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Riotch
Trad climber
Kayenta, Arizona
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May 29, 2009 - 05:29pm PT
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"Why not let other segments of the population enjoy some thrills and exposure?"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111
I'll go postal if they do. I gonna go sight in my rifle this weekend.
"Other segments" of the population can go to Disney World . . .
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Josh Nash
Social climber
riverbank ca
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Topic Author's Reply - May 29, 2009 - 05:37pm PT
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I really had no idea that it was that popular.
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jstan
climber
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May 29, 2009 - 05:55pm PT
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We take a lot of pleasure in considering how climbing has changed, but at the
same time we pick and chose always responding emotionally.
Now my minimal to non-existent experience with Via Ferratae(?) suggests to
me they work well on relatively low angle ground and traverses that see a
great deal of traffic. I also have read that the Nose is "the most desired route
in the world" and that there is a problem with shyte everywhere.
So I have to ask. If we developed the technology for a Via Ferrata on
steep ground which allowed three parties a day to go up the Nose would
we reduce the shyte problem and at the same time reduce the rate at which we
are changing the Nose itself? Are we in a new paradigm?
I suspect the option of doing the route as it originally existed has long since
gone. There were already piton scars when I last saw it in the early 70's. I would
have trouble going to see it now, after all the people who have gone up it during the last 35 years.
Is it time to give up our imaginary world?
It hurts. It really hurts. But is this now where we are at?
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Eric McAuliffe
Trad climber
Alpine County, CA
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May 29, 2009 - 06:00pm PT
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i think arora .13a? in owens river is approached by VF. Pretty short but its there.
E
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 29, 2009 - 06:03pm PT
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hey john--
actually a lot-- maybe even most --of the via ferrata in the dolo are on really, really steep ground. much steeper than el cap. and they're graded, the way climbs are. some of them are extensions of older military routes, others are simply equipped approach/downclimbs for technical routes, and still others are independent lines.
they vary from routes with actual steel ladder to the occasional suspension bridge to the more frequent fixed steel cable with an eyebolt every 10 meters or so. basically fixed ropes on a rock route.
i had expected to hate them, but in context, they were actually not bad and sometimes even pretty cool.
i can't imagine them becoming a regular fixture in yosemite, although a good via ferrata is arguably less intrusive or destructive or unaesthetic than a new, graded, switchbacked hiking trail. in fact, many via ferrata are really considered trails, it's just that the europeans are happier on much steeper ground than are most american tourists. imagine the falls trail, but with several of the cut-step switchbacks replaced by either fixed-rope protected scrambling or occasional stretches of steel ladder.
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WBraun
climber
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May 29, 2009 - 06:10pm PT
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Josh
Those units were made for antenna tower climbers and other such applications like cell towers wireless, access points and RF repeaters. Roofers use em along with other guys that dangle around up high on structures.
There's a lot of people that use these things for that.
Climb a 300 to 1000 foot steel tower in the mid west with the wind blowing sometime and you'll be damn glad you have one of those units above.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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May 29, 2009 - 06:18pm PT
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Used iron stanchions in the Alps in '68, and I've done the Ogden thing, but Angel's Landing is by far the most popular.
And therein lies my deciding factor.
I'm against them; prostitution of the mountains for the undeserving.
Just look at the summit of Angel's Landing.
Its the worst case of in-park graffiti I've ever seen.
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mueffi
Trad climber
los gatos ,ca
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May 29, 2009 - 06:26pm PT
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I think this is a false alarm; Petzl produces also safety gear for ironworkers etc. they need this double clip to secure themself when tying rebar etc .
But in reference to the Half-dome Via ferata: It blows my mind to see who is clampering up those cables and that there are not more accidents...
Why not put up a cable car ( from Mirror Lake ! - to save the dustbowl trail) - augmented with a beer-garden on top of Half Dome - with some invitational Bavarian "rums-ta-ta" band - now this would make it really worthwile !!!
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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May 29, 2009 - 06:27pm PT
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Could you post a picture of the violation Piton ?
may get a crew sent to scrub it clean.
