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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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May 16, 2009 - 03:24pm PT
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Is this the tree (in red) at which you arrived? Were there any old fixed ropes about?
The blue circle is the start of the 3rd/2nd class Michaels Ledge.
I'm quite curious as to the route myself, although, I think there might be a couple hundred yards of exposed 4th class between that tree and the next fixed rope. And, given the exposure to rockfall between the two places, I'm not sure I'd want to be hanging around long enough to belay anyone across.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
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May 16, 2009 - 04:38pm PT
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cool linkup but scary place that michaels ledge. loose as heck with a death fall looking at you in the face.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
above the play park
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May 17, 2009 - 05:18pm PT
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I believe EP locals Nate and Brian climbed this linkup in the 21st century.
Me, no.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 18, 2009 - 04:18pm PT
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Tom,
You asked about routes on the Lower Brother facing Manure Pile Buttress, and Peter Haan mentioned that some are listed in the Roper guide. Here's the merged list of routes, including new ones:
Lower Brother
1081. Lower Brother - West Face - North Corner 5.3, Ro
1082. Lower Brother - West Face - Middle 5.6, Ro
1083. Lower Brother - Southwest Arete - Left 5.6, Ro
1084. Lower Brother - Southwest Arete - Right 5.5, Ro
1085. Lower Brother - Michael's Ledge 4th, Ro
1086. The Feeling is Back 5.10-, 4p, G
1087. Free & Easy 5.10-, 5p, G
1088. Avenger of Evil 5.11+, 6p, G
1089. Old Dad #11 5.10, joins The Boogie Man, G
1090. The Boogie Man 5.10, 7p, G
1091. Ramblin' Rose 5.10, 5p
1092. Ramblin' Rose p3 direct. 5.11c
1093. Hawkman's Escape 5.9, 8p
1094. Hawkman's Escape - p7 var. 5.11a
1095. Valley Locals 5.10 A1, 5p, G
1096. 420 Route 5.10-, 5.9 R, 1p, G
1097. Mother's Day Pinnacle 5.9, 3p, G
1098. Walter's Wiggle 5.9, 1p, G
1099. Euro Route - Left 5.10, 1p, G
1100. Euro Route - Right 5.10, 1p, G
from
http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/YOS.HTM
[Edit: First 4 on West/SW face, remainder on SE face visible from Camp 4]
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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May 18, 2009 - 06:24pm PT
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I need a copy of the green book, sheesh.
The first 6 are on the west face? While the other routes are on the steeper wall that faces more toward camp 4?
I figured there would be old obscurities there.
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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May 18, 2009 - 06:42pm PT
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Cleo, having been to the blue circle myself, there was no way I was venturing out towards that tree. It looked like death for sure. Plus there is tons of more loose blocks piled on intermediate ledges ready to rain down on that area and the base of middle brother.
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msiddens
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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May 18, 2009 - 07:05pm PT
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Very cool....I ended up doing Absolutely Free a few months back and found it to be a blast and clean. Well worth doing even with the approach and descent. Defiantly want to repeat it with the Hawkmans add-on. Michaels Ledge was longer than I would have liked but easy enough to stay on route.
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rockermike
Mountain climber
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May 18, 2009 - 07:58pm PT
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Anyone know where to find a topo of absolutely free? I want to give it a go (again).
I actually started up it sometime back in the late'70's. Turned into a 100+ degree day (my water was gone after a pitch) and I was climbing without chalk at the time (a matter of principal long since abandoned - ha) and sweated and slipped out of that 5.9 crack a half dozen times before we bailed. Got to go back and settle scores.
Hawkman's will have to wait until I get into better shape. ha
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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May 18, 2009 - 08:10pm PT
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Good job, guys!
Le_bruce...I'm curious if you ever got my note. I'm not sure that when I respond to ST e-mails that they ever go through to the original sender.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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May 19, 2009 - 02:07am PT
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Hey Melissa -
Yes, I did get that and I shot one back your way - did you get that? It was basically to say thanks.
DMT, also sending thanks your way for the beta. When you said we "had it in the bag!" after our high point on the first try, you must have been high! But I kept repeating that to myself as the pitches kept stacking up, each one physical and hard, after that ledge that we were marooned on the first time around. "It's in the bag, DMT said so!"
Having done it twice now, I think Ab Free Center is a good, clean line. It's a cool crux because it's a rooflet, it demands at least one honest fist jam out of you, and the pro is good.
Ab Free Right looks like a climb that hasn't been done in decades.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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May 19, 2009 - 10:02am PT
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I didn't get it. Hmmm?
Re: nutjob's question, I think I've done it twice this century...maybe even since May 2008 since I think we did it around that time, but I'm not sure of the date. I don't recall the rap slings looking too bad. I bet it gets done a few times a year at least.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
above the play park
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May 19, 2009 - 12:36pm PT
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rockermike-
there's a topo of AF in the Reid guide. It basically works, except where it doesn't, which amounts to finding the start. Friends of mine this spring hiked right past the route all the way to Michael's Ledge and had to come back the next week to bag it.
