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F.A. This Monkeys Gone to Heaven


bigwalling

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F.A. Alik Berg and Jake Hector Aug/Sept 2005

 

We put up a new route on the South Face of Snowpatch Spire in the Bugaboos, the route is about 1800ft long and has fairly technical but mostly safe climbing. In Yosemite I would rate the route new wave A3. Most pitches took 6-8 hours to lead due to the complex placements. This is the first climb I have done that Hybrid Aliens are MANDATORY! I think drilling will be required if you don't have them on the 2nd ascent.

 

The route took us 18 days total to establish, 14 of those days were spent climbing capsual style on the face. It should also be noted that out of 14 days only 3.5 of those days were in nice weather. Every other day had snow or sleet flying from the sky. Wind was pretty extreme at times and would shake the ledge and blow the fly so hard it was hard to get any sleep at time. The tempeture was also surprisingly cold, we weren't able to start climbing early(not that we wanted to!) due to the ropes freezing nightly.

 

On day 7 we ran out of liquor and on day 9 we realized we would be eating mashed potatos pretty much for the rest of the climb and till we were able to make it to the Kain Hut to raid the free food. It just so happened to work out that Alik always led the pitch in which we would establish the next hanging camp at. So I was always forced to just hang in the storm and freeze while Alik led his pitch. He got to belay out of the shelter of the portaledge while in a sleeping bag. Also of note is that I developed minor frostbite partly due to this.

 

I am eagly looking forward to my feet healing and my next wall. Alpine big walls bring a lot more satisfaction than the walls in yosemite. The views blow the valley away!

 

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Edited by bigwalling
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the granite is pretty good, but there is a layer of junk over the whole wall. All cams must be bounced tested cause most pop the first time. You never know how good a perfect looking alien really is... unless it's yosemite! That said the rock at the very base is the shit! it has been weathered by the glacier and is perfect.

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just saw bobs comment... I dare you to free the 5th pitch! I don't think it is even possible, it is vertical and is mostly beaks and heads with some small cams hear and there. 11th would go free for sure, 2nd would be at least 5.12 R we freed a bunch of it but not the hard parts. 3rd, I think it would go free, it ends with free moves.

 

If someone wants to look into free climbing the wall, I would take, the first pitch of the Edwards/Jessup route(11+), then climb our 2 pitches, this will bring you to a big corner system, go up it and continue on natural features for as long as possible. Some guys tried the face in the winter and did a bunch of the natural system I speak of, it is marked wrong in the book but just follow the big systems and I bet you could free a new route up the wall. I would think in the end it would be pretty hard 12+/13 realm and quite runout but who knows. Bring a nut tool to clean placements!!!! Good luck.

 

Red is us, Yellow is where I think free route could go.

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HAHAHAHAHA... he told me about his dad quite a bit. I guess his dad is terrible to climb with. He told me he would never climb with his dad again! He also said that most people climb with his dad once(if they haven't heard the rumors yet) and then never climb with him again. Probably his dads fault. They also epiced on East Butress El Cap I think one year... something like starting at dark...

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