Jump to content

Revenge


TimL

Recommended Posts

My favorite type of climbing is being able to walk to a route, be it alpine rock or ice, sport, big walls, mountains, etc., and onsite the sucker and get down in time for beer. All to often I hear of people and myself taking several attempts to bag a climb or send a route. I know this is all part of climbing and nobody can be 100% successful but I think it just sucks. So it almost feels like a sweet revenge to be able to go back to a route and send it after not climbing it the first time. Climbing in the Cascades has proved this to be true fairly often even with easy routes. Anybody have good stories about attempting a route, not getting it for various reasons and coming back and sending? I know of people who have tried Big Four 4 or 5 times without making it to the summit. Myself, I’ve tried the North Ridge of Stuart 2 times and both times have been weathered out in the morning when “perfect” forecasts have been predicted. Spray away!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 69
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I tried the NR of stuart 4 times I think before sending it-

 

Issues:

 

Partner not into it.

 

Weather at Goat Pass [Mad]

 

Weather again [Mad]

 

Weather again! [Mad]

 

Finally success on a blue bird weekend! Then the fires blazed as the lightning storm rolled in when we were walking out [laf] Feel sorry for the unlucky bastards that had to ride that out behind us!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm ...

 

DFA has had his last several seasons at Smith go something like this:

  • affix quickdraws
  • dog, dog, dog, dog, dog
  • whine, whine, whine, excuses excuses
  • "Anyone got the beta for the second crux?"
  • dog, dog, dog, dog
  • "It's totally a linkage issue. All the moves go."
  • dog, dog, dog, dog
  • "This thing is too hard"
  • brush, brush, brush
  • hang, hang
  • "Maybe next go."
  • "Or the next one."
  • SEND!

Ah, the agony, adventure, and pithy drama that is sports climbing. DFA lives for such.

 

[ 08-02-2002, 11:06 AM: Message edited by: Dr Flash Amazing ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Green Dragon:

 

1) Followed the crack halfway up the second pitch to the ledge on TC. Got lit & lazy. [Frown]

 

2) Got lit & lazy at the base and again climbed over to the ledge on TC to have a picnic. [Frown]

 

3) Got lit & lazy before I left my house. Never made it to the base. [Frown]

 

4) Went in style up to the roof with radio, 2 lbs. of snack food, and ledge. Forgot stash [Eek!] so I had to finish the climb the next day. [big Grin]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

not nearly as difficult a climb but:

 

Jeff Park Glacier:

 

1) partner tries "short-cut" end up rappelling on approach. take way too long. left sleeping bag at car to save weight, temp drops to 20F at night. lose too much energy shivering, no sleep.

2) weather seems...okay, feel good. get up to take leak, but have to push new snow off bivy sack at 2am. run cowering down the mountain in a whiteout.

3) try in late Sept. partner has car trouble, try for a TH to TH non-stop deal to make up for time. Get to saddle, lightning rolls in. run cowering down the russell glacier and bushwack to PCT.

4) finally finish the route, seemed too easy for all the crap I went through before. [Roll Eyes]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone has their strong suits and their weaknesses.

 

If we are lucky, our choices in partners will add strengths to our weakness. My partner is a gifted navigator. I have been privileged to learn from him.

 

I have never been denied a summit due to whiteout conditions. But after a while you have to ask yourself why summit? It is definitely a let down to top out and not get any views [Frown]

 

Some day I am gonna repeat the E ridge of Triumph so I have a chance to experience the position.

 

Underestimating the size of a climb is my biggest error, but I have never been denied a summit more than once. It is not that I am Joe-hardman, I set realistic goals for myself.

 

So my list of "failures":

 

Ingraham Direct in winter- Partner dropped to his knees puking at 13,800' bummer!

 

Three Fingers- misjudged the amount of time needed to do in a day.

 

East Ridge of Forbidden-attempt made in mid October and we thought we could start after the sun came up and warmed the route plus a fairly short amount of daylight period. Burrrr just thinking about the snow on the ridge makes me cold.

 

I have yet to make a second attempt on Rainier in winter (schedules) and I almost got to try Forbidden a second time but my partner bailed at the last minute.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wussiest non-summit -- Ingalls.

 

1) better half gets one hour of sleep at trailhead, get up to pass, boulder, turn around.

 

2) I get migrane and half-hour of sleep, sit up all night looking at all the other bastards snoozing peacefully while my temples throb. Wait until 6 a.m. for alarm to go off and better half get up, drive out cursing.

 

Better half has told me we get one more chance. WE JUST NEED TO GET SOME FRIGGIN SLEEP FOR ONCE!!!! [Mad][Mad][Mad]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ingalls? I might have got you beat for wussiest peak. Mine is Chair Pk, failed three times.

 

1) Went in fall, std route, with just rock shoes and rock gear, but the rock was coated with ice, plus 6 inches of snow.

 

2) Tried NE butt in fall with too big a group, ran out of time.

 

3) Tried NE butt in winter, but went up "wrong way", and got foiled by bad conditions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The biggest on my list is Clean Break on Juno Tower. Tried it once last year and turned around because of bad weather then tried it again this year and got to the base too late for a day climb. It will go here soon. Its to good of a route!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems like I've never been shut down sport climbing like I have alpine climbing in the Cascades. Except, a friend and I attempted Swim at the Upper Index Town Wall. The 1st pitch shut me down big time. I never knew a bolted 11d could be that hard. Then again its Index and I should of seen it coming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by thelawgoddess:

i tried to onsight classic crack in leavenworth. i had just "aided" my first 5.9 crack lead (deception crack) ... but classic crack spanked me so hard i decided we'd spend the next day sport climbing at vantage.
[Eek!]
haven't been back to that damned crack yet ...
[Frown]

Classic Crack aint 5.9 but it's good and short and hard to face climb up [big Grin] . A good 5.9 tester is the bone or godzilla or damnation crack or something along those lines.

 

[ 08-02-2002, 04:30 PM: Message edited by: Cpt.Caveman ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought the Bone was easier than Classic Crack. It's got something to do with the size of your hands and the size of the crack... Then I thought the easy stuff above the step-across on Canary was mind-numbingly scary and far harder than the actual step-across. Anyway. It's all relative. Or maybe I'm just weird [big Grin]

 

Oh. My mountain spankings: Baker always storms on me. First it bitch-slapped me on the Coleman-Deming, turned around somewhere between the col and the wall in some kind of a rain storm. Only time in the States when I've experienced rain drops going up, higher in the air. Previously I was certain rain always falls to the ground around here.

 

Then I went back to try the North Ridge and that time I didn't even bother getting out of my sleeping bag after peeking out of the cave. The summit might as well have had ambush spraypainted on it in a 300' font. Yech. Had [chubit] and [big Drink] instead. I'm X summits for X attempts on all the other volcanos, what's with Baker? Eh? [Mad]

 

[ 08-02-2002, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: fleblebleb ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Revenge, well, it's easy. Instead of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the offending individual, more often than not an ex- not schooled enough in women to know when to leave it alone, simply start a whispering campaign. Doesn't matter whether you are in the right or the wrong, except that if you are in the wrong you'll have to work a lot harder to build consensus. If you're in the right, it's a piece of cake, and they never know what hit them. At that point socially they don't have a pot to piss in....oh, wait, this was about climbing, well failure in that isn't really about revenge, it's about going back and setting things straight with the rock. That takes hard work, but maybe not so much of the other stuff!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...