[TR] B-Tons - Hanging Tree III A2, Superstition III C1 5/1/2009

[ivan]

Trip: B-Tons - Hanging Tree III A2, Superstition III C1

 

Date: 5/1/2009

 

Trip Report:

sticking it to the swine flu - miker and i hid out from ill winds and women - geoff made a guest appearance as well

 

hey, 2 grade III's in a day, that's the same as climbing a grade VI, right?

i got to do superstition - 1 push to the second anchor, then short-fixed above while mike cleaned and geoff got to do a wildly free-hanging jug on the tag line - wore climbing shoes this time and actually managed to clamber a bit on the first part of the route - jeebus, you fucking sport monkeys! broughton rock is nightmarish for a hack like me - totally devoid of thank-fuck holds - everything greasy and glassy and rounded - above the second anchor i wandered a bit - didn't like the brambles and loose blocks on the original finish, so stepped over a razor-blade block, aided on a couple of close spaced bolts, then did a wild overhanging traverse on great gear into the upper crotch of superstition, where a crappy old bolt and a precariously placed, ancient pin offers the only protection to be had before reaching the final anchor - a thoroughly enjoyable double rope rap gets you back down, even more enjoyable when just lowering off a gri-gri on a single strand (and you weigh 21 goddamn stones!)

 

some gems i've bootied in the past few months between beacon and b-tons and index

a signature day for pilfering memorabilia from the crag - when mike was jugging superstition somehow the stress blew out the critical pin that protects the wallow onto the ledge that has the first anchor at its end (just below "snap, crackle, pop" - mike says a small cam will fit the hole (it was a medium angle, placed in a horizontal crack), so bring one on your next trip sporto-boyz, or better yet bring a nail and a hammer to go w/ your spandex then, when i was jugging hanging tree, the ancient, mauled and bashed in wired hex that had been fixed below the pin also blew out

speaking of hanging tree, holy shit! great times - the first crux was converting the gaint forest of hateful stinging nettles into a suitable belay spot - then dealing w/ the thorns and brambles of the start - this would be a cool route if someone could just turn the faucet off at the top - by faucet, i mean the raging waterfall that owns the wall during the wet season - it leaves a 1/4 inch layer of powder brown turd dust all over everything - real proud of mike on this lead - the first bit is scary looking, but he dealt w/ it well, placing a spade near the bottom - the hex that blew out will take a hook or a pin now probably - the old pin above that is reliable - the thin, loose section above is deeeelicate - and the great kick in the balls, the transition out of the elegant, blank scoop onto a sloping ledge that is grassy, muddy and owned by earthworms - a knifeblade was needed in a slight horizontal crack for the exit - above this the route improves dramitically and is excellent - bring yer big gear! a handful of 3, 3.5, and 4's - try to figure out a way not to scare the living shit out of your jugging second at the end of the roof, where the razor-blade rock threatens to part the rope no matter how you rig it - i like the ingeniuty of the FA party near the exit, where they obviously beat on the rock w/ hammers to smooth the death edge that lies between the crack's end and the anchor - actually the end to the anchor is very problematic for the second - it's 10 feet sideways from your last piece at the top of the crack, and only 1 micronut placment inbetween to take a dickload of stress, and even then it still leaves the second havng to do some fucked-up voodoo shit to clean the #2 all while wimpering about the rope twanging a funeral-dirge over the hammered edge

 

nailing from a giant hook just a wee bit off the groudn, below the old fixed hex - that shit-eating grin on mike's face is from popping his pin-place'n cherry

mike on hanging tree, geoff on dracula

just below the cool roof traverse, on the grassy, sloping ledge

the crux of mike climb for me was not falling asleep - it was naptime bigtime for me, and i drifted, drifted, drifted - latter that night, having crushed a big bottle of merlot in an orgy of alcholism brought about by a week of abstaining, i finally realized the nap i wanted, right in the middle of a co-op session of resident evil 5 - my wife defending me from a savage zombie-on slaught as i snored over my controler

 

did i mention geoff was in the house? his homemade aid cheat stick got a good workout, taking all the fun out of most of dracula - bastard didn't get me back my fixed aid nut, still there after 2 weeks - he managed to lead, clean and chill for an hour by the time mike concluding his drama

 

the great find of the day - hidden beneath the thick powder, the perfect aid-crack of "go back to the gym" - looked invisible and therefore impossible from the ground, but on rap i detected, under its enigmatic coating, the continous beautiful knife-blade wide crack, complete w/ slight scars that just goes and goes and goes - next! don't know so much about the anchor at the top of it though - very scary looking, especially given the a4 "7 consecutive hook moves on the overhang above" write up in the book!

