Left Gear at Donner... Help...

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seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 16, 2011 - 09:38pm PT

Best way for you to get that stuff is to go after it yourself, before I get there.

I see.

Lines have been drawn then.

Challenges made.

It's a long climb to that second bolt, even without that snow.

May the best man win.

Leaving now...

Supertopo, keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Mighty Hiker

climber

Vancouver, B.C.

May 16, 2011 - 11:21pm PT

You ought to be fairly safe from RJ poaching your gear - he affects to despise California and Californians. Sort of a love/hate thing, perhaps. So he's not likely to visit.

And now may not be the best time to mention the wolves that were recently reintroduced into the Donner area. Cute guys, but RJ has some issues with them. Red Riding Hood stuff.

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

May 16, 2011 - 11:27pm PT

Blue, if it goes T4 will somebody send me my sh#t back? Just wondering...

I may give you some of my gear is she goes T4, we may be close. Just for a classic effort!

This is better than my Okwanza Washington encounter...

murcy

Gym climber

sanfrancisco

May 16, 2011 - 11:33pm PT

I for one applaud your foresight in taking big cams on a sport slab. I guess there was no cell reception, or you wouldn't have had to self-rescue like that. Glad you're okay.

james Colborn

Trad climber

Truckee, Ca

May 17, 2011 - 12:31am PT

Now that I realize what a turd of a climb you are talking about, it all becomes clear.

Is the 5.9- rating proportionally easier than 5.9 as 5.9+ is harder?

How bout a TR about your epic ascent! PTFU

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 02:16am PT

Okay, I'm home! Whew it's nasty up there!

Nice to be back in R-E-N-0. Nobody told me my 5.10 Guides weren't water proof.

How bout a TR about your epic ascent! PTFU

Okay, okay James, calm down. No need to cuss in acronyms. But first...

he affects to despise California and Californians.

I live in Nevada and come from New York.

Damn man, don't tell that kid I live in Idaho... I got him off the couch and out the door, worried about his toys!--rokjox

Well played sir, well played.

I for one applaud your foresight in taking big cams on a sport slab. I guess there was no cell reception, or you wouldn't have had to self-rescue like that. Glad you're okay. --murcy

Thanks man, I've read Long's Climbing Anchors a million times, whew! All that knowledge sure came in handy. And as for the large cams, Jebus has taught me well, "The more gear the better" he always says... Thanks Jebus.

I was just so mad. So mad, driving way too fast towards Donner to save my lost gear from the madman I've come to know as Rokjox. Dude was really scheming to gank my sh#t. I couldn't believe it. I had never been so scared by anything on the internet in my life. Except that video where you solving the maze and then the sacry face pops out, you know.

http://www.prank-ideas-central.com/maze-game.html

Well anyway, the events of Saturday and getting benighted on that climb kept running through my head. I felt good at the start. Getting off the ground was a bit tough, but isn't it always.

First bolt, check.

Second bolt, check.

As I started moving up to the third bolt I heard my belayer gasp with fear. Looking down I realized that I had potential for some big air here. I freaked alright! I am not scared to admit it. I managed to down climb to the second bolt and after calming down backed up my quickdraw with second biner and sling before yelling "Take!!!"

Knowing that I couldn't trust that bolt to hold me forever, I made the decision to traverse right to the so-called 5.5 crack. Here the size of the crack forced me to use larger gear. Thinking back to all the people who have laughed behind my back -at the gym, on bolted routes- because I always bring ALL my gear, I had to smile, but just for a second... I had an anchor to build.

She was a beauty... Four big pieces, equalized for downward pull... I would have belayed my grandma on that anchor.

I decided to rappel at this point realizing that my belayer was at in no state to lower me.

Clipping straight into the four piece anchor with my PAS, I leaned back, weighted it and sighed. It worked. I was almost home.

As I set up for the rappel, I realized I would have to leave my gear and a tear fell into space.

"Perhaps someone with the ability to fire this climb will be kind enough to return my gear" I thought, knowing at the same time that it would never happen. Well, not unless beer was involved.

As I lowered myself to the ground I could almost hear my gear calling out to me... I hiked out and drove away in shame.

No one was crazy enough to come with me tonight so I was forced to hike to the top of the cliff and rappel in. I built a five point anchor, equalized using a static rope, since there were no bolts that I could find. Lowering in I almost passed the anchor due to worsening conditions, but luckily spotted it.

As I removed my gear I felt a great joy. At first I thought it was because I had come up here and solved a problem on my own, but I soon came to realize it was due to the fact that rokjox - you little self rightous toady- would never touch my glorious cams.

Thanks to here on Supertopo everyone for the words of encouragement, I really appreciate it.

By the way, the snow got really bad while I was breaking down my anchor and I couldn't make the 4th class back to my rappel anchor. If anyone is up there in the next few days could you grab it and send it to me. There are four cams and a nut. Plus a static rope, 60m, and some locking biners.

