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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Aug 16, 2007 - 12:26pm PT
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Wild Bill, is that a Lizzy Connors quote?
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Aug 16, 2007 - 12:37pm PT
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Got lost on the top of Book of Friends in Sedona (probably because we topped out in the middle of torrential downpour and thunderstorm). We ended up canyoneering through the night, rappelling of chockstones and logs jammed in a slot canyon not knowing if we would come to an impassable spot. Our skeletons would still be there if we did!
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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Aug 16, 2007 - 12:44pm PT
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now i see where your name comes from, it was earned! yikes.
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AbeFrohman
Trad climber
new york, NY
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Aug 16, 2007 - 01:19pm PT
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the uberfall's got them all beat.
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Wild Bill
climber
Ca
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Aug 16, 2007 - 02:11pm PT
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Ron, that's just me thinking out loud.
But really, the dark descents turn into bivies. Maybe someone should start another thread.about that - I'm sure it's never been discussed here on ST.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Aug 16, 2007 - 02:26pm PT
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Dude if the Uberfall freaks you out, you've GOT to try Roger's Escape hatch....
----shiver
-Fear
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Tom Hanson
Trad climber
Castle Rock, CO
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Aug 16, 2007 - 02:48pm PT
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Hi Stanley,
I would agree that the gully descent to the right of Washington Column is notoriously crappy. I did it one morning after spending the night on top while being eaten alive by fire ants.
However, my ski descent of Stanley Mountain above Berthoud Pass in Colorado several years back was my worst. At one section the snow hourglassed into a narrow ten inch wide section, where I had to lift one ski to fit thru. As I did this, I caught an edge and went down. I started tumbling and lost both ski's, not to mention both poles, hat, etc.
I tumbled about a quarter mile beofe I skidded to a stop just above a thirty-foot cliff.
The worst part was that I had to reclimb a quarter mile of slope to regain my gear.
My best descent was after I lead Baxter's Pinnacle in The Tetons back in about 1979. I had just led the last pitch to the top and I had to pee so bad that I unied from the rope and tied the rope off to a tiny tree on top so that I could take a leak. As I was relieving myself, the rope came untied and fell down to my belayers lap, who was a pitch below waiting to be belayed up.
I was thinking that I would be stuck up there until another party came along, or the rangers came by to save my sorry butt.
Then I noticed that there was a strange rope hangingover the north edge about the descent gully that was feeding around a tree as it was being pulled down by someone below.
I ran over and grabbed the cord and yelled over to ask the owners if I might borrow it long enough to bring my partner up with our line. They agreed and I lucked out of my stupid mistake.
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snowey
Trad climber
San Diego
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Aug 16, 2007 - 03:12pm PT
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Maybe its because its so fresh in my mind but I thought the descent from the back of the UNotch after doing the palisades traverse was the worst.
That gully is super loose and never ending only to be followed by a giant talus field and a 3 hr death march on a never ending trail.
edit: it looks like I used 'never ending' twice in the last sentence but thats the first thing that came to mind and most accurate.
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Impaler
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Aug 16, 2007 - 03:36pm PT
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Snowey, I am glad that you mentioned the Palisades. My worst one was there as well descending from Mt. Agassiz towards Winchell. We got off route (actually never got on the correct route at all) and probably ended up doing a FA that was about 5.8, when we intended to climb easy 5th class. We didn’t summit until midnight and by the time we got down to our high camp at the foot of the palisade glacier it was already sunny. However, I have to admit that it was the most beautiful night in my life. The stars were great and I had lots of time to watch the meteorites while belaying. There was also full moon and no clouds, so we didn’t use our headlamps. Nevertheless, we were getting cliffed out on our descent all night long and had several sections of loose and treacherous 5th class.
The descent from Sentinel was bad, but it doesn't match the proportions of the palisades. It took me only 1/3 of the time of the Agassiz descent.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Aug 16, 2007 - 04:03pm PT
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In no particular order:
1. descending from Palisade Glacier camp with full packs in a foot of fresh snow.
2. the approach to Paleface Slab at Cochise
3. those poor bastards who slog up the trail to Half Dome's NW face and have to bail and slog back out.
Ooh, forgot one: Tahquitz in the dark with no headlamp and no moon. That sucked.
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Aug 16, 2007 - 07:46pm PT
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A very challenging "descent" is the approach to El Trono Blanco. You downclimb a gully filled with Columbia Boulder sized rocks, and you end up hopping from one to the next, squirming under and in between them (often getting dead ended), little rappels off garbage anchors here and there, to work your way down (all with 100 pounds on your back).
Hard to describe, but imagine a kewpie doll sized human coming down from the Zodiac talus slope and there's a bit of the idea.
