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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 26, 2004 - 08:55pm PT
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The Lost In America to Virginia to P4 of The Trip start is becoming more popular - I saw at least one party do it just before the storm hit.
Lost In America is quite a nice route, actually, and deserves to be climbed more often. It was my 23rd El Cap route and 7th solo. Evidently I didn't find it too hard because I graded it NTB, with no DFU sections. I also managed to climb it quite fast [for me] spending only seven days on the wall. In comparison I spent twelve nights soloing Zed-Em and eight soloing The Shortest Straw.
I had no clue as to where the 5.8R climbing was supposedly up and right of 5 - I climbed straight up which was kinda scary. I found the 11th pitch - Fly or Die - to be pretty good value. I placed 3 heads, and whipped when a bat hook popped. People on the ground later told me they heard me scream when I fell!
One Monday morning [16/6/03] I was entirely alone on the SE face of El Cap, definitely a first. The day before, the Hubers flew by on nearby Zodiac setting one of their record speed ascents.
I remember P12 - The Place of Dead Roads - was pretty long-ass and involved, and took rather long to lead and clean. I placed 16 pins,and actually had to leave a #3 LA which I couldn't clean after breaking two crabs on my funkness.
If you're looking for a gentle intro to old school A4, Lost In America would be your route. I've got my detailed Dr. Piton Super-Duper Beta, so if anyone's interested, drop me a line and I'd be happy to pass it on to you.
Cheers,
Pete
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NeverSurfaced
Trad climber
Someplace F*#ked!
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Oct 26, 2004 - 09:55pm PT
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Jesus Christ Brick! You're honked-up.
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Oct 26, 2004 - 09:57pm PT
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WAIT!!! Brick is using old material! We've seen this before in posts gone bye, no!?!?!?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 26, 2004 - 10:22pm PT
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... but she is kinda cute ...
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ricardo
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 27, 2004 - 12:59am PT
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Ivo described Lost In America as the chossiest route on el cap ..
that is probably enough to keep me off of it for a bit .. (that and the fact that i've yet to break into hard aid on el cap)
 ricardo
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 27, 2004 - 01:29am PT
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Ha! I had an interesting conversation with Ivo:
Me: "I think I used up my Fear Quota on Bermuda Dunes -- I'm looking for a route to solo that's a little easier. Lost In America sounds about right."
Ivo: "You vill be scared....."
Me: "Nah, it should be pretty mellow...."
Ivo: "You vill be scared." [then he turns his back and walks away]
Ivo was right.
Besides, Ricardo, I thought we decided Sunkist was your next solo?
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ricardo
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 27, 2004 - 01:59am PT
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Oh well .. so much for keeping only informative posts on this thread ..
uhh -- my next solo ... uhh .. umm ... emmm .. wheew -- good thing i dont have vacation until next year .. probably ZM
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Oct 27, 2004 - 09:27am PT
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Gee, this thread took a turn for the worse now didn't it? Funny how that happens around here. (I deleted two of my offending posts).
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ricardo
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 27, 2004 - 01:43pm PT
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pete brings out the "best" in people .. specially when he hijacks a thread to let everyone else know what routes he's climbed and how many days he spent on each one ..
ricardo
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Oct 27, 2004 - 02:28pm PT
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no really, is that where we took a left turn to Albuquerque?
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big wall paul
Trad climber
tahoe, CA
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Oct 27, 2004 - 04:15pm PT
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this thread is all over the place... but here's this because I still think it's funny:
I've never done the first 4 pitches on the trip because: I was 'beach combing' the base of el cap one day when I heard yells from a guy up on the Trip. He had climbed the 4th pitch, his partner followed and got so wigged out he bailed. So the guy up there was yelling at me, asking me if I'd like to join him. I said sure and ran back down, bought a portaledge with my unemployment money (960$ a month goes a long way on a climber budget), hiked back up and jugged his ropes. He had tied together his lead line and haul line, but that only made it 30' from the ground, so he had this skinny short lower-out line attached. I jugged up all that (and I remember jugging the skinny rope to be very scary [was it 6mm?]), we did one pitch before dark where I promptly performed a faux-pas by dropping a small bag, which happened to contain half his food. I offered to give him half my food, but he insisted to rap, which we did and we returned the next morning and finished the route over the next few days.
Oh, we saw a green foam lizard glued to the 6th belay. Has anyone seen this? It was in '97.
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Oct 27, 2004 - 05:00pm PT
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Santa Fe is nice too, I think I'll take a left.
Back in 1992 we were heading up to make The Trip our second big wall. The skunks, bears, black widows and scorpions that haunted us the night before we were to blast were not the only things that freaked us out and made us bail. The fifth was to be mine. A party on it was leading the 5th and he nailed everything out from the (one at the time) chicken bolt. About 8 pins out a piece pulled and he zippered all the nails. He took this huge ride while we watched. My stomach went into my throat. We bailed and did WF Leaning tower. Best part there is that we had a "Trip supply" (lots) of beer.
Right turn back on to topic, anyone?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 27, 2004 - 05:27pm PT
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The lizard was at the top of 7, not 6, and he was still there in May, 2001.
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ricardo
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 27, 2004 - 05:32pm PT
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no lizard in 2004 ..
.. i had an inspiration to go buy an inflatable godzilla doll, and rig him up as my belayer .. and leave him attached to one of the belays .. (perhaps even inflate him using the RUN_FLAT stuff you can use on road tires) .. but i was too lazy to go through with it ..
i'm sure its been done anyways .. i think it was chris mac that did the first ascent with an inflatable Guinness .. so it would not be very original ..
ricardo
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 28, 2004 - 12:20am PT
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Did you say "inflatable"?
{sigh}
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nature
climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Oct 28, 2004 - 11:35am PT
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Inflatable things might not be original but certainly the type of "beasty" you bring can be. Who out there had ever thought of bringing Rolphin The Dolphin up? That one is all mine. Good thing we didn't have velcro gloves - Rolphy avoided any "abuse".
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ricardo
Gym climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2005 - 07:01pm PT
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hey pete ..
are you still planning to abuse "Eve the Sheep" on the ranch anytime soon...
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Feb 14, 2005 - 07:28pm PT
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Eva, dude. Eva the Party Ewe.
She still sits in her plastic bag. {sigh} We had planned to have a big sheep inflation party, and doggon if I didn't fall off and fracture me ankle on Day 1 of my Six-Week Holiday. However last Monday I got "unscrewed" - all metal has been removed from my ankle. I'm in a plaster cast [again! sheesh] til this Friday, until the incisions have healed.
As for Eva and the Ranch, I'm still waiting to see if Chad is interested in a rematch. Have you heard from him? He got a new job, I know. He seems to have disappeared. I never supposed him to be "satisfied" having climbed El Cap only once, but you never know. I hope to climb with him again. We shall see...
Ha! Reminds me of the time I climbed El Cap for the first time in 1988 via The Nose - my then-wife honestly believed that I would retire from climbing, having reached my long-sought-after goal. One post-divorce renaissance and twenty-six El Cap routes later, she couldn't have been more wrong.
Baaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Feb 14, 2005 - 08:26pm PT
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Absolutely! What a hottie, eh? Guess who I'm spending Valentine's Day with?
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