Big Valley

Oct. 8th – 13th 2009

The trip to Yosemite had been planned for months. We decided to move it up a week and now I am glad we did. Rick made his van available for the trip and provided all the gas. Rick is the best. I talked him into the trip by selling him on the idea of summiting on Half Dome by way of the Snake Dike route. I sold it like a snake oil salesman from the old west. I played it up as the greatest summit in the world and that it would cure all his ills.

We rolled out of Portland Oregon a little after 8 am on Thursday morning. We took turns driving and we had no issues with the van, it drove great. It was chocked full of all our gear. 5 ropes, every piece of gear I owned and several I had borrowed, and two stoves. I had two sleeping bags just incase it got really cold. We each brought a tent. And to top it all off we brought a wheel barrow. That was so we could get all that crap into our camp site.

We crossed the border into California and stopped at the Agriculture Produce check point. The officer asked if we had any fruit or vegetables. I said “No but he and I are a pear”. She didn’t even miss a beet and said a pear of what?
Well they didn’t arrest us for the bad joke.

We arrived in the Yosemite Valley after midnight. Camp 4 was full and we had to wait till the morning to find out if we could get in. So off we went to find other digs for the night. Rick rented a tent cabin.

I tried to sleep and couldn’t. It could have been the four 24 ounce cups of coffee I drank, with the 6 shots of espresso. Ya think?
I lay in bed for 2 hours and got up at 4 am to stand in line for Camp 4 camping.
I got in line at 4:45 and waited until the ranger showed up at 8:30 am.

We paid our fee and got our site. Wahoooo.



Camp 4 is such an awesome place. It’s like the United Nations of climbing. There are climbers from all over the world. It was really worth it getting up so early to get in to that camp ground. I wanted to give Rick the whole experience.

We set up camp and got ready to go climbing. I was really moving slow with no sleep.
To The Grack we went. It is a 5 star route that had been suggested by a friend of ours.
The approach was short. We needed to save our energy for Snake Dike the next day.
We got to the base of the climb and found no line. It was late in the afternoon and everyone was leaving. We had the place to ourselves. I set off on the on sight attempt on this route. I briefly looked at the guide book and started climbing. I got to the crux of the route and was stymied by the awkward bulging feature in front of me. To the left looked too easy. 5.5 at most, but the bulge looked harder than 5.6 like the guide book said. I moved up and placed a ridiculous amount of gear and after committing to the move up past the bulge realized it was not necessary. That is why the on sight is so much fun. Guide books can be so vague and objective.
Made it to the anchor and brought Rick up. The next pitch was the most fun hand crack that I have ever climbed. I ran up it. I didn’t even want to stop to place gear. It was truly a dream pitch. Rick had fun too.

Then for the money pitch. The reason we were climbing this route was to introduce Rick to Yosemite Valley friction slab climbing. I wanted him to have this technique dialed in before he got slapped up side the side of the head on the 3rd pitch of Snake Dike. Rick jumped on the last pitch and commented that friction slab climbing is like ice climbing. “Great then you won’t have any problems tomorrow” I said. We were having a great time. We had the crag all to ourselves and what a spot. The sun was setting and the colors were incredible. No wind at all and 60 degrees. What an awesome day. We rapped off and made our way back to Camp 4. We needed to get some sleep for our next day of adventure.

I set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. I normally don’t have a problem getting up for a big climb. But this morning I thought we could sleep in another hour. Rick was having no of it. He was up and knocking on my tent. I got up and we were in the van and at the trailhead by 4:00 a.m.

The hike up was not difficult. The plan was to stash water where we took off from the trail. We stashed the pack and Rick took pictures of the area so we could find it later. After hiking for a bit more we gained the south face of Liberty Cap and skirted the base to the left. We found the correct trail and moved up to some exposed 3rd class scrambling. The exposure was a bit unnerving and Rick got to a spot were the trail ended.
It looked like we would have to down climb about 20 feet. The problem with this was that if we slipped or fell we would bounce down onto a ledge and fall 400 feet into the abyss. I looked back about ten feet and spotted a cairn in a tree. Someone had just saved our ass. Normally I take cairns with a grain of salt. All they really prove is that someone was there and their next act could have been to fall to their death. In this case someone knew what they were doing. We made our way up the cut between Mt. Broderick and Liberty Cap. This is an awesome spot in the Valley to be. I started having leg cramps. The muscles on top of my legs in the quads and into my inner thigh started cramping so bad that I had to stop and sit down several times. The muscles were literally jumping and squirming. I kept moving forward and drank more water. When we made it out of the cleft I was still having problems with cramps. So we stopped and ate. Rick had some really good jerky that had a lot of salt in it and also some flattened dry banana. The salt and the potassium seemed to help and I drank more water. It seemed to alleviate the cramps. We made it up onto the slabs just under Half Dome. The wall of granite above us was very intimidating as it lorded itself above us. It dominated ¾ of our field of vision. Our sense of perspective was askew. Everything in the Big Valley does that to you. Everything is so large and we were so small. We were in the Valley of Giants and we were the little people. We found the slabs and moved up until we found the ledges to traverse to our left.

