Wallstein

Dru, you've got the right answer unless that is of course if you plan on having the second jug or on hauling a pack. Every rope system has its pro's and con's and its all about knowing how and when to use each system.

Some one want to show me some climbing around Bellingham tomorrow morning/afternoon. I could probably climb till mid day or so. I'd be down for whatever but would like to climb in the 5.10 to 5.12 zone. I'll be happy to put the rope up.

Good job up there Ben and James.

Trip: Index - Upper Town Wall - Swim + FFA of Free Swim Date: 8/10/2011 Trip Report: Another great Upper Wall route. I first tried Swim a couple weeks ago and got a little pushed around up there to say the least. But I wasn't all that surprised as this is usually the case on Upper Wall climbs. My second time on the route I choose the solo top rope mini trax mission. While dangling around up there doing some scrubbing and TR'ing I got the bright idea of trying to free a variation around the original 4th pitch A0 bolt ladder. On first inspection I didn't think it would be to bad. The free variation would start up the shallow corner of Steel Pole Bathbtub and then diagonal left across the bolt ladder onto an old aid pitch I put up 10+ years. Only problem was a fairly large (6ft tall) and loose toothpick shaped block that was barely attached. This thing had to go. And it went without much of a fight. To my dismay my original thought about the pitch looking easy was proved wrong. It was going to actually take some work to do and well to be honest I wasn't so keen on starting another involved project as my schedule was already pretty booked. But for some stupid reason I still got all excited about the project... and I'm bad at saying NO to good climbing. So after a couple more days of work up there which involved a bit of scrubbing and some bolting it was ready to go. My luck with the weather has been great lately. Lows 60's and a chance of rain in the forecast meant good sending temps. Thankfully for me I found a stoked partner, Rachel, that would be game to go have a little adventure up there with me. We met up at the parking lot a little before 3pm, which is a perfect time to start an Upper Wall route if you plan on climbing by headlamp... (Rachel following the 2nd pitch 11d) It felt nice to be grabbing freshly brushed holds and knowing where to go this time. The climbing was actually enjoyable. We quickly made it the big ledge at the base of the 4th pitch and the new free variation. I opted to pull through on draws for a quick refresher of the moves and one last brush of the holds. I came down, pulled the rope, put on a tighter pair of shoes and headed back up. I had worked the pitch just the right amount. I definitely wasn't sure i was going to send and had to improvise a few of the moves but I managed to make it through without incident. After the funky compact smeary corner crux the climbing eases off to cool, fun and casual 5.10 and eventually meets back up with the original route near the anchors. I can't really figured what to grade the pitch so I'm going to say Index,11d which in my opinion has ZERO correlation to Yosemite Decimal System. IF it were in Yosemite, it would probably be somewhere closer to 12/12+ (the upper 5.10 portion of the new variation) Rachel followed giving it a good effort but had to resort to a bit of Batman technique through the crux. The next 11b pitch went down with out much of fight though the sun had still managed to slip perilously close to the horizon. Rachel hurried up the pitch feeling the encroaching darkness. Only two more pitches to... (good light and a shitty iPhone camera) I crept up one more 11+ techy slab and nearly blew it on some dirty 5.10 that I mistakenly had not cleaned or climbed previously. I probably should of brought a head lamp as the climbing surely would of been easier if I could see. Thankfully Rachel was kind enough to let me borrow her headlamp for the last pitch so I could figure out where to go. At somewhere close to 9:45 I topped out. I sure am good at turning a 7 pitch route into an adventure. Gear Notes: Mostly clips and slings with a few wedges thrown in for good measure. Approach Notes: Snohomish --> Lyndseys Lattes in Sultan --> Index town store for a croissant sammy --> Trail --> Bolts --> Top

Ok now that makes a bit more sense Jens. I also one hung the pitch off the ledge but couldn't even touch the pitch off the ground.

Wow really? One hang first go? You are talking about the pitch off the ground right? Not the one off the ledge? Thats pretty impressive.

Nice Darryl. I'm going to try that tomorrow and see what happens. I sent you an email.

Anyone have a power drill I could borrow for use tomorrow?

Thats what I thought Rudy. Maybe its just harder if you are a midget like us?

What is up with that first 5.11+ pitch? I know Andrew Philbman has done it but he has steel fingers and he climbs 5.14. Anyone else ever actually redpoint that thing? Darryl what sort of performance enhancing drugs were you on when you put that thing up?

