ivan Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 Trip: Index - 4 Dayz Alone Date: 7/13/2009 Trip Report: so my yosemite partner is literally hovering over my goddamn shoulder, fucking w/ my diction and whatnot, but since i'm gonna be gone for 2 more weeks, thought i'd at least put up my video and pix from the past week at index, where i sought valley practice and relief from the shit alpine weather of merry washington did all of stern farmer and various unknown pitches above, also all of narrow arrow overhang, then linked up town crier and green dragon from a portaledge on madsen(?) ledge (the last ending prematurely in a nocturnal and early morning thunderstorm) i'll get around to inserting the brilliant dialouge that shows the heart of the hard-on genius later, but for now, here they are, starting w/ the first pitch and a half of stern farmer fixed (i showed up in the late afternoon of day 1, and did what i could before dark): and some video, roughly in order? [video:youtube] [video:youtube] [video:youtube] [video:youtube] [video:youtube] [video:youtube] Approach Notes: across the tracks Quote
LostCamKenny Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 Whoa, man. You have a partner in a tree frog it appears... Does it offer a good belay or is it shortroping you all the time? Quote
dave_b Posted July 17, 2009 Posted July 17, 2009 I think we started Davis-Holland right behind you. Thanks for the rad rap photo! Dave Quote
ivan Posted August 20, 2009 Author Posted August 20, 2009 hey, turns out after a month you can't edit yer tr's, so all t his time later, drunk n' bored on a wednsday night while the wife runs over innocent civilians on the grand theft auto marathon, i'm stuck to quoting meself to add a bit of commentary, strictly for meself you understand, as i suspect you ignorant homos have plenty of other unmentionable things to do to entertain yerselves righ'bout now Trip: Index - 4 Dayz Alone Date: 7/13/2009 Trip Report: so my yosemite partner is literally hovering over my goddamn shoulder, fucking w/ my diction and whatnot, but since i'm gonna be gone for 2 more weeks, thought i'd at least put up my video and pix from the past week at index, where i sought valley practice and relief from the shit alpine weather of merry washington did all of stern farmer and various unknown pitches above, also all of narrow arrow overhang, then linked up town crier and green dragon from a portaledge on madsen(?) ledge (the last ending prematurely in a nocturnal and early morning thunderstorm) i'll get around to inserting the brilliant dialouge that shows the heart of the hard-on genius later, but for now, here they are, starting w/ the first pitch and a half of stern farmer fixed (i showed up in the late afternoon of day 1, and did what i could before dark): stern farmer was a fun one - the g-book said the 2nd pitch was rarely ascended, so of course i was interested - after fixing the first pitch in the evening, i retired to my commodious truck cab for a marathon session of wine-swilling and "salt" reading - i'm not certain if it was this evening of a subsequent one that wigged out the pinched-face orange-head parked beside me the first pitch had a couple of fun hook moves i remember there were a # of old heads on the second pitch, and it wasn't nearly so serious as the guide made it sound - it was fun to see what happens when old swaging just up and quits on you though - this happened while cleaning the pitch of course i kept climbing above stern farmer i recall - but also i recall that the guide was really inconclusive as to what the fuck i was doing - mostly it was pretty dirty but fun, and i liked passing close by my bivy sit from a few weeks earlier on the ledge below sloe children next that day i was hot to do narrow arrow overhang on the lower wall - again i wanted to climb more than a pitch up, which seems rare'ish in that goode olde towne - the issue for the solo aider: where the fuck was the bottom anchor? w/ no gear obvious or trees to sling i settled on busting out the nut tool and excavating dirt n' moss out of the blocks int he middle of the trail - it yielded 3 pin placments - driving iron around the sportos kinda felt kewl, 'specially since they really couldn't bitch 'bout me fucking up the cracks on the trail i linked the first 2 pitches - the 2nd was very thin, pretty much just cam hooks i recall - the rope hanging had apparently been round a while from some dude who's trying to do the first free ascent oh yeah, handplaced beaks worked too so anyhow, after 2 days on the lower wall i felt like a chump for crashing in methlandia in my rig (though it did make me feel like the rig was a little safer that way, 'specially since i slept w/ my wall hammer and a scorching case of herpes) - i thought i might go spend 2 nights bivying on the upper wall, doing the town crier first, then maybe green dragon or the golden arch or sumthang day 3 i humped a fucking stupid heavy haulbag and 'ledge up the trail - i climbed the usual .8 crack up to the big ledge, hauled my shit up, set up the ledge, then chilled for a bit, eating lunch and watching the loooong train of davis/holland suitors sated, i set out to fix the first pitch of TC - this pitch would be a whole lot more fun to have a partner round for to belay - i took to thinking of my belayer as "the gri-gri monster" and goddamn that bitch is always hungry! entering into the p1 chimney, looking down arachnophic claustrophobes would really have been in their element on this crux if they'dve been terrified of amphibians it'd be all for the better the chimney made a fine frame for the index-wand and the mighty traverse p1 fixed, and not enough rope to