dberdinka Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 I began writing an epic TR centered on themes of conquering fear and self-doubt but I figured I'd get reamed for that, so here are some pretty pictures instead! I apologize in advance for the low image quality. Between getting the film scanned and resizing they came out pretty poor. South Face of The Titan in The Fisher Towers of Utah. I don't know of many places as beautiful and peaceful as the Fisher Towers. There is a feeling of the eternal here. In early November my buddy Marcus and I climbed the Sun Devil Chimney on the South Face of The Titan. A beautiful line that offered high advernture, awesome position and some really fine climbing to boot! The route takes a plum line up the sun lit face above Marcus cleaning pitch three Yes thats a pin. Yes the pitch has gone clean at C4. Lets just chalk it up to "situational ethics" Starting up the Mud Chimney pitch The Fisher Towers have a reputation for mud. Well largely undeserved, this pitch offered up a classic mix of Fisher climbing. C2/3 pin scars led up past bent 30-year-old star drives into a genuine Mud Chimney. A thick stucoe of congeiled mud covered everything. Protection was sparse, luckily the chimney is rated 5.7 or so. Of course it's probably one of the most intimidating 5.7's around. Fun stuff! Big exposure on pitch 5 This pitch started out easy enough up a C1 crack. Just above where I took this photo I had to aid up a mud packed crack of indetermitable width by mud threads, double length slings looped around hunks of dried mud spanning the crack. It all seemed ernjoyable once I was on a good cam above them. Looking north from the Summit 3 PM. The sun is beginning to set to the west. It is clear, still and incredibly quiet. A perfect November day on the Colorado Plateau. Life is wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr._Natural Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 sweet dood. thanks for the STOKE! leaving for the desert on fri. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_b Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 sick!!! nice pix. dberdinka said: I began writing an epic TR centered on themes of conquering fear and self-doubt but I figured I'd get reamed for that do it. there isn't a more relevant climbing discussion topic imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schlangeschmecker Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 I crapped my pants just looking at your photos. You guys got balls.....great, big, fucking balls! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chucK Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Awesome! Nice job Darin. dberdinka said: I began writing an epic TR centered on themes of conquering fear and self-doubt but I figured I'd get reamed for that Do it. Put it on your webpage instead of here. You can keep the pictures big too maybe. Post a link, or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Yes thats a pin. Yes the pitch has gone clean at C4. Lets just chalk it up to "situational ethics" It has gone free too at 5.13 to Stevie Haston.... maybe everybody that got involved in the Zodiac nailing dick measuring contest can come out of the closet on this one too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Dru said: Yes thats a pin. Yes the pitch has gone clean at C4. Lets just chalk it up to "situational ethics" It has gone free too at 5.13 to Stevie Haston.... maybe everybody that got involved in the Zodiac nailing dick measuring contest can come out of the closet on this one too faq Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 nice darin! only route i have done there was the easy one..and it was darn near enough choss at the time and it is the clean one!!! hopefully i will do so more this winter! beta please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambone Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 Frightenly beautiful, amazingly scary looking... I see a haul bag, did you haul and bivi on it? Just curious...looks like bad mud hauling taboot... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted November 11, 2003 Author Share Posted November 11, 2003 We fixed the first two pitches (crux) one day then climbed five more another. Jugged and started leading by headlamp, rapped the route just before dark. Erik, let me know what routes you want beta on, I'm familiar with the trade routes. climbingmoab.com is a good source of beta as well. Chuck, JB etc. Writing good TRs is hard, I might work on it if I have time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary_Yngve Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 You used some software for rescaling that doesn't downsample properly. High frequencies (such as film grain and fine textures in the image) get aliased and look like crap. I recommend the free IrfanView. http://www.irfanview.de/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted November 11, 2003 Author Share Posted November 11, 2003 (edited) I re-downloaded better images. Unfortunately I can no longer edit the original post. Hopefully a mod can help me out! Edited November 12, 2003 by dberdinka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_Puget Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 Sorry it took so long to edit the pics worked been working too long. The new pics look great. Great post D. PP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Thanks Peter for the efforts and Gary for the software recommendation. Here's a close up of the mud chimney. Woo Hoo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracked Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 About these mud chimneys, wouldn't ice tools and crampons be more appropriate equipment? And where does the mud come from, anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted November 13, 2003 Author Share Posted November 13, 2003 Noooooo!, crampons and ice axes are bad. We love the mud We want to be nice to the mud Not poke and stick it with sharp objects. Thats mean! The mud is beautiful We hold the mud softly in our hands Don't yank on it Don't squeeze it to hard! Stem gently on the mud, or the mud might fall away I have no clue why the fisher towers erode into mud. Cutler Sandstone is definitely very different from anything else in the desert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 dberdinka said: I have no clue why the fisher towers erode into mud. Cutler Sandstone is definitely very different from anything else in the desert. The Cutler Formation can be found in Canyonlands all the way to Cutler Creek, Colorado. The towers are the best example of the Cutler group. The rock is from the Permian Period, 230-290 million years ago. The towers are characterized by fluted runnels with grotesquely carved summit gargoyles and curtains of mud that add to the appearance. All of the towers have a Moenkopi cap rock near the summit that slows the erosion of the towers. super soft sand stone with a harder capstone creates the irregular texture and features of the rock as the elements erode away at it. very cool place!!! onion creek is another cool area with more cutler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willstrickland Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 The "why" of the mud is, in short this: The precursor to Cutler was very fine silt and mud (and some grains large enough to be sand) deposited by an alluvial fan (waterway enters a flatter area, causing the velocity to slow, leading to suspended solids settling out). So when Cutler erodes, the result is mud. It's basically a mudstone, to begin with. Even the more erosion resistant overlying caprock, which is Moenkopi, is a siltstone/mudstone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 will, tho when you clean the outlaying mud, there tends to be what appears as solid stone...or atleast more solid. but i have only had one experience on fisher towers rock...and that was on ancient art, which gets lotsa traffic compared to the rest of the group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willstrickland Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 True. It works something like this: The "rock" is silt/mud/sand mixture that was formed under tremendous pressure from overlying layers. The mud coating is eroded material. When the outer surface of the rock gets saturated it dissolves into a mud that flows in the runoff. Once the mud runoff dries out, it congeals, but without the huge amounts of pressure and long periods of time (geologic time), it doesn't get compressed and solid like the rock it came from - it remains in a mud-like state. I've only done AA as well, and I was pleasantly surprised at how solid the rock was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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