We met some other climbers that got lost in the manzanita maze. The woman was not happy as it had caught her pack, rope, hair and ripped her clothing.
Rick wanted to rope up over the ledges as they were strewn with marble sized rocks and the exposure was intense. It looked like one hundred feet of steep slab below us. But by this time we knew that it was very likely much further.
So rope up we did. Two rope lengths later we walked up to the base of Snake Dike. We were greeted by a long line of folks. They explained to us the circus that was going on above us on the first pitch. It really was a circus with clowns, jugglers, and midgets. WOW! You don’t often see a cluster fuck of that magnitude. We were told there was a point when 8 ropes were headed to the same anchor. Leaders out of control. Rick and I waited for 3 ½ hours to start climbing. Two parties bailed and started the dismal hike back down to the trailhead. We were determined to finish this climb.

We started up Snake Dike at 3:30 p.m.
All the pitches went well. When I led the first pitch I did a friction traverse to the slab below the eyebrow and did not even try the slippery traverse under the eyebrow. I lowered off my first piece and swung across. I led the second and third pitch better than I did when I climbed it 2 years before.

When I led the 3 third pitch crux I went high instead of low after the bolt. When I led it before I went low and it was much harder. There were only little teaspoons to try to smear my shoes into. When I went high it was only one move that really that got my full attention. I had to commit to a high step smear similar to one that I had come across earlier this summer in Colorado. That day I would not commit, but this day it was on and I made the move. Success. Thank God! It was a run out move but I would not have hit anything if I had fallen. After I gained the dike I did not clip the rap anchor that was there. It was two hangers and bolts and I skipped it to make it easier for Rick. I went up another 20 feet to the next hanger and clipped that with a 48” runner so that his fall and pendulum potential would be negated to a high degree. I could give him tension without pulling him off, so that he could top rope the traverse. I saw a guy come back to Camp 4 that looked like he had be run over and dragged by a truck. I asked him what happened. He explained that he had been following the 3rd pitch friction traverse on Snake Dike and had fallen and pendulumed. He was in really bad shape and I didn’t want Rick to get the same present. I think it would have been the end of our trip. Any time you don’t fall when climbing that is good. That is why they call it climbing and not falling.

We were fully on the dike now. The dike is an odd formation. It is pink to white in color and protrudes out of the glacier polished granite face. I have likened the dike to climbing the back of a stegosaurus or a ladder. There are knobs, chicken heads, scoops and holes. It is really a menagerie of beautiful sculptured rock. There are no cracks to speak of so the bolts were added here and there.

I found a description of how the feature was formed at:
http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/geology.pdf
magma (molten rock) forced its way up through cracks and zones of weakness in the gneiss. This igneous (formed by heat) rock slowly cooled, forming light-colored intrusions called dikes of granite, inches to hundreds of feet thick.

The wind died down after the 4th pitch and it warmed up a bit. We were concerned about getting the climb done as the sun was starting to set.

By this time we were fully committed to the climb. We had one rope, I had two headlamps and Rick had battery back up. Up we went. Soon it would get dark. So we got the headlamps out.
I led the 5th pitch which has a hole in the rock at the belay. There was water in it. It smelled terrible. We tried to keep the rope out of it. The sun was setting as Rick climbed up to me at the belay. I set off in the dark on the 6th pitch and found the single bolt on the pitch by using my headlamp like a search light. Hangers and bolts are hard to see with a headlamp. I didn’t realize how dim my headlamp was until the next evening when comparing it with Rick’s. I was exasperated to find that my headlamp compared to his was like a 5 watt bulb to his 200 watt bulb. It could have been easier to climb using his headlamp. But not as much adventure. I found the next two bolt anchor by Braille. Not easy to do on a polished granite friction slab. The next pitch I knew I was supposed to go straight up and not follow the dike any more. I was not sure if there were any bolts or protection. Thus I set off on my next treasure hunt blindfolded. I went up on the 5.2 friction slab and wished for a bolt. I was coaching myself. “You are doing great. Just keep moving. You are doing great”
Then there must have been an invisible line after I got 50 feet from the anchor. The thought of a factor two fall on the anchor after sliding an tumbling and maybe getting roughed up by the dike must have reach critical mass. Because instantly I went from being fine to terror. I have yet to experience such alarm so fast. Rick must have heard me swallow my heart and yelled up “Hang in there buddy”. It was the perfect thing for him to say. I sucked it up and moved up and right 15 more feet grabbed a flake and slammed in a #1 Camalot. Then I almost puked on my shoes. I was shaking so bad I just breathed deep to calm down before continuing up. I built an anchor and brought Rick up to me.
I told him that I was not sure where to go now. My instinct told me to go left but the guide book had told me not to go left at the beginning of the pitch. We could have referred to the guide book if we had brought it. But we had left it with the water that we had stashed. I had made copies of the route and was going to have them laminated. But they were in Portland 800 miles away. We felt like we were on the dark side of the Moon. Out came the cell phone. I called several climbers to ask if they had their guide book to Yosemite Valley handy. Bill Coe told me to call Ben because Bill was driving. Finally I got a hold of Ben and he asked why we needed it. I told him we were lost in the dark on Snake Dike and after he had finished laughing his ass off he walked us through the last pitches of the climb. I also had my wife call YOSAR to tell them that we were fine just in case someone had told them we were up there. I didn’t want someone wasting any effort checking on us.
We continued and my memory of the route came back a little brighter than the headlamp I was using. We made it to the top of the 8th pitch and my instincts were correct. We stayed on route. As I was climbing some kind of rat like animal kept running up to me to check me out. Then it would run away. I started yelling at it to stay away because I was busy. It was a strange animal with large eyes and a tuft of fur on the end of a long tail. It really looked like a large rat. It sure was curious about us.
We stayed roped up and pitched it out for two more belays. Just to be safe. Then we started simil climbing with a running belay. The rope drag was horrendous so I had Rick tie in short so we were not dragging the rope across the slabs. We were really starting to suffer from attitude sickness. Not altitude sickness. We were not high enough for that. We finally took the rope off. It was starting to brush up on rocks and I was concerned with knocking them off and having them start to pitch off and roll down the route. We stayed roped up for a couple of reasons. It was dark, I was fried mentally and we were just pain tired. We made it to the summit at midnight and were greeted my no wind and the moon rise. We could have used that earlier.

