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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 30, 2011 - 01:19am PT
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When they give you the decoder ring, and teach you the secret handshake, you know you're in the club. But, never join any club that will have you for a member.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Oct 30, 2011 - 01:28am PT
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I think it's ok to be critical of massively popular new routes like Skywalker. I have mixed feelings about it as well. While I do appreciate all the work JF put into cleaning it up, I do think he was a bit over zealous with making it "user friendly" for the up and coming "5.8" climber. The bolted short slab on the last pitch has way too many bolts on it. I mean, you can walk up most of it with no hands... So much for the Squamish slab experience.
Overall, I do like Skywalker and think it is a worthy outing.
Speaking of slab, which I do have a morbid fascination for, does anyone have a story of the Grim Reaper, White Lightning, Dream on, Magic Carpet Ride, Dancing in the Light, etc... they care to share?
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 30, 2011 - 02:06am PT
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Speaking of slab, which I do have a morbid fascination for, does anyone have a story of the Grim Reaper, White Lightning, Dream on, Magic Carpet Ride, Dancing in the Light, etc... they care to share?
Sure. Here's a story from Dancing in the Light. That is, it's not a story about DitL, but rather a story about something that happened while we were on DitL. I think I posted this on rec.climbing some time in the last century, but you reminded me of it, so here it is...
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Does the Guiness Book of Records have a category for "Stupidest thing ever done on a rockface"? If they do, I'll phone them and report what I saw last weekend.
Here's the scene: A friend and I were halfway up Dancing in the Light, a hard 7-pitch slab route on the Apron of the Squamish Chief. To our right, over an edge, were the usual multitudes on Diedre, the most popular (it's only 5.7) multi-pitch route in the known universe; and to the right of that was open slab. That slab is a fairly blank piece of rock, and other than the lower part where White Lightning traverses, rising from left to right, there were no routes on it back then.
Whooosssshhhhh! Down the slab came a rope. A single climbing rope, hanging from somewhere up out of my sight and ending in the middle of the slab to the right. And then down the rope came... what? I guess it must have been a climber, because he certainly was equipped for climbing. He was carrying a well-stuffed expedition pack and over his shoulder was a rack with enough gear to start a store. (Peder, who had just completed the White Lightning pitch and had a better view than I did, later told me it looked like the guy had a triple set of Friends through #4.)
He clipped himself to a bolt on the White Lightning traverse and waited while he was followed, hesitantly, down the rope by a somewhat overweight young woman who appeared to be rapping on a Grigri. My friend on White Lightning, guessing that it was her first rappel, and worried that she might lose control going over a small overlap, called down to her partner to tie the rope off to the bolt, but got no response.
By this time everybody on the adjacent routes had stopped climbing and was watching to see what would happen next. The pair had rappelled the full length of their rope from the station at the top of the 5.7 pitch on Diedre, and were now clipped to a bolt in the middle of nowhere. What were they doing? Was it part of a plan to try toproping a hard slab? Were they going to get some Jumar practice? Were they going to set up camp?
What they did was to call up to somebody at the station from which they had descended to untie the rope and toss it down.
And we all watched in fascination as the rope slid down to them, and then kept on sliding down, eventually piling up on a small ledge about 25 meters below the bolt they were now marooned on.
One of the many parties on Diedre was preparing to start the third pitch of that route from a station not far from where the rope was now sitting, and the leader went over, picked up an end, and took it up to the helpless ones (20 meters, 5.9, no pro) then traversed back into his own route and carried on up to his next belay station (about 3 meters from where I was hanging), and began bringing up his partner.
Meanwhile our heroes had managed to double their rope, thread it, and were now rapping (from that single bolt) down to the station just vacated by their rescuer. But what would they do next? It was a full 50m to the ground from there. Would they rap out and leave their rope? Would they try another 25m rappel and be left in the middle of nowhere (no bolts between them and the ground this time)?
Once again they fooled us. The guy started rapping _sideways_ across the ledge -- hoping, I suppose, that he could reach a station at its far end. But that ledge gradually fades out into the slab, and he decided that retreat was better than the monster pendulum he was sure to take if he carried on, and traversed back to his partner.
