T-Trip Beta (Beta-Topic)

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Lambone

Ice climber

Ashland, Or

Topic Author's Original Post - May 10, 2009 - 03:43am PT

I just wrote this for a friend.

I figured I spent a while writting it, so may as well post it here. keep in mind I have had a few margeritas so don't mind the typing. feel free to critique all ya want. it's been a few years since I was on it.

Mega Beta comin at ya!

Tip 1-
bring free shoes and chalk. and put the best free climber on the pendi pitch on p10(i think), and the next 5.10 left traverse pitch(11), and the "rotten" pitch up higher. Oh, and the hooking pitches after the bolt ladders. But all the free is easy and feels really safe.

p4- can be done in several ways.

First of all- you can SKIP it altogether, by taking the Virginia Start. This is a direct start, straight up, three pitches and skips the downward traverse and all the pitch 2 bullsh#t. this variation is commonly done these days, but it is "headier" aid on smaller gear and small features mixed with a few bolts and probably many fixed heads. A3? I guess, I haven't done it myself,but I have done the regular start 4 times (4 to 1, worst odds so far for me).

If you do the traditional start, first of all...Fix to top of p3 or p4 with two ropes. Fixing to pitch two can chop your rope if you don't have some good edge protection. You will likely chop it jugging up, this happened to a friend of mine, but luckily he survived the gnarly core shot. Make sure your ropes are freehanging to the deck! This is critical to being alive on the Trip.

P3- is easy, with a run up a slab then aid on #3 camalots for a while, to a belay. Kinda steep and awkward at the end, but Takes 10 minutes. I linked p3 and 4 with a long rope. It was a good link with fat bolts in the middle and below th roof. But there is a weird edge right above the p3 belay that I don't like. The rope gets caught in a roof crack- kind of thing. I jammed a big offset nut in upside down in the corner to keep the rope from slotting in the crack, worked pretty well both times. This is key beta for the link otherwise rope drag will kill you under the roof on p4.

then P4 is good on smaller gear, until you get about 3 moves from the bolts below the roof, then it gets thin, The pitch is steep and physical, and wet at the end. Bring the small heads and beaks for that part. Beaks being the prefered option. or bring a big stick clip. but f*#k that...

Very steep there, if you fall dont worry, you wont hit anything but you better have that upsidedown nut in the crack below or you might not have a rope to catch you.

I remember aliens of all sizes up to red in the roof. and lots of fixed pins.
Now, there are two ways to get through the roof:

p4 Roof - MONKEY WAY (I haven't done this)

go up to the roof and pendis across the wall on fixed pins, doing as big of swings as you can, clipping only old fixed leaver biners. When leader gets to the anchor, the cleaner unties the end of the lead rope and the leader pulls it straight through the leaver gear. No-one has to clean the roof! Next, the cleaner lowers himself straight across to the belay on P4 on the haul line (or better yet, extra lead rope) slowly...or cut loose I guess? But watch the edges!

THE Normal way-

lead acoss and down obviously(unless you want to get on Aurora), reaching as far as you can to each wet slimey peice. Leaving as little gear as possible for your cleaner to remove. If you have to leave a piece, leave it close to another fixed piece that the cleaner can lower out on, otherwise you will lose your alien or whatever. Lean as far over as you can to make as few moves as possible. everymove is manky wet mossy suckness...so just get through it quick, you will be wet. have a tag line for your coat!

Also, Be carefull when clipping into the fixed gear.the biner needs to be easily removed by the cleaner, this means no biners can get pinned under the rope by the cleaners body weight. You can screw a cleaner and lose your rack pretty easily on this pitch so be smart and clip close to the peice.

oh yeah, btw- the rusty fixed pins tend to break in half!!!!!

no really, it happened to us!

CLEANING:

Just remember, this is the MOST important thing in this email. When you are cleaning that pitch, you are basically also in a leading position. because you are climbing DOWN the roof! So the cleaner needs to think like a leader down climbing, not a normal cleaner going up! You can fall!

This means, since you are leading down! DON'T FALL, onto your JUGS!

Use the gri-gri, so if you do blow one of those fixed peices you fall onto your gri-gri, not your JUG! And TIE into the Rope! This could save your life.

Now that you know the thing that can most save your life in this email, you have 2 OPTIONS:

1. Do Many Lowerouts on tat. Works, but is slow and you risk blowing some tat and taking a swing. I also had the bight of my rope get snagged in tat and I had an epic yarding over to clean it once.

2. Have your partner put you on belay from his end, and belay you down while you re-lead the pitch back down and across. You may want a selection of small gear since you may not be able to make the same moves and reaches your partner did. Back clean all the (unfixed)gear and cut old tat off as you go.

Either scinereo, don't be daisied into your JUG! have a gri gri on and back-ups.

Once you get close to the belay, you can swing over to it or get lowered to the belay and pulled over by the tag line. But beware, THAT is when Fitzs rusty pin broke! So he took a 30footer directly onto the belay anchor. factor 2 nearly, except it wasn't straight down, he penjied a little.

The force of the fall almost cut the rope at the knot I had him fixed on, a clove hitch. Like an idiot I had him fixed off to a directional bolt, which took all his weight and force in the fall. The clove was so welded we had to cut it off with a knife. I'll never forget when Fitz looked up at me in the dark. "Dude! Get out me Whiskey! And me Cigaretts, ARRRGGGHHHH!!!"

Moral: fix to an equalized anchor that can change direction and try to have one good piece above the anchor no matter what.

Luckily Fitz had taken off his jumar off the rope so he fell onto the gri-gri, which was "flipped inside out," and had to be hammered open. If you spun your gri inside out you know what I mean.

Anyway, I'm rambeling. Once you get past all that, the rest of the route is pretty cool. Enjoy!