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Maysho
climber
Truckee, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 16, 2006 - 01:53pm PT
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To be one of the small group of people desirous of climbing the big ice routes in Yosemite Valley, is to be patient for the long term, and to feel somewhat captive to the December ritual of watching the conditions, on average these climbs form up every 7 years or so.
The critical signs were lining up, good snow pack to provide the juice, sunshine to get it flowing, and cold nights to harden up the long white stripe that is the Widows Tears.
Mark Deger photo
Predictably, the network started buzzing, “Fosberg called last night, and Leversee called this morning, he’s driving down tomorrow” said Dan McDivett, when I ran into him walking through our home village of El Portal. I was busy with my business, we were guiding a school group, and running snowshoe hikes, but I could sneak off the next day. No luck with either Dan or Josh Helling as available partners, they couldn’t jump so quickly without notice. I flashback 22 years when Dan could not go, and I ended up soloing the Silver Strand. Not up for such a journey this time, I try someone new at about 9:00pm and with an only a slight pause on the phone, Mike Shane agrees to be ready at 4:00am.
The dark snowy slog up the slope, gives way to the cold blue dawn and some fun easy climbing on the rolling stream below the big fall. The ice is good and we swing some long pitches. The lower angle sections had big hollow areas with thin skins, so we had to slow down whenever it got easier. I take off on the crux pitch, around an icicle-guarded roof, and up a smooth 90’ vertical section. I get a screw 12 feet off the belay and punch it up onto the steep. When I try to set the next pro, I can’t get the teeth to bite, I am getting great sticks in the air bubbly ice, so I figure the air bubbles are keeping the screw from biting, so I climb on and try three more times to get the screw in, finally I say f*ck it and just climb trying to stay relaxed while sticking my way 60 more feet in solo mode. I claw over the bulge and up onto some ledges in the lower angle terrain. I try again with the screw, and finally see the frozen blockage of ice filling the end. Apparently ice climbing once a decade is not enough practice for me to avoid bonehead beginner moves, plus I still have climbed more ice solo then on lead, so my experience is skewed. I am in awe of Kevin and Mark, doing this stuff with piolets, foamback and dachsteins in the 70's.
We keep cruising, Mike is solid but the pitches are long and the day is passing by. Mid afternoon, a shout echoes down to us, Josh Helling had rappelled down the still far away last pitch to shoot some photos.
Josh Helling photos
He spent an hour watching from 800ft above, then bid us farewell. In the last light of evening I start the second crux, enjoying the bulgy variety of angle and aspect of the blue and white columns and cauliflowers. On the upper third I am in the dark, kicking and swinging along in my own little bubble of headlamp light, I place my last screw when I see a rock wall exposed 40ft up and left, and commit to a rock anchor belay. 15 steep feet later, I am thrown back in intensity mode when my headlamp fails, now in the utter dark, no screw, I have to create security out of slippery chaos. I start by chopping a foothold, and then spend the time and sweat to cut a bollard deep enough to not feel like a psycho trying to belay off it. At last I go to belay, and the rope is solidly frozen to the climb. Mike, a Denali Rescue Ranger, never misses a mental beat, and in good cheer to finally get his cold blood flowing, puts on prussiks and peels the frozen cable off the ice in four foot sections as he climbs. After beefing up my “fought for” belay, and both warmer now, he moves on and a few pitches later I pull onto the snow at the top. We had done something like 11 rope lengths, and enjoyed one of the great ice climbs of the world. But the warm world of our homes and loves was still a long way down. Josh had left some snowshoes and some much cherished dry gloves in a pack for us. Before going down, we had to go over and found ourselves postholing through 4 feet of snow, up a steep side slope for a long time, really tired when we hit the trail at last, and ended up greeting the dawn from Old Inspiration Point. ˝ mile later it is over, 25 hours car to car.
Peter
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WBraun
climber
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Dec 16, 2006 - 02:07pm PT
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Crap
That was 20 some years ago Peter? Seemed like just a couple of years ago. I watched you solo the strand. And I watched you do the tears.
From the safe ground of course.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Dec 16, 2006 - 02:25pm PT
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Thanks Peter,
Wild pictures. Someday I gotta try ice climbing.