So there they sat. Hugging each other and not doing anything at all. I called down to ask if they needed help and they said they were fine, but since they were obviously lying, the guy who had saved their asses once already lowered down, tied off their rope, hung it over the edge, supervised them into a rappel, then untied it and tossed it to them once they were safe on the ground. (Although I should add that "the ground" in this case was about 200 meters of steep trail above the real ground, but with that triple set of Friends and all the gear in the pack I'm sure they made it down before thay ran out of food.)
That night I called Peder to ask if he had any idea what had started the whole adventure, since I hadn't been able to see from where I was. He told me that the pair had finished the 5.7 pitch (the crux) of Diedre, but that the woman had been too frightened to go on, so they had decided to rap out, asking somebody who was at the station to toss their rope once they finished the first rap.
Why they went straight down into the middle of the slab instead of tensioning slightly leftwards to stay in the corner they had just climbed, I don't know. Why they chose to rappel with one rope, I don't know. And why they chose to rappel at all when they had already finished the hardest pitches of their climb, I don't know either.
The moral? The only conclusion I can draw is that the gods must love idiots, or else the two idiots in this story would be on a different kind of slab right now.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Oct 30, 2011 - 02:54am PT
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Haha, nice story of epic silliness. I recall it being pretty hard to rappel off Diedre with a single rope. I had to do it once with a girl and a single 50m rope in a sudden epic rainstorm from the top of the first dihedral pitch. I had to down climb quite a bit of it while holding onto the end of my rope after coming up short on the rappel. Pretty fun stuff while gallons of rain is drenching you.
We got down safely, thru all our soaking wet clothes but our skivies in the driers at the laundry-mat beside Mountain Burger, and hitchhiked back to Whistler.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 30, 2011 - 03:59am PT
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Tami- Too true. I guess what I was getting at was because of the way most climbers these days, typically their first climb will be a sport climb, so automatically they associate bolts with protection. Typically they eventually get into crack climbing but aren't familar with gear anchors and too scared to screw it up.
Bitd bolts were all drilled by hand so there had better be reason to drill them. Slinging a tree or building a gear anchor was much easier. So you did it alot, became proficient at it. That knowledge would have been passed on to beginners of that age as it was common practice.
Beginners who climb crack exclusively with seasoned crack climbers can often have difficultly with face or sport climbs. My lovely girlfriend is case in point.. I sick her on cracks all summer and then one day we go for a few clip ups and she gets all frustrated and flustered on an easy climb. She hates the gym, but she's all good at a hanging gear anchor.
So i see value in putting anchors every 30m until the traverse so someone that gets in over thier head a bit can bail if they need too... I do agree with Relic about his point on the last pitch and I handled that one quite easily by only clipping 2 of the bolts. Once again as a beginner leader I remember wishing there were a few moderate slab routes that I could learn on.
I see MH and MH2's point also and agree.. I too felt the same way when the signs started going up at Chek, I don't really see the need for them.. That is always the most fun part of climbing figuring out where you are and where the route is? Beginner Routefinding.
I would be concerned if this were becoming the norm but it's not. There are runout routes, why can there not be easier better protected routes for those who wish to climb them as well? JF got permission from the FA's?
As far as the enviromental issue goes just about every pitch in Squamish has had a massive excavation at some point.. Nobody ever bags on Sonnie for digging out the Buttface!
Those markers up there are also very handy when it's your first time up there, it's dark because it was busy and you have headlamps but your girlfriend hates approaches during the daytime much less at night!
Re The Ivanhoe- It would be fun to do a pub night again once in awhile.. I know the Howe Sound hosts climbers on a regular basis but maybe a organized night would be interesting?
Ghost awesome story.. can't say i've ever seen anything quite that stupid :)
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MH2
climber
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Oct 30, 2011 - 11:52am PT
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Although Skywalker is not the perfect climb for me I've done it 3 times and seen partners and other climbers have a great time on it. The route author knows what he's doing. Yes, the flagging off the top is going to help in the dark. However, the bolts on the last low-angle slab are probably more of a danger to trip over than a safety feature.
