ScottP Posted December 3, 2005 Posted December 3, 2005 (I wrote this about 5 years ago...) Dana’s Arch. An unassuming aid line with a sport bolted, arching flake for a first pitch. Above are mostly aid sections with gymnastic sequences of their own. Mud manicure provides the finish. Standing below Green Drag-on, we eyed the soloist hanging from our route. He appeared headed for the top and, it being late afternoon, we assumed he was spending the night, or something. Alternate plans were decided and we moved on. Rob shamelessly clipped the bolts, followed with some camhook moves and soon clipped the bolts on Cheto Ledge. He rapped and clipped in to the bolts at the top of Pitch One. I spent time with our ground crew/sherpa/cameraman Craig as Rob fought his portaledge 80 feet above. With the curses subsiding, I got ready and jugged up to the anchors of the sport route 74 feet off the ground. Rob eventually got his ledge useable and I got mine the same. The Beam came out and we spent the next bit talking to Craig lounging at the base. Craig got antsy and decided to run to town to get some beer. Just about an hour later, he reappeared, telling us the soloist had split the scene, or something. He then rigged a couple Bud talls for us to haul to our perch. We talked and spit and drank and eventually it got dark and we kicked back to watch the stars travel the sky. Some point during the night, Rob mists me with his ill-aimed bladder voiding session. It puts me in a bad mood before I drift off. I awake again later to the grating of his ledge peppering me with granite grit. We rap to the ground, eat breakfast, break down our brand-spankin’-new home-made ledges, pack, rack and jug up to Cheto. It’s my lead through a strenuous bulge. Robert lounges in the sun. Wasting time. I try a bunch of different shit before finally high stepping out of the bulge and managing a bodyweight nut. Inspecting what’s above, I shamelessly lie… “It looks like some of this might go free. You could probably get this.” Robert takes over the lead on aid and at my high point finds a bathook hole that was hiding inches from my nose. He disappears. The rope feeds for a time and then stops. It goes, comes back, goes and then comes back again. “Dude, I can’t make the reach.” is what I decipher from the shout–fest. I replace and weight Rob‘s cam placements behind ill-mannered flakes on top rope. I eventually climb into the lead and reach the start of a traverse. From a shiny new bolt, a high reach up and left gets me a bathook hole. Up, on and then waaay left is a full extension to a #1 RP placement in a shallow dihedral crack. I stem out of aiders toward the dihedral and gain nothing more than a hamstring cramp. Another stem and I am able to tickle the placement with the nut gripped cigarette-style between the tips of my index and middle finger. A third try gets it hanging like it shows in the books. Two more cramp-infested tries gets the aider clipped in and I am finally able to overcome the pain enough to ease over into the corner. I look back at the hook down and right and the bolt again that much further. It’s a clean fall, but I don’t bounce test anyway, not relishing a possible reiteration of the pain of that reach. Another placement, two steps up and the angle eases into cracks and ledges. Rob comes up, does another short pitch up sport bolts put in by some guy he calls Marty. The chimney/gully/nightmare to the left is glistening with water. Straight up looks pretty grim and it’s approaching beer thirty. We rap. Weeks later, we walk from the gate up Roessiger Rd. We find the top and drop our loads. Seems I left my harness in the truck, but extra aiders and runners rig up a nut cruncher. Rob is impressed by my ingenuity and fortitude. Rapping to our previous high point belay, Rob pulls the ropes as I tie into the lead end. With ropes flaked and procrastinating activities exhausted I begin moving up the mungy, dripping cracks. It doesn’t get truly grim until I’m near the short traverse left that gains the top. As I do the final moves I look back toward my last placement to see a mud-colored sling sticking out of a mud-colored hole clipped to a mud-colored rope with a mud-colored biner. I reach for the trees at the top with mud-colored hands, and query my mind as to why I’ve walked almost 4 miles to rap off the top to finish the last, soakingmudjungle pitch of an obscure little aid route. I began untieing the mud-colored mess that is my makeshift harness from my mud-colored legs as soon as Rob begins “cleaning” the pitch. He reaches the top, head to toe, the color of chocolate milk. “Who the fuck is Dana?” is all he has to say. Quote
MisterMo Posted December 4, 2005 Posted December 4, 2005 (edited) “Who the fuck is Dana?” is all he has to say. This is Dana Edited December 4, 2005 by MisterMo Quote
ScottP Posted December 5, 2005 Author Posted December 5, 2005 Thanks for the photo. Does Dana have a last name? Fred ascribes the FA to Bob Crawford, Leigh Nason and Pat Timson. How did Dana's name get attached? Also, do you know the original (early) rating on the arch pitch? Quote