 

 

mike just to ther right of the spicy part of "die in the gym" - bullshitous looking anchor at the top of p1 below him - he's pointing at the recetn bolt line that got chopped in the great "thread of the week" back a few months ago

 

 

Approach Notes:

avoid the many terrible leopard slugs n' fuck-all nettles!

[ivan]

i should also mention that the tree(s?) mentioned in both descriptions for "go back to the gym" and "hanging tree" probably fell down and rotted out sometime back during the wild and heady days of the (first) clinton administration

[miker]

I still think we should call the adventure H1N1A2.

 

 

[hemp22]

Thanks for the heads up on the pin from superstition being gone.

What size of small cam are we talking about here? I guess I'll take a look next time out @ Bat Wall to see how it looks.

Any of you aid monkeys have a pin you'd be willing to donate if enough folks think the fixed pin should be replaced? you know, for us sport monkeys that can't be bothered with the extra weight of taking a TCU/alien up there...

[el jefe]

why don't you aid goons try a real aid climb rather than aiding up free climbs with fixed gear in situ? maybe that way fixed pins such as the one now gone from superstition will still be there for the sporto boyz who don't frequent this website and thus will be ignorant of the fact that the pin they were expecting to find is now gone.

[ivan]

jefe, the route history in the olson guide shows superstition as originally done, aid style, in 1977 (same year as hanging tree) - it is not therefore really a sport climb (especially the top pitch) - i was just boldly reclaiming it from the lycra-clad horde

 

mike and i are planning on returning to the bat wall in the next week or two, and i'll reset the pin then if time allows or soon thereafter - you'd probably need a blue or green alien at the moment, and i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of folks didn't even clip that pin, seeing as how they appear capable of levitation anyhow

 

as for doing a real aid climb, i'd like to see anybody do hanging tree in its current state even remotely free!

[ivan]

me, in near catatonic nap-state on HT

[billcoe]

Thanks in advance for going back to put the pin in. I clip all those fixed pins on Superstition.

 

Furthermore, big thanks for aiding that line as well. Thing collects a lot of dust and makes it even harder for the first free party in the spring. I'd imagine some of that got knocked off, and if nothing else, the pins get tested! If they won't hold bodyweight or the pull from a weighted line, they really really need to be replaced or rehammered in, and as none of the freeclimbers ever carry hammers to test, a rude awakening was in store for the unlucky person who was to fall or even hang on that one without backing it up with a small nut eh? Fortunately, most of those can be backed up with a small RP if you look.

 

I'm not in agreement with Jefe who said:

why don't you aid goons try a real aid climb rather than aiding up free climbs with fixed gear in situ? maybe that way fixed pins such as the one now gone from superstition will still be there for the sporto boyz who don't frequent this website and thus will be ignorant of the fact that the pin they were expecting to find is now gone.

[miker]

Very true Bill, I am making the cliff safer for the "lycra-clad" hordes...(Are they still lycra clad? I mostly see fleece and sandals this far north)...

 

Aid goons does seem a bit harsh though...my trash talk sucks.

[wayne]

Nice work Guys, When are you going down the way to Mujadeen?

[ivan]

Nice work Guys, When are you going down the way to Mujadeen?

i haven't actually been down past the bat wall - is muji in the olson book? details/story? i havne't noticed it, but then i haven't spent much time at broughtons at all.

[hemp22]

I wanted to add: nice work on Hanging Tree - it looks like a nice line that could use some more love (too bad about the tree being gone).

 

After your various poison-oak-bushwacking adventures at Beacon, and nettle-wrestling below hanging tree, you should be properly prepared to go for some of the stuff down at Jungle Cliff. Definitely look through the Olson book at the stuff past Bat Wall. I can almost guarantee that you won't be disturbed by the sport monkeys that far out...