We wandered over to The Visor. This is a feature on the Half Dome.
When I had climbed it last time my partner and I slid out on our bellies to look over the edge. It is fully a 2000 foot sheer cliff face. We decided that it may not be a good idea considering how tired we were and that it was pitch black and we wouldn’t see anything anyway. I knew the general direction of the Cable Route so we could use that to get off Half Dome. We did not commit to anything and stayed away from the edge. We were just about to give up when Rick flipped on his search light feature on his headlamp (something that I could have used earlier). And there they were the cables. We ran over and I used my daisy chain on my harness and two carabineers to attach my self to the cable. I would slide one biner down until it came to the post holding up the cable and then grabbed the other biner attach it. After it was clipped in I would remove the other biner. So I was always attached to the cable. The route between the cables is polished and slick. Rick fell a few times going down. Most tourists go up it with no protection. It’s hard to believe that it is allowed by the Park Service. One slip and you are tumbling down the side of Half Dome.
We got off the cables. Out of water we started the 9 mile hike out. At times I was barely moving shuffling my feet along the trail. But we kept moving. We ran into other hikers in the dark and they shared their water with us. We had food but they offered that also. I went into autopilot. My energy level would go up and down all the way down the trail. At times I was able to almost run down and then I would be back to scuffling. I was moving and that was all that counted. Rick and I got separated at one point but we had radios to communicate with. He looked for the pack with the water while I continued to move down the trail. I was concerned that the cramps would come back to debilitate me. I just wanted to get back to camp. It took Rick an hour to find the pack. Even with pictures of our stash spot at the bottom of Nevada Falls. He could not find it right away.
I had the vitamin I (ibuprofen). I stashed it for him on the trail and talked him to it over the radio. I was stopping for nothing. We made it back to the van at 8:30 a.m. We had been hiking, waiting to climb or climbing for 28 ½ hours. We started calling ourselves team epic. We may not climb fast but we will sure get there last. Or we don’t climb fast but we climb long.

I was able to talk Rick into going to the all you can eat breakfast buffet at Curry Village. He almost did a face plant in his eggs. He had the bright idea of taking a shower since we were right there. He even carried my towel for me. I have to say that was the coldest shower I have ever taken. I was almost hypothermic. There was no heat in the building and a very cold breeze with the door open. The water couldn’t have been more that lukewarm. It was the worst part of the ordeal. Now I was really smoked. Rick started driving over to Yosemite Village so I could go to the store to buy celery. I was told by Jim Opdycke that it is the cure for muscle cramps after climbing. It seems to work. My other option I figured was to go to the Valley clinic and get an IV to deal with the dehydration. Driving to the store Rick almost fell asleep twice. So I insisted on driving. After getting the celery we rolled into Camp 4 and our tents. At this point we had been up from 3:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. the next day. 32 hours total.

Following a three hour nap I talked Ricky into going to look at Sacherer Cracker.
We drove down to take a look. Walking up to El Capitan Rick was overwhelmed by the massiveness of the face. He said and you want to climb that. My response damn right I do. We took pictures and walked up and looked at Sacherer Cracker. I reasoned that today in the state I was in. I think it was California. There was no way I was going even to attempt it. Down we went back to the car. We figured it was good to get out and hike so the lactic acid would not just ferment in our muscles. I told Rick to pick something out on the Manure Pile Buttress. We were suffering from approachitis and the 5 minute approach was very appealing. I figured that I owed him some fun after putting him trough the meat grinder. We went back to Camp 4 to rest up for the next day.

