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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Nov 17, 2010 - 01:27am PT
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Rad! What's their timeline on this...? I think some rain is coming in the near future. Of course they'll probably be way done by the weekend eh? It's hard for me to even wrap my brain around it. Good luck boys!
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murcy
climber
sanfrancisco
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Nov 17, 2010 - 01:40am PT
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No, they're slowing down as they hit the hardest pitches & plan to sit out the weather.
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onyourleft
climber
Smog Angeles
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Nov 17, 2010 - 02:05am PT
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Sitting out this weather may not be the smartest option.
From the NWS:
A PACIFIC STORM IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP LATE WEDNESDAY AND
INTO THURSDAY OFF OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST COAST. THIS SYSTEM WILL
PUSH A COLD FRONT SOUTH ACROSS THE REGION EARLY SATURDAY...WITH
THE MAIN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE REACHING CENTRAL CALIFORNIA SUNDAY.
PERIODS OF RAIN AND MOUNTAIN SNOW ARE EXPECTED TO BEGIN OVER
NORTHERN PORTIONS OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND
SPREAD SOUTH OVER THE REST OF THE REGION FRIDAY NIGHT.
A BRIEF BREAK IN THE PRECIPITATION MAY OCCUR SOMETIME SATURDAY
MORNING OR AFTERNOON...BUT IT WILL INCREASE AGAIN LATE SATURDAY
OR EARLY SUNDAY AHEAD OF THE MAIN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE.
WHILE IT IS STILL TOO EARLY TO SAY HOW MUCH RAIN AND SNOW WILL
OCCUR WITH THIS SYSTEM...SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS WILL BE POSSIBLE OVER
THE 3 DAY PERIOD FROM LATE FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY.
TEMPERATURES WILL DROP SHARPLY FRIDAY THEN REMAIN BELOW NORMAL
THROUGH THE WEEKEND. THIS WILL BE THE COLDEST SYSTEM OF THE
SEASON THUS FAR OVER CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. PRESENT INDICATIONS ARE
FOR THE SNOW LEVEL TO DROP TO 3500 NEAR YOSEMITE
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 17, 2010 - 02:12am PT
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It sounds like they will have 2 days of good conditions, but wanted one day each for the series of 4 5.14 pitches.
It may not go in a single push this time; the route is definitely at the mercy of the weather (too hot or wet and it becomes undoable).
Still, they will get whatever they can until the weather or something else stops them or they finish it.
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squatch
Boulder climber
santa cruz, CA
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Nov 17, 2010 - 02:42am PT
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here's a picture of pitch 10 for reference, it's really continously thin!
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Port
Trad climber
San Diego
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Nov 17, 2010 - 02:56am PT
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Sh#t that looks hard
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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Nov 17, 2010 - 04:47am PT
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Yikes!! Best wishes mates!! :)
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Nov 17, 2010 - 04:57am PT
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sneak a beak,
don't drop it,
the stuff to the left of the crack looks tough also,
ungodliness, pestilence and vengence, the likes of which you have never seen before,
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DM88T
climber
San Juan Bautista, CA
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Nov 18, 2010 - 04:14pm PT
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Nov 18, 2010 - 04:15pm PT
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^^^ What a beautiful shot!
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Nov 18, 2010 - 04:20pm PT
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Wow! Thanks for posting that shot.
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Eric McAuliffe
Trad climber
Alpine County, CA
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Nov 19, 2010 - 03:07pm PT
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DUDES NEED TO GET DOWN! This storm is going to be gnarly. Hope ya'll get out safe!
PEACE
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 19, 2010 - 03:17pm PT
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Cool shot! (headlamps on the Molar Traverse)
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 19, 2010 - 03:23pm PT
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Love that photo too.
They will be alright up there, Pilgrims. People hanging out on this wall during weather has happened a bunch in the last 39 years. And the storm just is not that high-energy. I think they are planning it right. Hanging out lower in the Molar Traverse area instead of on Wino Tower is a good approach; it is much more protected there in that immense overhanging region and the roofettes of Molar T. They have two portaledges also which offers them backup if one gets ripped or fails somehow. And they are cached to the gills. This is not Caldwell's first barbecue neither. His dad Mike must be having flashbacks by now, to the time he was on the West Buttress in 1970 being rescued on the Grand Traverse with a partner who had an eye injury.
If you go and zoom in with the second image on this page(not with smartphones!)
http://www.xrez.com/case-studies/national-parks/yosemite-extreme-panoramic-imaging-project/
specifically:
http://www.xrez.com/yose_proj/yose_deepzoom/index.html
(choose the appropriate half-pie shape zoom origin and keep zooming in with the + sign or other tools at your disposable on your desktop, keeping the emerging image frame centered on your screen--- I know, weird interface and ugly/awkward way of getting into the zoom).
you will see how their spot will be actually really cool!! Earlier in these related posts I had no idea they had so much fixed rope to play with.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Nov 19, 2010 - 03:51pm PT
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Peter,
The photo/video guys said on their page they were keeping their camp at p8
(while the Molar Traverse is p12).
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-UP-Productions/59327301280
So I think the headlamps in that photo are just Tommy and Kevin trying the pitch on Wednesday night.
p8 is not as sheltered as the Molar, but neither is fully protected from ice coming down in the wind. Or streams of runoff water.
It's a decent compromise, though. They would certainly be fine in rain and light wind.
Whether they get hit by ice or thrown around by wind, who knows.
I'm sure they have a plan for tying down the ledges so they don't blow around too much.
And if the ice or something gets out of hand, it's a fairly straight shot down the fixed line(s) to the ground.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 19, 2010 - 03:59pm PT
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Gotcha Clint. If they do stay at Molar here is some of the imagery for that from the Xrez site I noted just above. You can see that the whole region of the wall especially down and to the left somewhat from Molar, is not part of the brunt of weather from above (not going into stuff frisbee-ing of course).
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 19, 2010 - 04:08pm PT
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And here is the general area of Pitch #8. It shows plenty of opportunity:
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 19, 2010 - 04:13pm PT
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I love both the symmetry and the contrasts of the 1970 ascent and this effort: this free ascent qualifies as a ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ if there ever was one.
BHAG was coined by a climber turned business writer, James Collins. It is defined as… “clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst….”
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Slakkey
Big Wall climber
From Back to Big Wall Baby
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Nov 19, 2010 - 04:21pm PT
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I hear that Potter set them up with a couple. Of chutes and if things get a little sketchy they are going to base jump to the Meadow :)
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WBraun
climber
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Nov 19, 2010 - 04:29pm PT
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After going to the cookie and doing a couple of hours of burns, (the sun was even shining), again today I stop and look.
I see they are above the molar climbing with the film crew hanging along side to the left of them. Their camp is still in the same position as the last couple of days.
In other very important news I saw squirrel eating an acorn ....
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