Although I've done most of the routes Relic mentions, and pitch 1 of Not Your Normal Nightmare, the most memorable time concerns the one I haven't done. Just a few years ago, Gordie Smaill and I climbed Teetering on the Brink. I looked up as he was right where the Reaper branches out left. He was on steep friction. He lifted each foot in turn and rotated the ankle. It was a glimpse into the past. There are times in climbing when the answer isn't more effort but rather less tension. Gord is good at staying calm.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Oct 30, 2011 - 07:47pm PT
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'Bout 10-12 years ago now I climbed Snake under typical wet conditions. At the top we went to walk off as per usual and changed into walkoff footwear which for me was a pair of Tevas or something.
The walkoff was wet too and on that little polished slab that leads up and left to the zig-zag up to the base of Dessert Dyke and Form I managed to squeak off the wet slab in my slippery sandals and go for a ride.
I was headfirst down the slab on my belly like an otter thinking "well, f*#k."
The top of Voodoo Amour was coming up fast and I saw a little angled bonsai growing out of the rock off to one side and managed to latch it with one hand as I went by and my body swung around it like a pole-dancer showing off her cootch to a roomful of drunken loggers and I grabbed with my other hand and my legs went over the f*#king lip, but I stopped moving.
So I'm hanging there halfway over the lip of a quick fall all the way to the bottom of the Apron, where I'd probably make a nice red stain on Evergreen Street.
I mantled up on the little tree and Eric threw me a rope and I batmanned up it back to the ledge, and nearly threw up. Then I said something about "the horse what threw ya" and we hiked up to the base of Form and I roped up and tried to lead it and ended up hanging multiple times on every bolt because I was shaking so bad I kept slipping on the slab. But I got up it.
Then I didn't climb for about 4 months after that.
That's how I remember it, anyways. It may have happened differently.
I have, since then, roped up to go across that walkoff slab on occasion. Mostly when it's wet.
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new world order-
climber
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Oct 30, 2011 - 08:02pm PT
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^^^^Wow....just.....WOW! I know the spot of which you speak, Oplopanax.
I too would have taken 4 months off had it happened to me.
I once tried leading up Neat and Cool as a first climb of the day. I had been climbing well (at least I thought I was) all summer long and figured, why bother with a warm-up!? I'm solid! Well, I got to the (edit: 2nd) crux, and was full-on spent. I hung on for the life of me, trying to bust the move, but the lactic acid in my forearms was simply too much. All I can remember was a flash of sky as I fell. The rope was behind my leg, it flipped me up side down and my first point of contact was my (thankfully) helmeted head.
I was seeing stars, but was so adrenalated, I scampered up the back-side, cleaned the route, including the Metolius 2 that saved my adze, and called it a day...for a week.
To this day, I haven't even a desire to top-rope Neat and Cool, let alone lead it. Get back on the horse that bucked me off? Nope. Not that bronco.
Moral of the story? Allllways do your warm-up climbs.
And note where the rope is.
Feelin' kinda queasy now. May I be excused?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 30, 2011 - 09:40pm PT
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One person (at least) has died from a fall at the first crux of Neat & Cool, and others have been injured. Although it can be well-protected, it's a fairly high fall factor fall, it's easy to get flipped by the rope, and if even one piece pulls...
A 5.10a climb for 5.10d leaders.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Oct 30, 2011 - 11:58pm PT
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I was headfirst down the slab on my belly like an otter thinking "well, f*#k."
The top of Voodoo Amour was coming up fast and I saw a little angled bonsai growing out of the rock off to one side and managed to latch it with one hand as I went by and my body swung around it like a pole-dancer showing off her cootch to a roomful of drunken loggers and I grabbed with my other hand and my legs went over the f*#king lip, but I stopped moving.
...jeeeee-zuzzzz!! Epic Oplo! It's amazing what a person can do when forced into survival mode.
Not Your Normal Nightmare is an amazing sister climb to Magic Carpet Ride MH2, and well worth doing. I've watched a couple of different leaders fall to the ground on the first pitch of MCR before reaching the first bolt way up there. Lucky for them the landing is kind of forgiving.