Zander
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Dec 16, 2006 - 03:24pm PT
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Great account and photos, Peter.
Kevin or Mark, this thread would be an appropriate place to tell the hair-raising story of the first ascent. We are waiting...
Patience is right. I spent several grim weeks one winter, enduring miserable winter camping in Camp 4, secretly scheming with Tobin, Richard, or Mike, I can't remember which, to attempt to nab the first ascent if the Tears came into condition.
Rick
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dec 16, 2006 - 05:15pm PT
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Thanks for the story Peter!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Dec 16, 2006 - 05:44pm PT
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thanks for the story Peter, I would like to climb Weadow's Tears some day, it would be an awesome ice climb...
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 16, 2006 - 06:53pm PT
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Peter,
Thanks for sharing ths story. Making a bollard belay in the dark that your partner prusiks on - yikes!
Is the Mark Deger photo the same day when you climbed it? The ice looks a lot thinner in those upper pitches in Josh Helling's photos.
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wildone
climber
Isolated in El Portal and loving it
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Dec 16, 2006 - 06:55pm PT
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Hey Peter! Haven't seen you in a while-last time you were in El Portal, I was kind of rushed and didn't get to talk to you much. What have you been up to? I have one more week of work, and then I'm tuning up my tele skis for the back country..
Ben
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Maysho
climber
Truckee, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 16, 2006 - 09:12pm PT
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I think Marks photo is from one week later. He is looking for his photo with us on it, a much colder day and the stripe was wider. I will change it out when I get it.
Thanks.
Peter
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marky
climber
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Dec 16, 2006 - 11:39pm PT
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is Thanksgiving to mid-January the best window for WT coming in?
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Dec 17, 2006 - 10:45am PT
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Peter,
Good effort...it certainly brings back some memories. I am sure at some point Kevin and I will chip in with some stories from our ascent which was a unique and special event in both of our lives. By the way your solo of the Strand still blows my mind...
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Dec 17, 2006 - 11:19am PT
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fantastic stories all, thanks for writing that up Kevin... trip reports from the deep past...
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 17, 2006 - 01:40pm PT
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Thanks for the trip report. This is what I like about supertopo. I've never met anyone who has done the widow's tears and now I've read two trip reports.
Right on guys. Widow's tears is extremley proud.
Two trip reports like this and it kind of makes you forget about all the uncalled for slagging of strangers that goes on here.
Tom
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Dec 17, 2006 - 01:54pm PT
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Kevin-
Gripping account of a grand adventure. I remember asking you what it was like that spring, soon after you and Mark did it. You told me it was the greatest moment of your life and described the feeling of being right on the edge of disaster for the entire route, but that was not all. It was (and probably still is) rare for climbers to express real emotion in the context of the typical, macho posturing that is the coin of the realm in Camp 4. Sort of like a high school locker room, but intensified by the soaring adrenaline highs.
That is why I still remember what you told me back then. You said that you were overcome by emotion and that your own eyes filled with tears, when you finally reached the top of the Widow’s Tears.
Rick
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K. Fosburg
Sport climber
park city, ut
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Dec 17, 2006 - 08:14pm PT
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What an awesome thread! Good job Maysho. Last year I stood at the base of the much coveted Widow's Tears for the first time and experienced the major snail-eye. Someday hopefully...
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DHike
climber
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Dec 17, 2006 - 09:50pm PT
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Peter,
That was an awesome trip report and some of the best photos I've ever seen of the 'tears'.
"I am thrown back into intensity mode when my headlamp fails."
That was the feeling I had too;-) Nice work, man, excellent description.
Got ice? Just got a call just as I am writing this to help hang hoses t-nite,, I'm sure you know who,,,,ha, ha, LB,,,, had to decline tho:)
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas,
Dan
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Dec 17, 2006 - 11:08pm PT
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cool!
I'd also like to do that climb...hey Werner or Karl, can you post up next time it looks in!?
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 17, 2006 - 11:18pm PT
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Two great TRs in one thread - awesome!
I remember reading about ice climbs in Yosemite in the 1970s, and wondering just how it was done. I hadn't been to the Valley then, but couldn't quite picture how it got cold and icy enough. It all sounded rather temporary.
Here's the original report, from Mountain 42.
