Dru Posted June 7, 2004 Posted June 7, 2004 WARNING: Long winded analysis of 3 whole moves follows Since it seemed the rock might be a little bit damp for free climbing after last night's storm I decided I'd go aid climbing. Aid climbing is probably the form of climbing I do least, like once or twice a year maximum. Aid leading is fun in a "chess playing" sort of way, engineering solutions to problems with equipment rather than your physical skills. As Stevie Haston has observed even fat bastards can aid climb so it can't be hard. Aid belaying is full on ass It is soooo boring. There are few parts of climbing that are worse except maybe belaying a sport climber out of their league and dogging on a project that's too hard for them. Anyways the solution I favour is aid soloing. With a good lower anchor and two clove hitches you are as safe as with a dedicated belayer the only difference being its much harder and scarier to go from aid to free climbing. I prefer single pitch type aid routes to solo. In fact I think the longest aid route I've ever done was 5 pitches and we freed a fair bit of that (not solo). I also like climbing new routes when aid soloing as its more of an exploration than nailing your way up a series of pin scars and clipping up fixed head ladders. Not having been aiding for a year or so it took me a good 2 hrs. to get the gear arranged in my gear room and then I took off for Highway 7. On my last aid experience but one Steve H. (not Haston) and I had found this nice 30m crag with a thin seam, which at the time was mosquito ridden and dripping wet. Somehow I thought it would be drier and bugless today. I had so much gear I ended up making 2 carries in to the base which was fortunately less than 5 min from the car. The seam looked much as I remembered but seemed to blank out higher up. Also, the rock was granite but more crumbly and flaky than I remembered, almost like a quarry except it was natural. After checking out a variety of cobweb-filled seams I decided to drill a single bolt bottom anchor. No problem, I whipped out the Bosch and sank a nice 3/8" hole, tapped the bolt home and cranked it tight with a wrench then clipped a biner to the hanger and tied my belay rope off to the bolt. After getting racked up for the pitch, which looked mostly thin, I still had like 30 pins, 30 nuts and 20 cams on my gear racks. Probably way too much but I suck at sizing up required aid gear from the ground. The first obvious placement was a diagonal, rubble filled fault at head height. I cleaned some rubble out and shoved a #3 camalot in. It was wobbling amidst the debris so I removed it and put a #4 in instead, fully overcammed. This pinned everything in place and held. A couple of spiders and millipedes fled from the crack as their home was disturbed. I walked up my aiders and started looking for the next placement. Everything sucked. The outer layer of granite tended to crumble away like sand when tapped with the hammer, the seams were bottoming and the flakes broke off. After a few minutes of searching under moss and cobwebs I found a knifeblade crack in a shallow corner. I placed a regular KB and slowly weighted it. It held, and I decided to bounce it. Second bounce with both feet in the aiders connected to the pin it suddenly ripped and I fell three feet to the ground. DOH! Climbed back up and examined the scar. It seemed like the edges of the crack had crumbled away. I whaled a Bugaboo in but it bottomed out half-driven.As it was in a corner I couldn't get a tie off on so I decided to remove it and look for another placement. Off to the left was a seam with some small pods. I tried a cam hook. Watching the edges of the cam hook eat away the sides of the crack under pressure I dedcided it wasn't so smart and went for small nuts instead. There were two possible RP placements about 10 cm apart. Each one held until I had about 90% body weight on them and then ripped free, wrecking the placement. I probably should have tried to equalize, I guess. Well OK. I climbed up to my top steps on the Camalot aiders, cut myself some slack and then free climbed 2 moves higher (stemming in my Mtn Masters) to where I could rest. The seams were all blank here but there was a nice, positive edge. I dropped a Cliffhanger on the edge and was just about to clip the aiders on when I decided to first test it with a long sling. I clipped a sling to the hook and yanked on it. Good thing I did it this way as the whole block that the edge formed the top of, shifted. It seems the block was not very well attached. Hmmm. At this point if I free climbed 2 moves higher I could get another big cam in but I was getting into the highball fall zone mentally with a bad landing, no pad and 40 pounds of metal around my neck. Basically I wussed out and sketched back down to the ground. I decided the free climbing start to this pitch would be probably much better with a belayer and rock shoes instead of 2 clove hitches and 5.10 approach shoes... I packed up and walked away. Aid climbing is not so suck. I am so suck. On the way back to the car I encountered a hillbilly family with three Rottweilers in a steel cage in the back of their extended cab 3/4 ton. They asked me "how the rappelling had been" It wasn't a wasted day as I went into Hope for pie and then explored a few potential bouldering areas I hadn't checked out yet. The sun was out and it was a pretty nice day. Quote
Dru Posted June 7, 2004 Author Posted June 7, 2004 This is the intended line. Unclimbed cracks nearby. Unclimbed roof with crack in another area near Hope. Quote
Mer Posted June 7, 2004 Posted June 7, 2004 There is not nearly enough detail in this trip report. Did it have a latice crust, was it bumbleberry, a la mode? Quote
Dru Posted June 7, 2004 Author Posted June 7, 2004 i can't remember details except there was more than a hint of cinnamon in the filling further research is required. Quote
Bronco Posted June 8, 2004 Posted June 8, 2004 At this point if I free climbed 2 moves higher I could get another big cam in but I was getting into the highball fall zone mentally... It sounds like you were only about 3' off the ground up to this point in the TR. Did I miss something? w00t? Quote
Dru Posted June 8, 2004 Author Posted June 8, 2004 no at this point i was about 12 feet off the ground - w00t! c'mon the cam was at head height, pay attention Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted June 8, 2004 Posted June 8, 2004 no at this point i was about 12 feet off the ground - w00t! c'mon the cam was at head height, pay attention You're 12 feet tall?! Holy craps! Quote
Bronco Posted June 8, 2004 Posted June 8, 2004 no at this point i was about 12 feet off the ground - w00t! c'mon the cam was at head height, pay attention Oh, right. My mistake. I guess I didn't realize you were so tall. Quote
Dru Posted June 8, 2004 Author Posted June 8, 2004 here's a high tech graphic to help you visualize it. not to scale!! Quote
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