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Bruce Morris
Trad climber
Belmont, California
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I led the 3rd pitch in one push, hand-drilling all the bolts from natural stances without hooks or standing on in place bolts. About an hour? Those were the rules: This is your pitch. If you hang or lower, it belongs to your partner to take over from you and finish. The leader has to put in the double-bolt anchors too after leading his pitch in one continuous flow.
These were the conventions developed by Scott Burke and practiced by David Caunt and Rob Settlemeyer and others.
A stern school but taken to an ever higher level of strictness on "Escape From Freedom". Compared to Escape, GD is weak sauce.
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Urmas
Social climber
Sierra Eastside
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Oct 10, 2016 - 07:58am PT
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I remember the third pitch differently. We alternated drilling the bolts. I will never forget standing on those slopers and drilling my heart out! Bruce drilled the last one or two and finished the lead, but I know I drilled at least 2 bolts on that pitch.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 10, 2016 - 09:27am PT
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Should have been writing trip reports, not poetic articles about the flowers and waiting for the angels to come down from the sky! :) Just kidding.
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Urmas
Social climber
Sierra Eastside
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Oct 10, 2016 - 10:11am PT
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Some people aspire more toward creating literature than self promotion! Kidding also! :)
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 10, 2016 - 10:37am PT
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Missing out! Posting TRs onto a local forum instead of writing out stories for magazines is how you get famous AND SPONSORED! You guys totally missed out. Climbed for pretty much no reason at all. ;)
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Oct 10, 2016 - 11:33am PT
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B
U must think I'm a piss ant but I've read every word and much of it twice
My bad for wrecking the flow of this thread.
Personally, hearing of a fifty minute approach ? !
Totally still within my ankles and knees abilities
Only the economics of mortgage cars and two kids in the way
Do you think there will be an explosion of interes? punks from SF crowding one route?
Urmas, sorry from your tone I can tell you suffer no fools
My dedication to do nothing but climb rocks in obscurity has been its own reward
People who find me in the zone can count on a good pump, even if it is only a full day out.
The story of the FA, is a shadow of that time when everyone was striving to up the style
Holding the ground up CLEAN ethic ( hook-less as possible risking long falls )
East cost climbers, the south-east, most of all, holds some of the most worrying run-outs
Trying to follow this up with worthy tripe is weak sauce so I'll stop.
R
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Urmas
Social climber
Sierra Eastside
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Oct 10, 2016 - 11:43am PT
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Vitaliy, you remind me of a line by the Nick Nolte character in A Walk In the Woods, "I've spent half of my life drinking and chasing women, and the other half I've wasted"! If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody sees it, or a climb is done in obscurity, It never happened. Right?
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Bruce Morris
Trad climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 10, 2016 - 12:20pm PT
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Obviously, Urmas your memory of some things is more accurate and less self-aggrandizing than mine! Yeah, now that you spell out the details, I do remember yo-yoing the 3rd pitch with you and finishing with the last 2 bolts. They were all drilled from stanches though.
The Burke rules were an ideal that was subject to modification on site according to conditions and circumstances. But people did attempt to observe them. Just go check out "The Token".
I think the general sequence of events surrounding the FA that I gave is pretty accurate since I arranged my 35mm slides in sequence later. 1 day establishing the rap anchors down the gully. 1 afternoon rapping in with bivy gear, ending with a lead of Pitch 1. Then 2 more days climbing out to the top. A clean up day a couple days later with that guy from Colorado.
Rules were meant to be broken! But we had done a lot of face climbing in the Valley that spring so Urmas and I were pretty good at hand-drilling at that moment.
Doing something good is its own reason.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 10, 2016 - 12:26pm PT
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If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody sees it, or a climb is done in obscurity, It never happened. Right?
If you don't have an instagram, you don't exist!
(last posts of mine were very sarcastic) :)
The Burke rules were an ideal that was subject to modification on site according to conditions and circumstances.
Rock climbing in general is like that though. We all would (likely) agree that onsighting on lead, drilling from stances if you have to, GU, etc is the ideal outcome. Yet if you are putting up something REALLY hard, a 40 foot whipper could demonstrate HOW challenging of a task that the individual is facing. Having to lower from a bolt because you managed to drill two bolts from marginal stances is not a sign of weakness (to me) but more like getting over yourself and accepting that the fresh partner could likely do a better job at that point. After all the time on the wall is limited and if you trust your friend/partner, it seems like a good idea. So when you push yourself to the LIMIT and end up taking whippers or not adhering to the 'ideal' outcome, to me it seems even more rewarding in the end, compared to following the ideal way on something less challenging for the individual. Of course, if you can push it following all of the above, it could be very special, but going climbing is not only following some defined logic, being creative, having a good time, being somewhere cool, it is all a part of the personal experience. And yes, if it has not been written about or had a professional photoshoot, it is still damn great to look back at the raw experience.
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Bruce Morris
Trad climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 10, 2016 - 01:32pm PT
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Yes, humans get tired.