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cliffhanger
Trad climber
California
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Aug 16, 2007 - 07:55pm PT
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Descending Southwest Side, the class 3 route on North Palisade was treacherous. Steep ice hard snow in areas with only sneakers on and great exposure was dicey. And there's numerous places to get off route and onto steep class 5, as I found out.
The one spot that always gave me the jitters was that short steep hard dirt slope that you have to drop straight down right at the start of the long traverse over to North Dome Gully just north of Washington Column. It seemed that one little slip there and you'd go for the big ride. Sentinel's descent never seemed that exposed.
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C-dog
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 17, 2007 - 12:33pm PT
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Night-time in North dome Gulley escorting rescued wooden-soldier
dehydrated beginners down who had no headlamps or flashlights... UGH.
But my worst all-time descent?
The left side of PennyRoyal arches, Tuolemne. DON'T DO IT! The
descent is to the RIGHT!
Hope it was a tale you sought, because a tale it is:
(Circa 1993-4?, and not too fictional if memory serves...)
My buddy (Mr. Efficient) had xeroxed the hand drawn topo of the arches
and therefore left the actual guidebook in the car. ARGH #1. Thanks
for waiting until after the long approach hike to tell me that.
He and climber #3 were fairly solid 5.8 leaders and I had multi-pitched
with one of them several times, so I didn't see too much trouble with
leading them up "Eagle Dihedral" (5.5 or so). It was a beautiful 80deg
sunny, July 4th weekend, so up we go ...
At the top of pitch #3, they show up with only shorts and tee-shirts.
"What happened to your jackets?" I asked. While I had been leading,
they had untied them from their waists where I had told them to stow,
and thrown them -knit hats and all- down onto their packs at the base
of the climb (I was climbing with pack). Yes they could see that Marmots
were eating their packs, and yes it was a foolish desperate gambit.
ARGH #2.
One more pitch passed, when a large dark cloud suddenly appeared
above (came in from the South therefore blocked from view by the crag).
The temp dropped briskly and snowflakes began to swirl everywhere (yes,
in July: let that be a lesson for those with ears to hear). ARGH #3.
I donned my beautiful Patagonia fleece (brand new stuff at the time, yes
I am an old trad climber). Soon they were both shivering out of control.
I took pity on the young kid and gave him my pants. I should have called
it right there, but it was a tough call. The belays were not very good
for rapping (ARGH #4) and as I looked up to note that the final pitch was
4th class, and that the top was level enough to get situated and wait
out the squall. Time: 1:00 PM, and we still had our lunches to eat.
My buddy assured me "It's an easy walk off." "In the snow, wet rock?"
 he couldn't be sure of course. But so-and-so said so. I should have
demanded "WHO?!!," but alas I was still young-ish and somewhat tender.
We finished and had our lunch, snow lightned, spirits rising now.
Time to GTFOOD.
This was back in the days of the blue 2nd ed. guidebook, and as you can
note, the arrow indicating the descent is only found on the photo of the
arches, not on the topo. ARGH #5. The arrow points right, but the only
source of info we had -my buddy- said the descent was to the left. IT IS
NOT!!!! What you will find there is all nine circles of Hell. There is
a gulley, a deceptive gulley that goes easy at first. Feels good to be
getting down. Then you come to a mossy, inverted chimney that stays wet
all Summer. The angle is such that even though I set them up to lower me
on the rope, I could not get it to go. No matter what I tried, I could not
protect against falling and dangling out into free air. Nor could I find
any friction against wet rock and muddy moss. There was no other way to
go. Snow and cold meantime were worsening again.
They weren't helping by crying, "How will WE get down?!" I managed to get
down pack and all, then came the young guy, hanging on the rope, with me
providing a directional from below. Then my buddy had a hissy fit and refused
to come down without being on top belay. We had been able to set a single shaky
friend above, and were now in dire straits. I set many pieces at our position
below, and created a bomber belay in case the friend popped and he yanked on us.
We ended up in a tug of war on the rope, as I refused to let him have his way.
He wanted to climb back up and tie one end of the rope to a tree. "No," I
yelled against the wind, "We are too far from the ground to sacrifice one
of our ropes." That tree was ratty anyway, I had already passed it up. We
could not see him, and could barely hear him. I was not about to let him have
hold of our other rope in his state.
Finally, he agreed to climb down, if we helped. So I climbed part way back
up and lowered him, while the young kid stood on my shoulders tall, with his
left arm up in the bare air. After a most desperate, wet, and dirty stretch,
my buddy was able to get his foot into that hand. Jeesh. Ok, now we are
feeling better, but minus one friend, a sling, and two biners. But the worst
was yet to come.
We had a good belay, but the gulley we were in vanished at -you guessed it-
about 50 meters below that belay. I found this out at rope's end. There was
nowhere else along that part that could be used as a belay, and only a flat
face for the last 100-200 ft down. That's a shitty feeling. ARGH #6.
