crimper

hmm again...if you did start from up in the gully, then maybe we did start at the same spot, as the more i looked at your photo the more familar it looked (i think the greenery threw me off at first since it was dirt brown last week in that gully). my partner bailed at what he called an undercling/lieback about 20-25 feet above a small tree with slings. he said the "crack" wouldn't take any gear, and seemed a lot harder than 5-9. the left wall he'd have to stem off was covered in lichen also, he said. he is pretty solid at 5-10 as well and hates to back off anything, but he was concerned that he'd hit a ledge below if he blew the moves. and being that he is 6 foot 5 and must weigh over 200 i wasn't too psyched about a potential self-rescue! so, not to obsess over this, but does this sound familiar, and is that crux just kinda dirty and a bit spicy? - meaning that we were in fact on route?

thanks again. and just to make sure i'm not confused - did you start from up in the gully? or at the toe of the tower, to the right of the gully at the very bottom of the tower? we started hundreds of feet higher than that toe.

hmmm. we started a couple hundred vertical feet up the gully waaaaay to the left (north) of what this picture shows. and we were facing to the south, or right according to this picture as we climbed (if that makes sense) so where and what we climbed is just out of the frame to the left. i also think we started at least 200-300 vertical feet higher than what your drawing shows. we had a feeling we were on the wrong route since we were essentially starting on the northwest side of the tower, not the west face...but the topo had said to scrammble a third of the way up the gully to start....

Last Friday we tried this route after a great time on the SW Rib of SEWSpire. We went up and down the gully between Concord and Liberty and followed the only "broken rock" to the "large shelf" on the west face, but simply could not find the "left-arching flake" that goes for 140 feet and is supposed to be Pitch 2. We even walked around the shelf all the way further West and saw nothing like the description. Eventually my friend led about 80 feet up to a licheny and unprotected lieback that he found harder than the "5-8 or 5-9" (whatever that means) flake we were supposed to climb. There was a fixed tricam below the flake where he bailed, and a small tree with webbing just below that, indicating that at least a couple parties have been this way and bailed at about the same spot. So....has anyone done this route, and were we really on route? i've done some google searches and only found one ambiguous TR so far. Have a good one, Bryan. PS - we did redeem ourselves the next day on the West Face of NEWSpire so we drove back to Portland feeling a bit better...

bill, great idea - are you volunteering? most of us have fliers..i do...PM me and i can get one or more to you...

thanks for sharing, mark and jason. the columbia never looked so nice, makes me almost want to swim in it.

still having fun here, but the crying is yet to come up higher.

Consensus among co-authors was $25, and for a worthy cause.

Maybe you've been to Ozone, maybe you've only heard of Ozone, but the "secret" is out, and finally an official guidebook with color photos, topo maps, route descriptions and gear beta is being made available. On October 1 at the Lucky Lab in NW Portland a limited edition printing of 500 guidebooks will be sold. If you need incentive to attend, consider that this will be the first and last printing of this guidebook. This event will also include a silent auction. All proceeds will benefit one of the central figures in Ozone's development. For all the details on the above, go to this website: www.ozoneguide.blogspot.com

kevin, get back to work and quit bothering the adults.

i wish i could say i've been to shuteye...am i banned from this thread yet?

edge of light, second pitch? gabe on lead?

it's the sandbag 11d just left of left wing. it's bolted to a gear finish. can't remember the name either....

i climbed the west ridge last summer and the whole west face looks terrifying, at least from above, below and the side! like 10497 said above, most of the routes simply don't exist anymore. i also found the "dinner plate traverse" on the ridge proper to be as loose an experience as i need, and it's hardly even fifth class. anyway, just wanted to plug the west ridge as a long and worthy adventure climb here in oregon. if you can lead 5.8 and like exposure, it should be on any oregon climber's short list (and it's much more rewarding than the more popular, much shorter and easier north ridge).

that's me in the picture on mark's 9:20 am photo - or at least that's my helmet. man do my forearms look hairy! there is a notorious tree down and to my left, hint hint, and i'm headed to a big ledge. hint hint.

hey counterfeitfake, early on (page 2? 3?) i did mention watching some gear and chunks of rock explode from whartley's revenge after a leader fall, and how i've tried to avoid scenarios where i could take big falls on gear placed on smith tuff - but consensus was that it's more fun to bag on kevbone than gripe about smith tuff. and it probably is.

Hey eric8, I already named 2 of the 3 you named - there must not be too many such routes out there....

Hey Will Strickland: you asked about the fall on Blown Out: The leader was "feeling good", ran it out 15-20 feet above a bomber nut, and made one move too many before stopping to place pro just below the crux near the end of the pitch - he then placed a piece that was shitty and before he could reset it he found himself too pumped to either downclimb or carry on, and he had to take the fall. chalk it up to overconfidence and poor judgment on the day in question (and being a bit tipsy still?), not lack of raw climbing and leading skill because he leads routes at that grade. i think he has the nut on his mantle now. again, my point here is that 30plus foot falls are simply not the norm when a climber is placing solid gear at appropriate intervals. and still nobody has named sport routes in oregon (besides latest rage) where 30 foot falls are even possible. could it be that nobody here even knows any off the top of their head? hemp liberation at smith is pretty well-spaced, as the best way to clip the crux bolt is to climb past it and clip it at your shin. i heard (second hand) someone broke an ankle falling there, presumably because big falls on terrain that is at all less than 90 degrees tend to lead to injury.

