miker

Ah the sweet sweet misery. I am ready to go back up there. I just need a quart of burboun to stay warm....oh crap, Mythbusters said that won't work. Maybe just a bunch of layers....of pole dancers.

Jel Us. Fun times. Some of that gear looks sphincter-tightening.

I love that index rock but so few seem to want to make the hike up the hill to the Upper Wall to keep the rock clean except for a couple of the super classics. Now don't get me wrong I bitch about that hike every time I do it, but Kudos to you guys.

Well written and wrought.

The weather was fine there that morning for the Corner, don't know what you guys are talking about...

Good stuff daddy-o. Motivates me to get my kids out into the chit.

As always an adventure, although more climbing and less driving should be the goal. Fun times for it sounds like.

Nice, gotta get me on that red stuff.

Classic!! You are hard on them ropes senor.

Excellent birthday all the way around. Only note, stop videoing in portrait mode unless you can spin it later as it is very annoying to watch. My shit is still wet.

Excellent!! Have to get out there.

Well spoken sir, but just a note to all, when Ivan gets hot he just gets mad. Not at anything in particular, just angry. His running commentary as he climbs interspersed with talk worthy of a sailor was a fine counterpoint to my finally getting quiet as I climb. The Nose itself was reasonably straightforward, but climbing it as full on aid with minimal freeclimbing is what kept us a little slower than molasses in winter.

Nicely done except for the constantly have to scroll back and forth to see all of the text and pictures. Sounds like a standard by normal epic fail with soundtrack and cursing.

Wish I coulda done it, except for the poison oak and zombies it sounds great.

Sweet times, looks like you guys had a blast. Let's go back and do somethin' bigger!!

Goeff on the first pitch of North American Wall Goeff on the Kor Roof. Goeff on second traversing pitch of Iron Hawk/Tangerine Trip/El Cap Tree Route on El Capitan Adam and Ujhan rapping off Knob Hill Fun times, now I gotta go back. The pics of Ben on Zodiac are excellent and make me itch to get up there.

Here are a few pics from the trip. cc is fighting me on the upload.

Very true Bill, I am making the cliff safer for the "lycra-clad" hordes...(Are they still lycra clad? I mostly see fleece and sandals this far north)... Aid goons does seem a bit harsh though...my trash talk sucks.

Nice! 43+ pitches of climbing on some of the best rock around.

I still think we should call the adventure H1N1A2.

Actually, I was so engrossed in taking pictures and rehydrating it got to be late enough that I was unable to rappel safely down the Northwest Passage, what with a haul bag hanging on me and never having rapped that way before. So I decided to be safe and called my wife to let her know I was ok and curled up in my sleeping bag, which I had included in my haul bag to help train for the real big walls. I did not top out as I was worried about knocking rocks down onto the constantly occupied trail, especially on top of the crumbly monkey. That is my excuse, I am gonna stick with it.

Trip: [TR] Smith rocks-Smiffistani Aid Soloing - Monkey Face-West Face Aid Route Date: 4/19/2009 Trip Report: Well, I decided to go do some solo-aiding on the Monkey Face as Ivan's trip report made it sound uber cool. It definitely was with a few interesting points. I do not have the Hunter S. Thompson style utilized by Ivan so will have to just drone on here. Left Sunday afternoon right after the one year old nephews bday party. Made excellent time 2.5 hours Camas to Terrebonne. Used the bivouac area there at Smith, quite nice, just threw down my sleeping bag and bivy bag. Got a little time to practice with my new camera and even got some 15 second exposures that captured the Big Dipper. Bright and shiny the next morning, haul bagged packed and off to the aptly named Misery Ridge at 8am. Went the longer way on the road as I did not realize the "Rope Da Dope" trail shot straight down to the river. Anyway, much trudging and sweating gets me to the top of the ridge eventually. A few nice pics of the East face in the sun. Someone had gear on the East Face route which went 2/3 of the way up then a single strand two knotted rope rapel hung to the ground. The gear was still there when I left on Monday. I had a small disaster with my one of my trekking poles on the way down to the base of the climb. I'm ok though. I may see about making my own stick clip out of it. View up the route The climbing all went smoothly and very straightforward. 1st pitch-Climbed, hauled bag, rapped and cleaned(mostly nuts with 2 cams as directionals along the way) then jugged back up. 2nd pitch-Climbed the bolt ladder, two long moves near the intermediate anchors made me curse not having a stick clip, but I persevered. Based on Ivan's rope/edge event, I decided to avoid the whole issue by fixing my line to the top two bolts below the cave as I rappelled, with a couple cams for backup. Then cleaned and released the bag and jugged back up. Swinging 40 feet out from the wall was invigorating I must say. Some tourons on the ground took my picture, if they remember my email address I yelled down to them I might get a cool picture. I was severely dehydrated at this point I had run through my 1 Liter nalgene on my harness and the rest was deep in the haul bag. Needless to say by the time I jugged and hauled the bag I was in piss poor shape. After sipping down a liter of water over the next 30 minutes I was able to contemplate moving and setting up my camp. Unfortunately there were no signs of the rodentia reported by Ivan, so perhaps the sight of him manshowing it may have driven the poor guy to jump or perhaps it was actually a flying squirrel, we shall never know. I did see some avian life, but only one brave soul actually landed on my ledge. Compliments of my Brother in Law I got me an MRE to try out. Sloppy Joe-MRE #17 It was interesting and better than a lot of dehydrated hiking food I have used, but the packaging weight and chemical heater make me think it is less environmentally appropriate and does not support the traveling light methodology, which does not describe all big wall adventures. I enjoyed the evening on the ledge, reading Robin Cook's Bad Company, drinking my keg can Heineken and taking a million sunset pictures. The next morning I chugged my Mountain Dew and packed up my Shiite and rapped the Northwest route with the haul bag between my legs. Not to bad overall. Got some pictures of some guys on the Pioneer Route as I headed out.(but cc keeps rejecting my uploads of those pics) That was an insanely heavy haul bag on the hike. I think the whole thing was a good aerobic workout and a solid bit of practice on all aspects of aid climbing and improving my speed and systems.

Well the only trace left was the leper hook I dropped from the third pitch. I looked for it diligently, but it had enough mass to embed itself in the forest floor beyond my ability to find without a metal detector. I agree on the cigarette butts, but that bag was something I could not have near me, the PTSD was already messing with me after that most delicate of airborne operations on the albeit rickety portaledge.

The BM was the low point of the climb I must say, but nature is a beeyatch sometimes and you gotta do what you gotta do. The most ignominious part was carrying the offending plastic bag at arms reach down the trail as I did not want it to explode in/on my bag. My only two times on that wall I have spent the night. Once on Town Crier about 8 years ago and this night. Now I gotta say the portaledge issues may be due to a weight limit which is not written on the side or anything. With ~500 pounds of fat ass aid climbers on the ledge, I am not surprised a knot or two popped. Mayhaps a couple single hammocks are in our future. The drive and hike do make it more of a challenge, but it was a solitary experience on a decently big wall. P.S.-None of the lower wall stuff except for the one pitch City Park really talk about Aid potential. Anybody know any full wall experiences on the lower wall that provide good Aid fun?

Looks like some fun. Wish I coulda been there.