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10b4me
Trad climber
California
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Dec 18, 2006 - 12:04am PT
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Kevin, great story. I was gripped reading it.
hopefully LVC will be in shape in a couple of weeks when I'm there.
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Maysho
climber
Truckee, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 18, 2006 - 09:15am PT
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Thanks Mark and Kevin!
Great account of one of the all time great adventures in Yosemite climbing. One legend has it that on the March day when you guys succeeded it was warm enough for Lynda and friends to watch you from across the valley while sunbathing nude. Do you have any old slides you can scan?
I followed your same progression in ice experience, though with better gear (Hummingbirds thanks to Jello), my first ice lead was the second half of the first pitch of upper Sentinel Falls in 1980. Bridwell backed off the lead, thinking the thin frozen rivulets wouldn't support his weight, and I as the skinny 18yr old had to step it up and go.
Valley ice climbing is an exercise in structural analysis. I remember one day in Vermont, realizing that for the first time I could bang up a climb without worrying overlymuch about the whole thing falling down.
Here's the photo from the day we climbed, very cold and wintry compared to the previous photo one week later. The dot above the tree line is me on the crux runout. Thanks to Mark Deger for searching his archives.
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Dec 18, 2006 - 09:16am PT
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superb stuff, gents. thx...
cool scan, mentions the FA of one of my val faves, "The Enema"...
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Dec 18, 2006 - 12:57pm PT
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Kev,Peter, et al,
I will chime in soon with some thoughts soon (super busy the next few days). I will say this: Kevin's lead of the crux pitch was a masterful display of climbing. I remember having a desperate time of it just following. I also remember wandering back towards Camp 4 in the middle of the night, the roads deserted, my boots soaking wet. Cold, tired, yet also elated. When we passed Bridalviel Falls an odd warm wind blew. Definetly an altered state of reality. It was a great feeling when, at last, a car passed and the guy actualy picked us up. The adventure was finally over. Also our ascent was in mid February not March and it was quite warm. Lynda was watching with binoculars from the sunny south facing side of the Valley near Little Wing and knowing her she probably was sun bathing. My photos are in the Valley. Hopefully I will get up there before Christmas and can post some soon.
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T2
climber
Cardiff by the sea
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Dec 18, 2006 - 01:30pm PT
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Fantastic reports on both ascents (Kevin and Peter.) It is really cool to get a first hand acount of this ledgendary first ascent from kevin and Mark. It absolutely shows the true spirit of adventure our sport has to offer. I too like Fosberg droped everything and raced to the valley last year, with hopes of an ascent. Not enough sack for the amount of what little melting ice there was, thwarted our efforts at the base. "It looked good from far, but was far from good"
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james Colborn
Trad climber
Truckee, Ca
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Dec 20, 2006 - 09:11pm PT
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Peter Awesome stuff. As you know the past few days have been brutal cold and I HAVE BEEN WORKING OUT DOORS! Not Climbing. Low motivation for work and thinking only of ice because of the freezing snot forming off my snout. Thanks for the photos and TR. Peter you are the most unassuming badass I know. Mild mannered and cool as can be. I know you got more of this type of stuff tucked away somewhere, any chance of sharing more? Take care, happy merry. James
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
one pass away from the big ditch
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Dec 20, 2006 - 09:44pm PT
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" junk food in the vending machines at the Lodge at 3AM"
how many times has this 'technique' come in handy for climbers?
a water spigot seems like fountain of health sometimes too.
rad TR, thx.
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pieter
Sport climber
Belgium
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Feb 26, 2009 - 02:58pm PT
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bump
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Brian Biega
climber
Truckee, CA
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Feb 26, 2009 - 10:41pm PT
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Yeah, bump this trip. I remember you (Peter) sharing this story at Snowshed.
Nice to hear it again.
Hope you are well!
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Maysho
climber
Soda Springs, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 10:47am PT
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Bump cause ice is on the mind...
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Dec 22, 2011 - 11:42am PT
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skating on stilts
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Maysho
climber
Soda Springs, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 4, 2013 - 11:25pm PT
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Bump, cause ice is on the mind...and congrats to Jason and Greg!
Peter
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Bump for photos of frozen ice without the drama.
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