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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 14, 2005 - 05:19pm PT
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This Monkeys Gone to Heaven VI 5th A4
F.A. Alik Berg and Jake Hector Aug/Sept 2005
We put up a new route on the South Face of Snowpatch Spire in the Bugaboos, the route is about 1800ft long and has fairly technical but mostly safe climbing. In Yosemite I would rate the route new wave A3. Most pitches took 6-8 hours to lead due to the complex placements. This is the first climb I have done that Hybrid Aliens are MANDATORY! I think drilling will be required if you don't have them on the 2nd ascent.
The route took us 18 days total to establish, 14 of those days were spent climbing capsual style on the face. It should also be noted that out of 14 days only 3.5 of those days were in nice weather. Every other day had snow or sleet flying from the sky. Wind was pretty extreme at times and would shake the ledge and blow the fly so hard it was hard to get any sleep at time. The tempeture was also surprisingly cold, we weren't able to start climbing early(not that we wanted to!) due to the ropes freezing nightly.
On day 7 we ran out of liquor and on day 9 we realized we would be eating mashed potatos pretty much for the rest of the climb and till we were able to make it to the Kain Hut to raid the free food. It just so happened to work out that Alik always led the pitch in which we would establish the next hanging camp at. So I was always forced to just hang in the storm and freeze while Alik led his pitch. He got to belay out of the shelter of the portaledge while in a sleeping bag. Also of note is that I developed minor frostbite partly due to this.
I am eagly looking forward to my feet healing and my next wall. Alpine big walls bring a lot more satisfaction than the walls in yosemite. The views blow the valley away!
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Ouch!
climber
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Sep 14, 2005 - 05:30pm PT
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Really good pictures. Wow! Some tough dudes. I found out the hard way to stay off frostbitten feet.
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2005 - 05:33pm PT
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ha I just noticed I put 10.5 were in good weather! It's the other way around. HAHAHA
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Wrathchild
Big Wall climber
Lee NH
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Sep 14, 2005 - 05:38pm PT
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Welcome to the real world.
The valley will seem like Disneyworld to you from now on.
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2005 - 05:43pm PT
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Here is the topo. We would have ended with 15 holes but this f*#king bees nest was in the crack I was climbing, so I had to drill the LADDER! F*#K! F*#K! SH#T! F*#K!
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Sep 14, 2005 - 05:45pm PT
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Way to get it done deathman. Wish I could have been there. . .except for the crappy weather.
I am sure you learned alot of things on this climb. . . like to never forget to bring some extra alcohol.
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yo
climber
NOT Fresno
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Sep 14, 2005 - 05:51pm PT
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Right on, Jake.
A bee pussy ladder. Hahahahaaa!
R
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Straight Outta Squamton
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Sep 14, 2005 - 05:51pm PT
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I'm looking forward to checking out these photos when I can get to a fast connection.
I can see the images total 2.6 MB –– which would take 13+ minutes on my 24 kbit
dial-up, which is about half the speed of the average dial-up with good line quality.
(although many, many dial-up users get stuck at 28 kbits if there's more than one
analog/digital conversion on their line––which I understand is fairly common)
Just a little heads-up...
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Sep 14, 2005 - 05:52pm PT
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f*#k yeah dude!
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2005 - 06:06pm PT
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ya it will suck for people with dial-up... but I am too lazy to recode the pics with HTML
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Fluoride
Trad climber
on a rock or mountain out west
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Sep 14, 2005 - 06:10pm PT
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Congrats guys!!! That's a great accomplishment. Fred put up the original routes on Snowpatch, I'm sure he's gonna be stoked to hear that there's a new generation of alpine wall climbers that got birthed on Snowpatch last month. That one doesn't get done too much. Your route looks proud.
Nice to hear your newfound appreciation for the alpine as well. Yep, while the degree of suffering is far higher than valley walls, the solitude and scenery of the alpine can't be topped. No lines. No rangers. No clusterf*#ks unless you create them yourselves. The only drawback is when you run out of something (booze!) you're gonna be going without for awhile.
