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getting off the monkey...


ivan

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...or getting the monkey off?

 

in my eternal quest to make even the mundane magical, i neglected to bring my tagline to smiffistan w/ me y-day - undeterred, geoff and i set out to climb the west variation and the northwest passage of the monkey- we were able to hitch a ride down w/ a couple members of the horde that were gang-fucking the gorilla after we did our token free-route - we didn't end up going above the first pitch of the west face enroute to nw passage though as impending storm and the realization that our 60 meter rope wouldn't get us back down to the ground in 1 rap from there shook our assumptions about bailing out of the west face cave down the west face route. probably for the best as, after a quick run up spiderman, we got poured on during the walk out, which would have lent a certain desperation to a dubious rap session off the monkey.

 

so, long question short: what are the various ways of bailing off the monkey w/ a single 60 m, both from the summit and from the w face cave?

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we did the w face variation to the nose cave, then rapped off w/ some good ol'boys, then did the first pitch of the west face aid route - watched a guy solo nw passage above us while belaying geoff - he looked to be having a gay-old time

 

so where does the first 30 meter rap off of the monkey's nose put you when rapping the pioneer route?

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We once bailed off the NECK cave to SW face side.

 

it was pitch dark

 

No headlamps

 

desperate

 

ropes got stuck.

 

this is a real, real long story best told over a campfire as it involves Great Blue Herons ice fishing on a frozen pond, partner abandonment, picking up cans for money, no sleeping bag in sub zero weather, broken down VW Bus and a carburetor "rebuild" and theft (and return of ) our climbing gear.

 

Point is, a single rope 60 meter out of the neck (off the south side) rap gets you to the flat spot below the notch of the Pioneer route and you can get down from there.

 

That's all I know for sure.

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not certain i know what you mean by "neck cave" bill - you talking 'bout bonn street at the base of the bolt ladder? - can you show me a picture w/ circles n' arrows and a paragraph on the back explaining what it is? :P

 

...and actually tell your story...the preview was excellent...maybe even make a retro TR of it? dane's been doing such tomfoolery of late! :)

 

met your turkish friend hidaugh (sp?) while belaying geoff on the west face aid route - seems like a cool dude - i got to work out my feeble knowledge of turkish history on him :grin:

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Monkey.

 

St_Thomas_004.jpg

 

Dude in cave on his first trip. Worked at Deschutes but caught drinking a PBR. :o

 

St_Thomas_010.jpg

 

Ivan working hard.

 

St_Thomas_014.jpg

 

West Face belay. Notice one of two bottle caps found here. I was able to pack them out.

 

St_Thomas_016.jpg

 

Why is my rope over there?

 

St_Thomas_017.jpg

 

Folks on the Leeper.

 

St_Thomas_023.jpg

 

St_Thomas_022.jpg

 

Storm coming.

 

St_Thomas_018.jpg

 

Storm going.

 

St_Thomas_019.jpg

 

SERNE anchor for Kenny.

 

St_Thomas_020.jpg

 

Crag rat left at home this time.

 

St_Thomas_001.jpg

 

Here are some shots of Tuesday's outing. The Choss Factory did not disappoint. One bold climber remarked that climbing here was like a failed suicide attempt.

 

Mr. Denton on Doomsday got some action.

 

Yos_and_Mo_084.jpg

 

MDOD is just off Scorpian Ledge to the left. Here's its namesake.

 

Yos_and_Mo_083.jpg

 

Jimmy's saw some action as well. It's off the right of Scorpian Ledge.

 

Yos_and_Mo_090.jpg

 

Next thing you knew we had a Chongo Line going up Rumba Ridge. Here's Kyle on this 5 Star wonder of the NW.

 

Yos_and_Mo_098.jpg

 

Rope wrangling at the hanging rap shared by four.

 

Yos_and_Mo_103.jpg

 

Mike had enough.

 

Yos_and_Mo_110.jpg

Edited by geoff
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Good looking dog Geoff, looks smart, ...bet you have to feed him canned dog food to bribe him to stick with you. lol

 

not certain i know what you mean by "neck cave" bill - you talking 'bout bonn street at the base of the bolt ladder? - can you show me a picture w/ circles n' arrows and a paragraph on the back explaining what it is? :P

 

Talkin slow here for some folks:-) :) OK, Neck cave noted below. It's where the NECK is. Not mouth cave, that's where the MOUTH is under the nose there. It's the belay anchors right where the arrow points, so useful only in an emergency as you'll be leaving gear on the bolts if you are forced to rap it. Plus if you go straight down, before you get level with the notch you are way overhanging and must be bouncing in and out to stay in contact with the rock. Pretty dicey at night with no moon as you need to wrap the rope around your leg and claw your way east as you drop the direction of the arrows shaft to connect with the Pioneer route. Summiting would be easier unless you were injured or it was dark.

 

monkey_face_resized.jpg

 

PS, thanks for the compliment on the pre-written TR of olde.

 

:wave:

_________________________________________________________

 

Nice Jimmies TR too. 5 stars for Conga Line is after it's cleaned:-) 3 now, but it would of course be a negative number if a rock beaned you. Mike will be back, the scorpion stings have healing power.

 

The "Cult of the Scorpion" begins.

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ok thread drift here. sorry ivan but your thread reminded me...

 

Just curious if anyone knows anything about the entire PR bolt ladder having draws hanging on it? Every bolt. Weird...

 

If someone was working on freeing that face...I might expect four or five...not 18. We left 'em all hanging a couple days ago...despite the massive booty temptation. :confused:

 

Just curious if anybody knows anything. Which one o' y'all's second had a little epic hissy fit and refused to follow? :poke:

 

edit...heh, come to think of it, maybe Joel's got new tactics for beating his last time... :crazy:

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the 18 some odd quickdraws got bootied by the party immediately before us, 'fore we had a chance at 'em! :(

 

joe, if you're refering to that slackline setup, it's still seeing plenty of use - rercently watched some total mutants playing on that and the slackline into the west face cave - i was tempted but a wee bit too adled at the time i feared :)

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He used to have two beautifully crafted iron and oak rope 'benches' up there that looked like the chairs the shoe salespeople use. They had a grove in the heavy oak tops and differently length legs to fit the contours of the rock. Hopefully he still has pictures of them as they were quite the works of art.

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the 18 some odd quickdraws got bootied by the party immediately before us, 'fore we had a chance at 'em! :(

 

heh, we were up the day before. I came close but would have felt too guilty bootying 18 draws off one pitch. I think I ended up with one old 'biner though...I'll consider it a booty tax...

 

ah well.

 

:mistat: who had to leave all those behind though.

Edited by jfs1978
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ok thread drift here. sorry ivan but your thread reminded me...

 

Just curious if anyone knows anything about the entire PR bolt ladder having draws hanging on it? Every bolt. Weird...

 

If someone was working on freeing that face...I might expect four or five...not 18. We left 'em all hanging a couple days ago...despite the massive booty temptation. :confused:

 

Just curious if anybody knows anything. Which one o' y'all's second had a little epic hissy fit and refused to follow? :poke:

 

edit...heh, come to think of it, maybe Joel's got new tactics for beating his last time... :crazy:

 

haha damn jonathan i wish i knew the story behind that!

 

 

grosowsky = chisel master! :brew:

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