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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
Castle Rock
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Jun 21, 2008 - 04:15pm PT
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Unreal photo.
We were pulling a boulder with a sling made out of 1/2 in webbing.
Please do not ask why.
Anyway, the webbing snapped like a dry twig in a stiff desert wind.
So I was after a Quck Draw with the heaviest webbing possible after seeing the stuff wimp out like that.
If you notice, that one in the small pic is different than the rest, larger webbing.
How is this for an alarm clock.
This happened on The Shield:
"At 5:15 AM the next morning, I thought a huge block was going to hit us. E-man and I instinctively rolled towards the wall as we heard the whistling of something big coming down. "Wooosh, wooosh." Two objects jetted past and became smaller and smaller. Just as I said, "They're gonna deck," two chutes deployed and floated towards the meadow. Damn, what a way to wake up! "
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 21, 2008 - 04:47pm PT
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Thanks for a nice report and pictures!
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F10 Climber F11 Drinker
Trad climber
medicated and flat on my back
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Jun 21, 2008 - 05:43pm PT
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Nice TR, keep on rockin'
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jun 21, 2008 - 06:25pm PT
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Dr. Rock,
> We were pulling a boulder with a sling made out of 1/2 in webbing.
Please do not ask why.
Anyway, the webbing snapped like a dry twig in a stiff desert wind.
The thin 1/2" tie-off type webbing is not so strong, mostly because it can be cut over the edge of the piton if you fall onto that piton.
The thick 9/16" tie-off slings are plenty strong. I've towed a car using them.
I don't know how big your boulder was, or if the webbing was cut in the process of pulling.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Jun 21, 2008 - 06:42pm PT
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ladies, you ROCK!
great thread, proud climb, killer pics.
Thanks for posting!
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jun 23, 2008 - 04:28pm PT
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Very cool report. Thanks for sharing. Took me far from the desk I'm spreading behind and back to '91 when I climbed it.
I also give you props for being so open about nailing. When we climbed it, it was around the time that Charlie Fowler did it clean. We did nail a fair bit but, even back then, especially on the Triple Cracks pitch, whenever I reached for a sawed off, I typically grabbed a TCU and monkeyed with it first. More time than not, I was able to get an OK placement.
Given that experience, I do think it may have been possible, even back then, to have done it clean. I clearly remember a photo of Charlie leading the Triple Cracks, gripping after placing a string of hand placed sawed offs. I'd be gripping too. If I recall, he rated it C4, which sounds about right.
Someone raised the very relevant issue of such an ascent being completely dependent on the fixed gear then in place. When we climbed it in early May, Tucker Tech told us that ours would be the first ascent of the season. It was a wet year and there was LOTS of water running from the pitch above the Roof. Anyways, after a long, wet winter, lots of bomber looking heads on the Groove Pitch popped out in our hands. That right there would have prevented any aspirations of a clean ascent.
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hollyclimber
Big Wall climber
Yosemite, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 23, 2008 - 06:53pm PT
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Hi Friends!
Thanks for reading my report and for the kind comments. It is amazing to see a ST topic with almost no mean comments in it, and none towards me! So, I will keep doing them. We have plans for a good time with our buddy the Captain this week.
So, first, I don't know about Charlie Fowler's clean ascent, so I was not referring to that. I am still greatly saddened by losing him and Chris and would not trash his memory.
I would say that the hand placed sawed offs are not the part (Scary while that might be) that I think does not go clean. Rather, the rurps, beaks and heads are the issue. Not having climbed it before, I would call the route "moderately" fixed. There were SO MANY dead beaks in the Groove. If they had cord or cable on them, that would have made a huge difference. They did not and were mostly completely unusable.
Also, I have a rule. Never nail without trying multiple other placements. I force myself to try things even when I think its nailing, because if nothing else, it is fast and efficient for the team. We want to be fast and efficient, so I try not to nail. I am also going to make sure I make the SMART decision and not over risk my life/abilities to prove a point. Offset aliens eliminate A LOT of angle placements, but they don't replace Rurps!
Also to get from triple crack 1 to triple crack 2, there is no bolt. I had to do one good beak to one body weight only beak which I removed by hand after I successful docked myself into the manky copperhead starting triple crack 2. :)
And finally, OK, I DID DROP MY SHOE ON THE NA. But, who really needs shoes? Thanks for helping me get it back Will!
Holly
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Jun 23, 2008 - 08:55pm PT
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" The Shield is an amazing place."
-pretty much says it all, though you said it much better. It put me back there, thanks, and congrats!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jun 23, 2008 - 10:04pm PT
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Holly,
> There were SO MANY dead beaks in the Groove. If they had cord or cable on them, that would have made a huge difference. They did not and were mostly completely unusable.
