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OhYeah!!!
Trad climber
Sacramento, CA
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Aug 24, 2009 - 06:41pm PT
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The Nose... A few years ago. I sort of lied to a couple of guys who were going, told them I had done lots of Aid (It would be my first time ever). I knew how to climb pretty well on gear and ended up leading half of the pitches to finish without any issues. I convinced everyone to keep going after the Texas Flake on the second day (One dude wanted to bail) and ended up sleeping on an "OK bivy for one," whilst they dozed on our one ledge. It was slightly less than OK as it turned out to be a five foot by one and a half foot "bivy" (slanted out). I threw a loop of rope under my arms and legs and slept like a baby. Someone in the Nose-train above made it sprinkle and we found a perfectly "bivied" log on a ledge as we hauled up our gear. A few random (used) pieces of TP seemed to flitter up from down below every morning. I imagine my experience was quite a bit different than those from a decade or so earlier, but it was definately an experience I will never forget.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Aug 24, 2009 - 08:38pm PT
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First Grade IV - Town Crier - Upper Index Town Wall
with Bruce and Ellie Hawkins. Fun, no drama except the bushwack down.
Then we went to Squeemish for an early ascent of University Wall. I thought Bruce was gonna get us in a fight at the bar with the loggers. They didn't much like the looks of us; they did like Ellie though so I think that saved the day. Oh yeah, the climbing; I loved making Bruce work on the traverse by really stretching the placements.
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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Aug 25, 2009 - 02:04pm PT
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hahaha! Missed this from upthread:
AKDOG writes:
West face of leaning tower with Russ Walling in 1979 or 1980?
To train we aided the Pirate at Suicide.
Friends told us, the climb was no big deal, just wonder up to the base about noon and start climbing, they assured us we would be on Ahwahnee ledge in a couple of hours, they also advised us a half gallon of water would be plenty.
Things did not go as planned; we arrived at the dead tree by the base and it was crawling with biting ants. I had never jugged anything as steep as that first pitch and had to figure it out on the fly. Thinking that bolt ladders would be easy, I got spanked in how bad bolts could be with bent studs, missing hangers, pulled bolts, holes with a copper heads pounded in with only a few viable cable strands left, etc.. We ended up doing most of the last pitch to Ahwahnee ledge in the dark using a home made headlamp Russ had fabricated.
The next day also went slower than planned and we ended up spending a night on top. We had run out of water, but being spring time you could hear the water falls in the distance which just seemed to make us thirstier.
No one else was on the route, overall a great first wall adventure.
Got to be 1979... I remember this outing too... vividly. I'll add..... Erik Erickson was asking us about the gear and stuff we were planning on taking.... we told him, and he immediately offered up some extra biners... we were taking like 13 or something, total. Mind you he did not have that many, but at least it let us clip every third piece or so. With that method, you would unclip and swing out away from the wall and not be able to retrieve the piece or maybe the next one too... we lost at least half our rack, and certainly most of our pins.
AK had the headlamp for the lead onto Ahwahnee.... as the follower I had no light. Finally, getting onto the ledge there is some sorta traverse to the left.... free moves with the Jumar belay or somesuch... I remember using a Bic Lighter to bust out the moves. Arrival time was midnight!
At some point the next day it started raining.... but not on us even though we were dying of thirst.... topped out late and maybe had a rainy bivy and the F'n raps down that gulley were nice and soggy. Figured we were gonna die the whole time.
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JohnRoe
Trad climber
State College, PA
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Aug 26, 2009 - 10:18am PT
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First time starting up, South Face Washington Column, two years ago: link to trip report
First time topping out, WFLT, this summer.
The grin was a permanent fixture for days afterwards.
Thanks Karl!
JohnR
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno
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Aug 26, 2009 - 03:38pm PT
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"the route became a personal yardstick for me. I try to do it every year."
True dat, Mike. It's a great route for that. Although it's been about 2 years since my last run up there. Finally broke the 10 hour solo mark! Which I'd been wanting for a while.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Boise....
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Aug 26, 2009 - 03:43pm PT
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That was my 2d Wall experience, the 1st being "Team Jingus" on the Prow.
The Prow with a group of 4 is a mess, hence the name.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
crimping through the start of the Generator
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Aug 26, 2009 - 05:23pm PT
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The Prow with Sean Easton, 1993. I fondly recall a few events:
-taking one look at Anchorage Ledge, realizing that a) it sucked and b) our ropes would reach the ground and moving back to C4 for the night ("don't talk to me, I'm on a wall")
-getting comfortable on Tapir Terrace the next night, levelling out my little ledge with the bag and realizing that this was definitely the coolest place I had ever spent the night
-watching the haulbag swing definitively into the bag-eating chimney near the top to wedge like a #156 stopper
-tracing the path of the birds way up high and thinking 'wow, people really do not belong up here. this is cool."
