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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 1, 2007 - 12:10am PT
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My aiders are collecting dust; I am a free climber now. I can think of nothing that is as exciting and as exhilarating as cranking your way up a virgin section of stone to what you think will be a decent stance, only to find that you had better slap that quarter-incher in damn quick ‘cause that decent stance is really a jingus, calf-burning sloper! THIS is rock climbing at its best (or so I currently think)!
Do you get the bolt placed in the nick of time? Or do your calves sketch out, defying the best of your mental abilities and sending you on a -200 grit friction test? Will you stab yourself with your super-sharp drill bit or konk yourself with your mighty hammer in mid-flight (or mid-tumble…)? Got yer helmet on?
Is ground-up stance drilling with a hand drill dead, a lost art? Will rap-bolting monopolize the future? Have we climbers lost sight of the means by which we establish a route with all focus directed towards the end product? Does the path towards a quality route matter anymore?
What may be a jingus stance to me may be a ledge to others. Who are the all-time kings of stance drilling? Who are the ones who have defined the term – the ones who we would call BAD ASS? Higgins? Others? Who are the ones who keep the adventure alive today? Got any good stance drilling episodes that you would like to share? The real deal – let’s hear it!
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Minerals wrote:
"Who are the all-time kings of stance drilling? Who are the ones who have defined the term – the ones who we would call BAD ASS? Higgins? Others?"
No list will ever be complete without Jack Holmgren. Bad ass and bold. Dogmatic as hell about it too. Yeah, and Higgins for sure.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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I really don't know who was willing to withstand the most pain to get a bolt in, but I have a few nominations from back in the day.
Ron Carson - go do Skid Row at Dome Rock and just try to imagine putting that 3rd bolt in with NO footholds and only one edge to hold onto while also holding the drill bit. Incredible!!!
Dave Houser - one of the world's fastest on-stance bolter's. We once watched him put a 1 1/4" x 1/4" bolt in, in less than 5 minutes. He claimed that was all the time he could stand/hang there.
Kris Solem - has hooked on smaller edges than anyone else in history. Made a special aluminum hook with no 'hook' just a snout to hang on the tiniest holds without pulling them off (at least until you tried to climb on them).
Of course the real trick is to drill a 1/4" deep hole and hook that while drilling the real hole so that the hanger will hide the hooking hole.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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I dun some of dat shite.
Very creative stuff.
I like Ament's report of stabilising his forearm between 2 knobs while drilling on too steep to drill rock in the Flatirons on a route called Soarks.
From a thread titled "A Very Ament's Slab":
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=460604&msg=480368#msg480368
"We forgot the hammer, so I placed a bolt using a stone from the scree slope. I placed the bolt on an overhanging wall, held on by my forearm jammed between two small protrusions of rock. I could free a couple of fingers of that jammed forearm to hold the drill and was able to let go with my right hand to hammer with the rock. I dropped the rock once or twice, and Higgins would tie another onto the rope that I would have to haul up. That was a feat."
-Pat Ament
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Stance drilling is not dead! With today's carbide-tipped bits you can drill big holes fast. This past summer in Tuolumne, with a sharp bit, I could drill a 3/8"x2" hole in 10 minutes from stance.
YMMV.
I say go for it! If you know what you are doing when you put up first ascents it doesn't matter if you do it ground up or on rappel so why not go for the once-only experience of drilling on lead. Those who bolt from rappel are really missing out on one of the truly unique experiences in climbing.
Bruce
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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So when are we gonna hear some details about your 14 new routes in TM?
Grades?
Locations?
Pics?
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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in the old days of tuolumne, and just before the bosch bulldog took over, there were a few of us that took stance drilling to the next level. scott burke was good, so was bachar, even al dude was ok, and i did some wicked stances like royal flush on medlicott, and the unreapeated coup de gras on fairview. but the best was kurt "the kid" smith, who at 120 pounds upon his tuolumne debut, could stand and drill where even bachar couldn´t on one of the far right medlicott routes, maybe THE KID. steve schneider
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MisterE
Social climber
My Inner Nut
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Minerals and Greg, showing us how it's done:
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Drilling on lead from stances is not a lost art, a oddity, or a strange event;....it's a weekly activity......
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!