fix p2 and still get back down to my 'ledge, i descended, ate dinner, rawked out n' shot pix of the crazy train still chugging up the DH i wondered if my gloves would even make it bck down to The Valley (they didn't - my shoes also committed seppuko on day 2 of da nose) great vantage for watching DH folks rap off in the twilight (and for chain-smoking) evening set in on index below - i dug on the cum-shrouded tetons beyond home sweet home, morning of day 4 i set my anchor higher than the bolted ones near the top of p1 - here's looking back down from the penji - kinda looks wierd w/o a dumbass staring back at ya, taking pix of your ass n' hollering meaningless enthusiams the next pitch was supposed to be the super mega ultimate everything back in the day when beckey did it, but now, though its wicked steep, it's basically a via ferreta - i mighta placed 2 pieces the whole pitch? above that i think i linked 2 pitches, 1 which woulda be suck w/o offset cams and was kinda funky even w/ em view from the top - it was here, w/ the onset of heat stroke, down to a half liter of h20, that i dropped my 1 and only jumar - at least i'd already cleaned the pitch! no big deal, i saw where it hit, hundreds of feet below - i figured i didn't have enough water (or wine) to stay out that night and climb the next day in the sun, so i decided to drag all my shit back down to the base of he wall, cache it (assuming i could find my jug and it still worked), descend, get fast food, get good n' drunk, then come back up the next day w/ a lot more water n' booze i found the jumar in 3 minutes, no evidence at all of falling from the top of the empire state building the mornign of day 5 (don't know how i came up w/ this tr's original title) i awoke to strong sun and heat - i resolved to spend the morning eating bacon, smoking shit n' drinking sangria while bathing my big old ballz in the cool of the skykomish - that being abley accomplished, i sobered up by hiking that goddamn trail again in the afternoon heat - this time i thought i'd reach the ledge by doing the original first pitch of green dragon, which seemed neglected actually i'd thought of doing the golden arch, but thrashing around, half naked and sweating, trying to find the start, i figured it'd be a whole lot simpler just to climb the 1st 2 pitches of the GD and spend another night at my previous location rapping the haul line, looking at the fixed p1 of GD - an easy pitch i thought i went ahead and climbed p2 that evening, getting back down to the ledge in the gloaming - i looked forward to finishing the route on day 6 and also bootying the beak that someone had inexplicable used and fixed on p2 of GD aid-soloing is fun - it gets you closer to your salami not to mention yer vino n' jalapeno cheddar bread! that evening it occured to me that, in the spirit of doing hte nose the next week w/ just a single haulbag, that i should leave my sleeping bag behind and just use a bivysac - i thought i'd test it that night - then one of these wierd rockbug fawks crawled into my drawers the just bivy-sack thang worked great, even after it started pouring rain in the middle of the night - wtf? it's summer in warshington, since when the hell does it rain? i especially liked that my portaledge lacked more than a couple drain plugs, so that soon i was bivouacked in a puddle, 200 feet off terra firma the next morning was grim - thick fog, fleeting glimpses of index, but it seemed like maybe the rain was gone? at any rate, my 2nd rope and gear was all fixed above me, so i was gonna at least have to jug adn clean as i started across the 3rd class ledge to the base of the fixed pitch, the thunder and lightenign began - this made my decision to flee upon cleaning as easy to understand as my failure to bring anything remotely resembling rain gear if i don't live through this, maybe my mom will get this last pic and know how stupid i looked at the end? so, on the 6th day of a 4 day solo creep, soaked to the bone and a burr up my ass to get down to Da Valley, i figured it was tim eto go home - i got down in the rain, hiked the trail in the rain, drove back to seattle in the rain, had a nice rainy shower, stocked my blood stream up on essential vitamins n' minerals, then drove back to da 'couve in the rain, where i spent an evening trying to calm down a frantic partner and dry every piece of climbing gear i owned in a blissfully deserted house, every fan blowing cool, humid air like made around the joint somewhere near dawn, "the big lebowski" come to its glorious conclusion, i settled down for a few hours snooze - my first night in my own bed that summer, i ranged far and wide in my glaz-ball land, wistfully wondering at fog-nymphs buck-naked and oh-so-willing, only to be woken up by a frumpish, hairy mongoloid fuck, eager to be off to Kali-For-Eye-A but tht was another story... and now some video, roughly in order? getting ready to clean DH p1 and haul to my bivy on town crier [video:youtube] the scene in the eve, prior to fixing p2 [video:youtube] masterbater n' commander soundtrack in the cool of the night [video:youtube] lowering out, cleaning the penji of TC, p2 [video:youtube] 1 ptich from the top, shortly 'fore i cleaned the pitch then dropped my jug [video:youtube] what would jesus do? [video:youtube] Approach Notes: across the tracks Quote
Pilchuck71 Posted April 13, 2010 Posted April 13, 2010 (edited) Double Post. Edited April 13, 2010 by Pilchuck71 Quote
Pilchuck71 Posted April 13, 2010 Posted April 13, 2010 Ivan - I really dig the shot of the "cum shrouded Tetons" Mt Baring, with the lights of Index. Super cool! Nice TR. Cheers Quote
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