Park in wide dirt turnout on oppo side of rd. Find the toe of the buttress. Walk R (east) on OK trail for a couple hundred yards until in a flattish area beneath a low-angle, dirty slab to the R of a junky 3rd/4th-class corner. Rack up and shoe up, and hang your pack up. Follow the junky corner for what amounts to maybe 2.5 ropelengths, with a few heads-up slab moves [although I've never roped up and no one probably does], moving to the outside near the top.
You are looking for the base of the AF pinnacle, which begins out of a shady alcove in the gully with 30 feet of easy slab/ledges heading for a blocky corner/chimney thing. Above and L of this is a semi-attractive looking corner-crack, which you don't really want, as your goal is to surmount the blocks in the chimney-thing and belay on the nice ledge right above to stay in touch with your second. Notice the oak down and R on the ledge: you will be returning here on the raps, should you choose to rap, which you should. You have brought 2x60m ropes for this purpose.
Middle pitch: up to ledge, then splitter 5.9 tight hands into corner. Stay in corner (harder) or use crack to its left. If you run the rope out you can reach a great ledge; otherwise hang from the tree and do a short next one.
Up top, the last pitch in the topo follows a wide flaring affair through a roof for which most people would like 2 #4 camalots; what most peopple actually do, however, is to follow some nice fingery lb corners to the right which do not appear on that topo, and are no harder at 5.9 than the rest of what you did to get there. Rap from slung blocks, which you may have slung your own self as the fixed cordelette tends to come and go.
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nutjob
climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2009 - 01:35pm PT
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It may take me forever to create trip reports for both of our visits... so here is a teaser from our first attempt, where we linked P2 and P3 into a 60m rope-stretcher pitch.
We had probed out left past a huge dead tree that used to be a belay station, and we had probed way out right beneath a menacing razor blade of a winnebago-sized rock teetering on a point of attachment the size of my finger. It was truly sickening to look up at this thing. A route looked plausible tunneling underneath it, but it would be absolute insanity to risk touching the thing with a rope. Razor. Perched. Winnebago. That left the middle way, which we had ruled out from the beginning because it just looked ridiculously difficult on crumbling rock. This was supposed to be a 5.9 climb. We were at the point of bailing because it was getting late and our sacks weren't big enough.
Suddenly I grew a pair and said "watch me," which began the single most non-stop horrifying pitch of my life. The dead tree looked too sketchy as a belay, so we were way to the right and using our big cams in the belay. I hand-traversed out left for about 20 feet on pretty easy territory where the slab meets the headwall, with a loose cam or two in decomposing granite.
At this point, the business begins with an overhanging series of thin cracks and flakes. I launched up into the first flake, and took a moment to make the world stop spinning as the flake bent under my body weight. I my back was parallel to the slab 15 feet below, fully committed in a lieback, and my last pro was ways back to the right in the horizontal crack at the base of the headwall. I quickly pulled through into a powerful handjam and desperately clawed my way into another thin handjam, where I hung while plugging a cam in a sandy pocket lined with exfoliating granite. With shaky arms I clipped a sling to the cam and the rope and made myself keep going; I didn't trust the cam to hang on it, and I was quickly flaming out in this overhanging wall. Bryce later said "cams would later pull from the rock for me with ease - no need to retract trigger as layers of bad rock fell away from the flakes."
Another powerful jam enabled me to get a more secure piece in, then each move got a little easier until I could take a deep breath up by the pillar where I planned to belay. Whew!
As I chimneyed up behind the 30-foot pillar, with my back to the headwall, an ominous wind came howling from the direction of Ramblin' Rose. Then, a deep moaning sound accompanied the pillar rocking away from my feet! "Aaaaaah!" I screamed like the terrified child that I am, and quickly shimmeyed back down. After a few more minutes adjusting to a new level of fear, I tunneled behind the pillar again. I needed to get a look at Ramblin' Rose up left, because I saw a whole lot of nothing up right where my route Hawkman's Escape was supposed to go. I hear the ominous wind again, and this time I'm only mortified by the deep moaning and the outward swaying of the pillar. At this point I really need a break to get my head together, maybe vomit or fill my pants. But there's no time for that.
I head up right into a decomposing and widening crack that marks the lower end of a massive upper headwall ready to shear off of lower brother. The climbing is pretty moderate, but with the buffetting wind, accumulated sense of dread, and wondering what will happen to me if the sky-scraper sized headwall decides to go right then... well it was all just too much. I moved quickly and methodly through the easy wide crack with lots of footholds and steep wild exposure. I got in a few pieces and launched into the open face up right around the corner. The easy 5.5 face moves lured me onward, bringing hope of easier movement and relief. I didn't want to waste time looking for pro as I didn't have much in my rack, and I wasn't in a state to find tricky spots for placing gear on the open face. The rope drag was horrendous, and with each footstep I levered up the rope on my thigh to get enough slack to shift my body upward.