So... Tie the two ropes together, do a single rope rap with a knot to pass
halfway down? Leave our pieces and both ropes? I muddled with this idea
whilst I cursed and cursed. No easy way to see if the rope reached the turf
below. There was a ledge about 20 feet above me outside of the gulley. It
was big enough for us, but no place to sink a piece. Good footing though.
Time? 5:00PM. By now I knew that we were way off route.
It was then that I noticed that the rim of the gulley below to my left
(which had been 10-15 feet dihedrally above us) held a spire, more of a mound
about 3 feet in diameter. Not sharp enough to lasso, wrong angle, but defined
enough to hold with a bear hug. Perhaps our fortunes would look better from over
there? (BLIND) But I would have to run down the slab and leap perhaps ten
feet to reach it. I tried to figure a pendulum, but no way, the rope wasn't
long enough from the affore-mentioned belay. If they came down, then the angle
would be shitty for a pendulum. But I knew that Matt could hold me if I fell,
So I told Matt to come down, and my buddy stayed up at the belay. He kept Matt
on one of the ropes while I attempted the leap on the other. Matt braced himself,
I parked my pack with him, and then I shedded my childhood sanity.
I don't know how I did it, but I ran at a downward angle on the slab, and then
jumped across the flaring remains of our gulley over the abyss. I ended up
sprawled on the mound like a starfish. Thank God there was another gulley
on the far side! I found a way to belay, hauled my pack over and set up.
Anybody ever been at this spot?
Meantime, I untied and returned the rope to Matt. He fed it back up to my buddy,
who rapped down to the ledge. Now we were down more cams and a stopper, plus slings,
biners, etc. They threw the rope back down to me, I tied them in, and one at a time
they tried the leap. Matt made it, my buddy did not. He ended up dangling, again
hysterical, hit his elbow pretty bad. Eventually we hauled, he calmed, and we made
it back to their mangled packs at the base. The Marmots had eaten everything, and
apparently also stolen one of my buddy's approach shoes!
Moral of the story:
It was the last time I ever climbed with my buddy. No for real: The guidebook
is bound in durable ways designed for you to take it with you. Do so. Dammit.
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Gunkie
climber
East Coast US
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Aug 17, 2007 - 01:32pm PT
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NDG and going left off the top of Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire.
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Eastside
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Aug 17, 2007 - 03:23pm PT
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I've never done the in-famous Valley descents, but my vote goes for coming off the back of Red Garden Wall in the dark. Good thing I'd done it in daylight and knew the route, and that it was OK to let go of that boulder and drop 5-6 feet!
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Eastside
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Aug 17, 2007 - 03:27pm PT
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deuce4, you forgot to mention the rattlesnakes. At least the time of year I was there, they were a major factor. And the lion that came close to camp one night was spooky too. Might have been a jaguar, I saw one down that way once.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Aug 17, 2007 - 03:44pm PT
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The worst descents that I've been on have probably been in Zion or Red Rocks.
The worst I've been on in Yosemite were probably Middle Brother and Ribbon Falls West (which we probably did wrong). Arrowhead Arete has lots of heights to fall from and blocks to bowl down on each other too.
Edit...I always feel like I'm going to kill myself trying not to get poison oak on that sandy edge on top of the Cookie. I guy did perish up there a few years ago too. I guess it doesn't have to be long and burly to be "bad".
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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Aug 17, 2007 - 04:07pm PT
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C-Dog,
I've done "the Vision" on Pennyroyal at least 5 times and I think I've exited fairly casually to the left each time????
Kind of a long, slow, traversy left. Not descending directly, but following ledges etc....
Worst descent? hmm. North Dome Gully not as bad to me as to some, never did it in the dark though...
I think that ledge coming off of "Absolutely Free" Area was an unpleasant experience...
Some Josh descents are more like climbs...now some canyon descents...oops, that is a different forum!
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Ed Bannister
Mountain climber
Riverside, CA
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Aug 17, 2007 - 04:42pm PT
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Personal worst
north gulley at Tahquitz...
I went down as the talus trundled underneath me.
When everything stopped, I thought I had sprained my ankle, and an hour and a half later I was in Humber Park. ok I thought.
Three days later the podiatrist is showing me the xray of the bubbled cortex of the bone, over an area 1 " wide and 4" long... "I don't understand why your bone didn't break under the weight of that boulder." The three footer that had rolled, had gone over another piece, with my ankle in-between.
Ed
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travelin_light
Trad climber
california
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Aug 17, 2007 - 05:05pm PT
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Descent from:
South Face of Lone Pine Peak
Mount Mendel (going back up and over Lamarck Col)
NDG
Anything in Alaska
Turtle Rock
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!