My partner and I had our own little mini epic on Dream On once. The first pitch, which I had led a few times before, gave me a good ride. Not being fully awake yet, I had a right foot slide off while about to clip one of the few bolts that exist on the 10c first pitch, the one up past the scoop. The ensuing fall gave me plenty of time to teach myself various ways to slide, run, and scrape down slab. I highly recommend it to anyone provided you are wearing proper skin saving attire, it's a good laugh. Luckily the pitch was nice and long, with nothing to ledge out on.
The second pitch of Dream On did not make us laugh as hard, actually we never even made it there. Instead, my partner got lost and started his way up some dirty-long-forgotten-slab-corner-from-hell otherwise known as Firewalk. He made it about 15 feet up before the dirt got the best of him, sending him failing onto the ledge below, breaking his ankle.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 31, 2011 - 12:15am PT
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Relic, I took a similar fall on the first pitch of Dream On - in 1976. Recounted somewhere on the "Climbing at Squamish in the 1970s" thread, along with many other Apron stories.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Oct 31, 2011 - 12:39am PT
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Oh ya that's right MH. There's a good pool of Apron slab stories there. I especially like the Grim Reaper story. That massive pendulum fall on the Reaper was the wildest lead fall I have ever witnessed. My slab partner from the Dream On disaster took that one while I was belaying him. We quickly ran away after... Also to make the outing even more spooky, there was a heli-extraction of a fatality going on above us while we were busy falling off the Reaper. It was a guide, her name escapes me, that I believe fell while teaching clients how to rappel. Very sad and tragic...
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Oct 31, 2011 - 02:25am PT
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I thought it was a fatality, hopefully I'm wrong. Was Julia the guide that had the rappelling accident? That name rings a bell, that could be it.
Phew thanks Tami, glad Julia is ok!
I think it was the incident where a rock shifted that was being used as a rappelling anchor and the person fell 35m to broadway ledge. Was that her? Maybe I'm totally mixed up.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 31, 2011 - 10:56am PT
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Yeah, that wes Julia. (I think that's her name. A dancer). And I don't think the rock shifted -- I think the loop of rope she'd thrown over the boulder came off.
Whatever the cause she took that monster fall and survived. Who knows how?
There's almost always a huge mud pond at the bottom, maybe she landed in that?
Pretty miraculous in any case.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Oct 31, 2011 - 01:15pm PT
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I had the honor (?) of holding the Grigri for Julia's "vertical dance" at a VIMFF opening gala. If I recall right she came whipping out over the stage on a rope swing, scattering feathers, while bird calls played on the soundtrack.
All I could think of, though, was the John Candy as Peter Pan sketch on SCTV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmqs5_s8YbA
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MH2
climber
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Oct 31, 2011 - 01:26pm PT
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In the same or a different vein, a dancer party scouting the top of the Split Pillar for a performance venue dropped their ropes and got rescued by a friend of mine who happened to be in the area.
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bmacd
Mountain climber
100% Canadian
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Oct 31, 2011 - 02:48pm PT
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has in anyone in Canada ever had their "guide card" revoked ? Shouldn't there be a minimum weight ? I recall a few guides that were rather "light" as Daryl would say ...
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 31, 2011 - 04:39pm PT
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Grace died in spring 1992, I believe April. (I'd have to find the clippings.) She was exploring Pangranitic Wall from above, and IIRC was swinging from side to side. Her rope abraded over an edge, or maybe just a rough area.
She had climbed Cannabis Wall solo, sometime within the preceding year.
As for Bruce's question, you'd have to direct it to the groups representing climbing guides. I don't know if those groups, in Canada or elsewhere, have ever revoked someone's membership for incompetent, unethical or unprofessional behaviour.
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Relic
Social climber
Vancouver, BC
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Oct 31, 2011 - 08:44pm PT
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Ok yes, I have it straight in my brain now. I always walked by that swamp cursing it, but man what a life saver! I was mixing up Julia's accident with another one that happened when I was climbing close by -- The fellow that lowered off to his death on Exasperator.
Enough doom and gloom. Happy Halloween!
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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The fellow that lowered off to his death on Exasperator.
Seattle climber. His nickname, in the Seattle community, was "Beta". Presumably because he could give you beta for just about any route in the PNW. But his beta very nearly killed my partner, which kind of upset me (and her) at the time.
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