Hope your frostbite heals up well.
And SERIOUS props for naming the route after one of the greatest Pixies songs of all time!! That just warms my heart.
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malabarista
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Sep 14, 2005 - 06:43pm PT
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Wow, you guys are out of my league... I hope to one day have the experience of climbing an alpine wall such as this.
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bulgingpuke
Trad climber
cayucos california
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Sep 14, 2005 - 06:56pm PT
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What'd I say five months ago man? You guys were gonna make a f*#kin dream team.
I remamber when i first met Alik a few years ago, 15 years old and soloing WFLT with all antique gear and a 50 gallon drum thing for a pig.
Congrats you knarly bastards.
~TY~
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up2top
Big Wall climber
Phoenix, AZ
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Sep 14, 2005 - 07:07pm PT
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Damn, Jake! I guess you're done f*#king around with the small potatoes in the Valley, huh!? Nice job, and those are some incredible photos. Nothing but peaks, snow, and glaciers as far as the eye can see.
Hope the feet heal completely.
Ed
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timmy_t
Trad climber
Fort Fun, Colorado
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Sep 14, 2005 - 09:58pm PT
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Congrats!! Looks like great rock and really fun climbing!! Looked like lots of free potential, how much do you think will go? I like the 'portable flake'. That's funny!
Timmy
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 14, 2005 - 11:34pm PT
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Free... it won't go free. The 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th and 12th could go free. All with lots of bolts if you don't want to take big falls(100ft+). THe free route on the wall looks quite featured and easy comparitvly. That is saying a lot cause it is 12- and X rated on stuff 11+. ASTA would be better for a free objective than our route.
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Sep 15, 2005 - 12:37am PT
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never say never...
did you guys free any of it? Looks like you are aiding some splitter handcracks!
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 15, 2005 - 01:01am PT
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Go see for yourself(5th can mean whatever!). But don't forget your free shoes!
This climb is harder and thinner than the Shortest Straw. All the pictures are of the easy pitches. The hard pitches took all day to lead. Lots of the parts in the pictures could go free and some did. I don't have any pics of the tough parts... belayer was asleep or I didn't have the mind to snap a pic.
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Sep 15, 2005 - 02:09am PT
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I belive your rating dude, not saying you didn't do hard pitches!
The 5th rating had me wondering. Like did you just not want to rate the free climbing you did, "sharma style" or something?
Just wondering if you free climbed at all in the cold weather, but I guess not...whatever that's cool.
Looks like lots of big features on that face, did you pic a hard line on purpose, or go the easiest way you could find?
Looks awesome I'm totaly jealous.
Final Question...is that a yellow rubber rainsuit you are wearing?
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alik
Big Wall climber
edmonton
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Sep 15, 2005 - 02:46am PT
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This was by far the raddest wall I've done so far. I've got to thank Jake for joining me on this adventure. I couldn't have hoped for a better wall partner. The guy belays all but one or two of my pitches from his harness and never complains once. Meanwhile almost all of my belays involved happily swilling away in my sleeping bag inside the ledge. At one point I didn't leave the ledge for 5 days!(2 day belay+3 day storm). suffering in comfort, ahhhhhhh!
Lambone: We did aid some freeclimbable cracks due to cold and snow. The 5th sections are just places where you'll definetely want free shoes. "mandatory free" sections. They're not too hard, but not too easy either...
The big features on the face have all been climbed, or are really loose. Our line was probably the most natural line left on that part of the face, or at least it would have been if it weren't for the bees... The features we climbed actually appeared much more substantial from the ground, than they really were. What we thought would be hand cracks turned out to be beaks. Offwidths turned out to be finger cracks etc.
And hell yeah that's rubber I'm wearing. I figured it would keep me drier than a gore-tex, since it would be too cold for me to sweat anyways. this seemed to be the case for the most part, although gore-tex would have been fine too since most of the precipitation was snow. Plus, you really can't beat the color!
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