Your first big-wall experience?

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Tom

Big Wall climber

San Luis Obispo CA

Sep 12, 2009 - 04:13am PT

POOP, it's not WFLT, it's . . . The Wall.

And The Wall is why we do this sort of thing we do.

Any lame-ass poser can fingerlock his way up one pitch.

EDIT: The Wall is what you want. Anything less is just practice. The Wall is, il ne plus ultima pas, OK, say here, the greatest experience.

The Wall is what you want.

The Wall is why you started climbing, in the first place.

The Wall beckons.

The Wall is neither friendly nor accomodating.

poop_tube

Big Wall climber

33° 45' N 117° 52' W

Sep 12, 2009 - 05:39am PT

I'll drink to that

Ammon, grab your rig, I think I can take the door off the Cessna 172!

Neil

Gym climber

Here and there

Sep 12, 2009 - 07:44am PT

Lightning Strikes...

Two friends and I took on the Prow back in 2000 or something. They had done Leaning Tower and were total experts in my mind.

On the fourth pitch it started to drizzle. At one point, off in the distance, thunder rumbled. Just once. It sounded miles and miles away.

We weren't well equipped for rain, and started to rappel. Joe was at the top of the third pitch, Tom was mid-rappel, and I was at the anchors on top of the first pitch. There was another party starting below us. And then...

FLASHBOOM!!! HOLY SH#T!!!

I ducked in close to the anchors and rock started to rain. It ripped by us, screaming and tearing through the air. TV-sized blocks, baseball-sized stones...the lightning must have hit the top of the column. I risked a look down and saw plumes of dust rising 30 feet into the air. A grapefruit-sized rock hit the sloping ledge only 6 inches away from my foot and exploded into gravel.

It lasted 8-10 seconds, I think, but it felt like forever. One of the kids below us, his name was Brock. In the aftermath, everyone was yelling, trying to find out if folks were okay. I yelled "Joe!...Tom!". Tom yelled "Nate!...Joe!". Joe yelled "Tom!...Nate!".

And Brock's partner yelled "Brock!", which of course sounds exactly like "rock". And so each of us would shut up, duck in close to the rock, and pray. Until we figured it was safe, then started yelling again, then heard "Brock!" and started praying again. That repeated itself several times before we figured it out.

We left the Valley and didn't return for some time. It took years for my balls to descend. I'm not going to name my son Brock.

Nate

Prod

Trad climber

A place w/o Avitars apparently

Sep 12, 2009 - 08:28am PT

Hahaha, Brock has got to be thte worst climbers name there is. Great story.

Prod.

Paulina

Trad climber

Sep 12, 2009 - 10:04am PT

I love this thread! A couple of years ago I was in Yosemite for a while and met this girl Chelsea in camp 4. Both total wall gumbies, we did a couple practice aid pitches and headed up WFLT. You know what's coming. Approach was grueling but uneventful. We bivied at the base. First day, we made all the rookie mistakes you can think of, including leaving the haul line at the belay, moving too slow, wearing the wrong shoes and dropping a headlamp in the dark. Got to Awhanee way after dark after > 13 hrs to climb 4 pitches. Chelsea fixed the rope by touch. I was terrified out of my mind to jug that line but what choice did I have exactly?
We were the only ones on the ledge that night and slept like queens.
Looking down into the valley the following morning was one of the best experiences of my life.
While I was doing that though, two other parties caught up with us and passed us. We took stock of our earlier less than stellar performance and the bruises, and decided to bail. But first we spent some quality hours on the ledge watching the beautiful motion of the freeclimbers (one of the parties were freeing it!) and shooting the sh#t with the aid climbers (who btw were also very graceful and fluid unlike us). One of the aid climbers was a really nice guy, urging us to go on, making plans for us for how to break down the last 4 pitches into 2 days. But we had already used half of our water to do a little washing off of the Ahwanee stink... and we had plenty of other excuses. So we bailed, and went to have an enormous dinner and a shower. And I left the valley shortly after.
A few days later, the bruises healed and I vowed to return. Hasn't happened yet, but Chelsea and I climbed Spaceshot in Zion together since.

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Sep 12, 2009 - 11:09am PT

Chouinard-Herbert on N Face of Sentinel, 1983.

It was my first trip to the Valley. My friends John Kaandorp and Steve DeMaio - free climbing demons from Ontario who put up all sorts of new routes on the escarpment - sans spits - had taken a one-year road trip. I was fiendishly jealous, having started an engineering job with only two weeks' holiday per year. I flew to Yosemite to climb with John. I think we had aided a few pitches here and there.

We climbed Chouinard-Herbert because a lot of it went free, and someone told us it was pretty good. I don't know if I've ever met anyone else who's climbed it! I remember the approach as being hard, but these days when I look down at the approach from up on the East Ledges I wonder what ever possessed me to want to climb it - it really looks heinous.

We brought one sleeping pad and a couple down duvets - we were told there was a sloping ledge at the top of eight where we might be able to catch some zeds. We slept kinda piled on to of each other. The next day we climbed the Afro-Cuban flakes, but got lost on the descent. We got it into our heads that we should traverse over to the Four-Mile trail, rather than descend the streambed, not knowing there was a four-hundred-foot cliff blocking our way. It turned into a parched manzanita dust fest. Maybe we should have studied the guidebook descent?

