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Hoots
climber
Toyota Tacoma
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Oct 26, 2010 - 06:34pm PT
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I had a great time on the Center Arete, North Face of Mt. Gayley. 7-8 pitches of 5.8 adventure climbing on pretty nice rock.
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Stewart Johnson
climber
yo mama
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Oct 26, 2010 - 06:38pm PT
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dont forget the choss...
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Oct 26, 2010 - 06:54pm PT
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I had a great time on the Center Arete, North Face of Mt. Gayley. 7-8 pitches of 5.8 adventure climbing on pretty nice rock.
Really? That entire entire looks really loose. Who knew?
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Impaler
Gym climber
Vancouver
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Oct 26, 2010 - 06:59pm PT
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Thanks for the pics, Alpine! Looks awesome! Mt. Chamberlin just made it to the top of my high sierra list of stuff to do!
Vlad
Edit: Do you have any of the routes topo-ed by any chance?
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 26, 2010 - 10:36pm PT
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Rankin Lives!
Also, the Cyclorama is out by the dumbell lakes. You go over taboose, then over frozen lake pass, then over the dumbell lakes pass. Though that puts you one pass from the face.
To google earth!
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 26, 2010 - 10:51pm PT
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It looks like others headed to google earth while I was typing.
I've seen the cyclorama wall and I have a photo of it somewhere.
I don't remember it looking all that great, but I didn't have the eye for that type of thing back then. I think I was in my sport climbing phase.
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Brandon
Trad climber
Santa Maria, CA
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Oct 27, 2010 - 11:25pm PT
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Alpine,
Nice pictures of Mt. Chamberlin. Your route "Safety First", looks a lot like the route "Barracuda" that Nettle and I put up in July 2006(AAJ 2007 pg 147). Here's the route photo I took of it back then. We were racing a lightning storm and topped out before bolts started hitting the ridge.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Oct 27, 2010 - 11:45pm PT
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While we're back on this great topic- anybody climb languille peak? The posted above?
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 28, 2010 - 12:54am PT
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I tried to go look at Cyclorama Wall this August. Didn't get there.
Too late for easy snow passage over Southfork Pass, for starters. Second worst loose scree death notch in my Sierra experience.
However, we did get into Amphitheater Lakes basin for a couple of days. I'd guess only about 4 people in a decade visit there.
Here are a few of the walls in just the Amphitheater Lakes basin. All unclimbed of course:
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 28, 2010 - 01:08am PT
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Then there's this stuff at the headwaters of the Kern. Unclimbed, of course.
This is the North Arete off a ridge off of Table Mountain.
Then try morning light for a look at the buttress below.
Then turn around to face north and check out this south face:
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The Alpine
Big Wall climber
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Oct 28, 2010 - 11:06am PT
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Brandon - Thats pretty cool. Ya, I talked to Nettle about Barracuda once I learned about it. We were definitely close and crossed a few times. It appears we shared the same upper pitches too.
Man, that pillar(the barracuda?) has a splitter going right up it. We ran out of time or else we would've got on top of that thing. I added our route to your overlay - our start may have been the same as yours, but I'm pretty sure it was one system right as shown.
Soooooo good up there.
This photo is approaching the corner at the top of your pitch 5:
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Oct 28, 2010 - 11:25am PT
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Doug,
Do you have some shots of the West Face of Whitney that you did a few years back?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Oct 28, 2010 - 11:26am PT
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DR, that last imaged face is just gorgeous. Fun to imagine being up on it, certainly. I remember you showing it to me about 6 months ago!
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 28, 2010 - 12:18pm PT
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Yeah, Peter, clearly the most striking backcountry wall I saw all year. Which is saying something, because I do get around and always have my eyes peeled. It's up at about 12,000 feet, so you'd be huffin' in those vertical finger cracks. Could end up being the alpine Butterballs...
Hard two day approach, up an unnamed tributary at the headwaters of the Kern. Not a secret, though: Just find Table Mountain and look across the valley to the north.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 28, 2010 - 12:36pm PT
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Several conversations going here, and all good ones. I am really impressed with what you guys are doing on Chamberlain! It's way remote too. Obvious quality.
