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caughtinside
Social climber
Davis, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 24, 2008 - 09:41pm PT
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Myself and Ryan (clustiere) managed to get out of town for a 10 day climbing trip. Well, Ryan managed, my schedule is pretty much open these days!
First stop was the Needles, neither of us had ever been. It had been my goal every summer for the past three to get there, and ever summer I failed. Not this year!!
Butt shot of Ryan on the first pitch of our trip, Thin Ice. Just the two of us and one camera, so get ready for more photos of our good sides:
Ryan on his way to string three pitches of Spooky into one great pitch:
Necromancer:
Don't be fooled by the smile and the delicious pizza, this is a dangerous individual!
Ryan following P1 of Fancy Free:
And leads the crux right after:
Pitch 2 of Thin Ice roughed me up and exposed some glaring weaknesses in my skin and crack technique
We'd heard that the cracks were awesome and the faces were scary. Nevertheless, the guidebook description of Love Potion #9 said 'Five Star Classic'
So we went to check for ourselves. Me following P1:
leading p2
I got to the top of pitch 2, but it wasn't the top of the Socerer's Apprentice, there was still 150 feet of sick arete up there! No gear or bolts in sight. I start thinking about how we're going to rap down.
Ryan arrives at the belay. Takes a look. Says something like 'RAD!' and starts climbing:
that third pitch is super bomb granite. Ryan got a slung horn, a tied of knob, and a lousy nut. 50'+ runouts at some points. Glad I got to follow it, because it's an amazing .7 or so pitch on perfect rock, but not sure I have the stones for those runouts!
After 4 days at the Needles we were out of water and ready to move on. That place is truly amazing, absolutely the best granite I have ever seen or climbed on!
We motored out and went to the East side, camped up Rock Creek. Climbed some at the Gong Show crag, worked a hard sport route.
Then it was alpine time.
Bear Creek Spire. We did the north arete, with some interesting variations
Ryan gives the a-ok. Right before launching into the .10 variation described in the ST.
Unfortunately for the both of us, it was the wrong corner. The entire pitch was loose sand. You'd grind in a foot jam and gravel would come spitting out. Saying that it sucked big time is a huge understatement. It would become known the rest of the trip as 'that .10 pitch.' We cursed Chris Mac. Later when surfing mountainproject, I saw a photo of someone on the right corner. We did the junk left of it. Oops!
lifted from MP. This is the correct .10 var. We did the garbage corner to the left:
Me throwing down the Retarded Spider:
Looking down.
Looking up.
Summit ho!
paused for a breather on the hike down
Small world. Ryan ran into some college buds on the hike out
Pretty.
A great day for us on Bear Creek Spire. Got up early and got the thing done in 12 hours car to car.
Afterwards, we went down to Tom's Place to make a few calls and mine the internets for beta on other stuff to climb. We were totally worked. Sat there in the van going "What?" "Huh?" "You say something?" "What?" We sounded like a couple inbreds.
Driving back up to camp though, blasting the Gnarls Barkley, inspiration struck and Ryan proposed getting a couple more pitches on Iris Slab, conveniently located next to the road.
So we did. In the dark.
Next day was a much needed rest day, so we went sport climbing at the Dike Wall near Mammoth.
Alpine sport climbing. Behind the schrund!
Next day we went to Patricia Bowl. We'd both heard it described as excellent crack cragging and it didn't disappoint.
Ryan follows p2 of Boi oi oi oing!
Shot some vid of the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Dz7qhT8Gw
Lens didn't open all the way here, but you can still see the star of the shot, the EGG SALAD SANDWICH. The ultimate climbing power fuel. This stuff kept us cranking!! Donny, I love you man! You kick ass!!
Rackin' em up at patty bowl:
Next day was another rest day, so we went sport climbing at the Warming Wall in mammoth. Place is pretty mediocre... which means if it was in the bay area it'd be packed. But it did have a 3 min approach, and we were looking to save our legs for the trip finale.
The Southwest face of Conness. The Harding Route goes up the center.
Naturally, right after taking that shot my camera died, so I've got no photos of us on the route itself. It was a fantastic climb though, we moved well and Ryan led both the .10c and the .10a wide crux pitches in style. For me, it was my first free grade V, a pretty big milestone for me on a proud route. Psyched!!! 16 hours car to car, then another 5 hours of so driving back to the east bay.
Great trip overall, great partner, sampled lots of new areas, did some killer routes. 65 pitches in 9 climbing days... and I'm hungry for more!
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Aug 24, 2008 - 09:46pm PT
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That's bad-ass!!!! I wish I was out there with y'all.
Keep gettin' 'er done!
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Aug 24, 2008 - 10:27pm PT
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Awesome! Didn't you love the Needles? Beautiful isn't it? The second pitch of Thin Ice didn't draw blood, but I was not sporting much a smile when I topped out. Dave pointed the camera at me and said "Smile". My response: "I can't smile right now." That is one burly pitch!