It's not booty.

bergbryce

Mountain climber

Oakland -> SLT

May 17, 2011 - 02:48am PT

I don't know who is writing this script but it's a good one.

Shack

Big Wall climber

Reno NV

May 17, 2011 - 03:25am PT

I knew you were a teacher Seth, but I didn't realize you taught creative writing.
Nice work.

Rick Sylvester

Trad climber

Squaw Valley, California

May 17, 2011 - 05:03am PT

I once experienced a certain situation I'd like to term unusual. And as a result I've never been sure if the left behind gear constituted fair booty or not. Maybe someone can opine. Here's what happened.

I was climbing Snake Dike with my fairly young son Terray. The only initial complication was that despite a decently early start, surprisingly there was one party that had beat us to the route -- a team of two women who, as I learned, had camped out above Nevada Falls. Well.to back up for a moment, can any early start really be called ''decent"? And arising had been made even harder as a result of trouble falling asleep due to a certain Camp Four site's late partying -- where's a ranger the one time you want one? On this subject see Tom Stienstra's May 15, 2011, "S.F. Chronicle" sport section column listing Camp Four as the 4th worst campground in California. But I have so many great memories....

Now the leader seemed pretty decent but the second wasn't moving so well. Turned out it was her first ever climb! Now if Snake Dike were the only climb in the world I could see some justification for her friend taking her up on it. But to select this popular route for a weekend, or even a midweek day, with the odds greatly stacked in favor of creating a traffic ja seemed somehow more than a bit weird not to mention unfair.

I was hoping for some space between our two parties but for some reason the second wasn't leaving the first pitch belay long after her partner was on belay above and had taken in all the slack. She was still there when I arrived. It turned out that she was stuck, locked onto the bolt anchor, directly to and by her harness' locking biner. She couldn't unscrew it. No problem, I thought. But I was wrong. It was really tight...and my hand strength has never been what I wished it were, probably not average for a climber and maybe not even for an average flatland citizen -- at least that's what I've long thought. After working on the obviously overtightened gate for a while It really looked like I was not going to be able to help her. I was thinking that I'd have to get her out of her harness, safeguarding her somehow, then proceed from there. But then a final strategy worked, banging the lock on the gate against the rock until it loosened.

So I solved her team's dilemma and she took off. Terray came up then we waited a bit to get some space between them and us so we wouldn't have to keep stopping, losing all momentum.. It was while working on freeing the biner that I found out about it being her maiden route. Still can't get over that.

Other parties were now lining up at the base. Terray and I proceeded but soon got jammed up behind the women again. Then I embarked upon a strategy which I knew was a bit"(sic) of a safety no-no. Maybe I'd had too many bad experiences on crowded routes in the Alps. Everything seemed crowded there, obscure and unpopular as well as classic routes, way before this ever started happening in the States. In an attempt to get ahead of the femme fatales I leapfrogged ahead of the slower second and began belaying at what used to be the mid-belay protection bolt, except now I think there were two; another had been added since I'd last done the route quite a while back.

Now there was always an odd thing about Snake Dike. Despite its relatively benign rating it had amazingly long run outs, half he rope in fact (another oddity was that when it was put up with 150' being the standard rope length the leader could barely reach the next belay. I believe the second had to untie and the team had to simul-climb a few feet). A lot of climbers thought the rating was a sandbag in view of the run outs, that someone who could at best lead or climb at that rating might very well not have the head for such run outs. There was even talk of intentionally over rating it in the guidebook in view of that as a safety precaution.

Anyway, a game of leapfrog ensued. If it bothered the women no one said anything. Give them credit for that. Near the top of my sin list is impatience -- I'm working on it, really! -- and I guess I was trying to salvage what I could of a day that had turned into being less than a stellar experience, as not infrequently happens, often for that very reason of a slower party ahead. Of course here I'd plead that there were a couple of somewhat weird extenuating circumstances. Also in my defense: there was no chance on those sections of knocking dow anything loose. I'm thinking of the infamous episode involving Tom Kimbrough and a female partner in the upper DNB chimneys who pleaded with an impatient overtaking party not to pass them. When the twosome insisted Tom begged them to be extra careful in view of lots of loose debris in the chimney system. Turned out they weren't. Tom's partner was badly hit, suffering traumatic brain damage and I think the loss of one or more fingers. A lawsuit followed, almost unprecedented then for that type of situation, and I think the party who'd passed was found guilty, negligent -- also unprecedented.

But I digress. My thought was that I could pass the girls but it wasn't working. While I brought up Terray, the second, now moving better --damn -- on those easy knobs, would get back ahead of me. I felt a little stupid. I think we did finally get ahead of them on the last of the dike pitches, not long before where most parties unrope and scramble, with the occasional fifth class move, the final thousand feet or so to the top.

