Dru Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 You launch into a crux section and it is fuckin hard. You keep running it out looking for a sport to get some pro in cause you are going to need a stance or rest in order to let go. None appears and your gear dwindles below you as you get increasingly frantic looking for a rest,you're overgripping, pumped out, throwing moves with no style or technique, fighting every inch upwards, grab a big hold and can't muster up enough force to mantle it, wobble, somehow spaz up and throw in a cam thinking about how you nearly pitched off for a 60 foot ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chucK Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 After pulling that shit on Zoom earlier in the morning, well, the getting all pumped out part, and actually falling, but not 60 feet, I was leading Breakfast of Champions. For those not familiar, it is a short, straightforward, locker-handjam pitch, but it does get tiring. I was just below the spot where you can move up into the hole where the loose block used to be, but was so pumped I couldn't quite pull the move. I tried then slumped back down to my tiring "stance". Unfortunately, when I was moving back down, my foot caught a loop of rope and I was now standing on a bight. My strength was rapidly leaving. I was past the point of being able to pull a cam-trigger, and I was fearfully contemplating the rope catching my foot, flipping me over, and smacking my head into the wall. Almost...peeling off, then for some reason I moved my knee left and it stuck against a crack for a very lucky knee bar! That was all I needed to rest my arms enough to pull the move. Phew! Got lucky on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMR Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 You launch into a crux section and it is fuckin hard. You keep running it out looking for a sport to get some pro in cause you are going to need a stance or rest in order to let go. None appears and your gear dwindles below you as you get increasingly frantic looking for a rest,you're overgripping, pumped out, throwing moves with no style or technique, fighting every inch upwards, grab a big hold and can't muster up enough force to mantle it, wobble, somehow spaz up and throw in a cam thinking about how you nearly pitched off for a 60 foot ride. ahh man, my hands just got sweaty reading that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 2 years ago, I was anxious to get some more leading experience and found myself speeding out to Index trying to stay out in front of the rain in Monroe. Me and my buddies Gene and Brian hiked up to Private Idaho and I set my sights on Senior Citizens in Space, a pretty sweet looking 5.8 crack in a dihedral that appeared damp. As I racked up, the drizzle set in so I took one last look at the crack and decided there was no need for any cams smaller than a #2, it was all hand jams. As I scampered up to the first ledge, I placed my smallest cam and started jammin as the drizzle turned into a steady rain. I slowly came to the realization that what appeared to be a hand crack from the ground was really a great finger crack and it was now pouring rain. I figured I would be able to protect the route with the single set of nuts on my harness. As I made my way up, the crack was filled with pine needles and mud and gushing water making any nut placements suck, despite my attempts to garden out a slot. With hands completely numb, I lurched for the top with one rattley nut placed between me and the first cam I placed 40' below. As the rain turned to hail and my hands slowly lost the battle with gravity, I contemplated defeat and prepared to whip. I glanced down to the ledge I would impact when I fell, then glanced up to the wall of mud, moss and water I was slowly sliding off and realized I was only about 8' from the top. With one last surge of adrenaline I clawed through the mud to find a couple of holds and hauled my soggy butt onto the ledge at the top of the route. I peered triumphantly down to my partners slowly shaking their heads at me through the pouring rain. Good times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 exact same thing happened to me on diedre. my first leading experience. it was the middle of winter and it was full of mud and i couldn't get shit in. i was climbing near full pitches with 3 shitty nuts in. i was shaking like a motherfucker. then, the exit moves on my next lead was slab covered in water which was rather fightening. the whole time i jsut wanted to be done, but by the time i got back to the car, i couldn't wait for tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancegranite Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Running Thin fingers out off the first belay, not stopping until the locker handjam in the crack...stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg_W Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 You launch into a crux section and it is fuckin hard. You keep running it out looking for a sport to get some pro in cause you are going to need a stance or rest in order to let go. None appears and your gear dwindles below you as you get increasingly frantic looking for a rest,you're overgripping, pumped out, throwing moves with no style or technique, fighting every inch upwards, grab a big hold and can't muster up enough force to mantle it, wobble, somehow spaz up and throw in a cam thinking about how you nearly pitched off for a 60 foot ride. Only way to feel truly alive!!! Man I love that feeling...especially once it's over and I lived. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Only way to feel truly alive!!! Man I love that feeling...especially once it's over and I lived. Its truly the reason I climb and the reason I am hooked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chucK Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 The time I climbed Diedre was with a party of three. I led up to the last belay in the dihedral (next pitch gets you to the trees), and realized I really needed to pee! We were moving well so there wasn't anybody backed up behind us, but there were quite a few parties making their way up the route, so I didn't wanna just unload a quart right down the dihedral . So when the second guy comes up I tell him to leave the third down below while he belays me to the top, "it's an EMERGENCY!!!" . So I'm racing up the last pitch and it's real easy, so I'm not putting in any pro. Then about 50 feet out I start thinking maybe I should put something in, but now the crack's closed up. I get to that last move below the roots with no pro between me and the belay. One friction move to get to the pin. Fear of a gigantic fall weighting my brain, pressure ready to explode in my bladder. What a predicament! I made it. Watered those trees good and long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Off_White Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 great stories, and excellent use of the old "I need to pee" avatar image, Chuck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texplorer Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Last year I was on the last pitch of snibble tower which is supposedly 4th class. Everything up there was loose and I couldn't seem to find the 4th class route to the summit ridge. I began working up 5.6 choss when a hold broke and I got that electric panic-like feeling shoot through my body as I lost my balance. As I was falling backwards I groped and luckily grabbed a rock that held. I was over a hundred feet out on a shitty cam and another 40 out from the belay on that one. Scary. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg_W Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Climbing on the Minuteman with Szykowski last fall, I got the pitch through some rotten shite in a sort of gully. Apparently it was the way to go. After traversing 30-40' from the belay, I started up, backed down, moved over, got a blue tcu (marginal), moved up, moved over, got a marginal nut and was rewarded with wonderful ropedrag. I finally committed to some face moves and pulling down on some rotten flakes that hung like the swords of Damocles above me. I made it to a tree stump and latched onto that thing like it was gonna disappear. I'm pretty sure one or both pieces would have ripped and I would have been looking at a nice, tumbling fall down the gully. I got to where I needed to set a belay and found blood where I don't even remember cutting myself. Phew I was glad when that pitch ended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plexus Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 When what looks like a crack below, ends up being a seam with no pro possibilities once you get to it. You have no choice but to refocus and just get up it running it way the hell out. Have done that numerous times at Erie and several times up in the mountains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 19, 2004 Author Share Posted February 19, 2004 Last year I was on the last pitch of snibble tower which is supposedly 4th class. Everything up there was loose and I couldn't seem to find the 4th class route to the summit ridge. I began working up 5.6 choss when a hold broke and I got that electric panic-like feeling shoot through my body as I lost my balance. As I was falling backwards I groped and luckily grabbed a rock that held. I was over a hundred feet out on a shitty cam and another 40 out from the belay on that one. Scary. . . many years ago now on my first ever climbing trip to Smiff I set out up Jete and missed the traverse into Dancer and kept going straight up. Nearing the anchor with more than a half pitch of no pro beneath me but on easy ground I grabbed a big flake with both hands and pulled up and it broke off I fell backwards And landed on a 8 inch wide ledge 2 feet below and teetered there in precarious balance for a few seconds before putting the broken hold down on one side and leaning in to the rock and shaking like a leaf... "Granite wouldn't do that...what is this damn rock anyways?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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