A VF up from Mirror lake was my first choice of one to install
also.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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May 29, 2009 - 06:30pm PT
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How do you scrub (literally) an acre of carved initials?
The Chief Ranger told me that the boy scout that fell to his death in '05 was trying to reach a virgin patch of rock to carve his name into.
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Cloudraker
Big Wall climber
BC
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May 29, 2009 - 06:53pm PT
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Recent talk of rigging a Via Ferrata for the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col in Bugaboo Provincial Park, BC, Canada.
Needless to say, from what I've seen there is considerable opposition among the local climbing community
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 29, 2009 - 07:20pm PT
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i would guess that bd makes that rig for the european via ferrata market but sells it here for industrial/worksite use.
the petzl is marketed elsewhere specifically for via ferrata, although i imagine that here they sell it mostly for industrial/worksite use.
the hut on half-dome's not that farfetched-- there used to be a hotel at vernal falls. the park service eventually closed it down and removed it, piece by piece.
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wildone
climber
GHOST TOWN
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May 29, 2009 - 07:29pm PT
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Kerwin and Werner- I already told him that, but he said I was wrong, merely because there wasn't a full body harness in the picture.
It simply a matter of scale...how many hard-core via-ferrata-ing euro dogs own a set, versus how may fat-ass iron workers/scaffolders/electricians/pipe-fitters/welders/tower builders the world over use one every day and replace it every two years as per osha/ce/ansi....
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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May 29, 2009 - 07:30pm PT
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 29, 2009 - 07:36pm PT
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wildone-- yeah, i wonder if they've reworked the via ferrata rigs specifically so they can re-purpose them for industrial/worksite markets.
the earlier gen of vf rigs were simply lengths of dynamic rope, tied to a harness like any lead rope, and with a massive locker at the business end. then they added load limiters. now i see these deals-- much more copasetic, but also pretty fancy and a lot more dough.
jaybro-- yeah, a lot of vfs at sport cliffs look like that-- basically a glorified bolt ladder to get to a skinny ledge that has a fixed steel cable traversing it from which you belay on the vertical lines.
canasla near the sellajoch-- but i don't have pix.
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
concord, california
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May 29, 2009 - 08:50pm PT
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Via Ferrata on Piz Trovat in the Swiss Alps. This is a great alternative when weather prevents you from doing real climbing. This was considered an easy to moderate Via Ferrata.
An exciting stroll across a cable suspended, wooden bridge.
Looking down on the wooden bridge.
Stella and Lorenzo near the summit of Piz Trovat
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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May 29, 2009 - 09:01pm PT
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klk, yeah, sign of our times. Do you think it's okay, or bad? I guess we will see. In the situation I photoed I thought and think it's cool, I can imagine all sorts of inappropriate, applications, though, Whadya say?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 29, 2009 - 09:06pm PT
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"I'm mad as hell and just can't take anymore."
Some more pictures might assuage my psychological peril....
Let us study this a bit further.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 29, 2009 - 09:09pm PT
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Honestly, I thought the ones I saw in the Dolos were pretty cool. WW1 really engineered a lot of those peaks, so som eof them are historical artifacts. And the scale is so large there, that you have to be right up on them to pick them out.
I've never done one properly-- I was always just soloing.
Done right, they're lower impact than the average NPS trail, carefully graded for mules and obese tourons.
But the most practical candidates here in the US are also never going to happen: Yosemite, Grand Canyon, other places with lots of vertical relief and high population density.
Two aspects of via ferrata that we probably should do in this country, but don't are first: steep sections of trail where ladders or fixed steel cable would be far less intrusive than the standard NPS-USFS graded trail with staircase steps. And second, I am relaxing my objections to having fixed steel rope on spots like that rap on the N. Ridge of Conness, where instead each party leaves its own mess of fluorescent plastic tat to rot in the sun.
I guess that's not much an answer, as each of those examples would be a way of using via ferrata to reduce environmental impacts, rather than as an end in itself.
Edit for bad typing
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 29, 2009 - 09:28pm PT
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