But for awhile something had been nudging at my consciousness. I didn't fully focus on it, probably due to the "race". I seemed to be running short on quickdraws, essentially the only gear necessary for the route. The higher we climbed the thinner the supply of quickdraws seemed to be getting. I continued on, barely able to equip the bolts. But when we unroped it was obvious that something was wrong. -- the supply was depleted. I asked Terray about the quickdraws. He readily admitted he hadn't been cleaned them. I was incredulous. What was this act of infamy? How could he do, or more accurately not do, this? "What! What do you mean? Why Not?"Now the negatives of the day were really compounding. It turned out he'd suffered some kind of lapse. Some time back I'd pointed out to him the routes at Cave Rock on Tahoe's east side -- yeah, that used to be a climbing area. On all the harder routes -- actually there was nothing easy at that drastically overhanging state of the hard art of modern sport climbing area, certainly very little I could get up -- the quickdraws were fixed as is the custom. So based on that he'd somehow spaced out about cleaning our gear.

My only hope was that the whatever party below had collected the bonanza would be sympathetic and return it. But this is where I experienced confusion. I knew the reason the captain is the last to leave a sinking ship is that it's the law of the sea that whoever finds an abandoned vessel is entitled to it. But if the ship didn't in fact sink the captain was in deep doo doo. Why should abandoned gear be regarded differently? It's booty, plain and simple.

We must have waited a couple of hours on the summit, cooling our heels as they say. Sure, not exactly the worst place to hang out. But this added delay was the final dastardly rhythm killer to the day. And not only that... We had two family members waiting below on the shoulder. Ter's mother and sister were supposed to rendezvous with us on top -- all the time up there I wondered about their no show -- but unknown to me the steel cables had been taken down since I'd descended them just a couple of weeks before following a Direct Northwest face ascent. So, what would have been a strenuous enough day without added complications became a lot longer, a semi-beat out, with the descent hike finishing in early darkness.

The guys were nice. When I explained what happened they handed over, somewhat reluctantly I couldn't help but noticing, the quickdraws, their loot.. But I've always pondered this. Was I wrong to have even asked?

t

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 11:04am PT

Well put Jebus...

I think the lesson here is that left gear is booty, unless it's not, which in this case was definitely not the case.

well, that was fast, anyway...

That's what she said...

The guys were nice. When I explained what happened they handed over, somewhat reluctantly I couldn't help but noticing, the quickdraws, their loot.. But I've always pondered this. Was I wrong to have even asked?

Sounds like you guys were just being dumb, that was their loot for sure... me on the other hand, I was on the edge of life and death, therefore, not booty.

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

May 17, 2011 - 11:42am PT

You left half a rack 15-20 feet up and call it the scariest rap of your life?

What there a fish involved? It sure smells funny...

T4 fer sure.

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 11:50am PT

You left half a rack 15-20 feet up and call it the scariest rap of your life?

You weren't there k-man, you didn't see it through my eyes... staring up a those 4 pieces, just waiting for them to pop...

T4 fer sure.

I hope so, Blue said he'd send me some free gear :)

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

May 17, 2011 - 11:55am PT

Depends inthe scrape.

If you catch the bootiers will you kick their ass in a parking lot, Kung Fu stye?

Personally, I return all booty if i know who it beings to. Otherwise it's steailing.

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

May 17, 2011 - 12:04pm PT

We had a big party up at the Leap once... My friend dropped a #3 off Bear's Reach, yelled ROCK. It landed a few feet away from some folks who were waiting at the base.

They refused to return the cam. There were about 10 of us in the camp that evening, talking to the couple, and they just stood their ground.

There's low-lifes in every crowd.

Seth. Be happy the cams held. Be happy you got a cheap lesson. If the cams return, Stephen Hawkins is a fraud. If not, you'll learn to bail with less gear next time.

[I still say T4.]

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 12:07pm PT

Some people just don't get it, Seth. The mountain is in the mind.

Jebus this is soooo true...

I mean, I get gripped sometimes reading the latest edition of Urban Climber... sh#t be scary!

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 12:14pm PT

There's low-lifes in every crowd.

I know, but we can't blame rokjox for the way he was raised. Just glad I got up there before he ganked my sh#t. I just hope he leaves my rappel anchor alone.

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 12:22pm PT

I know Silver, I know. But there comes a time in every mans life when he has to set out on his own.
Last weekend was my time.

Who would have thought I would have such an epic on a sport climb named Desire?

As soon as I get my rappel anchor back form last nights excursion I think I'll be able to sit down and sort the happenings of the last week out.

Until then, I will suffer with the memories and sleepless nights...

seth kovar

climber

Reno, NV

Topic Author's Reply - May 17, 2011 - 02:17pm PT

Seth. Be happy the cams held. Be happy you got a cheap lesson. If the cams return, Stephen Hawkins is a fraud. If not, you'll learn to bail with less gear next time.

I know right, too bad it cost me more gear to retrieve the gear I lost in the first place.
I hope someone can return it to me...