.

Our team had an epic day! We started at 8am and took the shuttle. 16+ hours and 6,000' in elevation gain and loss later we got back to our car. We then arrived to our cabin around 2am, packed up in record time, and drove straight to the airport. I dropped my buddies off around 4:30am for their 6am flights back to the flatlands. Aint no rest for the wicked!

Check out Jon’s video of our day!    • Josh vs Snake Dike the extended play ...  si=sR9ZQDguWtSXfq2m