I find that hitting my hand has more to do with my technique, hammer weight and fatigue than the size of my drill guard. I'm a righty and drill 40% left handed and managed to only whack my had every 5 bolts or so. And yes the roc pec can pinch your hand but again if figure out how to hold it so that isn't an issue.

I've used both more than my wrists like. (drilled nearly 100 by hand this year alone.) I started out with the Hurricane but primarily I use the RocPec now. Not having to carry any wrenches really makes the RocPec excel for me. Of course if you don't want to use SDS bits the hurricane is the only way to go.

SCENIC- David Lama's sport climbing proj, also know as Cerro Torre CRAGGING- Total sport wanker on great limestone in Yangshuo, China ALPINE- Kate Rutherford topping out the standard, Whillins route on Poincenot with the South Face of Fitzroy behind. BOULDERING- Jer Collins working on his new sport of bouldering jumping

Thanks for the beta. Looks like it would probably be a wet snowy adventure up there right now. Thanks kinda what I figured.

Does anyone have any experience with the Bugaboos this time of year? Given some good clear weather would a quick mission be possible?

Patagonia makes a pretty sweet 26L pack. I have the current version but have only got to use it a little. I've used the previous version while climbing down in patagonia a few times and liked it. here's a link: http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/patagonia-lightweight-travel-pack?p=48817-0-247&pcc=1128 I've been thinking about cutting off the lid, as the pack is plenty big enough for a leaders pack and it doesn't rest well unless the pack is full.

(Modified Fox Carving in the middle and Fox Hammer on the right) Dane, the tools got used a fair bit down in Patagonia but we didn't really get to test out the hammers to much. So I can't really give a solid thumbs up or down yet. And here's Kate scared shitless using one of Dane Fox Carving tools and really old aluminum crampons on some really hard ice on Fitz Roy.

Way to get after it! Zion is such an amazing place!

Don't worry Ivan there are still plenty of people gettin loaded in the valley having a good time. It just more often than not those are the same people that you find day after day just hanging around the bridge not really climbing that much. I do hear you about the adventure thing though. I get a little bored about hearing the same climbers climbing the same route just faster. There are a few people in the valley like this and I always wonder why they just don't go climbing on something new. There is so much adventure left in the valley it is incredible. I've been climbing there for 15 years now and I'm proud to say I've ONLY done the Nose twice. Alot of locals would be like "what you've only done it twice?" but then I just point out all the other formations that I've climbed and new routes I've done. I'm much happier having an adventure than shaving another 30 minutes off my time.

Here are two other options. They are outside of the park but still within 20 minutes of the Valley. I've never stayed at either but I'm sure they'd work. And yes reservations are highly recommended. http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sierra/recreation/camping/campgrounds/drygulch.shtml http://www.indianflatrvpark.com/

Here's some monday morning Extreme for ya. You can download a 1600x1200 wall paper here from >NG.com< if you like.

I guess since you posted on the 16th you missed the day to get reservations by a day. bummer. But its not to late to get sept 15 through the 22nd. Just be ready on May 15th at 7am. Here's the beta http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/camping.htm I've had pretty good luck getting large chunks of time if I am ready at 7am on the day they open the camping reservations. You might want to look into the Forest Service camping down in El Portal. It is much easier to get camping there. You could also try posting your question on Supertopo.com As far as a room goes, Hans' place is one of the only places unless you are willing to pay for a vacation rental up in the West. Which is way spendy Good luck

I wish i could take more credit but I just held the camera. Thats monkey work. Fitz Cahall of the dirtbagdiaries.com , on the other hand, he's a master with the words and story telling. Thanks also goes out to Tim Loubier who edited the whole piece. Here's the vid. [video:youtube]4NJEs3hUgqQ

Not sure if I'd agree with that Mike. Ueli has climbed 5.14 as well as free climbed El Cap. I'd say he could play in the same league as Chris. Ueli believes that a modern day alpine climber should be able to climb at a hight level in each discipline, not just big icy mountains. Chris on the other hand... Not sure he'd survive half the places Ueli goes.

My guess is these are useful for extreme circumstances. Say rapping a 5000ft face and only having 12 slings. If you left a sling at every anchor you sure wouldn't make it very far before you ran out. These ideas might be fairly crazy but I could see having them real deep in my bag of tricks. If I was near some ice right now I'd like to go try out the ice screw trick.