We woke up late and took our time getting started. After racking up we headed to the Manure Pile Buttress. I told Rick you pick. It’s your day.
We will climb anything that you want to. And if it has people on it we will climb what ever is open. We got on the road and at the bus stop we saw some climbers. So we offered them a ride. It turned out they were from the Czech Republic. We enjoyed talking with them about some of the climbing areas in Europe. Like Dresden and others. They had climbed a lot in Dresden and had many stories to tell.
We dropped them off and continued to get on over to our climb.
The After 6 route was open and it was something I had led before.
We started up and in the crux section the audience that had gathered to watch another party on the next climb over started to get unruly and disruptive. They had small children running around falling over and smacking their heads on the ground. When one of them split their lip and started screaming while I was trying to pull the crux I lost it and fell.
I was not really feeling it before. But I thought whatever that kid wants give them two.
The guy next to us would not stop talking to Rick. So I barked at Rick “it’s me and you and no one else here. Watch me!”and the guy shut up. No that I had un-sighted my previous on sight of After 6. I started pulling on gear and struggled up. That 1st pitch is really greasy and even more so after the hoards have climbed it all summer.
When we got to the top of the 2nd pitch the wild started howling and the clouds started building. I knew that we could bail on the 4th pitch so I wasn’t too concerned.
We got to the 4th pitch and I thought I felt a pellet of hail. I screamed into the radio to Rick “You had better move your ass cause I felt some hail. I can climb in the dark and the rain but I am not sure I can climb in a hail storm. And hail means lighting.”
I led the last pitch really fast and got under the tree at the belay. No he could take all the time he wanted. The weather held and we made it off the climb and down to the trail. No rain this trip and thankfully no hail.
Back to Camp 4 for some dinner.

After making dinner I decided to go look for the Camp 4 Wall. I told Rick I would be right back. The light was fading so on with the headlamp. I was hiking in the dark again. I kept running out of sunlight. After stumbling around for a while I found the Wall and looked at a few wide cracks and some stuff that was not in the guide book. I stayed well away from any ledges and worked my way in the drainage that leads to the Wall from Camp 4. Somehow I had missed the drainage on the way up. In the guide book it seemed to me that the drainage would contain fist sized rocks and be kind of gravely. Wrong, the rocks in the drainage were the size of apartment buildings with drops of over 20 and 30 feet. In the dark it was not easy finding my way down. I had to keep skirting my way into the woods. Eventually I heard the laughter and camaraderie of Camp 4 and walked back to camp. I told Rick what I had done. He said “You’re nuts”. Well I had to go just look. Now I know where it is. Later that night I heard the sound of guitar and singing. Wandering over I found the Czeck’s that we had given a ride singing Czech folk songs. I joined in and had a great time faking singing in Czech. Then to bed as we were leaving in the morning.

We woke up to a slight drizzle and I thought if we hurried we could get all our stuff in the van before it really let loose. I sent Rick after the van. I packed the rest of the stuff and checked the bear boxes for our food loaded it all in the wheel barrow. Rick drove up and parked in the woods and I ran over with a load, handed it to him and ran back for another.
We had the van packed in 10 minutes and hit the road. We made it before the rain really came down. On the way out to the park we stopped to see Generator Crack and vowed to come back and tackle it. The storm hit as we were leaving and it rained most of the way back to Oregon.

We certainly hit the best weather window and had an incredible trip. The trip of a lifetime in the Big Valley. We climbed as near as we can figure about 23 pitches of roped climbing including simil climbing with running belays and over 20 miles of hiking in four days. We were happy to have had such a great trip in the bag.

Wolf's Tooth

What would you say if your climbing partner called you and said “If you can get the time off work I will pay for half your plane fare and cover most of your expenses to climb with me in Colorado ?” It took me all of two seconds to say yes. Then I started thinking what it would take to get it done. I did not even care what we climbed. I was hankering for Colorado granite. My partner informed me that the name of the tour was going to be the Force Feeding The Rat Pain Is Not An Option Tour 2008.

The Rat is that creature that lives in the belly of most climbers. Maybe not all climbers have this inner adversary. I know my Rat well though. It is he that chews on my insides and says really insensitive things like. You’re not really a climber. What have you done recently? Why do you have all that really cool gear? You aren’t really going to get to the level you are shooting for. This incessant chatter and gnawing really is awful in the winter and in those years that you have used all your vacation time up. I have even climbed in the rain to get the Rat off my back. Well now the Rat was going to be fed. And the Rat was ecstatic, the scarier and harder the better as far as the Rat was concerned. But we were planning to punish the Rat.
The Rat is not an original idea. I was introduced to the concept by the book authored by Al Alvarez. The book is the biography of Mo Anthoine. Very inspiring and puts a name to the drive that makes me want to climb.

I prepared myself for the challenges mentally and physically. Being that I lived at near sea level altitude may be a challenge. I used to work at 9000 ft. above sea level for 6 ½ years building log homes in Grand Lake Colorado. Swinging 16 pound sledge hammers driving spikes through logs for up to three days at a time. Hand peeling logs with a drawknife and chopping the knots off with a double bitted ax. Running chainsaws daily on ladders 15 to 20 feet off the ground. So I told myself that that kind of training might have enlarged my heart to be able to metabolize oxygen more efficiently. I almost believed that. I took the best action I could physically. I got out and on sight led a moderate 5.7 multi-pitch climb to make sure I had the head for placing gear. That went well. I also had gained the summit of Mt. Hood earlier in the year. 11,265 ft. In preparations for that trip I started hydrating by increasing my water intake for two days before the trip. My theory was that most people have problems with altitude because of dehydration. As a result of my action on that trip I had no ill effects and was able to summit in a reasonable time frame.
So this trip I did the same. I started drinking more water and kept it up on the plane ride to Colorado . Besides having to take a pee every 5 minutes it seemed to work alright.