So I am surprised that the next peak to the north, which could be its twin, is being completely ignored. Every climber who walks down the trail from the summit of Whitney looks straight at its north face in flattering afternoon light.
Mt. Hitchcock has a face a mile wide with easily a dozen quality aretes and buttresses that run from 800 to 1200 feet high. Yet on the entire face there is one trivial 4th class route up a gully. It is the same dark granite as Temple Crag -- high quality. Looks like any arete you choose is going to be at least 5.10.
Another 2-day approach, though. Here it is:
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 28, 2010 - 12:54pm PT
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Here you go, Batrock -- the southwest quadrant of Whitney:
My route ...Lost is 20 pitches, 5.9+/.10-. Here's the second pitch, 5.7:
And the fifth pitch, 5.6:
Here's the writeup from the AAJ:
…Lost
(IV, 5.9+, 20 pitches), SW face, Mt. Whitney
First Ascent Doug Robinson, Michael Thomas, Oct. 3-4, 2006
Our climb was spectacular and, compared to our expectations, epic. Not counting 8000 vertical of carrying loads in the first 24 hours. Not counting snowed off the Fishook Arete, our training climb. Not counting our tarp shelter ripping in half in the middle of the night, exposing us to a 4" dump of snowfall at 12,000 feet. And not to mention venturing the first moves onto the entire SW quadrant of a fairly popular peak. No, the real epic didn't even start until we roped up at 8 a.m, taking a middle arete among many choices. We re-climbed the 9 pitches we had done before dark two years ago, including two 5.9 sections. Then we tried to weasel around the headwall, but it forced us back to front and center. Straight up was steep and delicate and likely 5.10. What a relief when protection showed up. Soon after, it got dark. But the moon was nearly full, sparkling off the white granite in beautiful and climbable ways. Several hours later, best-guess routefinding led us into moon shadow and under a nasty-looking block. Couldn't tell what was holding it up over our heads. In the midst of delicate climbing around it, my foot slipped and my headlamp popped off to sail down the gully. Fortunately, that kept us from trying any longer to climb under that block's eerie tonnage. We found another way. To make a long story short, after 20 pitches we unroped at 2:30 in the morning. It was so cold, with a biting wind blowing 30+ mph, that with all our clothes on and walking uphill we could not stay warm. Summit at 4:00 am; a 3-hour nap in the stone shelter.
So much longer than expected, we called our first ascent "...Lost." Lost for years on the back side of Whitney. Lost our way several times, as on the crux headwall and up under the threatening block. Lost a headlamp. However, "Not all who wander are lost." -- J.R.R. Tolkien.
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The Alpine
Big Wall climber
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Oct 28, 2010 - 01:10pm PT
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Awesome stuff Doug! That Table Mountain stuff looks good. Can't believe you suffered up Whitney like that. Though, the climbing looks remarkably better than I would've thought.
Hitchcock did see some action this summer. Mike Pennings and Jimmy Haden did some dental work on a new route and unclimbed formation they dubbed Alfred's Tooth. Hard 5.10 I believe. That col on the left side of your Hitchcock photo drops you right into the Chamberlin/Crabtree basin. Mike and Jimmy did new routes on both formations over a few days this summer.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Oct 28, 2010 - 01:36pm PT
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The climbing on Whitney was better than I expected too, though future ascents will float it a lot faster. Recall that I was guiding, leading every pitch. And it was full-value adventure route finding, especially after it got dark.
That whole wall turned out to be a lot bigger than expected. When I took that telephoto I was five miles west. I thought those ridges might be 6 pitches of 5.6. Gentlemanly guiding terrain. Boy was I wrong!
Glad to hear Hitchcock is getting some attention. Finally. Any more info from those guys? Where did they climb on that wall?
The Table Mountain stuff is tantalizing. It's also just about as deep into the Sierra as you can get. At least 2 full days of approach, considering that the shortest way is 6000 feet up Shepherd Pass, just for starters, and with a full rack. I would be tempted to do the approach on skis in May.
That's how I found those walls, BTW, threading my way along the Kings-Kern Divide on skis. Here are a couple of walls I spotted the day before, looking south from the west face of Midway Mountain after we skied right over its summit to make our way along that Divide.
These two walls are even more remote. At least a three-day approach, actually.
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