It took me another five years to get the ex-wife to "let" me return to Yosemite, and I managed to wobble up the Nose. No other Yosemite trips until my Post-Divorce Renaissance began in 1994, but I've been making up for lost time ever since.

Ammon's tale of soloing El Cap as his first big wall route ever is legendary. Chongo was my Wall Doctor, too.

Bldrjac

Ice climber

Boulder

Sep 12, 2009 - 01:29pm PT

My first REALLY big wall was the Muir on El Cap. Jim Orey and I did the 4th ascent (I think Hennick and Pratt did the 3rd). Prior to the Muir Jim and I warmed-up by doing the 7th ascent of The Prow, when there was still several A4 pitches on it and we also did a very early ascent of In Cold Blood. Doing The Muir Wall with Jim was memorable and from that climb on I have been hooked on El Cap.

Fritz

Trad climber

Hagerman, ID

Sep 12, 2009 - 01:55pm PT

With so many West Face Leaning Tower epics here, thought it would be fun to have more photos.

These are from my 1975 climb on first page of this topic.

Looking down wildly overhanging first lead with me climbing the dead tree----is it still there?

Gary Clark. How about that overhang?

steelmnkey

climber

Vision man...ya gotta have vision...

Sep 12, 2009 - 02:18pm PT

Chouinard-Herbert, Sept. '92. First trip ever to the Valley.
Flew into San Hoser on Friday afternoon.
Packed and racked, drove to the valley, bivied.
Sat. morning, did the approach (took two hauls), then up four.
Fixed the next three with two ropes.
Sun. took off early, we were slow, topped out right at dark.
Descended the Sentinel gully in the dark, sort of onsight.
Got back to the car 10:30pm. Cleaned up some, then drove back to Hoser. Repacked to fly out.
Slept for about an hour and a half.
Flew out Monday morning. I was at work by 10:30am.
It was amazing.

My buddy jugging the Afro Cuban Flakes.

Remember this amazing tree, growing out of the cliff, doing a 90-degree bend and then straight up. It was huge.

Fritz

Trad climber

Hagerman, ID

Sep 13, 2009 - 10:20pm PT

bump for short, but gripping stories. (the best kind)

Captain...or Skully

Social climber

Boise....

Sep 13, 2009 - 10:23pm PT

Loved your pics, Fritz.
And the rest of them, too.

NFB

Mountain climber

Wilson, Wyoming

Sep 13, 2009 - 11:19pm PT

My first wall experience came about on Touchstone in 1994. I was a junior in high school and a belay slave on a practice run for my mentors. John Johnson and Mark Bennet were working out the bugs for an ascent of the Shield on EC. I got hooked, moved to Cedar City and climbed in Zion a ton.

First Yosemite wall was regular route on Half Dome. This resulted in one of my worst bivis. My buddy and I off the couched it and bivied on the "ledge" below Big Sandy. My bro had a bruised rib from a skateboarding accident and we were not exactly firing the thing. The next morning we got up to Big Sandy and found 6 Japanese climbers, so Big Sandy may not have had room for us anyway. We slept there until about 1:00 in the afternoon and then finished the route without incident.

First EC route was this spring. I did Lost in America with Calder Stratford, his brother Travis and Travis' business partner Enoch. Trav and Enoch are NYC ad execs and neither of them have ever done any climbing. They were awesome, so funny...

I had never done any nailing on granite let alone heading. Calder kept telling me that the fixed heads are fine and I now am a big believer!!! However, the whole head thing seems kind of junky... There is nothing like the Capitain eh???

Captain...or Skully

Social climber

Boise....

Sep 13, 2009 - 11:38pm PT

You got that right, fo' sho'.....

luggi

Trad climber

from the backseat of Jake& Elwood Blues car

Sep 13, 2009 - 11:52pm PT

Geez Ammon I thought you were born somewhere on that slab and it was like home...listened to John Dill speak the other night on 40 years of yosar stuff...increadible stuff on the big wall has happened....

Captain...or Skully

Social climber

Boise....

Sep 13, 2009 - 11:55pm PT

Dude, ask him about the 1st night on Mescalito......Haha!
T'was hilarious, huh, Ammon?
Nudge, nudge,wink,wink say no more......;-D

TripL7

Trad climber

san diego

Jul 22, 2010 - 12:34am PT

SFWC(1974)!

lots of cool stories on this thread bump...

Jordan Ramey

Big Wall climber

South Pasadena, CA

Jul 22, 2010 - 04:39pm PT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9iHgaXdZUQ

WFLT and here's the video of it. We started friday night and ended sunday morning and climbed through both nights and slept half of saturday. It was AWESOME!

TrundleBum

Trad climber

Las Vegas

Jul 22, 2010 - 06:01pm PT

Rich Sims:

NW Face of Half Dome on hexes and stoppers;.....1978....31 years ago...

Same for me!
17 maybe just turned 18.
It was September so I was just a month or two behind you guys.

First day, approach and fix three.
Second, bivy at 9th
Third, bivy at Big Sandy
Fourth, topped at sunset.

The inspiration to get me arse up thar'