This minor effort was succeeded the following year by our utterly hapless journey of gumbitude (thanks, melissa!)up the Trip, which I consider to be the first true big-wall experience since we multiplied our nights-spent ratio by a factor of seven.
Events include:
-cowering helplessly beneath my helmet in the midst of a headlamp-free knot pass as a series of four enormous explosions rocked the talus below. Later, Trudeau allowed as to how those were probably his bags, launched from ZM;
-realizing in horror that this Chongo guy, the very antithesis of all to which we aspired in style and ability as far as the ascent of big walls went, was fixed on 'our' route;
-nearly braining Chongo with a hammer from 700' up, which was eventually returned to us by same via his alarmingly fuzzy network of scavenged cordage. Chuck's price for this favor was the fixing of two ropes up his next pitches, one of which we flat-out refused to bring owing to its disturbing resemblance to a squishy, multicolored caterpillar of great age and indeterminate origin;
-the growing sensation of pride as I figured out the whole pin-stacking thing on the endless arc of the fifth pitch;
 taking a headfirst, backward Superman dive from midway up the headwall when the crunchy purple TCU placement (that I had opted for instead of the bomber blue one because Sean had been giving me sh#t for overcamming) held on long enough for me to get way up high on it. Since Sean's rack had been stolen from his stash in the bushes outside the Red Rocks campground, the single bootied Eiger oval that I'd clipped onto the hangerless 1/4" stud wrenched my old Leeper hanger nearly in half;
-continually improvising repairs to the secondhand Kmart lawn chair serving as my 'portaledge' as it folded into a useless welter of bent tubing;
-cozily doubling up in Sean's new A5 ledge during the storm. Apparently, this dwelling was meant to be roughly as luxurious as the Ahwahnee, since he had dropped his last $750 on it, of which $250 was mine and remains ever since unseen;
-dreading the necessary consumption of yet another poorly-mixed, maltodextrin-crunchy reject apple-cinnamon Powerbar, some 60 lbs. of which we had liberated from the Powerbar factory dumpster. Eventually, we discovered that they could be tolerated when consumed with a bite of cucumber;
-hearing the enormous rumble of Big Rockfall one morning and in terror looking first up, then over at the Cathedrals, left, right, and finally down, where the dust-cloud from a huge section of the former AO Wall was spreading to cover the entire talus field below the Captain;
-arriving after many hours of bumbling toil at a sprinkling of quarter-inch studs and realizing 'this must be the belay';
-pocketfuls of quarter-inch wingnuts;
-throwing that motherfukking POS K-mart ledge off the East Ledges and watching it soar.
That was more like it.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
Boise....
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Aug 26, 2009 - 06:08pm PT
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That was Canadian Sean, right, Cpt. A?
Tall, lean mop headed monkey. I liked him a lot.
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Aug 26, 2009 - 07:56pm PT
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I second the West Face of Leaning tower for a first wall. It's tough to bail off that route, which teaches you everything you need to know about walls- if you keep going, you'll make it.
I had bailed off the column twice before, once due to slow parties, once due to rain. When we got up on the Leaning Tower. Lots went wrong, I took a big winger on pitch three, my buddy got scared getting to the ledge. We were behind schedule, it was hot...plenty of the BS reasons to bail, but my buddy wouldn't consider turning around.
This helped me. He made me lead the rest of the route, it got dark, I fell really far into the night on the second day. We topped out and slept on that big ledge at the top.
After that, walls weren't so bad.
If you keep going, you will make it.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Aug 26, 2009 - 08:25pm PT
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W face of Leaning Tower-
Partner and I had never done a grade III.
Day 1- Late start after being swooped on by 2 parties. The team of ladies drops us ropes to come up to the party on awahnee. Uneventfull.
Day 2- Rappell our fixed line down to the bags at the top of P3. Lead up to awahnee and haul the pig. Screaming from below warns of a storm. Clouds. Tube tents deployed and drinking commences.
Day 3- Make a concerted effort to get high on the wall, P5 is where the noobs start to lose it. Much moaning and swinging and a bolt ladder later were at the 7th. An epic lead ensues that would wind up being around 3+ hours. We had 2 offset aliens and a blue and green HB brassies. Much backcleaning was done, Having never done it before the fear began to creep up. Darkness find the face and the belay is one move away. Tattered I set a hook and headlight starts going out, a truly blind hook move and we are at the belay. A hammock bivy from hell, one stacked upon the other, no organization but rather a tattered mess of hand tied a-trays and borrowed gear was the feel of the scene.
Day 4- We got this thing by the throat! A full day of pull ups through the roofs and were at the top by dusk. Awsome bivy, no water, lots of smoke but no papers, DOH!
Day 5-We Walked into the parking lot with a bigger grin on our faces than we have had since.
The Tower Rules!
