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tarallo
Trad climber
italy
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 28, 2010 - 08:25am PT
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hi can i have some info about this route?
what route can be compared ?for example mescalito or the shield
is it much harder than those etc
can you post some photos?
ciao
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 28, 2010 - 08:41am PT
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oh deer.
Cooler chimblys, from what I've gathered.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 28, 2010 - 09:25am PT
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There's some stuff here on McTopo.
I climbed it with Tom in the fall of '04. In spite of its outstanding natural line, it is one of my LEAST favourite El Cap routes.
There are some pretty nasty offwidths and chimneys that are hellaciously awkward. My lack of free climbing ability is well-known, but I am a caver, and usually do OK in chimneys. But these ones were tough and unfriendly, "as much fun to clean as they are to lead."
We brought along some 9" and 12" Valley Giant cams which obviously helped a lot, but even so, these chimneys were HARD and wicked awkward.
I have my Dr. Piton Super-Duper Beta topo scanned, and I could email it to you if you like - send me an email via the website so I can reply. And it might cost you a few beers on the bridge this spring... {wink}
Excalibur is a much better route nearby. Sunkist is brilliant and much much better. Cosmos isn't bad.
I haven't done the Shield, but SOH is a couple notches harder than a trade route like Mescalito, for sure. It sees very few ascents. I think it's only had the one ascent linked above since we did it.
In spite of it being one of my least favourite routes on the Captain, if not my VERY least favourite, on a different post here on McTopo, you will find a number of climbers writing that they have climbed it, and saying they really liked it. So one man's grovel-fest is another man's classic.
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Levy
Big Wall climber
So Cal
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Jan 28, 2010 - 10:32am PT
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See the link Wally provides to my earlier Trip Report from 2008 for lots of pictures.
Bring some large cams & be solid on wide cracks, or at least have the ability to aid your way up them. A 9" cam or two would be nice to have.
On pitch 10, where the C-Mac topo shows a pendulum over left, you can hook instead directly over to the upper crack. An old bolt is nearby and 2 or 3 hook moves get you to the crack much more easily than the grassy nailing you would have to do if you pendo.
Great position, cool rock and a high Obscurity factor make this a memorable route.
Have fun!
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tarallo
Trad climber
italy
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 28, 2010 - 10:48am PT
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thank you so much the kierkegard chimney seems very hard....
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 28, 2010 - 11:56am PT
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Bill's hooking tip above [the "slick arete" pitch] is important! I used the bolt and penji'd-lowered down, only to find myself climbing a vertical jungle of bushes. Really really horrible.
Kierkegaard didn't seem too bad [the 13th pitch] but the chimney above it [the 14th pitch] was a REAL struggle for both me as leader, and for Tom as cleaner. And that was WITH the big cams!
Blech. Why the appeal of this route?
Bill - you've done a ton of El Cap routes - what was your bottom line take on SOH? Great? Good? OK? Not good? Horrible? I'd be somewhere between "not good" with some "horrible" thrown in. So many better routes to climb, in my opinion.
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tarallo
Trad climber
italy
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 28, 2010 - 04:54pm PT
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pete do you think the shield is better?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 28, 2010 - 05:36pm PT
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Amazingly, the Shield is one route I have knott yet done! So I can't tell you.
But I just didn't like Son of Heart, even being a caver I didn't like the chimneys and the claustrophic feeling. So in spite of never having done the Shield, I'm sure I personally would enjoy it a LOT more than Son of Heart. In fact, I would enjoy a visit to the dentist more than Son of Heart.
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Levy
Big Wall climber
So Cal
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Jan 28, 2010 - 07:10pm PT
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Hey Pete, I liked it! The route was more strenuous than most but with memorable pitches & position. The wide stuff was burly but who wants to do easy walls?
Lots of killer gold & tangerine colored rock up there to enjoy.
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TripL7
Trad climber
san diego
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Jan 29, 2010 - 01:02am PT
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Spring of 1975 Dave Stutzman RIP, and Maurice(from Norway)attempted the second. Neither one of them had done a route on the Captain. Dave led Kierkegaard and Nietzsche chimney pitches totally unprotected. From belay to belay with zero/zilch/Nada piece of pro. Dave described it as a double overhanging flared OW/chimney. Did it with no aid or pro. No one has done it in that style since. Although Dale and Gramicci must have come close with just the bongs.
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Jan 29, 2010 - 03:41am PT
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Bill, loved your post on this one!!
Especially this one of "E" enjoying a refreshment break midlead!!!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 29, 2010 - 03:51am PT
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so, if your'e oaky with leading .10 wyde do you really need to drag those boat anchors, with you?
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Darkcrystal
Trad climber
Lausanne, Switzerland
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It has been written above
"Spring of 1975 Dave Stutzman RIP, and Maurice(from Norway)attempted the second. Neither one of them had done a route on the Captain. Dave led Kierkegaard and Nietzsche chimney ..."
So far OK, except I am Swiss.
