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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Oct 15, 2016 - 09:44pm PT
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F*#k, sh#t just got real.
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Stewart Johnson
Mountain climber
lake forest
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Oct 15, 2016 - 10:01pm PT
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Stellar!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Oct 15, 2016 - 10:26pm PT
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Brings back memories...Stannard and I climbed it in 1970 in July---what were we thinking? It was hotter than hell. In those days it was respectable to climb all the 5.9 pitches free, which is what we did.
Stannard led the A5 flake; shot below.
I think I had five pitons in the horizontal crack for the hanging belay anchor for that pitch. If the flake expanded and he came factor-twoing onto the hanging belay, I wanted to be damn sure I wasn't going anywhere. I don't think I've ever set up a five-point anchor again.
We basically had to solo the dog legs; we didn't have anything wide enough to protect after maybe the first few feet.
What really sticks in my mind is a pitch soon after the second dog leg. An easy traverse right, followed by an increasingly flared corner that was supposed to be A3.
Well. It was too hard for me to aid and too hard for me to free. So I did my best to chimney up the flare, placing tipped-in nested angles, tying them off, and and using the hero loops for handholds. I didn't think that anything I had would have held full bodyweight, much less a fall. The flare kept opening out, making chimneying progressively more insecure, while the intermittent crack in the back stayed as crappy as ever. I ran out of rope and set up a hanging belay on large pitons not far from a perfectly nice ledge.
The effect of the effort, the heat, and the abject terror combined to so parch my throat that I literally lost my voice, croaking a totally inaudible "on belay" and jiggling the ropes until Stannard either got so frustrated with waiting he decided to climb or else the combination of subliminal and subvocal messages somehow reached him.
When we got down I went into Degnans and drained a half-gallon bottle of orange juice without the slightest pause.
Kudos to the free ascentionists. The rock and situations up there are fabulous.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Oct 16, 2016 - 09:14am PT
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wow, Werner, Dale, Coz, JL, Bill Price, Bachar, Woodward - that is the list of the best and boldest from a 20-year span. Says a lot about how good these youngsters are these days.
EDIT: I left Merry off the list above! And, great addition Rich!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 16, 2016 - 09:35am PT
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Damn, Rich. I remember that when Steve Roper and Frank S. made the first one-day ascent they also thought that pitch after the Dog Leg Crack was the crux.
Even with cams, sticky shoes and 5.14 acumen, Kevin J. had his hands full on that pitch. And that's why I think the West Face is such a classic - it features the kind of Yosemite terrain that no matter how well you climb, it's still a big time challenge.
And all the history, the battle royales we've all had up there, makes it a kind of family affair, based on shared experience.
Once word got out in the 1980s that the West Face would "never" go all free, and as El Cap became the axis for modern free climbing efforts, the West Face fell out of favor.
But now, it's back, and it's fantastic to see all the old stories rolling in. It's a regular resurrection. Tom Frost (1st ascent with Chouinard in 1960) was in the valley when we were there and he thought it was "magic" that his old testpiece (the 3rd Golden Age wall climbed, after Half Dome and the Nose) was back in play. Again, kudos to Ben, Marcus, Kevin and the YOSAR team who brushed and cleaned and restored the old masterpiece to museum quality.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Oct 16, 2016 - 01:42pm PT
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Cool thread, glad I stumbled in
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Oct 16, 2016 - 08:50pm PT
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Hi John. Sacherer and I did the first one day ascent, 14 hours. Both our arms were cramping on the last few pitches. I did think that the pitch above the Doglegs was the hardest. We had a four inch bong and i used it twice.
Regarding the original bolts, I remember only one, a belay bolt at the end of the above mentioned pitch.
Sacherer had the second Dogleg and led it without protection. There was a wooden wedge way back inside, a relic from the first ascent I assume. It was so far in back that he didn't clip it and I didn't want to take the time to try to remove it.
A note on the flake: I found a thimble sized knob on the face of the flake which would take a tie off. I only had to place two pins consecutively on it. Probably trivial now with small cams.
Big congrats on the free ascent. I remember this as a very pretty route, and steeper than it seems from Camp 4.
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Oct 16, 2016 - 09:50pm PT
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SO cool.
What a feature so high off the deck!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 17, 2016 - 01:32pm PT
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My bad, Eric. I meant to say you and Frank did the first one day ascent. Quite a feat with pitons and no cams.
Eric's account of this (did I see it on tape??) is very good.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Nov 26, 2016 - 07:56am PT
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I never made it up there, when I was climbing at my peak, although it was always on "the list."
Suddenly I regret that I never did.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 26, 2016 - 09:29am PT
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To John's post on Eric's account of climbing the West Face with Sacherer in one day: Video of Eric Beck comments--Sacherer Memorial Yosemite Valley - Saturday, May 22, 2010--climbing with Frank Sacherer
I don't recall if this comment is in the recording, but Eric and Frank's goal was to climb the then Grade VI West Face of Sentinel in one day. Frank was leading and trying to do a move free, Eric was thinking and worrying, "Oh no, there is no time to try anything free." Eric and Frank also did the DNB all free, just in case anyone thinks that only speed climbing was part of their bag of tricks.
Nice thread John. Great results on both the West Face and the Misty Wall.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Nov 27, 2016 - 06:37am PT
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I climbed the west face with Steve Quinlan in May, '79. I got the doglegs and he got he got A-4 expando (thats what Meyers called it.) each of us thought the other got ripped off
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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Nov 27, 2016 - 09:30am PT
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Gersh
Trad climber
San Diego, Ca
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Nov 27, 2016 - 10:30am PT
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This thread is awesome!
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Nov 27, 2016 - 04:17pm PT
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congrats to the ffa'ers ... jolly good show!
wish i could remember more than the approach, being bashed by battleship sized clouds cruising up the merced at mid level in blue-oo skies, my first night in a hammock (which was the point) heavy frost and glazed manzanita on the summit where my MD partner insisted, so we brewed up ... 'cuz my vote to descend the gully straight away was "hypothermic thinking" (ever forced frozen lips to defend level of consciousness to an anesthesiologist?) and that hellweather broke loose the moment we hit the trail. forty years have passed but still, i wish i could remember ... more
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Nov 27, 2016 - 04:27pm PT
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Holy Smokes! What a man that little gym rat became! Much respect for BR!
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Nov 27, 2016 - 08:26pm PT
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Is the photographer John Evans the person who climbed in the Valley, in the mid 60s? And was also on the FA of the Hummingbird Ridge on Logan? And wrestled alligators for a living?
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Al Barkamps
Social climber
Red Stick
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Nov 27, 2016 - 09:14pm PT
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Does Adidas also make their athletes change their clothes while thrutching through 5.13 off widths? I know they made Jim Furyk swap his kahkis for navy blues in the middle of a heinous putt at Augusta.
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Byran
climber
Half Dome Village
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Apr 14, 2017 - 04:17pm PT
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Just watching that dyno makes my rotator cuff ache.
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