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TradIsGood
Happy and Healthy climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 16, 2007 - 07:05pm PT
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I guess a true AO requires that you have no memory of even doing the route.
I had not done Andrew in a very long time. I knew I had been on it (turns out the 9th time I went climbing). So let's just call this an AAO, since I remember being on the route, but absolutely nothing about it, except that it seemed pretty exposed - also did Moonlight that day.
Five years later it just seemed like the time. So we walk way down the carriage road, even though the forecast is for scattered T-Storms starting about noon. The first pitch is really nothing special, easy terrain, easy gear, straight up. P2 is just a walk to the oak tree. OK it is a little special, because you get to see Twilight Zone 13b up much closer.
The view of Twilight Zone improves even more on P3 as you continue up and keep traversing right whenever up does not work. Seems like the flakes were all placed by intelligent design and historical pins remain at strategic spots, often no longer relevant, except maybe to say, "yes, keep coming this way."
Never really figured out where P3 was supposed to end. No trees, or chains, which are typical of the easier Gunks grades. Supposedly on some ledge. Next time back I will try to remember to look for it. Anyway it was fun just figuring out when to go up and when to go right. Topped out with great side view of Twilight Zone. The tree at the top was so far back and I only had a single sling and a cordelette left. Tried to set the anchor with clove hitch so that I could hang out at the edge and watch my partner, but there just was not enough rope for that.
I would post some great shots of climbers on Twilight Zone except for a few minor technical difficulties.
 No camera
No climbers on TZ
It started raining lightly shortly after my second arrived. Kindly it stopped shortly thereafter and did not start again until we had had a chance to play on Sleepwalk and Ant's Line. Then it thundered as advertised and we made the long (nearly dry) trek to the parking lot.
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Rocky5000
Trad climber
Falls Church, VA
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Jul 16, 2007 - 10:01pm PT
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I've done plenty of Alzheimer's ascents... I think... or so they tell me. Recent diary entry, Mather Gorge:
I had pretty much forgotten this particular pitch, which I also led when Drew and I did it. I must have deliberately blocked the horror from my conscious mind. Or perhaps it was drier then or I was stronger mentally or physically. I found the relevant paragraph in my Mather 98 file:
"The third pitch would hardly be even marked on a topo, yet is so peculiar and even dangerous that it must be described. At this belay one might continue traversing across relatively uninteresting, smooth slopes, or simply choose, as we did, to climb up what looks like easy ground to the trees. After 15 or 20' I set a good large piece and saw that the lichens and other vegetation were nearly burying the mostly down-sloping, unusable surfaces of the rock; obscured by the grunge was a bit of 5.4-ish climbing, and the fall looked quite unpleasant, even after I set a decent brown tricam. I climbed gradually into less and less trustworthy territory, until I was able to grasp a bush and then a small tree that had clearly been almost torn from the cliff by winters past, and was hanging on with a few wisps of roots somewhere under all the detritus, which thankfully did not include any poison ivy at this spot."
On this occasion I did not dare to grasp the small dead tree, if it was the same one, nor any bushes; I just slimed up it, pissing and moaning as a light rain began to fall.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jul 17, 2007 - 12:01am PT
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Alzheimer's really does mean you can never climb the same route twice. Though we were already told that in Philosophy 101.
It's when you start doing too many first ascents of the same line that you need to be worried.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Jul 17, 2007 - 12:03am PT
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Thanks for the TR. I think that's just the way I remember it. Wait, have I climbed at the Gunks?
Zander
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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Jul 17, 2007 - 12:04am PT
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WHO are you people?
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 17, 2007 - 02:00am PT
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I can't remember this stuff either, so I try to write it down...
...but I apparently never did Andrew which is strange since it at 5.4 it would have been a candidate route for when the project du jour seemed too hard.
I have done Moonlight and Updraft (in 1980) and Hans' Puss (1988) in the same area... and CCK (1988) in my guide book Twilight Zone is rated 5.4 A2, it must have been freed, what's the rating these days?
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TradIsGood
Happy and Healthy climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2007 - 07:18am PT
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Ed, it would stand to reason that you had done Updraft with that chimney at the top. Led that about a month ago with the same partner. Actually had to turn around inside it!
Moonlight is another one I am working up the nerve to lead. Long relatively gear-less traverse over to the crux if I recall.
I will edit later if I am wrong, but I believe the latest Williams has TZ at 5.6 A2 and 13b free (Lynn Hill?)
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Jul 17, 2007 - 08:36am PT
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Look for an edit from TiG on that one!
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Brian Boyd
Trad climber
Scottsdale, AZ
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Jul 17, 2007 - 09:34am PT
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Old photo of Twilight Zone:
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 17, 2007 - 10:51am PT
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TIG - I remember that our rack was one set of stoppers and one set of hexes. That meant that everything we did was runout... we just didn't know any better.
Brian - killer picture... I have a print of a long lost negative I need to scan, not on Twilght Zone but of Drunkard's Delight, to compare the old ways with the new... but I dig the old shots.
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Brian Boyd
Trad climber
Scottsdale, AZ
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Jul 17, 2007 - 11:00am PT
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I used to climb aid with a guy who was a foot taller than me, and also had a much bigger arm span. Following TZ was entertaining, as many of the placements were well out of reach. It involved a lot of dyno-ing of of the top steps of my aiders.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 17, 2007 - 02:15pm PT
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Mike Church leads Drunkard's Delight sometime in the 80's
compare the rack with a modern picture from rockclimbing.com:
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TradIsGood
Happy and Healthy climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2007 - 04:59pm PT
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OK - here is the edit.
The 5.6 A2 is from Swain (1995).
The 5.13b is from Williams who has Russ Clune and Jordan Mills listed as the FFAs in Nov. 1993.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Jul 17, 2007 - 05:46pm PT
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Even with shoes on his harness, the oldschooler is still carrying less weight than the cam addict.
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