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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 8, 2008 - 07:26pm PT
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If you haven’t been crack climbing in some time, they sure can slap you, even the easy ones.
I finally decided that I needed to climb something other than the few routes I’ve been running laps on this summer. Our local rocks feature all of one real crack route, a full pitch 5.8 named the shockingly original but somewhat apropos Classic Crack. The route crux’s right off the ground, snicker, snicker 5.8 crux yeah right. It starts with a 20’ vertical section that flares inwards and tightens up to a left facing crack that is between hands and fist. There are places to either jam your feet or stem out on the face, but it is a strenuous route especially if you get spooked on lead and are fumbling with gear. No tape, no chalk, no problem…
It’s been at least 5 years since I’ve done the route, and I recalled how the start was strenuous. Somehow I’ve increased in girth and mirth, and conversely find my climbing skills have shriveled up. While my nicely engineered Blanchard soloist has been a steady companion on various adventures soon to span 3 decades, it just doesn’t provide even a tingle of motivation. It may sound corny, but somehow when you have someone else’s hands on the rope for a belay, there are some vibes zipped up to the leader on the sharp end. Maybe it’s just fear of embarrassment in front of a friend. With too little sleep, too much caffeine, and several days of grey scudded skies with the ever present threat of rain, I was just wondering what in blazes I was doing out there.
I figured the only way to answer why I was there was to start climbing. I’d managed to get in a #4 tcu, #3 friend and #3 camalot. I wasn’t so much physically struggling as mentally pumped. I may have never subscribed to falling my way up routes, but on occasion I can tuck my tail between my legs and dog like the best of them. Somewhere, somehow I dug down and figured I had to get up this thing. I’ve climbed it before, and the cheap bastard within me wasn’t about to lower off a cam. If there was a bolt I could have slung and bailed, I might have, but no way would I leave a cam.
I reached up high, slugged in a #4 camalot, pulled out the #3 friend to place it higher up the route, clove hitched the #3 camalot to back up the #4 tcu that made up my anchor and struggled my way upwards. Once you get the top of the flare, the crack heads off to the left and becomes a sloping ledge. I plugged a #2 camalot, worked my way over the ledge and upwards. One more move and I found myself on a low angle slab that heads up 20-30’ to a belay chain. While the route is all of one rope length, it has a nasty tendency to snag ropes as well as provide horrendous drag when pulling the whole pitch, so is often split up as two pitches.
So now I found myself pondering what to do next. The joys of roped soloing are your success and failure is entirely up to you. The downside for a multi-pitch or full pitch route with one rope is you get to lead, rap, clean and follow the route for every pitch. Sometimes doing everything twice is good, sometimes not, especially if the first go didn’t feel so hot. The second half of the route has always been my favorite, but I was concerned if I led it, anchored on top, rapped and cleaned the whole pitch I wouldn’t have enough left to follow the route. The other option was rap and clean the route to free the end of the rope from the base anchor, then backtrack up the highway for ½ mile, bushwack ½ mile back to the top of the route. Then I could rap the route with the single rope to the ½ way anchor, but that just wasn’t appealing, at all. I could have simply rapped from the chain, cleaned the route on the way down and dejectedly driven back to work. Somehow I couldn’t quite do that, so I committed myself to a repeat by tying the rope to the anchor and rapping the free end.
I figured I could somewhat redeem myself by following on a tr. Rapping on a single strand of 10mm doesn’t offer much friction, and trying to hold on the stretching line, keeping an eye out on razor sharp edges and pulling gear was a bit un-nerving. I got down and now had another debate. Do I take the rack with me should I feel up to second half or the route, or do I put the gear in my back and enjoy following w/o the cumbersome rack. Once again I tucked tail and put the rack in the pack.
Amazing what the security of a tr, lack of gear to fiddle with and a warm-up can do. This really did feel like a 5.8. Strange how one can go from the self doubts that make you question why you participate in this seemingly fruitless endeavor of climbing to have that question solidly answered. My partner is supposed to be back in a day or two, so I’m looking forward to heading back to perhaps the aptly named good vibes wall and another go at the classic crack.
The rain finally came, well just a few sprinkles on the drive back. And right before pulling into work I started grooving to the beat of Sir Mix-a-lot with his Posse on Broadway. Classic crack, classic rap, any connection? It took me right back to my first climbing trips and one of my first partners who introduced me to rap.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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I need to start trying rope soloing, I always run into situations now where "everybody's busy" or, "let's go tomorrow".
Paul, or others, can you explain your rigs in enough detail for someone who's never done it? Gear and systems involved.
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2008 - 08:27pm PT
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Bluering,
Yeah that’s what got me into roped soloing, that and being an impetuous anti-social loner who when the bug hits will drop everything and go climbing.