I arrived in Denver at 9:24 am with little sleep. I have always told myself I climb better with little sleep. It seems to work. The Rat doesn’t really mind. It may even shut it up. I got off the plane and it was on. We grabbed some food to go at the airport and rushed to the car. We were on the road headed to Estes Park and Lumpy Ridge.
We arrived at about 12:00 pm at the parking lot and organized the gear and decided that we would climb up to the via Conan’s Gonads to the Roosting Ramp on Twin Owls and stash a pack there and continue up the Wolf’s Tooth. My partner had already done the reconnaissance on how to get the start of Conan’s Gonads 5.9
He would take that lead and I would get the Wolf’s Tooth 5.8+
We would descend the Bowls of the Owls 5.0

My partner took off leading at 1:00 pm. I started off at 1:38 pm.
I flew from sea level to 8000 ft within hours of the start of the climb and me following a 5.9 route with a pack. I hate climbing with a pack. And it was the pack that I particularly hate that I had to carry. This pack will not allow your head to tilt back so that you can look up. The profile is too tall. But I made up my mind to climb around this difficulty and make it work. I made the first few moves and the jams were so fantastic. I was cooing and rejoicing in the smearing and jamming. It was so good I hardly remembered I had the pack on. I finished following and cleaning the route in 23 mins.
We re-racked and stashed the pack. And I was off. The first 15 feet were perfect hand jams, and then it got hard.
I knew that there was on off width section to contend with but it really took me by surprise how difficult and awkward it was. I really like off widths. I am kind of sick that way. This off width crack was a real struggle. I have the body made for off widths. I am small to average size. I am not a great climber, but I am mean. I have the tenacity to stick with it and leave a little skin if need be. An off width is that perplexing feature in rock climbing that will not take the largest hand jamming technique and not large enough to fit your whole body into. Now there is the double fist jam, but I don’t have the balls to pull that one off.
I was really at my limit on this climb. I was exhausted after 40 feet or so. I jammed my arm with a good arm bar jammed my knee in the crack and rested, breathed deeply and remembered all the preparation I had done. I adjusted my technique a bit and by jamming both my arms up to my shoulders into the off width crack with one arm above the other then kicking my legs completely free then by folding my body upwards in a sit-up or crunch move I jammed my feet and knee until I got enough friction to move my arms up. I was doing upside down chick wings with my triceps on one side and my hand on the other side of this hideous crack from hell and enjoying every upward movement. Finally I had time to rest when I moved into the chimney section. I found great gear all the way up and didn’t even use the battle-axe #6 Camalot. The bane of my existence is the bringing of too much gear for the climb. My theory is for an on sight climb I would rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. I made it to the top of the pitch just below the top of the tooth. I was elated. I got it done. No falls. No takes. This was a clean free climb assent. A climbers dream. My dream. A project finished. Now to it was my partners turn. He was thinking what is taking him so long. Well I will make up time here and charge up this thing. He struggled. He cursed the crack. He said things like I wouldn’t drive 3 miles to do this climb I can’t believe you flew over 1200 miles to do this rotten climb. It took me an hour to lead it and he took an hour of struggling to follow the climb. He is not of the body build that lends itself well to the off width or chimney. He could not get any leverage. He said near the top “You are a freak! How did you lead that?” I was smiling from ear to ear. My partner was fried. His forearms where smoked. I offered the next lead to him. He said no way. I am done just get us off here the easiest way you can. I started looking at the next lead and he said don’t even look over there. That is the easiest way there, and pointed. I started off again. It was not that easy to start off but the angle backed off right away and soon we were at the top of the Twin Owls. Now we needed to descend into the Bowels of the Owls. Like I said I knew the general direction but we had to look around. We saw a rappel sling around the base of a rock where someone had bailed off. It looked like they got a lucky day as we chose to keep searching for the Bowels of the Owl and not use the sling. We finally found the Bowels. It was a tube like chimney thing. We were chewed up by the Wolf and now we where getting extruded by the Owl. The Rat had the full meal deal. We descended and made it to the trail grabbed our pack from the Roosting Ramp and away to the car.
It was starting to get later in the day and soon the sun would be setting. We need to get to the store and get supplies to have food for the evening and the next morning and then drive 140 miles to the next climb.

Scott Peterson/Plaidman

Smith Rock Detour 2009

Trip: Smith Rock Detour - Smith Rock Oregon

Date: 9/19/2009

Trip Report:
The Smith Rock Detour is an EVENT not to be missed.
I had the time of my life. Thank you Climb Max Mountaineering for putting together this unique event. You all did a fantastic job.
I headed down on Friday night and split gas with someone to manage expenses. For the price of registration, the Smith Rock Detour was so way worth it.

