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Paul Brennan
Trad climber
Ireland
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Jan 22, 2013 - 05:38pm PT
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Cheers Pete. Mescalito first, then Zodiac. Pretty fun. I'd already soloed harder aid in squamish, sothey were both just lots of fun. Especially Zodiac, the most relaxing wall experience ive ever had. Found myself wishing for another couple of days climbing when i got to the top. Pretty surreal to be looking out from the cliff id looked in at so often though! Would be good to crack a beer on the bridge alright. See you in the spring!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 22, 2013 - 06:18pm PT
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See, Paul? You should have brought more food, water and beer. You could have camped out a couple more days and enjoyed yourself!
Thanks for posting up those videos, Minnesota Mark = Mawk.
Mark Hugedong - the wind in that video is nothing, and I mean NOTHING like it had been an hour earlier!
I believe I'm at 519 nights on El Cap now, and I have experienced many many moments of 50 mph winds. These are actually fairly common when you are near the top, and can be caused by little more than convective heating on a vertical half-mile of granite.
But this wind was in a completely different category altogether - it was fricking UNBELIEVABLE! I verily believed the portaledge fly would rip to shreds, and that the ledge would be picked up and chuck us out into the void. Amazingly, the fly held together, and seems little the worse for wear. So the North Face boys did something right.
If force varies as the square of velocity, I would hazard a guess that the winds were in the 70 mph range. Utterly terrifying.
But .....
.... we cheated death once again. {wink}
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Jan 22, 2013 - 06:26pm PT
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Pete, I live in the Columbia River Gorge, the windsurfing capitol of the world, I know what 50 mph winds are and heat convection and a half mile of vertical cliff has NEVER produced them.
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RP3
Big Wall climber
El Portal/Chapel Hill
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Jan 22, 2013 - 06:32pm PT
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Heat convection and a half mile of vertical cliff COMBINED with hot air blowing up from El Cap bridge can DEFINITELY create 50 mph winds ;)
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jan 22, 2013 - 06:33pm PT
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Hmmmm. Well, it sure does get windy near the summit sometimes, however that happens!
Roger, Roger - that must be it! Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Throw in a couple of burps from all those King Cobras that are consumed. Must be what propels you up the wall so fast!
I think the really high winds Mawk and I experienced had something to do with being in the "notch".
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wayne w
Trad climber
the nw
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Dec 20, 2014 - 02:55pm PT
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I did a push of Tangerine Trip in January with Mickey Sensebach and Kristoffer Wickstrom, and on December 7th Mickey and Eric Walden and I did a sub 20 hour ascent of Lurking Fear. Ascents 16 and 17 for me, with 9 of those in a push and 7 in a day. Can't wait to get back up there!
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Dec 20, 2014 - 05:28pm PT
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I'm not sure this was ever settled ... does Pine Line count?
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WBraun
climber
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Dec 20, 2014 - 06:48pm PT
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I haven't done any today .....
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Bushman
Social climber
The island of Tristan da Cunha
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Dec 21, 2014 - 01:38am PT
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El Cap; only six,
was stoked after every route,
a special place in my heart for the first.
Not so much, the one retreat.
1. Salathe Erik Erikson 1981
2. Nose Bjorn Bratten 1981
3. Zodiac Steve Quinlan 1981
4. Mescalito Rick Harlan 1983.
5. Shield Brad Hart 1984
6. *Cosmos Rick Harlan 1987 (bailed after traverse on pitch 8)
7. Lurking Fear Dave Rittenhouse 1992
Other big stones around the valley (1979/1996);
Arrow Direct w/tip
Washington Column (2)
Half Dome (4)
Sentinel
Middle Cathedral, top (2)
Leaning Tower (2)
Funny story with Erik on Salathe to tell later.
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pinckbrown
Trad climber
Lake Tahoe, CA
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Dec 21, 2014 - 11:21am PT
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Only two for me...
The Nose - 1985 with Chuck Clance -
Had never done a grade V, and
only a few grade IV's. Eight nights
counting a night on the summit.
Two parties passed us, but they
bailed later and rapped by us on the
way down. We gave food and water
to both parties, both directions. We
took a day off at El Cap Ledges and
wandered around unroped drinking
Jack Daniels. No fixing, no sleeping
bags, no headlamps. The "close call" -
was in the Stovelegs.
We were a pitch below Dolt Tower and
it was dark. We had a small yellow
flashlight that you could clench in your
teeth. Chuck took off mumbling about
getting to Dolt Tower "no matter what".
After about an hour (seemed like an
eternity), a crashing, clanking noise,
a violent jerk and there was Chuck back
at the belay. Well, a few seconds later
the belay ripped, and the haul bag and I
took off. I still had the body belay on Chuck
and had left the haul line attached to a piece
just below the belay, just in case. It caught the
fall! I remember the yellow flashlight falling
down the inside of the Stovelegs for a long time
while staying on! We mentally regrouped and
Chuck fired right back up!
Dihedral Wall - 1986 with Matt Gurish
Eight nights counting a night on top.
Spent two nights at "The Ledge"
Awful nights sleeping in our Forrest
Hammocks!
Two routes in two attempts
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Dec 21, 2014 - 01:10pm PT
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0ne!
This year!
The Nose!
IAD!
With Ranger D!
May I be blessed with more!
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MisterE
Gym climber
Being In Sierra Happy Of Place
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Medusa bump! Happy birthday, Bro!
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Is this the brag about yourself thread?!
:)
5
NIAD and the Salathe over 3 days this year.
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anita514
Gym climber
Great White North
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2 this year: Lost World/Squeeze Play (did not summit) and Triple Direct. Woot.
