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Grant Meisenholder
Trad climber
CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 14, 2008 - 01:00pm PT
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Anyone have any good Nooob leading stories? Ya know, the ones where the guy (or gal) has just gotten out of the gym all excited to start climbing, purchased $1000 worth of gear and found some unsuspecting second to pair up with?
Here's mine:
After about a year of heading out with my buddies to Woodson and JTree for easy TR routes, I decided it was time to invest in some gear. I had no real idea of what I needed, so I bought one of everything that looked cool. I spent a couple of nights just racking and re-racking my gear in my living room until the weekend came when I could really start LEADING. We got our site at Hidden Valley (back when you could actually drive in on a Friday night and have a selection!) and headed out to find a likely climb. I spied a good looking 5.8 crack (The Flue?) and convinced my buddy this was doable.
Donning my lycra, harness, and every piece of gear I could hook into the loops, I set off to demonstrate my greatness. Even though I had some cams, I decided that it would be "purer" to use nuts. Of course, being a new leader I sewed that crack shut. Unfortunately, I ran out of gear about halfway up and learned my first lesson in planning. As I clung to the crack weighing the merits of lowering off the last, single manky nut I placed, my second flicked the rope and "Thrrrriiiip!", out popped all of the nuts I placed save that last one... Not happy!
The top was only about 20 feet away and looked like it could be done, so that seemed the best option considering the circumstances. A crowd was gathering at the base and I could hear mumblings of "gumby" and NOOB. I was much relieved to top out but my second decided that the swing potential was too great without the benefit of the multitude of pro that popped out. The next group cleaned it for me and I lived to tell the tale.
Of course, you'd think I'd have learned from that, but there were more, scarier NOOB moments to come. I'll save those for some other thread.
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TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:08pm PT
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Well written. :-)
Thrrrriiiip - nice use of the word.
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caughtinside
Social climber
Davis, CA
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:14pm PT
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A couple years ago I was at Lover's Leap with a friend who had never done Corrugation corner. It's still my favorite climb at the Leap! I usually stay off it on weekends though, as it attracts quite the conga line.
But I was there on main ledge cragging with a friend who had never done Corrugation. I looked over, and it was wide open, all three pitches!
So we trot on over. Mantle the top of the second pitch, and there are two climbers sitting in the cave on that slopey belay ledge! I was quite surprised to see them there. It's a brother and a sister from Reno, with their Brand Shiney New Rack.
Their rope goes up the chimney, and is clipped to an ancient fixed ring angle, and goes back to the ledge. The brother had led up there, clipped the pin, fallen on the pin, and lowered off the pin back to the ledge! Yikes!
I'm bringing up my second, and the sister takes the sharp end and tries to lead the pitch. As she struggles mightily in the 5.5 chimney, the brother confides in me that she has never led before. again, Yikes!
She can't make the chimney, and lowers back down. They tell me 'You can go ahead and lead through.' I suppose they could have rapped off and left a pile of booty for someone else, but I felt bad and offered to tow their rope up for them.
They're psyched! although they are still sketched on the traverse, and leave some of my gear on it they were too afraid to clean, couple biners, sling and a nut. Get to the top, and I see what they've done. It's getting late, I don't really want to rap down and get that stuff. So the brother gives me stuff off his Brand Shiney New Rack to replace what I've lost.
At the same time he says to me, "Thanks man. I followed that route two seasons ago and thought it was easy. I thought it would be a great first 5.7 to lead and take my sister up."
Good stuff.
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Dick_Lugar
Trad climber
Indiana
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:24pm PT
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Grant, That's a great story! I'm not laughing at you, but rather, laughing with you! Whatever Noob moments don't kill you will make you stronger.
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the Fet
Knackered climber
A bivy sack in the secret campground
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:25pm PT
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We got to the same spot on Corrugation. Two followers were sitting there. After a few minutes of their rope not moving at all, we asked if we could climb through. They said ok. I climbed up past their leader who had just finished the traverse after the chimney, climbed past him on the wide open face and up to the top. I brought my second up to the top and their leader was still climbing about 20 feet above where I passed him.
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nature
climber
Santa Fe, NM
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:32pm PT
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I remember watching you and mumbling "noob". OR not. Maybe the story just reminded of that one time we watched something similar. Actually... come to think of it... it reminds of the many dozen times we pulled up the lawn chairs and busted out the popcorn. We'd always slink away after said noob pulled it off. Sick bastards we were to be waiting for some real "action".