The Self Rescue Clinic was awesome. Our instructor from Timberline Mountain Guides Ben Randall was very knowledgeable and was clear and had great ways of communicating the voluminous amount of information. Escaping the belay, setting up hauling systems and transferring a load from one system to another were the topics covered. Knots, preventative measures, pick off were also covered.

Ben would show us what to do and why. His demonstrations and explanations of the various systems were followed by hands on practice. Our team of three set out to build a 5 to 1 hauling system and ended up with an 18 to 1. Helpful if you are going to bring your car up to the belay to listen to tunes. Ben assisted us on how to build the 5 to 1 correctly. We all had a blast. After 5 hours of instruction I had info leaking out of my ears. Thumbs up to Timberline Mountain Guides.

After all that I need to go climb. Two of the guys from the clinic jumped on a couple of routes and then it was on to dinner and hanging out with all the folks. Climbers are the most awesome bunch of folks to hang with.

Then it was the Reel Rock Film Tour. WOW. It is a must see. Alex Honnold's solo of Half Dome was way off the sick scale. I shook my head in utter amazement. The assents by the North Face team and Chris Sharma were awe inspiring.

Breakfast was great and then some more climbing. My partner led The Outsiders 5.9 At one point he said hey there is a birds egg perched on the ledge in this Hueco. It was further in yesterday. Somebody's rope is going to knock this off and make a mess. It is cracked though. So after finishing it I climbed up, and there it was a little egg. I climbed past and on the way down I thought I would remove the objective danger. And I as I started to lift the egg off the mother pigeon that was hiding in the hole almost peck my finger off. I sure was glad I didn't let go of my repel line. I dropped the egg and had to yell EGGGGG! Everyone ran away and the egg smacked the ground and my partner yelled "Hey the baby bird just flew away out of the egg after it hit the ground." Everyone said no way. He said was way. We didn't believe him. Man the mother bird was pissed off cause the next guy that went up yelled after the bird attached him when he tried to grab a handhold. The egg was cracked so I think the mother was pushing it out of her nest. I was just trying to make sure the muck didn't end up in some girls hair. Bad hair day at Smith. Not fun.

Then it was on to the heinous start of 9 Gallon Buckets.
I struggled for 15 mins. trying to get up on it. I then used the old stand on your helmet trick taught to me by an inspired climber trying to get on the Surf Board on Ancient Art at Fischer Towers Utah. I had always wanted to try that. It worked well enough to get me to the big Hueco on the next route to the right. Then I had to traverse over to Nine Gallon Buckets. Totally cheated and only made it to the first anchor. Dismal performance.
I was told that the start now is something like 5.11. It is definitely mean and hard. I guess I will have to get meaner or lighter. Lighter probably. Maybe harder.

The weekend was a grand adventure with benefits to be had from the new climbing partners I met, the added knowledge from the clinic, and the Reel Rock Film Tour are just the highlights.
The Smith Rock Detour is now going to be on the list of must attend events from now on.