MisterMo Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 (edited) Yes. Dudley. Your FA info is correct. I have no clue how that name stuck. Dana & I did an early ascent of the arch pitch only, but by no means the first; there were already pin scars. Probably like Givlers Dome, Madsen's Squeeze chimney, etc.; those people never named those climbs either....the names just sort of happened. Very A1. Almost all thin horizontals if I remember right. No, I'm not being a smart-ass. I don't know if it was freed before all the rock breakage from piton placement & I don't know what the free rating was then (or now). Edited December 5, 2005 by MisterMo Quote
DCramer Posted December 5, 2005 Posted December 5, 2005 You can clearly see how much the trees have grown since then. As far as the start of the arch, it was freed on TR at 5.12. Then in a short time the 5.12 became 5.11, and it is now 5.10. My friend Terry and I added a few bolts (20+ years ago)while it was still 5.11+ thinking that it would keep the pin damage down but I was there last year and someone was nailing the larger size baby angles in, so the effort turned out to be not so effective. We stopped free climbing just before the crack turned vertical. There use to be a thread to lower off. Since then the thread has blown out. Quote
pope Posted December 6, 2005 Posted December 6, 2005 My friend Terry and I added a few bolts ...thinking that it would keep the pin damage down but...the effort turned out to be not so effective. Have you ever considered removing the bolts? Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted December 6, 2005 Posted December 6, 2005 Have you ever considered removing the bolts? Or chipping some killer mono pockets to go with them? SSSSIIIIIIICK! Quote
pope Posted December 7, 2005 Posted December 7, 2005 "This is Dana's Arch in the year 2020. The Via Ferrata will protect the crack from damage done by aid climbers." -Dwayner Quote
matt_m Posted December 7, 2005 Posted December 7, 2005 Yawn - another silly "I hate bolts so I'll slippery slope it to Via Ferrata invasions!" thread drift by pope. Get over it... "This is Dana's Arch in the year 2020. The Via Ferrata will protect the crack from damage done by aid climbers." -Dwayner Quote
pope Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Yawn - another silly "I hate bolts so I'll slippery slope it to Via Ferrata invasions!" thread drift by pope. Get over it... Yawn. Do your homework and give your dim self a chance to understand the humor behind the photo and Dwayner quote, in reference to the history of Dana's Arch. Quote
slaphappy Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Humor? How many times can you repeat the same "joke" before it's no longer funny? In your and Dwayner's case, it never was... Quote
larrythellama Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 crazy thing is that the only way pope or dwyaner would be able to climb dana's arch is if it was a via ferrata. Quote
sexual_chocolate Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Hey in their defense, i must say pope and dwayner have posted some pretty funny things, and not having dwayner around stirring the pot makes for an increase in the boredom around here (ah we humans), although watching a dog scratch its imaginary itch can get a bit boring in its own right. Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Silence, sport-clipping infidel! There, how was that? Quote
sexual_chocolate Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 No accompanying image of mad zaniness. C-. Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Check out the new bouldering vid out this week! Super radness, homies! Oh, yeah, almost forgot: "SIT START!" Quote
sexual_chocolate Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 No ai, mi amigo! No me molesta con informacion mala! Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Por favor, que es esta palabra "ai," en ingles? No lo se. Quote
sexual_chocolate Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 No ai is something like "It isn't here", "don't have any here", as in "You're link is totally fucked up, and 5.10 don't carry no V10's no more and thanks for gettng my hopes up but i'll survive with minimal bruising and such and such." Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 O, no, senor, es "no hay," literally "no there is." Your spelling was just malo, is all. Also, try the link again, and this time, try scrolling down the list of shoes. El Medico Flash Amazing wouldn't send you bunk beta, ese. Quote
sexual_chocolate Posted December 8, 2005 Posted December 8, 2005 Ah sheet perro, you gettin' down wit the greengo spelling ese, all educated and sheet. But i did manage to navigate my way through the unicolor maze of a website, locating said item in the process, and you have given me new hope of fulfilling my quest. For this, I thank you. Quote
pope Posted December 9, 2005 Posted December 9, 2005 Humor? How many times can you repeat the same "joke" before it's no longer funny? In your and Dwayner's case, it never was... You're right. We need a new joke. Uh.....did you hear about the latest bouldering fad? The tandem sit-start! Quote
sexual_chocolate Posted December 9, 2005 Posted December 9, 2005 You, my friend , are an unequivocal dork; I like it! Quote
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