Whillans harnesses and climbing pigs

[DRB]

I was rooting through a box of climbing stuff out in the garage and came across three Whillans harnesses which got me thinking about a guy who posted here last year who was going to Yosemite with a pig and wanted some info(sorry beta) on attaching the pig to his climbing rope. Now the beauty of the Whillans harness is it has no leg loops to deal with. You can imagine this poor bastard trying to get the porkers legs through and Arc'Teryx or BD with the pig staring up at a couple thousand feet of vertical,hard as rock, glacially polished granite with the possibility of the little guy losing control of his kidneys or worse,his bowels.

I did the southwest route on Bacon Pk. with a pig from Chilliwack, maybe the ubiquitous Dru knows him, his name is Walter. We also did an aid route on Tubesteak Tower which is near Porterhouse Pk.just across the glacier from Ashlu.

The Whillans was put to the test when Walter tried on impossible hoof jam and took a thirty foot whipper.

I'm not going to get into how to tie into this harness after that diatribe awhile ago abut euro death knots and figure eights that mysteriously roll over on each other until one rope becomes two, sound like something you would see on stage in Vegas.I'll leave it to the experts.

Hope the mention of Ashlu doesn't get Climzalot wound up by bringing back memories of his bum trip up there(he was firing of more expletives in his post than an Ice Cube tune)what with everybody telling him he should have gone up the right side of the creek instead of the left, nothing worse than a bunch of good advice after a bad day(Walter and I went up the right side).

Well to make a long story short,three Whillans harnesses are in my opinion one too many so if this person is going back to Yosemite with the pig this summer I will entertain all reasonable offers in Canadian funds which amount to giving the damn thing away. Thanks for your time. Whoa Nelly

[Dru]

I do believe the summit you refer to as Tubesteak Tower was first climbed by Les McDonald and Elfrida Pigou in 1954 and called Horsecock Pinnacle. However, you may have just made the first porcine ascent.

 

Erik may be interested in the Whillans harness as an alternative to his upcoming vasectomy.

[texplorer]

Thanks DRB,

Actually the pig and I made it up the Salathe Wall and Washingtons Column quite nicely. He started squealling like a .. . well . . you know, right before I made him lead the hollow flake. After throwin down a big King Cobra though he sent it. We hope to return to climb the Nose in 3 weeks. Suuuuuueeeeeeeet

[DRB]

Dru, looks like you could be right about Horsecock Pinnacle. Mountains Of The World

(1997), John Cleare, lists Horsecock but no mention of the Tubesteak. I talked to Walter the climbing pig out in the ‘wack, his grandpa says Tubesteak was a provisional name given to the peak by Tom Fyles due to his love of hot dogs (grandpa was on the trip to Slesse when Elfrida discovered the famous plane wreck but was not mentioned in any chronicles due to the fact he snuck out of the pig farm.