Plaidman

West Chimney - Crown Point - Columbia River Gorge - Alpine Choss

Date: 9/12/2009

Trip Report:
The plan was to climb the West Chimney then hike up the slot canyon at Moffet Creek and then pop over to Beacon Rock and do a lap on the South East Corner. Plans are great.
We took one car up to the top of Crown Point and parked it then drove down from Corbett to the freeway and stopped across from Rooster Rock on the on the East bound side of I-84. There is a road to the railroad track with a locked gate. We just pulled way off the freeway and hopped the fence. We ascended the forested slopes by way of a gully 50 yards short of the fence on the South side of the tracks. The going was rough in Tevas. We wore sandals because we were going to go up Moffet Creek later. We thrashed our way up the blanketed slopes full of brambles and nettles. I am convinced that a machete and a blowtorch combo flamethrower should be standard equipment in the Northwest. We bushwhacked for an hour and got to the base of the climb. We started up and right off I realized this was alpine climbing at sub-alpine elevation. Very loose rock. I was encouraged by finding lots of fixed pitons and found my way up the first pitch. The first belay was awesome. One 3/8" bolt and two very good pitons. I added a Brown tricam to the mix. The next pitch was the crux. My first piece was a piton that I backed up with a nut and then placed a cam on the traverse right. Went 12' right then straight up. It was a bit loose but not too bad until I got further up toward the chimney. I had my wife move climbers left so that she would not be in the fall line. It was spooky. Every hand and foot hold were suspect. I got to the next belay. Good pin and the chock stone was bomber. I slung the chock stone and used the pin. Upon my wife arriving we needed to move around a bit and there was not much room so I climbed up above her in the chimney. I led off into the deeeeeeep chimney that actually goes all the way through to the other side at a 45 to 50 degree angle. It is filled with dirt and rock. I climbed on the rock and stayed off the dirt any where from 5 to 10 feet. In the middle was the squeeze section. After arriving on the other side in the sun I yelled off belay. No response. I yell loud. But I yelled louder. No response. Three tugs on the rope. No response. Cell phone. Wife answers. You are out of rope. I answered you are on belay. As my wife climbed I started musing hmmm. How do we get off. The guide book didn't say. I think we are in for an adventure. My wife came up the gully and wondered way we needed a rope if we were just walking up the dirt. I told her that is not how I climbed it hence the protection that was placed high in the walls. Oh she exclaimed that would be more fun and requested that I lower her down so she could re-climb it. I nixed that. She arrived at the belay and we had a discussion as to how to get off the climb. I chose straight up. And because I was the leader I got my way. I thought it would go. It would have been at about 5.9 if I could have got it done. The rock was crap. I found a good crack and stuck a cam in and then a good nut. As I got higher there was a ledge with a bulge right at the ledge. I could not find any gear so I placed a pink tricam in a crack and didn't like it that much. Out came the hammer and I drove in a good knife blade #2 bugaboo. I was on aid now. I hung out there and placed another knife blade #1 bugaboo and had to tie it off. Above that I found a really good horn that I slung and clipped a biner to that and put a 48" and two 24" runners on that. Climbed up them until I was standing on the 24" runners. I was just over the bulge and ready to fire up and over when my wife yelled up. Hey I don't think I can make that move. Crap. She was right. So down I came. I back cleaned and tried a traverse along the ledge. I tried to nail it up and rocks the size of my head were coming off. She said that's it come down now!! Hrump.. I conceded she was right. I built a rap anchor with the #2 bugaboo and a large brass nut. Down I came. Back to bushwhacking up an around to the right. I thought it would be a good time to teach my wife how to simul-climb. So now we are in Tevas again and I am kick stepping in mud and moss. Using my piton hammer as a ax to cut steps in the dirt and we are having a royal good time. We made it to the top with out too much yelling at each other but there were a couple of close calls were the anxiety level was elevated. We made it to the road or should I say under the road. The road is supported by pillars near the top at Crown Point. We traversed under the road and I let my wife use my knee to jump over the wall onto the road. My last piece of gear was a runner girth hitched on a piece of conduit so I could get up and over the wall by stepping into the runner. We made it off before dark. My wife told me later I was not yelling at you earlier. I said that's funny I didn't see anyone else around.

West Chimney Videos:

Start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGkCBauuHDk

Start Second pitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6O51QR_RUE

Start third pitch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Q7D_GSjtk

Top of third pitch and start of 4th pitch and Tyrolean traverse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIgrIuxzi4

High Point of 4th pitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMeYVGNnPB0

Top out. Great hair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6bXgHS-Iv4

Bringing Up The Boy

Bringing up the boy. It was a problem that would take some figuring out. My son had just started climbing with me and I wanted to give him the experience of climbing a multi-pitch climb. But the how to do it safely? I mulled over the logistics and what skills I was able to teach him up to this point. The plan started coming together after I found a competent climbing partner. I decided that we would climb as a party of three, with Noah my son climbing second and my partner John cleaning the route. The route would be the South East Corner of Beacon Rock. This is a classic 5.7
route with only one pitch of 5.7.

Noah was familiar with rope management and his basic climbing skills were practiced. To assist him in what he would be required to do on the route as the second climber I set up a route in the back yard. I slung runners on various objects in the yard. I clipped the rope through all these placements and put Noah on belay. With Noah trailing the second rope I had him unclip the lead rope and then clip the trailing rope that was attached to his harness with a locking carabiner to the carabiner on the runner. We practiced this until he was comfortable with the system. I got him all psyched up and ready for the climb. I told him you make it to the top of this one and you will be changed. We would be up at 3:45 and in the car by 4:00 am.

We got to the base of the rock and started climbing at 6:00 am. John led out and we all got to the crux pitch. I planned on leading this and would belay both John and Noah up to me at the same time with a Reverso. It was a good plan except I put in too many pieces and did not get a very good line for the rope to follow. When the rope line is not straight is causes rope drag. It was awful. It was like doing squats in the gym to get the rope to move. I could hear Noah below me yelling up “Daddyeeeee”. He was frightened. I felt terrible. I thought that maybe I had traumatically scarred him for life. It turned out that John literally pulled him up and over the crux with one hand pulling Noah and the other on a crimper hold. We couldn’t have pulled it off without John. We all got to the belay and Noah was fine. He was laughing and joking. I led the 6th pitch and when Noah started up I was surprised how fast he was coming up. I looked down and he saw me. He was on a slab of rock and yelled up “Hey Dad check out this new move. It’s called a body smear”. He was laying spread eagled on the rock using the friction of his whole body. I roared with laughter. We finally made it to the top and were told by a reliable source that Noah being 12 years old was probably the youngest climber to have finished that route. It was a very long day. It took us a total of 11 hours to finish the climb. I was able to share my love for climbing with my son and we have something we can remember for the rest of our lives. There were some enormous lessons I was able to teach him and climbing is a great sport to teach so many life and living lessons. So I am still bringing up the boy, and we are doing it together.