Mucci
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno
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Aug 26, 2009 - 08:37pm PT
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"It's tough to bail off that route"
It's a lot easier to bail on it if there are fixed lines pretty much down the whole thing. Presumably from people working the free variation. Not that I would know anything about that... ;)
Mike - I'd done it in 13 solo, simply by upping the commitment level and really getting after it. After hanging with Ammon a fair amount, helping him with a clinic, a fair amount of harder aid climbs, etc. I *knew* I could get it lower. I still think I can get it down to around 5 or 6 hours or so... Someday. When I do something besides work. lol
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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Aug 26, 2009 - 09:41pm PT
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kor route on washingtons column 1984 with ken ariza.
super fun and classic route with no drama....
caught the bug then and lost it..
good times good times..
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Aug 26, 2009 - 11:30pm PT
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JO: Reading all the
first big wall climb" tales of glory and
"suffer-fests" ------your's struck my heart.
Tough climb, as#@&%e partner that gets sick-----and after you martyr yourself -------your reward is getting stung heavily (20 stings would kill some people)--- then you get stung again when you are safely at home.
As some say:"no good deed goes unpunished."
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
crimping through the start of the Generator
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Aug 27, 2009 - 12:49am PT
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Yeah Kirk, that was the guy. Moptop full of dreads and red pants, he looked like a big red ant.
He's been pretty scarce around here the last 13 years or so...
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Ammon
Big Wall climber
Capo Beach
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Aug 27, 2009 - 02:33am PT
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A pearl… this thread is. I so enjoyed hearing of all the experiences from you guys. Love the; “Figured we were gonna die the whole time”, comment from Russ, ha haa.
I showed up in the Valley fresh and green in 97... SUPER green. Got there late and hiked two huge loads to the base of the NA. Got so tuckered I slept right in the driver’s seat of my van that night/morning... hey, I was green and didn’t know there was a bivy law, haa haa.
Woke up the next morning, hiked to the base and lead the first pitch. I was stoked! Tried to haul, worked for hours and only got the pigs ten feet off the ground. Rapped down the lines after hearing voices... figured I’d go try and get some advice.
I met Chongo and ChileDog, classic. Chongo drew a quick diagram in the dirt on how to make a 2:1. It was like a bulb went on as he drew it and handed me the keys to the vehicle that was going to help me get up the cliff. The first thing I thought was: “I’m mobile”.
Chongo then asked many questions of what I’m taking up the route. He was amazed that I didn’t have a hammer or pins. “I thought it went clean”, I told him. “I just read about it in the mags”.
"YEAH! By some badasses!", he said. (by Chris Mac and Mark Melvin?) So, he suggested I buy a few pins and he would lend me his hammer. I went to the Mountain Shop and bought, 2 LA’s, 2KB’s and a Baby Angle, I also found another Angle as I made my way back to my fixed lines.
Just before launch I saw Chongo again. He advised me that weather was coming in. He stared at me bug eyed as he asked, “You’re not going up in THOSE, are ya”… as he eyed my blue jeans.
“Uhh, why not?” I asked. He then told my why not, lent me a bunch of fleece, a two-point hammock and a bivy sack… and wished me luck. I used it ALL.
Oh, I only had a small trad rack, one set of stoppers, a few hexes and a handful of cams. I kept running out of pieces and had to lower down to retrieve from the lower portion of the pitch to get to the anchors, ha haa. A few storms came in, I spent half a day hunkered on Easy Street, thinking I was done for. I spent 4 nights in the hammock and 4 nights on natural ledges.
I learned a ton, kept swearing at myself everytime I screwed myself with the pro and other FU's. I finally made it to the top, shared my last two beers with two guys I can’t remember. They were great, though… and the rest is history.
Oh, I did my second bigwall with no other than SKULLY, haa haa!
Cheers!
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Prod
Trad climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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Aug 27, 2009 - 08:52am PT
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Mucci said....
"Day 1- Late start after being swooped on by 2 parties. The team of ladies drops us ropes to come up to the party on awahnee. Uneventfull."
Uneventfull, hahahaha killing me.
Rob,
Great write up.
Prod.
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Sep 11, 2009 - 10:18pm PT
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"Ephinephrine", with Mark McGovney.
did the thing in 14hrs car2car!
Ammon! nice!
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kent
Trad climber
SLC, Ut
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Sep 12, 2009 - 01:06am PT
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prodigal sun. We started with no specific plans. Topped out at 2am. Good fun.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Sep 12, 2009 - 01:42am PT
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Ammon's going solo up his first big wall, the North American, is legendary.
A great inspiration to anybody wanting to bag The Big Wall.
Thanks, Ammon. And thanks for posting here, with detail.
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poop_tube
Big Wall climber
33° 45' N 117° 52' W
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Sep 12, 2009 - 03:27am PT
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WFLT in a storm....
Topping off and getting down:
"Holy SH#T! WTF was That? Is this big walling? Oh man, I wanna 'nother one of those!"
I became addicted to the wall drug.
Something about WFLT...
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