Anyhow, at the time I started the only unit on the market was the soloist. Actually when I first started roped soloing it was aid routes tying into the rope with clove hitches on locking biners, and adjusting the cloves as I needed slack. Works well enough on aid, but not really an option for free climbing. After the introduction of the soloist the silent partner came out. The downside of the soloist is it won’t catch an inverted fall, and you need a chest harness, but the chest harness has never bothered me, and I rope solo under my limit and on vertical or less than vertical routes. The silent parter also requires you to back tie slack loops of rope, and that looked like a snagfest waiting to happen. So I’ve stuck with the soloist, as there is something to be said for familiarity. Some folks use the grigri or ascenders, or modifications there of. Personally I can’t see using a device not designed for roped soloing. $100 odd bucks just isn’t that much money for a dedicated device.
Ok, so there are two ways you use the device, and I’ll just talk about the soloist. For top roping it is simplicity itself. My favorite tr route was probably the falls route at Castle Rock, ran 10 laps one afternoon. Tie your rope to whatever anchor you have, rap down to the base. I prefer to take the rope slack, coil it up and tie it so that it hangs a few feet off the ground. The slight weight of the slack makes the rope self feed smoothly. Also a newer rope makes for smoother feeding. Pull the cam out of the soloist, feed the anchor end as noted, re-assemble, clip to your chest harness and start climbing. If you feel gripped, pull slack through the device until snug and hang like a dog. If you get to a point that you can’t climb past, you snug up the rope, then lean back and lower off. Or, you can pull a bite of rope through the slot in the back of the unit, clip that to a locker on your harness and it turns into a rappel device. Since your rope isn’t rubbing against the rock as in a traditional tr, your rope will last a lot longer.
For leading, it’s a bit more work as I mentioned in the first thread. You need to build an anchor at the base of the route, assuming a crack climb. For bolted routes you can just tie a figure 8 on the end of the rope, clip the first bolt with a locking biner, then clip the second bolt with a locker and clove hitch the rope for a redundant anchor. Other then that it’s lead and place gear or clip as you go. If you have the possibility of a headfirst fall, tie in say 10’ out in your slack line to a locker on your harness. Also tie the end of the rope with some sort of stopper knot, so it doesn’t snake it’s way out of the device at the end of the pitch.
For a multipitch route, you tie the end of the rope to the anchor, run the bite through the soloist to make it a rappel device, then rap and clean the route. Pull the bite of rope out to return to belay mode and follow the route as if you were tr’n it. Lead the subsequent pitches and repeat the rap and clean routine until you finish.
There are a few cautions to roped soloing. You’re eyes are the only ones looking over your harness to make sure it’s double buckled, your knots are correctly tied, your anchor is solid, etc. I have managed to run my rope into the soloist backwards on at least one occasion, so I was free soloing with a lot of effort. And speaking of free soloing, I think the best approach to roped soloing is to have a free soloing mindset, i.e. you must not fall.
Just like any climbing endeavor, bouldering, leading, tr, there are risks and rewards to be had.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Thanks Paul, I appreciate it.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there toleman_paul...
say, this was very interesting... ( i know nothing about climbing, but from the bits and peices i hear from you all)....
i really do like trying to see and understand it all, though... especially as to the differnent kinds of rock, or climbs...
very interesting... thanks for the neat share... (say, i like the "touch of the weather" bit, too... mood-setting of the great outdoors!)...
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 10, 2008 - 05:48pm PT
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Went back with a partner and a camera. My partner is a pretty solid 10 climber and can make it up most 11's. So when I saw him struggling a bit on the first 1/2 of the route, I realized I wasn't having that bad of a day earlier in the week. We swapped leads at the half way and I cranked up the upper section of the climb. While soloing a low angle 5.6-5.7 face doesn't do much for ones muscles on a dead verticle crack route, it sure has helped with my lead head. Hard to believe a stiff 5.8 seems to be my limit, but while my arms were a bit weak, I fealt solid and mellow even with a 100' of exposure on a sketchy section.
From the road (the route is just a tad to the left of dead center)
Another beautiful sunny day
Base of the climb after partner lead it.
Start of upper 1/2 of the route.
Looking down from the top
Partner rapping off
(seems everbody digs pics)
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jul 10, 2008 - 07:03pm PT
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hey there... say, i had to come back to see more.. and you got more stuff up, too... say, when i was a kid, i thought cracks were all about finding neat lizzards, in...
then, when i got older, i thought they would be really cool to have rushing waterfalls flowing through them....
now, after supertopo, i of course, realize, that THAT would spoil a right-good climb! :)
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Danielle Winters
Trad climber
Alaska
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Jul 10, 2008 - 08:03pm PT
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Paul
That was a great post about Good Vibes wall and solo climbing ,as a Alaskan climber I know it well and enjoyed the Pics. There was some Booty in that crack earlyer this spring from lower offs. I check it whenever I can for new gear.LOL!
If you ever find your self with out a parter again dont be Afraid to e-mail me If I am in state I always want to go climbing .. Currently Climbing In Acadia Nation park on Granite . should be back by August 4th .
Danielle
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Jul 10, 2008 - 08:58pm PT
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Thanks for the pics Paul, cool crag.
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