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 The Nose, Changing Corners Credit: duncan |
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Nine and a Half Hours: an early Nose in a Day ascent with Romain Vogler.
Alone - Off the wall, is about trying to solo Sunkist and coming unstuck. I’ve already written a little about the latter on here.
These two podcasts, put together by Wil Treasure for his Factor Two series, describe some Yosemite escapades in June and July 1984. They feature additional commentary from John Middendorf and Charles Cole, thanks to both for their contributions, which make the stories much richer than a monologue would have been.
A few years ago I randomly bumped into John at Joshua Tree. We enjoyed reminiscing, he remembered me arriving back in camp 4 mid afternoon after we had climbed The Nose but had assumed we'd jumared fixed lines on the first four pitches, a common practice then. I'd initially thought we'd be doing this too but Romain had other ideas. John’s take, on the recent speed record thread. This partially explains why our ascent was unreported at the time. I just assumed no-one was very interested, Yosemite speed-climbing was of little note in the 80s. Hans Florine's portrayal of his awareness of us in On The Nose may contain a certain amount of artistic licence!
Both stories have epilogues. I climbed The Nose again on 21st June 2014, 30 years later to the day. More spray, poorly disguised as a "how to" guide. In most ways it was the antithesis to 1984: meticulously planned and rehearsed, with a climbing partner of twenty years and hundreds of routes, far less cavalier and much slower (only just In A Day). It was still a great experience with a great person. I got back on Sunkist in 1996, soloing again. It took seven days, two just to get to the base of the chimney. With several big cams this was No Big Deal second time around. Being up on that golden headwall on my own was heavenly, especially after what had happened before.