 

Oh, and yes, thanks in advance for replacing the pin. P1 of superstition is climbed frequently, and I'm sure someone could have an unpleasant surprise when they find it missing.

[ivan]

I wanted to add: nice work on Hanging Tree - it looks like a nice line that could use some more love (too bad about the tree being gone).

 

i don't think there's any way to keep it loved - it just runs so much w/ dirt - you pretty much would have to take a power-washer to it at the start of the dry season? how was this done originally? there's a bolted line on the far left side that goes through the same muck - vertical talcum-powder coated glass!

[el jefe]

aid goons vs sporto boyz = competition for a scarce resource?

 

glad to hear you plan to replace the missing pin on superstition, ivan. the truth is that i don't care what style you use on a route as long as you respect the fact that if the route has gone free, then you should leave it the way you found it -- in other words, don't nail it and don't remove any fixed gear. in your trip report you merely said that the pin was gone so watch out if you go up there expecting to find the fixed pin that protected the awkward traverse to the anchor. if memory serves, falling off at that point without having clipped the pin would mean an ugly, slab-spanking fall and likely serious injury. it certainly wouldn't be fair to whoever goes up there unawares and without any pro to protect the traverse.

 

 

[powderhound]

in other words, don't nail it and don't remove any fixed gear.

 

wow.....if a route has gone free than whats the deal with placing a green alien, people clean up old mank iron all the time, if it didn't happen at places like el cap than it would just be a clip up. plus free insinuates that all gear is placed on lead.

[el jefe]

in other words, don't nail it and don't remove any fixed gear.

 

wow.....if a route has gone free than whats the deal with placing a green alien, people clean up old mank iron all the time, if it didn't happen at places like el cap than it would just be a clip up. plus free insinuates that all gear is placed on lead.

 

pulling out fixed gear and not replacing it is different from cleaning up old mank. some people climb superstition with no pro other than quickdraws and would be unpleasantly surprised to discover that someone had removed the last piece of pro they were expecting to have.

 

"free insinuates all gear is placed on lead"? you need a 3 digit IQ to discuss complex issues like this one, powderhound.

[ivan]

aid goons vs sporto boyz = competition for a scarce resource?

 

glad to hear you plan to replace the missing pin on superstition, ivan. the truth is that i don't care what style you use on a route as long as you respect the fact that if the route has gone free, then you should leave it the way you found it -- in other words, don't nail it and don't remove any fixed gear. in your trip report you merely said that the pin was gone so watch out if you go up there expecting to find the fixed pin that protected the awkward traverse to the anchor. if memory serves, falling off at that point without having clipped the pin would mean an ugly, slab-spanking fall and likely serious injury. it certainly wouldn't be fair to whoever goes up there unawares and without any pro to protect the traverse.

 

i certainly agree w/ you on not pulling fixed gear, and my tr could have been taken to mean i was intending on keeping the pin - i'd actually intended on putting it back in after we did HT but the hour had grown very late and both mike and i were busy w/ family all weekend - and now that it's wet this week my suck-ass skillz would make freeing back to it haaaard! still - i wanna do die in the gym, so we'll be there soon

 

on the side though, how on earth do people skip all the gear placements before that pin? jesus, the fall there would indeed be a ruinious pendulum back into the wall! i grunt and suffer even in aiders there

[el jefe]

i like to place a cam in that final little stembox bit to protect the mantle onto the ledge because i agree that a fall there would be "a ruinous pendulum back into the wall".

 

thanks again in advance for replacing the pin.

 

 

 

[hemp22]

I think a lot of people look up the route, or look at the topo of the route in the guidebook, and see a lot of bolts - including an "x" for that fixed pin...so they figure that nothing but QDs is necessary.

Most people I know (myself included) got on it without gear their first time.

But, I caught a friend taking that fall from the mantle last year (without gear) - and yes, it's a painful, penduluming, slab-smacking fall. He didn't break anything, but since then, I always take a small cam for the finger crack.

But even if you do have a piece in the litte crack there, and were to fall from the ledge after the mantel (without the fixed pin would protect you), it'd still be a nasty fall.