i don't doubt there are routes from the 70s and 80s at eldo and the gunks that have "well-spaced" bolts or that overhanging limestone in europe is similarly well-spaced and "engaging", but how many of you climb sport routes IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST where 30 foot actual falls - as ooposed to 30 foot potential falls on relatively easy parts of harder climbs - are normal, routine, or moderate? i'm in line with rob, the guy who said that if he overheard that a 28 foot fall was about to occur, he'd turn and watch because it would be something out of the ordinary around here.

and by the way, nothing personal - except to g spotter - i'm just feisty today and sick of reading other people's crap without calling it out for the BS it often is. oh and winter, you were a nice guy to meet at the lucky lab a few months back. i was there with tall arent sitting by taller ivan. but here you're telling me that i'm just "bithing," apparently because i disagree that a 30 foot fall is moderate?!? you live in pdx and you know most bolts here and at smith are like 6-10 feet apart, and that most of the trad lines protect at least every 5-10 feet, so where are you seeing all the 30 foot whippers you think are normal?

Hey Raindawg, who is saying 30 foot plus falls are "moderate" besides you, G Spotter and Joseph? (basically the usual contrarians) I still say a 30plus foot fall is something you see once a season, and a fall that 99% of us (joseph aside apparently) take no more than a handful of times during a career. i can't think of any sport routes at smith you can even fall 30 feet on with the obvious exceptions of dreaming (R rated) and heinous cling (bolted on lead, i think?) - or else the route gets an R rating BECAUSE you COULD fall 30 plus feet. go ahead and show me a 5-10 or harder route at smith or broughton or carver or madrone or ozone or french's or beacon or any other sport crag in oregon or southern washington where you can fall 30 feet. (oh, i thought of one - suicidal tendencies 11d at smith, i chickened out above the last bolt because you face a mantle move with a 25 or so foot pendulum fall if you blow it, and none of my TCUs fit the slot. mark d - a solid climber and respected poster here - tried it and also bailed, presumably because a 25 foot fall was unacceptable to him as well! i left my first bail biner on it, and that biner stayed there almost a year even though that climb is on the picnic lunch wall. that route was put up in 1984 by kurt smith groundup, so it's not really a "sport" climb, now is it? which is my point, i guess...) seriously, start naming' em, and show me an exception or two that will do nothing but prove that there are OF COURSE some exceptions to the general rule that sport routes are bolted to avoid 30 plus foot falls.

One of our friends fell 40-50 feet into a "steep and clean dihedral" at Beacon (second pitch of Blown Out) There were no ledges or blocks, just a sustained 10a dihedral. He did not have the rope behind his leg when he fell, and he was not flipped upside down. I'm sure G Spotter and Joseph would wager that this is the textbook scenario where a 40-50 fall would be "clean" and "no big deal" since it's "all air." But they'd be wrong. He broke his leg. When you fall significant distances your body has plenty of time to gather speed and some weird shit can happen as you introduce more air time and variability into the system. He thinks at some point his leg hit an arete on the outer edge of the dihedral. He doesn't expose himself to 40 foot plus falls anymore. At least he made it to my wedding the next day, crutches and all!

i haven't posted in a year or so, and i forgot how annoying it is to deal with g spotter, resident contrarian who will always always always find the one exception to contradict something presented as a general fact. of course people climb gear on tuff, i do, you do, kevbone does too, and nobody here is even suggesting the crack should be bolted. thanks for hijacking the thread asshole, and keep taking those "unexceptional" 28 foot falls, i'm sure it's a great habit to have and really great for your rope, gear and body. i'm out, diss me and miss me.

i'm calling BS on the guys saying 28 feet isn't a big fall. i understand everyone likes to give kevbone a hard time, but: the longest fall i've caught in 9 years of climbing pretty frequently (2-3 times a week outside on average) was about 25 feet, only because the leader Z-clipped and had to unclip his last piece to keep going - then fell while mantling as i fed a bit of slack so he could mantle. (orange sunshine at tieton, if you must know, and right at the chains) i've belayed plenty of really good climbers on 5-12 sport, 5-10 and 5-11 trad and very, very rarely do they expose themselves to a 28 foot fall on terrain where there is even a tiny chance they could actually fall - and so far, nobody ever has fallen that far on my belay. to fall 28 feet you have to be at least 11-12 feet above your last piece, and even that figure includes 4-6 feet of rope stretch. considering sport routes rarely have you climb even 5 feet above your last bolt (except on granite slabs) i'd say even a 15-20 foot fall is above average, and 28 feet is the exception - like it could only happen if the leader skips a bolt. so who here is taking 28 foot falls and considering them normal? do you retire a rope every time you fall that far? do your belayers find excuses not to belay you anymore if that's a normal fall for you?

It may not be the longest fall some of you have witnessed, but doesn't it confirm your suspicions that it's never wise to fall on your gear when you're climbing the tuff at smith? (the gorge is basalt is bomber, but i'm talking tuff here) I have also seen a brick of tuff break off (and the pro fall out)when someone fell on the traverse of wartley's revenge, nearly decking. and of course it could have been bad pro that he placed, as well.