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Dana's Arch to the top TR


ScottP

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This is sort of retro, but I hope it will inspire others to post some TR's...

Late one night I sat in my house smirking at an enormous amount of gear. "It's only a grade three." I thought out loud. But then the other side kicked in with how it was the shake down cruise for the new ledges Rob and I had built. "Besides," I continued, "Craig's going with us and he's an animal."

As expected, the approach was grueling but short. Craig carried the ledges and Rob and I toted all the comforts that could fit in the pack along with half of a healthy aid rack each. At the ledge below the start of the Green Drag-On, we peered up to see a soloist on the second pitch. A query got us the info that he was on the route for the duration. As we regrouped and decided on a contingency, Rob and I flinched in unison at the chiseled torso Craig displayed as he took off his shirt. Eyeing Craig's pecs, Rob commented, "Damn Craig, you could set beer glasses on those things!" Craig feigned ingnorance and we shouldered our load to move over to Dana's Arch.

It was fun to watch Rob aid up a route he had previously freed. I commented about he same and received the usual nonsensical answer in reply. Above the anchors of the first pitch sport route, the true nature of Index aid routes became apparent: Rusty, quarter inch spinners, bat holes and odd cam hooking on a sloping ledge got Rob to Cheto Ledge. He fixed the rope and rapped back to the sport anchors where we made our bivy. I had my ledge set up before Rob probably because I wasn't cussing so much. Eventually, Rob got settled and the Beam came out. We drank and spit and talked to Craig barely a hundred feet below us. At one point, Craig got restless so he decided to go to town for some beer. A surpisingly short time later, he reappeared with a sixer of Bud talls and the news that the soloist had bailed from ouroriginally intended route, the Green Drag-On. Rob and I were already lit by the Beam, but merrily hauled our share of the Clydesdale Pee on the zip line.

I slept like a baby except for Robs usual foray to piss. Being below him, I was a bit antsy, but he didn't spray me and soon it was light. On Cheto ledge I stared at the awkward starting moves trying to figure out what to do. Rob got comfortable and told me to get my ass on the rock. About 25 feet out I was stymied. The closest thing to a placement was some 10 feet above and as I saw it, the rock was devoid of so much as a hook placement. I told Rob that I thought it might go free just so I could get back to the ledge. Rob took over and much to my embarassment, immediately found a bat hole. He took the line up and out of sight, but after a time he called down that it was my turn. After lowering him and listening to his whining about the difficulties above his high point, I toproped on aid to where he stopped. As I went, I removed and replaced some of his placements, doubting that they would hold my weight as they were. Rob's high point was a new bolt that had replaced a placement behind a flake that was now gone. From the bolt, a long reach to a bathook move and I was then faced with an even longer reach straight out left to a small corner. Holding the loop of an RP with the tips of my fingers, I leaned as for left as I dared. I was just able to gingerly set the nut in a small pocket. I clipped a set of aiders into the RP and spread eagle between the bathook and the RP. Not being able to test the placement, I eased onto the nut as softly as I could, wincing and whining at the thought of falling on the hook and the ensuing long swinging fall when it wrenched from it's hole. Surprisingly, the nut held. A couple of A1 moves and some 5.8 got me to the belay. As Rob jugged the rope, I realized that there was no way he could have made that RP placement, him being shorter than me. Upon reaching my stance, he recounted the numerous failed attempts at getting a placement in the corner.

Rob led the next pitch up a ramp and through a small overhang to a comfortable ledge at the base of the last pitch. Looking at our options, we both were puzzled at how to proceed. Straight up was a wet, mungy, spooge-filled something or other that looked hideous. Off to the left about 40 feet was an evil looking chimney that had the makings of a vertical native species garden. It also was dripping water. The lateness of the hour and our meager options left us both with the desire to head down. We quickly rapped to the ground and surreptiously loaded all the heavy stuff into Craig's pack for the walk out.

Rob hates leaving things unfinished and soon he had us both walking the road to the top of the Upper Wall with the hope of rapping down to do the last pitch. At the top of the route, I rooted around in my pack in vain for my harness. Not wanting the long walk from where the road was gated to be in vain, I fashioned a harness from an aider and various bits of webbing. It wasn't pretty, but it seemed secure and impressed Rob no end with the ingenuity I took to get it together. We rapped the 100 or so feet down to the ledge we had left two weeks previous, looking at the same dismal conditions we had left two weeks previous as we went. Since it was my lead, I took my time getting things in order, putting off what looked to be a muddy grovel up a groove as long as I could. The very first move required extensive gardening and by the time I clipped the rope into the placement, I was muddy up to the elbows and from the knees down to my soles. Brown water quickly discolored the rope as I pulled out hunks of slimy stuff looking for placements. The groove widened into a proper crack at the half way point and I switched to merely digging holes in the moss and plugging in Friends. The last two placements before the 3rd class traverse to the top could only be seen as half a muddy draw hanging out of a muddy hole with a gritty biner clipped to a chocolate brown rope. By the time I began the traverse, I was soaked from the neck down. Water squished in my shoes with each step. After anchoring the rope and telling Rob to start jugging, I squeezed about a cup of ooze out of each sock and topped it off by pouring several tablespoons out of each shoe. Upon reaching the top, Rob was a bit shocked at the sight of me. I looked like I'd been pinned in a mud wrestling match.