I am completely in the zone, moving methodically up this face. I'm mantling up edges as wide as a digit of my index finger, and get lots of rests here and there on better edges. I'm hand traversing with feet reaching way off balance to the side. I'm focused on each move in front of me, and I'm pulled from my reverie when le_bruce calls out "10 feet" signaling the end of my rope. I look around and suddenly realize the enormity of my situation:my last pro is 30 to 40 feet down and to the left; if I fall, I will land on the enormous perched razor-blade winnebago rock. My belay is about 20 feet to the left and 10 feet up. The rope-drag is a constant risk to pull me off. I stood in that spot for a long while. The moment is clearly burned into my brain, and no passage of time will soften it. I stared downward, immersing myself in the fear, bathing in it, relishing it. I thought of what I had to lose, I thought about falling, and then I reeled it back in, concentrated that energy into a tight little focus. Methodically, I began the traverse back left. I had wandered too far to the right, and the moves getting back on track were sketchy. Every move successful move raised my hopes, but I didn't dare lose focus yet. The rope drag increased moment by moment, threatening to cramp my thighs from the constant resistance. As my outstretched finger-tips tried to friction-wiggle over the ledge at the belay, I hear "that's me!" I get my hand over the ledge, and try to mantle over to safety, but I'm stopped hard by the rope! Aaaaagh, I panic for a moment in a half-crouch, arm over the ledge, with an endless sea of rock and a tight-stretched rope going to the bottom of the face with nothing clipped. I take a deep sigh. And stay calm. And regroup. I summon everything I've got left, and tie it together with shattered nerves, cramping muscles, and a sea of panic held at bay by a paper-thin barrier of my remaining will. In a sustained explosion of my last power, heave against the rope and get my leg onto the ledge. Now I can grab a hollow flake and press up hard with my legs, pulling through enough rope to stand up and tie a sling through the pillar formed by the hollow flake. It takes a while doing it one-handed because I don't dare let go of the death-grip handjam inside the flake. At last I clip in, get another bad cam or two, and call out "Off Belay."
The belay is acceptable, but it's not textbook. I'm still hanging out over the big face, and the blood in my body has oozed out myriad fleshwounds and been replaced by adrenaline. Some time later le_bruce reaches my position, and I have never seen him looking so awful. His face is literally green, like an old polaroid picture. By this time I'm starting to get a little high from the fact that I'm still breathing, and that I have another human that can relate to what I just went through... the crumbly hand-traverse, the overhanging crack and flexing flake, hanging from bad jams to place bad gear, the moaning pillar and shearing headwall and endless face with razor winnebago waiting to catch me. He looks like I probably did a half hour before, and it is scary. He is not happy with my belay station. I try to explain my limited options. He sets another piece or two, we regroup. It's getting late. We've not eaten since 5:30am, and we both ran out of water during the pitch. Let's hurry up and get off this terror.
There is so much more where that came from! Passing out in the sun while lost on a ledge, flaming out while trying to aid up the wrong exit crack system, cough-drops stuck to our dry teeth and the roofs of our mouths, considering how to make a rescue signal fire from the pitiful little bushes we could reach, prussiking up stuck ropes in a crumbling chimney, chopping ropes twice, leaving a small rack worth of gear strewn across the route, jumping rattlesnake on Michael's Ledge, nearly 30 hours without water in a heat wave... good times.
It was way less eventful during our last successful bid; but it is still a burly climb. I have a sinking feeling that I might want to return again some time to do the whole thing including the raps and walk-off without a bivy. But then again, sunrise on top of Lower Brother is very hard to beat.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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May 19, 2009 - 02:48pm PT
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Yeah DMT, we're talking about the same second ledge, this one right here:
All the hardest/scariest climbing is below you at that point, but we still had to fight to reach the top.
Here's Scott around the same place as your man having fun with the kneebar:
I thought that was the hardest and best pitch on the linkup, with diamond hard, tiger stripe granite from the big chimney to the ledge.
But the true crux is the diorite roof off the p1 ledge and steep crack that follows. I'm glad Scott led that both times.
The pro at Scott's feet here is a laugh - wouldn't hold a feather - and he won't be getting anything trustworthy for another 10 feet or so of gritty, steep, off-balance jamming.
What a killer climb.
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nutjob
climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2009 - 02:57pm PT
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So Dingus, any more "you gotta try it" climbs you recommend?
;^)
These pics sum up the state we were in during our first trip:
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nutjob
climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2009 - 03:14pm PT
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Yeah, beta for folk who want to go up there now, the tree is good enough.
We also made an intermediate belay this time past the rocking pillar but before the run-out face... somewhere right in the fracture line of the shearing headwall. Each piece looked decent, but the overall position and rock quality left me feeling uneasy. I think it's the right strategy though.
Here's a pic looking down from the spot:
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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May 19, 2009 - 11:58pm PT
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This is a great thread. thanks all!
Zander
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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May 20, 2009 - 12:03am PT
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Adventures abound!
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nutjob
climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 22, 2009 - 01:42am PT
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Alright homies, grab your popcorn and your blankies, and brace yourselves for a feature-length presentation (almost):
http://www.vimeo.com/4776865
Don't start watching it at work unless you have some time to kill!
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
the greasewood ghetto
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May 22, 2009 - 02:15am PT
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deuce4 : " Walt and I onsight soloed it together once. It started raining half way up . I was pretty gripped . "
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