Maybe somebody should take a small swager up there and put some good cable onto them (if the body of the beak is still intact; if by "dead" you mean just the broken-off tip is left, probably no way to get them out without trashing the crack). Maybe remove a couple, too, lest it become a "boring clip-up"? Or are they too hard to remove without major damage?
> Also, I have a rule. Never nail without trying multiple other placements. I force myself to try things even when I think its nailing, because if nothing else, it is fast and efficient for the team.
Good work.
> Also to get from triple crack 1 to triple crack 2, there is no bolt. I had to do one good beak to one body weight only beak which I removed by hand after I successful docked myself into the manky copperhead starting triple crack 2. :)
Yikes. I swear there used to be 2 bolts there (in the photo I included, and in the Meyers topo). Did the bolts get removed at some point? Are we talking about the same place?
[Edit for del cross/Jim:] Oops, location shown in photo is between 2nd & 3rd triple cracks - I should have known because it's so close to the belay/photographer! Doh!
Here is another photo of Kristoffer Szilas, from October 2007 - it seems pretty clear there is at least one bolt hanger - is this the same place we are talking about (between first and second triple cracks?
http://www.bivuak.dk/szilas/foto/07_yose/album/slides/R0010926.html
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 23, 2008 - 10:13pm PT
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I remember two also, but they were one and a quarter inch by a quarter inch split shank Rawls with nuts and Leeper hangers; bad stuff.
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hollyclimber
Big Wall climber
Yosemite, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 24, 2008 - 01:40am PT
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I will have to check with Lorna. However, I did zoom in on my own picture and see one bolt between crack one and crack two. I do know that we had some issues moving from crack one to crack two and perhaps I had to go above the bolt in crack one to move to crack two. Anyway, for beta purposes, I will doublecheck with Lorna.
And, I should have said RURPS dead in the groove, not beaks. I think they are pretty deep and I don't know if I could get cord through them, but maybe wire. Someone had obviously climbed the route recently and on the two pitches after the groove had fixed up a lot of fixed gear with some nice 3 or 4 mill accessory cord. But, in the groove, the RURPS were empty and unclippable.
hgb
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Jun 24, 2008 - 01:58am PT
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I never noticed that Holly G. Beck and Alfred G. Latham have the same middle initial.
Please, complete this sentence: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALF...."
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Michael Hjorth
Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
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Jun 24, 2008 - 02:37am PT
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Thanks for a fine and inspiring TR.
Allow me a slight drift: Nice to see the pictures from a fellow dane, Kristoffr Szilas. He has had a fantastic climbing year: Pink Panter-M9, Eiger-1938, Shield, Compressor, Fitzroy, Denali-Cassin (last week).
Michael
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jun 24, 2008 - 03:41am PT
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Holly,
Thanks for the additional details. There is that crack switch on the Groove pitch as well, so maybe with all those walls/pitches you've been firing, the exact location might be slightly off - or maybe not. It sounds like the beak moves were not easily forgotten!
[Edit for del cross/Jim:] My bad, the photo above is not between cracks 1 and 2.
Dead RURPs on the Groove - that sounds right (same as back in the day). It should be possible to thread them with cable and swage it, but not easy. Maybe set up some cables which taper to a few strands with some solder to hold the other strands in place while pulling through the RURP hole?
Maybe we can get Steve Grossman on the job to make a tool to extract the surplus RURPs. Something like a ground-down Leeper pointed hook should fit that central hole on the RURP, then to a gear-puller plate? But would the hook shear before the RURP budges?
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 24, 2008 - 07:57am PT
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A few bolts next to blown placements isn't going to ruin the experience of being up there.
Fixed is fixed. Might as well be reliable.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Jun 24, 2008 - 10:41am PT
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Hey Holly,
Geat trip report. Thanks for posting it.
Wow, is it exposed up there! Beautiful pics.
Zander
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Jun 24, 2008 - 10:59am PT
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Ron, I disagree with you that bolts should be added to the Shield. And, I don't understand how you can rag on someone placing a pin yet condone adding new bolts to a route.
Nice job Ladies! Reprezent!
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 24, 2008 - 11:24am PT
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There is MUCH that you don't understand bone.
You can start by abandoning the mindset of bolts being evil and pins being "good" or at least better.
They aren't.
They cause REPEATED degradation whereas the damage of bolting is one time.
In the end pins cause more damage, more rock removal.
I'm talking about making it last. A fixed clip is a fixed clip. They should be minimized and made to last.
Yes, iron paved the way, but lets look a little farther down the road.
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Jun 24, 2008 - 12:37pm PT
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Whatever Ron, why do you gotta take personal shots on me or anyone else when talking about this stuff? Yeah if you mean that it's you I don't understand then you are correct.
You are right all nailing cracks should be bolted, to save the rock.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 24, 2008 - 01:27pm PT
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Touchy, touchy. lol
(do you like words put in YOUR mouth?)
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