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Grippa
Trad climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Oct 10, 2016 - 02:47pm PT
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bitchin thread
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Urmas
Social climber
Sierra Eastside
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Oct 10, 2016 - 04:39pm PT
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Yes Bruce, your recollection of the sequence of events is accurate. I can only remember 2 other times we didn't follow the Burke rule - Pitches 11 and 18 of Escape From Freedom. And not once did we drill from a hook - always from stances. The rounded features of those routes don't particularly lend themselves to hooking. Edit: And maybe pitch 7, I can't remember for sure.
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this just in
climber
Justin Ross from North Fork
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Oct 11, 2016 - 09:05am PT
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Please follow me on Instagram @jross1838.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 11, 2016 - 10:32am PT
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Do you even drill from stances bro?
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Bruce Morris
Trad climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 11, 2016 - 01:22pm PT
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Urmas - I think year one on "Escape From Freedom", I was stopped by difficulties on Pitch 7 and was forced to drill one bolt standing on the one below it. Year two when we returned and finished the route I stood in a sling on the last bolt, jumped for and grabbed a big edge and did a 5.11 mantle on it, drilled a last bolt and climbed up to the Silver Fish bivy ledge. The next day we hauled all our junk up there and began working on the Middle Apron which finally let us access the more featured Upper Headwall and the summit.
I'm guessing Tom Addison couldn't free Pitch 7 our way so traversed right below my ladder and cleaned and freed the 5.12b left-facing corner crack in the new free topo. I always thought my ladder would go free at some ridiculously high standard, but it remains 5.11b A0 to this day. As I recall that was the only pitch I fell on on the whole route. I think it was a 5.10d move. You never fell once.
So that's how I remember Pitch 7.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Oct 11, 2016 - 01:39pm PT
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Serious question, how much time did you guys dedicate to slab climbing over the years before putting up the Escape from Freedom? It seems like you guys were pushing that sort of climbing to new levels. Even if not, to me it seems that this sort of style is quite cool because it relies heavily on technique and balance.
Any tips for improving at the style for the others who may look at the thread now or in the future? I think your advise would be very useful for most. Did you feel bouldering slab problems in the valley helped a lot? Climbing a lot of mileage on such terrain? Doing 100 calve raises with 100 lb backpacks? Certain core exercises?
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Urmas
Social climber
Sierra Eastside
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Oct 11, 2016 - 04:52pm PT
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Vitaliy, Speaking for myself, I never liked to train or work out. I did what I was able to do by climbing a lot of mileage and bouldering. During the mid eighties I climbed almost every day from May through October. Winters I worked as a ski instructor and didn't climb much. Summers I collected unemployment, and worked nights in a restaurant when I had to. Back then I wanted very badly to approach the boldness of the slab climbers I admired. Climbing hard grades was less important than keeping a cool head while soloing or running it out. Somehow I survived. I don't think I went about it the best way though. My advice now would be: focus on good technique and fitness, and boldness will come in time. I took a lot of chances that in hindsight I was lucky to survive.
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Bruce Morris
Trad climber
Belmont, California
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Oct 11, 2016 - 08:38pm PT
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V: "Serious question, how much time did you guys dedicate to slab climbing over the years before putting up the Escape from Freedom?"
The spring before we did Golden Dawn, Urmas and I climbed almost every friction pitch over on the Apron as preparation for the endeavor. But it did seem like I was climbing slabs from about 1974 to 1988 on a regular basis. The Apron, MCR, Royal Arches Apron, DAFF Dome, Pywiack Dome, Stately Pleasure Dome etc etc etc Did a lot of cracks too, but always returned to slabs for "fun". I think bouldering at Castle Rock State Park is a good introduction to slab climbing thanks to the large number of mantles and weirdo friction moves that can be translated to granite friction climbing quite easily. I know Al 'Dude' Swanson cut his teeth at Castle and he was always into gold granite edge climbs.
Seems like Vern Clevenger really blazed the trail for slab climbers beginning in the mid-1970s. His achievements in that area really upped the bar for everyone and showed what could be done with hand-drilling. Chris Cantwell raised the bar even higher with his Hall of Mirrors. So there are really lots of influences that effected the development of high-standard slab climbing. Too many to cite here, including what Scott Burke did and what Dave Caunt and Dave Settlemeyer accomplished. Lots and lots of people working in that general area over many, many years, even decades.
As Urmas suggested above, it doesn't really seem like there's a good way of training for slabs except by doing a lot of them and building on your experience.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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I thought the granite on the formation we dubbed the Harding Tower was quite awesome and returned several times to complete more climbs on it. Seemed like a no brainer. Not sure if any of them cross Mr. Anonymous' routes, but I don't think there was much overbolting, with all these routes being mostly 1600-1900 ft of slab climbing and requiring 5 bolts or less for all the routes. Some are incredible. Sack attack was a bit dirty...but WILD that's for sure.
All done onsight in a day with various partners.
1. Sack Attack IV 5.11
2. Short Man Syndrome IV 5.10+
3. Mr. Anonymous, Bite The Pillow I'm Goin in Dry IV-V 5.11+ R (5.10 RX)
4. New Life IV 5.10 (5.8-9 RX)
5. Basically Absurd IV 5.10 R
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Dec 14, 2016 - 09:50pm PT
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Added another route between 4 and 5 before the snow came. Called it the Ol' Dirty Ewok IV 5.10 R. Was very fun actually and protected good enough mostly.
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