Nice story. Thanks for sharing.
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TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:37pm PT
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:-) Nature looking for NASCAR at the crag.
Only thing missing was the chair on top of the RV, barbeque, and beers.
Noobs with numbers and sponsor decals - great idea? Run with it.
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:39pm PT
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Camping at the Leap our attention was directed at a rope soloist who had started on corrugation that morning. By dark, his headlamp was visible throughout camp. He refused to let people pass him, so there was no sympathy to do a rescue.
Should we attempt to help him? Ahhhh, let's have another beer and think about it, was the consensus. He topped out late evening and ended up leaving all his cams in the last pitch, slept in the following morning and the last I saw him, he was heading off to fetch them from the top.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona, Spain
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:46pm PT
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Heh, heh. When I bought some of my first cams, my wife-to-be almost became my ex-girlfriend, since I paid for them with the money her father sent for her tuition. New leaders often have more to learn about than climbing!
Ooh, that last post reminded me of drunken nightime runs up the Groove, after too much tequila at the bar. Sh#t, it's not only the new leaders who have to watch out.
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Moof
Big Wall climber
A cube at my soul sucking job in Oregon
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Apr 14, 2008 - 01:51pm PT
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Red Rocks, few years back, on Johny Vegas. I'd done the route a few weeks before with no problem, and my partner was stupid strong, so we were looking to move fast.
Party ahead of us is a group of three that are kind of confusing us with their slightly "off" terminology, and are moving slow.
I wait for the last guy to get halfway up the first pitch figuring it would be plenty of time since he ain't cleaning and all, just TR'ing. Sure enough, on lead, I catch him.
Upon arriving at the ledge the 3 stooges are unable to figure out crap, and I spy them. Dozens of 'SPORT CHALET" price tags all over their shiny crap. They manages to leave a steady stream of them behind on every pitch...
They refuse to let us pass, so instead I climb up the a*# of the third guy to the second belay. And keep going. There is a party of 2 rapping down, and those 3 dweezelnuts at the cramped stance (barely good for 2 to hangout) and they are PISSED when I arrive, and perplexed when I don't stop. I get up near the 5.8 variation and do a hanging belay 20' above their heads. My partner follows, and still gets out on lead before they get their crap together and get anyone on belay.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Apr 14, 2008 - 02:28pm PT
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Sounds like a pair I saw show up at Williamson (a grid bolted sport climbing only crag) with a huge rack of shiny cams, a six pack which he cooled in the nearby creek and a buddy with a broken wrist who belayed him lying on his back. Of course they've brought their non-climbing girlfriends.
The guy didn't have a guidebook or any idea where any of the routes where, their ratings, etc, but said he climbed 5.11 (probably on a top rope, with lots of tension, at a gym). He just starts climbing and trying to link bolts from different routes. Of course this method doesn't prove very successful. He's got these weird sideways runouts as he bounces between two or three routes and a ton of rope drag as the rope Z's between these nearly horizontal clips. Then he pops, and between his last bolt being ten feet off to his side and his excellent, beer chugging belay buddy, takes a huges arcing pendulum, falling sideways and nearly grazing the ground after being 25 feet up.
A well intentioned friend tried to suggest to them that climbing can be dangerous, even for the best climbers, and suggested that they find some instruction. Completely blew him off. Needless to say, they collected their beer and girlfriends and decided to find something more mellow and wandered off up the trail to the parking area.
To be honest, with gyms and guides like supertaco that put in the routes descriptions how easily routes can be toproped, I'm not surprised I don't see this every weekend.
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bonin_in_the_boneyard
Trad climber
Up the 'Creek w/out a Prada
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Apr 14, 2008 - 02:29pm PT
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This one was about a buddy that I was belaying:
He's a good friend of mine and had been climbing for years, but I was still feeling him out as a partner. We're at our afternoon cragging spot in Massachusetts (Crow Hill) and he wants to do Intertwine, a nice 60' 5.8 finger crack with bomber locks in pin scars and good gear.
He goes up about 15' and says he's found a bomber tri-cam placement. I say, "No you didn't." "What do you mean?" "You need something omni-directional for the first piece. Throw a cam in." There was a bit of a slope below the route so the bottom piece would pull straight out in a fall. He ignores my advice and places a nut. And then another one. And they're not good. I turn to another friend next to me and say, "Watch. As soon as he gets to the top I'm going to yank both of those nuts out from right here."