What is written after is false, pure legend! Dave did place several protections, in particular we had some 10-15cm aluminium tubes (I may still have some in my basement), and in order to remove them when jumaring up, I had to go so deep inside the chimneys that I had to remove my helmet.
I do not claim that these protections were very good ... but probably not worse than the belays :-(
We have been rescued 3 pitches below the top on the 12th day, by Mark Chapman, Jim Orey, and 3 of their friends who helped carrying water and ropes.
May Ganesh protect them! One week later, Jim even did lend me some hardware to go to the triple direct ... the kind of nice gestures you will never forget!
maurice
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Wow. You guys got rescued three pitches from the top? That's one easy nailing pitch, and two easy slab pitches.
Maurice - what happened?
[Thanks for your recollections, Butch, although they are of course second-hand]
I never could have gotten up SoH without Tom's big-ass Valley Giant cams. Yeah, I cheated. And we had a solar-powered shower on the summit.
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Darkcrystal
Trad climber
Lausanne, Switzerland
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Some reactions first, thanks anyway for opening the box ... a lot to be said but I have to be careful, sometimes there are words that cannot be removed. Nice to hear that some people do remember ... Butch ...
"And the 12 days on the wall that Maurice mentions above includes at least 4 days of hanging stationary at their high point, hanging in their hammocks(not climbing) ... "
False, we stopped moving the 11th day early pm. This is what made the decision for the rescuers to move up the next morning.
They had been observing us from the beginning, and latest on the 5th day was it clear to them that our attempt was "kind of hopeless".
I will try in another post to explain how we managed to be so slow (starting hauling the 2 bags along the Salathé, or the leader forgetting to take either the hauling line or the second skyhook ... yes, we did all this :-) ... a lot to be learned for unexperienced big wall climbers ... as we were)
I consider Dave's suspicion regarding Mark & Jims secondary motives just odious! These guys had taken risks, sacrified a nice day and given lot's of efforts, just to avoid us facing an official rescue and a desperate bill! They had carried all the way up not only water, but as well teans of fruits, the only thing we would be able to eat in our condition.
True, from what I could observe jumaring up the rescue ropes, the last pitches did not represent any serious technical problems, but:
we would have needed liquid, food, and most probably additional hardware, for we had lost quite a lot, and were no more in condition to climb with a "ready to be washed" belay. Even if we had received all of this and finished the climb, for me it would not have been the 2nd ascent anyway.
What the 5 rescuers did that day remains a beautiful piece of modern chevalry
maurice
ps: I had written a high level account in french
http://www.everyoneweb.fr/ghml/
click on the left "Les plaquettes GHML" then 1976
Moreover there is a picture of Dave in his hammock on the
"cinquantenaire"
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Darkcrystal
Trad climber
Lausanne, Switzerland
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"Also i am not sure what you are saying(perhaps insinuating)with "glad some remember....Butch...."
Just take it positively Butch :-)
maurice
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Wow, nice mountain photos on your link. But where is the SoH story please? Can you provide a direct link?
I am still lost. Where precisely were you guys rescued?
I uploaded my annotated SoH topo, have a look - can you tell me where you guys were?
http://imageshack.us/f/52/sonofhearttopo.jpg/
Cheers,
Pete
P.S. Lemme know if the link to my topo above is working ok, eh? All you aspiring ascensionists should have a look. And the Hardmen can make fun of us for using Valley Giants and taking two weeks to climb it! Actually, laughing my ass off here - the two weeks doesn't count the five nights preceeding the route itself! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!! I had busted my ankle pretty badly on the Ranch that spring, and I remember wearing my removable cast on part of the climb. So I wasn't exactly "on form"....
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Darkcrystal
Trad climber
Lausanne, Switzerland
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"I uploaded my annotated SoH topo, have a look - can you tell me where you guys were? "
We were in the pitch after the Tonsilectomy traverse (about 1/3 of the pitch?). Actually you can go to
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/682186/Son-Of-Heart-T-R
The last picture is on the top, the last but one picture is in the pitch after the T traverse. We were slightly below the point were the climber is.
maurice
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Darkcrystal
Trad climber
Lausanne, Switzerland
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"But where is the SoH story please? Can you provide a direct link? "
No direct link sorry,the young guys in my club did scan some old publications.
I will try to be more precise: Open
http://www.everyoneweb.fr/ghml/
and stay at the top of the page, untill it becomes blue and a menu opens on the left,then click the last but one item "Les plaquettes GHML", the menu expands, click " 1976",
appears then a new page. Go down 3/5 of it:
the title is "San Fransico le 27 mars 1975".
The actual account of SoH begins with "Fin avril: Un gars nommé David ..."
If instead of "1976" you click on "cinquantenaire", then going down a little bit, after a nice drawing (premonitory of Alex Honnolt on HD :-)
you get a picture: "bivouac au Yosemite". It is Dave in his hammock at belay 14, hanging at a rope fixed at the triangular roof (beginning of the T-traverse).
Although 36 years have passed, I must say that your topo seems at some points for the least strange to me (in particular between belay 9 and 11) maybe I should take the warning seriously :-)
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