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namascar
Trad climber
Pasadena, CA
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6, the gumby routes: NA, Muir, Lurking fear, Zodiac, Tangerine trip and the Shield
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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i did two routes on el cap this year that i had not done before(the real nose and sea of dreams), ending a 3 year drought - my drought, not california's.
currently i have done el cap 119 times via 42 different routes.
ss
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Lurkingtard
climber
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^^^^proud^^^
How was Sea of Dreams?
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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sea of dreams was bitchin. a challenging route, every pitch is hard and has its moments. anchors were in sad shape. storm hit at the perfect time so that on the 7th day(of 11) we rested. paul and i had a blast. ss
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Dec 18, 2015 - 06:18pm PT
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OK PTPP, I think it's time for an update!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Dec 18, 2015 - 07:13pm PT
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Wow, Patrick reminds me I haven't updated this in four seasons.
Spring 2014 - a far from stellar climbing season for me for various reasons, some legit and some lame. Ended up repeating Zodiac with Keenan and his dad Scott at the last moment so I did knott go home empty-handed, which has only happened to me once.
Fall 2014 - a really fun ascent of Bad to the Bone with Jon Rigg and Dom Ngo. I distinctly remember Jon schlepping up 30-boxes of beer to the base! Maya gave us a hand with the final schlepp and hauling up to Camp Bone, as Tom called it.
Bad to the Bone completed my Bad Trilogy, including Born Under a Bad Sign [aka BUBS] and Bad Seed, both climbed with Kate aka Batgirl. BUBS is the hardest of the three, Bad Seed is the best, and BttB is in the middle. I would definitely recommend all three, especially BS.
Anita crutched into Yosemite afterwards in a plaster cast having just had her frame removed, and we had a fun road trip with a particular emphasis on hotsprings in plastic leg bags and Amador County Barberas.
Spring 2015 - Anita returned with me in May, and with Rhett we climbed Squeeze Play - sort of - which is a variation to Lost World. Owing to three or four days of storm and shall we say lack of universal stoke amongst the team, we retreated due to lack of time via Lurking Fear having completed all of the pitches of Squeeze Play, but not counting the summit. The tears of defeat in Anita's eyes when the awful realization of failure hit her told me that she was the kind of partner I wanted.
In June, The Real Nose with Steve, Heather and Cristobal. Challenging and involved, it was a real team effort. The Real Nose is most emphatically The Real Deal, with one bollocks-shrivelling the pitch possibly as hard as any I have yet done. We replaced lots of bolts in the belays, and equipped all the anchors with rap rings. We and our junk show descended without incident from three pitches below the summit, reaching the ground late in the afternoon. So there is now an alternative rap route straight down from El Cap Tower.
I even wrote a song for our Real Nose ascent: "We're Pathetic and Incompetent" ! Give me a beer and I'll sing it for you. Give me two beers, and I'll stop. [Hint: Jeff Vargen]
Sitting in the hot springs on the East Side a few days after we got down, and with my airplane home already booked, Cristobal calculated that we could [barely] fit a NIAD in before I had to leave. The only thing that rendered this crazy endeavour viable was Cristobal's incredible talent, and the fact that we rapped down off Real Nose rather than carried.
So we drove like madmen, arriving at the bridge at 1am, and were up at 5 the next morning, which was like, Canada Day, eh? It was Cristobal's turn to lead, so he led the first block, which turned out to be the only block. We took about 15 hours, but certainly he could have climbed a lot faster. Except on the Great Roof - I should have led that one and a few of the other full on aid pitches. "Tola" is an amazing free climber who made the scary hard wyde stuff on Real Nose look like 5.7, but his "artificial climbing" skill could use a bit of honing. ;) He likes to climb in a "relaxed" style, and makes everything look effortless.
As the sun went down somewhere up above Camp 5, all I wanted to do was pull out my ledge and pop a beer, but of course we weren't hauling anything. I don't get these one-day ascents, it seems like far too much work to me.
Fall 2015 - Anita returned for her summit, which we reached via Triple Direct with Mike Stonewalker Davis. It was really fun not to be scared for a change!
Then I hopped on Tempest with Plaid and Jerry, well documented on Facebook and supported by Jaime from Spain. A great line, extremely sustained with only one gimme pitch above The Great White Shark. Never really desperate though, and thankfully so. One of El Cap's best routes, along with Real Nose incidentally.
I would be willing to bet that our Junk Show on Tempest - which supported us for 69 man-days on the wall - is the largest ever hauled, more so even than Mark and Richard on Wings of Steel. I wonder if anyone has ever hauled more? We had 150 litres of water, plus all the comforts of home. Mark and Richard - how much did you guys haul? I know, I could look it up in your book, but that would be too much effort, and it is after all Friday night.
In spite of being something of a Big Wall Gumby, I have managed to wobble up 55 different El Cap routes, mostly because I am too stubborn or stupid to quit. So what I mean by this is that if the likes of me can do it, then why not you? Maybe it's time you gave El Cap another shot?
Not counting base nor summit bivis, I have spent 660 nights on the side of El Cap, for the simple reason that there is nowhere else I'd rather be. And I have finally found a sweetie who feels the same way. ;)
I just turned 56 this fall, so [God willing] I hope to "climb my age" in El Cap routes by next spring!
w00t!
[Oops, sorry, couldn't help it]
Cheers and Merry Christmas, eh?
PtPP
P.S. Steve Gerberding, Ammon and E. have all climbed more El Cap routes than me - I keep trying to catch up to them but they are all "moving targets" because we're all unwilling to retire. Shipoopoi is over 40 routes now, and Nanook is in that ballpark too.
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