[ivan]

aid soloed "go back to the gym" this afternoon - as the book says, A3 seems about right - tried to do the plumb line (the original start?) but it looks like a block has blown - 2 pins up there was nothing to connect to the awesome crack, so i down aided and re-started via the left option we did for "hanging tree" - fell where mike had hung on his ibis hook since i didn't have one and the sling i put around the block slid off - went furthe left and arced back in, planting a spade, then found the blown old hex placement takes a small offset nut fine - from there the fixed pin allowed me to pendulum over into the gym crack - several knife blades, then a funky #2 camalot, then an amazing scallop w/ more kb's, then a soaring crack that takes only rurps and tiny bird beaks - the old fixed head below the anchor is still good - the anchor itself is totally encrusted in horseshit, but essentially still okay - fixed back down to the ground and will return tomorrow w/ moof - the upper, a4+ (die in the gym) section will probably keep me up all night - holy shit, where's the route? the books says "7 consecutive hook placements and baaaaaad pins" - meow! all i see is upside down talculm-powder crunchiness!

[ivan]

superstition's pin has been returned, courtesy of moof - it's the original pin, in the original hole

 

gave "die in the gym" my best - i think the fa'ers must be damn liars! took a long scrub bush, but scrub as i might, the only line above the anchor is an incipient crack that fades into nothing just 4 feet up - the widest part is at the bottom - a rurp was damn near too big - put one in - weighted it - fifi'ed - it blew, dumping me back onto the hanging anchor, giggling like a school girl - tried my shortest kb, it just broke the rock

 

so, so much for the a4+ line, might as well be 5.15 - in fact, it probably is

 

to have fun anyhow, why not practicing penduluming? lowered down to the base of the scoop, at the double pin placement before the rurp-seam, then pendulumed right until i could grab the bolt stud that protected the old version that veered over to dracula - one nut on a stud, a medium kb, then you can start up the dracula bolt - at the pea-pod top, the drag was so aggravating i gave up trying to reach the dracula anchor, and nailed left to the ancient anchors under the giant hanging blackberry bush - put in 2 la's to back up the old bolts and moof did a most interesting traverse job to clean, demonstrating for me how to lower out when cleaning on two occasions (and 2 bright, cheerful orange hero loops now brigten up this neglected aid-gem!)

 

continuing on aid above there would rock - there's a very old, ratty looking kb above the anchor, but you'd have to take a weed wacker to root out the massive blackberry bush - rapping in first to cut it out from the top would be the most sensible - a great line though, and all the pro will be pins through roofs - suprised there aren't more aid-monkeys out there to have monopolized on these lines - there's a number of ancient pin scars on "go back to the gym" but looks like no new traffic in years? how often do you get a chance to justify all those pins n' beaks n' rurps n' ironmongery in yer war chest?!?

 

tyler - i'm calling you out dude - come show me that "die in the gym" can be done!

 

my version of this connects the dots in this pic - left to right, via a big pendulum on the anchor just under the roof in center

[pink]

[alexbaker]

Nice dude. But Tyler doesn't even know wtf a gaston is. Maybe you were supposed to start hooking into oblivion when the crack stopped? When are you heading to Yose?

 

Alex

[wayne]

No Lying here. It is all there Ivan, Good luck to you brother..

[JosephH]

Just a note that it's worth remembering many knifeblades around here (as opposed to bugaboos), are too thin to withstand corrosion longer than about twenty to twenty five years even though they may look perfect from the outside. Fixed pro in all forms require maintenance and pins are no exception - I'm guessing by now all the pins at Broughtons could probably stand someone checking and either resetting or replacing the ones that are now loose or bad.

 

Pretty much every pin you're likely to run across has been checked at Beacon and about one in four needed resetting, one in five needed replacing. Here's one of the knifeblades off of 'Fear of Flying' out at Beacon. All three pins on the route were bad, paper thin, and came out with the slightest imaginable funk - none would have held a fall. That said, it's also good to keep in mind that, on a percentage basis, pins way out performed bolts in useful longevity out at Beacon and that probably means there are a lot of lousy bolts as well if you were to pull and look at them (and odd as it may seem, a lot of bolts placed during the '90s at Beacon were in the worst shape of the lot).