Thanks for posting!
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caughtinside
Social climber
Davis, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 24, 2008 - 11:02pm PT
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Needles is amazing!! Some great rock there, and great climbs.
Forgot a couple things. First:
BIG THANKS to Bill F. for hooking me up a couple years ago with some hard to come by needles info. Thanks bill!
Thanks also to my friends M & J, who gave me a great needles tip: bring a mountain bike. We probably got an extra pitch a day because of that! Even though we biked out by headlamp!
Couple gear reviews as well:
Finally took the 9.1 70m beal joker out of the bag. Great rope! Light, long, awesome for linking pitches. Held up well. it stretches a ton though, so be aware.
Ryan had a metolius master cam, the yellow one, same size as the yellow alien. I had been skeptical of these things, but they are really nice cams. Personally, I don't believe they are the equal of aliens, but they come closer than anything else. Way better than C3s, and a little better than Zeros.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Aug 25, 2008 - 12:06am PT
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Good job, guys! I'm glad you had fun.
CI...you should stop by again before your next big tour of duty for a feeding and to make us jealous w/ your plans.
Fun to put a Supertopo avatar to a face and a real name too. I've met Ryan in the gym.
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
Vacaville Ca,
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Aug 25, 2008 - 01:03am PT
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Sweet!!!
I'm super jealous. You up for a trip to the Hulk? Or a grade VI in September? Seeing as how you have all this "free time" and all.
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L
climber
In search of the Perfect Lie...I mean..Life
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Aug 25, 2008 - 01:21am PT
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Good one CI! You guyz are two tough hombres.
My hands and knees looked a lot like yours after P2 of Thin Ice (only worse)...I could barely climb anything else that day for fear of bleeding all over the rock and/or tearing off an appendage.
Such a beautiful place--thanks for the excellent photos and write-up.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Aug 25, 2008 - 02:33am PT
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bump, good stuff guys!
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berghold
Trad climber
Calistoga
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Aug 25, 2008 - 02:53am PT
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Dave: Like the others say you've been making good use of your time lately. . . Maybe I won't auction off that Needles guide book after all! Cheers ! Eric
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Aug 25, 2008 - 03:42am PT
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Nice report.
One caption correction:
Wizard (not Necromancer)
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Arid-zona
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Aug 25, 2008 - 03:54am PT
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Woooooooooooooooooooot!!
Go Clustiere get after it man. That's funny you ran into Brian and Karyn on the trail.
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clustiere
Trad climber
berkeley ca
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Aug 25, 2008 - 04:42am PT
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Yeah I was suprised to see them as well. I recognized them from a hundred yards off and just started screaming at em like a maniac, I think they were in shock well before they even realized it was me. They are both looking good.
The climbing trip was grreeeattt. hoping to get a few more things done this fall before I just give in to being a gym rat and clipping bolts. I am gonna miss Indian Creek Season, SSSOoooo sad.
Still, getting my high dolla education is worth it.
Greg- I will never forget hiding a topo under your pillow to get you pumped about some route on Angel's landing. Or calling at 1am to remind you that you needed to train up fer some big wallin.
Well I am an official now and againder rock climber, gone are the days of running up Granite Mtn before class or spitting off a few laps at IC before work, the bay is rather limited- except in plastic. It works except for the wide open spaces.
clustiere
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clustiere
Trad climber
berkeley ca
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Aug 25, 2008 - 12:27pm PT
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THe last five hour drive was torture, I was so dehydrated that I couldn't close my eyes and I was too stubborn to pull over to seek out the nourishment just 8 ft behind me. So sad, finally comming around, and I did such a good job taking care of my body the whole trip, till then. Anyway, Nice trip report Caught!
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Aug 25, 2008 - 12:40pm PT
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What a great trip! Thanks for letting us in on it!.. Like Cmac, I've never been to the needles, what have I been up to all these years, to miss that?
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Aug 25, 2008 - 02:37pm PT
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nice tr-- a real marathon esp. when you factor in the driving.
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GDavis
Trad climber
SoCal
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Aug 25, 2008 - 02:53pm PT
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Looks like some pretty stellar climbing :O
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the Fet
Knackered climber
A bivy sack in the secret campground
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Aug 25, 2008 - 05:21pm PT
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You know on rest days most people... rest.
For years I did the "we gotta get down to SEKI", I finally did two years ago and it was great. Now I gotta get down to the Needles. That thought has been bouncing around in the back of my skull, but now I'm gonna be jonesin until I experience it. Thanks!
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Aug 25, 2008 - 11:48pm PT
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Nice TR Caught,
Wow you got in a lot of rock! I'm envious.
Zander
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pc
climber
East of Seattle
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Aug 26, 2008 - 12:29am PT
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Excellent! Bump-a-do...
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