Despite the miserable conditions on the last pitch, Dana's Arch on the Upper Wall at Index provides a grand complexity of problems for the aspiring big wall climber. The pitch off Cheto Ledge is definately the crux and may prove quite difficult for short people without a cheater stick.

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quote:

Originally posted by crazyjz:
White Trash Crazy JZ here;

I'm the one who ripped the flake, and took a nasty ripper. I sure you think I deserved it.

No, I don't think you deserved it. Why would you think such a thing? Detaching large chunks of stone while climbing is a heinous enough experience w/o the added weight of someone wishing it on you.

However, I did hear about you and that experience through the pipe. It looked to be about a card table in diameter based on the scar, but how thick was a mystery. Must have been quite a ride.

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I was just joking Scott. I think it must have broken off in multiple pieces over time. The piece that I broke was about 2'x 2'. When I got on it, I thought "if this rips' I'm fucked" about two seconds later, I was fucked. Tweaked my back a little, and called it an end to the day.

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quote:

Originally posted by Lambone:
Hey Scott, when did you do that route? Recently...?

So there is a new bolt where the flake was. That's sad, a bat hook would have kept the exitement alive...

It was a couple of years ago.Yeah, a new shiny 3/8ths. Though I clipped it without delay, it had the smell of a chicken bolt, probably due to the lack of totally bomber gear below.

[ 12-02-2001: Message edited by: ScottP ]

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quote:

Originally posted by W:
Scott- Did you need any pins for p2 (above Cheeto)? I got to Cheeto Ledge last winter but didn't have time for the second pitch. Looked like KB's/arrows might be needed.

We didn't take a hammer. The original plan was to do the Green Dragon clean, which didn't pan out.I remember needing a variety of cam sizes above Cheto, bathooks for at least two holes, and a variety of nuts (stoppers, RP's, brass offsets).You might find a cam hook or two useful, though we didn't have any. I think those loweball slider nut thingies might see some action, but again, we didn't have any.

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quote:

Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman:
Man if someone were to heckle me for drinking\smoking and climbing they would be doing it all day. I think I puffed my way all the way up Prusik Peak once this summer
rolleyes.gif" border="0
Man I must have been outta control that whole day.

Rob and I once soloed up to the railroad bolts on the GN slab with a bottle of Jim Beam. There were a couple of guys who were trying to get their stuck rap rope out of the crack when we arrived. We stepped off to the side to watch and Rob pulled out the bottle. We each took a big pull. The guy next to us looked at us as if we had worms crawling out of our eye sockets. I was truly impressed with the shock and revulsion these guys showed at a couple of drunkards standing next to them on what they must have considered technical ground. We wished them well and soloed back down to do some bouldering along the base of the lower wall.

To better times [big Drink]

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Thanks, Scott. From below it was hard to tell, but since I hadn't brought pins at the time either, I was wondering if it had gone/would go hammerless. Didn't know anyone who'd done it. definitely will bring the cam hooks, if nothing else they made the first pitch mellow and fast.

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Dwayner's got a problem with Dana's Arch. Here is another example of where someone thought they were going to do the environment and all of us a big 'ole favor by sport bolting the first pitch (the arch itself) thereby saving the arch crack from further damage by piton. rolleyes.gif" border="0 I don't understand such thinking given that a) it looks like the arch can be led clean on aid on tiny stuff and cam hooks if you've got the nerve; b) it can be free climbed and perhaps protected by tiny stuff if you have the nerve. c) a question: are adding permanent fixtures such as big ugly permanent bolts any less damaging to the environment? The same sort of story applies to the Lower Town Wall on "Numbah Ten" which is a stiff little aid climb but in the name of "free-climbing excellence", a line of closely placed bolts now dominates the climb, right alongside the crack that is the feature of the aid climb which can be led clean. It, too, could likely be led free on clean gear if someone has the nerve. Free climbing can be a great thing, but I think it loses its stylistic "superiority" when it resorts to bolting next to cracks that can be climbed clean. Everyone is probably sick of the bolt issue....but I'm not, and since you're featuring a notorious example in this topic, I had to pop off for those who weren't aware.

aloha, Dwayner

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D-Dana's Arch IS easily clean with cam hooks. You make a good point. With skill it can be safely done without pins. The bolts damage things more in the long run than any pitons. Imagine if someone bolted up an El Cap nail up to "save the rock". There'd be outrage.

[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: W ]

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