Finally the leader places a cam, and then two more nuts. There's one strong move before the top out, which I know he can handle so I starts to relax. But somehow he barn-doors out of two good fingerlocks and drops. The first two nuts come out, of course, and also the nut between the cam and the top piece. .400 may be Hall of Fame worthy in baseball, but usually sends climbers back to the minors or worse.
Now he's hanging between the only two pieces of gear he has left and I am no longer relaxed. I ask him to throw a cam in for the sake of my nerves. He does, but then he Z-clips. I tell him to unclip and clip the other rope instead. He doesn't understand but complies.
He finally tops out and my other friend gets ready to follow. But no way I'm trusting this guy's anchor now, so I climb first with the mentality of a soloist.
When I get up to the top my buddy isn't even tied in. The anchor is two quickdraws over a rusty chain threaded underneath a boulder. Not through the links, mind you. If the chain were to fail at any point the anchor would be done. The whole system is backed up loosely with a cam overcammed in the back of a rotten, mossy, flaring crack. Bodyweight at best.
Ah, good times. Next time we climbed together there he tried to lead a 5.8R. I asked if he'd done it before. He said no. I told him I'd lead it. Sure enough while on TR he fell in the ankle-breaker section. Then again. And again. And lowers. I still keep him around for sport climbing, though.
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frodolf
climber
Sweden
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Apr 14, 2008 - 02:36pm PT
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My friend was on his first lead ever (at least I remember it as that). A 30 feet 5.6 crack, good pro, with an awkward crux near the top. Going steady, placing decent pro, he ends up freezing at the crux. He tries it, but retreats, tries it again, retreats. He goes Elvis, shaking like mad, chalking over and over again. He's stuck like that for a good while, and despite our encouraging shouts from below, he starts down climbing (lowering off was some sort of style crime, he thought - good boy!).
He gets to the ground disappointed, but happy still to have tried hard. He's so pumped that he can't untie the knot. I do it for him. I then see that he has tied in through a gear loop, and not his tie-in point. He has borrowed a too big a harness, and the whole thing is twisted around his hips. I was a noob myself and considered the "instructor" to be a veteran with his one year of climbing. He wasn't. In all the preparations for the Big Lead – the racking with shiny gear – it just slipped everyone's mind to check the basics. Scaaary!
But a good lesson for all of us.
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TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Apr 14, 2008 - 02:49pm PT
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Noob mentors?
The only time I have let noobs lead is if I liked enough of their placements of gear on a mock lead. If building a (gear) anchor was going to be an issue, I needed to see one built on the ground first. I think it is better for them and you. It allows them "real world" practice in selection and placement of gear from a stance. You can give them some extra slack on TR to make it more convincing. Finally, you can follow safely on TR inspecting gear, and you can leave the questionable pieces in for their inspection relative to your criticism.
Climbing at the Gunks means lots of tree and fixed anchors, so postponing gear anchor instruction is possible and considerate of others waiting, since noobs building anchors take forever (me most especially included). No point in adding time to an already slow process.
EDIT: oh yeah. Good point about checking everything. I once let a very strong climber (new to trad leading) do a very easy lead with no helmet. Realized it a third of the way up the climb. Easy to make mistakes. :-(
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AbeFrohman
Trad climber
new york, NY
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Apr 14, 2008 - 03:18pm PT
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im sure i was "the guy" quite a few times myself.
anyway....
just a few weeks ago in the gunks. we're climbing rhododendron, 5.6 (40 ft crack), Rob is cleaning my gear, Im belaying. Laurel is a 5.7 crack just to the left of rhodo.
A "Pair" comes over to Laurel, guy and a girl. The guys ready to lead, he's got a rack big enough for Trango Tower. plus all sorts of toprope anchor gear, probably 150 feet of coiled webbing, several cordolettes, etc. Laurel is 40 feet!
5.7 start, for 2 moves, then mellows waaaay out. I'll give him that the start is tricky and smooth like glass.
so he's struuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugling on the start move. his girl, standing 10 feet back, holding the rope like it matters at that point, with no gear in yet.
I figure, lemme give some advice here or help in a carryout. well, more like yell, as the climb starts on the carriage road.
i said, "maybe you should spot your friend until he gets some gear in?"
she says, "Spot?"
I said, "hold your hands up in case he falls, and keep his noggin off the ground."
he eventually got 1 move up, froze, somehow got a tricam in, which im sure was worthless, and said "i dont feel comfortable making the next move," all the while trying to make that move.
so of course i said (rob is done with rhodo at this point, breaking down our climb, and i've come over to assist in spotting this guy), "if you dont feel comfortable, might i suggest coming down before you hurt yourself and moving to an easier climb that youre more comfortable on?"
he finally agreed came down and moved on.
PHEWW. no broken ankles.
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Standing Strong
Trad climber
the secret life of T*R
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Apr 14, 2008 - 03:29pm PT
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if any of you see me with my shiny rack, and i'm doing something stupid, please slap me upside the head and don't hesitate to tell me what i'm doin' wrong
thnx love
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bonin_in_the_boneyard
Trad climber
Up the 'Creek w/out a Prada
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Apr 14, 2008 - 03:37pm PT
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Trad is good:
I didn't realize I was a Noob Mentor at the time. I was young and the guy had been climbing longer than I had. I didn't feel it was my place to question him.
That reminds me of another time I was watching someone climbing a traversing roof at Donner. She had the rope between her legs and completely behind her trailing thigh. I whispered to her belayer to say something to her, figuring a familiar voice would be less distracting to a nervous leader. He wouldn't! He said she was the experienced one or something. I asked if he could picture what would happen if she fell, and if that was good enough for him to say something. Apparently not. After another minute of watching I lost my patience and yelled up:
"IF YOU POP OFF WITH THE ROPE BEHIND YOUR LEG LIKE THAT YOU'RE GOING TO FIND YOURSELF UPSIDE-DOWN WITH A CONCUSSION BEFORE YOU EVEN REALIZE YOU'VE FALLEN!!!"
I felt bad for my harsh tone, but I had held it back for too long. When she got down I apologized for yelling, but she thanked me and said she didn't know what she had been thinking. As an aside, she was smokin' hot. Too bad I had just gotten engaged because she needed a better climbing partner ;^)
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BurnRockBurn
climber
South of Black Rock City
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Apr 14, 2008 - 03:42pm PT
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My first lead--sport--was a climb I had done on TR twice on Mt. Boner in Colorado (5.6) Thought it was no big deal to lead it--then I did with my non climber wife belaying me. Did the climb, but was so sketched on the anchors trying to thread the chains that I could not remember how to tie a figure 8. Took me 15 minutes at the anchors to retie in, plus I literally thought I was going to crap myself. Lowered off and made a run to a quiet spot in the woods.
Put into perspective the mental game of climbing. Also taught me to bring an emergency stash of TP just in case.
Found a mentor to teach me a lot more before leading up again. We were all NOOBS at one time. Still am on some things.
BRB
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matisse
climber
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Apr 14, 2008 - 03:48pm PT
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Grant might remember this story.
About 9 or 10 years ago I was climbing around hidden valley and met a pleasant couple who were obviously very experienced climbers. The guy had a brand spanking shiny new rack. Later that night by some random coincidence (he has a friend of a friend) the pleasant couple ended up around our campfire. I asked him about his rack: The guy had one of the best stories I'd heard in a while.
It turns out the previous fall he had a friend come to visit at his home in the Okanagan Valley in Eastern Washington. The friend is a guide who he met in Thailand. The friend has borrowed his daddy's jeep and they headed out for a day of casual climbing driving the jeep.
They park at the edge of a precipice and get out to enjoy the view. The guy turns around and he and the friend watch wide eyed as the emergency brake fails and the jeep rolls off over the edge. The jeep falls 300 ft to become a mangled pile of steel, and the gear bounces out to land on the bloated bodies of 30 semifrozen dead sheep. (they were already dead).
The climbing gear is insured. The jeep, for some reason, is not. Presto, one brand shiny new rack. He hasn't heard from the friend in a while, though. He thinks the friend is still paying for the jeep.
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Grant Meisenholder
Trad climber
CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 14, 2008 - 04:19pm PT
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>No sooner than we don harnesses and continue stalling then who should waltz in >but a family of "noobus holycrappus"
Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Yikes! Great story, glad you didn't have to give med assistance.
..................................
Yeah, the Jeep story. Brilliant!
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