South Platte Slapped

South Platte Slapped
8/20 – 8/25/2009

Granite brings to my mind good rock, memories of great climbing, and Colorado.
I had been invited for another climbing trip with my friend and climbing partner Chris.
The plan had been in motion since he bought my plane fare 4 months previous.
We would climb for at least 5 days and try to keep the driving to a minimum.
As the time got closer Chris had a knee injury and the plan needed to be revised.
Flexibility and patience are attributes that I find helpful in climbing and life in general.
We decided that a day of rest and acclimatization would be helpful so we started out slow. Friday the 21st we drove up to an area that we had climbed before and decided that we would re-climb a classic crack climb. Classic Dihedral is a as the name would indicate a classic. I had led this climb several times and remembered it well. I would lead and Chris would clean. The day was hot and the rock was warm. The crack was in the full sun. The lead is 160 ft. and very straight forward. My confidence was up, so off I went. A few bouldery moves off the deck and then up to the shelf. Good so far. Engaged the crack and there it was. Ouch my feet. I forgot that the first few moves after establishing yourself in the crack had teeth. Suck it up get the first two pieces in and move. Stay calm I coached myself. After a few moves upward the flow was on. It felt good to be on granite again after a diet of Andesite (a rock type typical to the Pacific Northwest).
The climb was hot and being in the full on sun made it a grade harder. If we had waited a couple of hours it would have been in the shade. It was good training, maybe not good training, but training none the less.
The top of the crack widens to a flake at the top. I had a choice lay it back or toe heel. Toe heal was the way to go today. As it continued to widen I employed a chicken wing and knee bar. Lay backing on lead is so committing. Stepped left and I was at the anchor. Bliss. What a beautiful spot being on top of Bucksnort Slab in the sun with no wind.
Chris cleaned the route and we rapped and left.

Classic Dihedral 5.7
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/pine_area/105751567

Saturday we decided to go to Eleven Mile Canyon another favorite from my early days of climbing. A short approach to the base of the rock and more Granite crack and face climbing. We chose Arch Rock Direct. This is a fun 5.8 with awesome cracks and the crack eats up gear. It was requested by Chris that I use no nuts for protection as the route is easily protected with cams. Climbing like this would be easier to clean and faster for both of us. I tried to lead the direct start. Made a couple of attempts and finally pulled on a piece of gear and made it over the difficult and awkward 5.9 start. It will remain on the list as unfinished business. The 1st pitch was a warm up. The second pitch requires a run out chimney that you can protect with a mental piece of gear. The consequences of a fall would not be good. As I neared the top I needed to move left out of the nice ledgey filled wonderful chimney and out to perform some dicey face moves.
I arrived at the belay spot at the top. We chose this location so that we could communicate without the interference from the wind. Chris followed and lead past me to the summit and then the walk off in our climbing shoes. At this point I felt a pain in a muscle above me knee. Ow. Not now I have two more days of climbing to do. I hobbled and tried to walk without a limp. I surmised that it was going to hurt whether I favored the leg or if I walked normally. Suck it up and make my body obey. It works sometimes.
The mind is a terrible thing in the wrong hands.
We moved on to the next climb. Hollow Flake was open with no climbers on it, and the 2nd pitch is a route named Persistence. Hollow Flake 5.6 is something that I had led before and is a fun layback flake that eats up gear and has good rests all the way up. It was fun and more Granite. I was getting a full plate of what I wanted. Made it to the belay and brought Chris up. We set up for Persistence. Persistence has 10 bolts to the anchors. I placed a #3 Camalot just under the roof and proceeded up. This is a real balancey move on a small crystal. I made it up to just under the 3rd bolt and came to a screeching halt. The sun was baking me. This was friction slab at its best or worst depending on your point of view. Chris was wondering why it was taking me so long.
He was sending up encouraging information on how to get it done. Kind of like a football coach. I was about 6 inches below the bolt reaching up as far as I could. I had to do a high step from a stance and get my foot above my waist. The leverage was wrong. My shoes were not sticking on the 70 degree Granite slab. I was unwilling to go up and unwilling to fall. The combination of sun, adrenaline, and the lack of commitment had fried my mind and body. Finally after lowering off and climbing up again to the same point I was done. I was slapped down by the South Platte friction slab Granite. I was disgusted with myself. Chris was not happy as he thought I should have finished it and his knee was killing him. After he got to my high point he realized after easily reaching up and making the clip on the bolt, that my arm length could have been a deciding factor in why I was having so much trouble. He is a tall 6’ 2” and I being a stubby 5’ 7”. Even with that I could see that I have a lot of work to do. I am certainly not the badass climber that I had thought I was. I had been South Platte slapped. Ouch. It was a good thing though to get a reality check as to where I really am as a climber. The rock will tell. We were done after finishing that climb. It was time to rest for tomorrow.

Arch Rock Route 5.8
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/elevenmile_canyon/105764490

Hollow Flake 5.6
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/elevenmile_canyon/105753064

Persistence 5.9
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/elevenmile_canyon/105763968


Sunday Chris tried calling a few climbers to see if anyone was available to do climb Cynical Pinnacle by way of the Center Route. We got a call from Ben. Ben had been referred to us by another climber. The recommendation was enough to instill confidence in his ability to lead the route. We interviewed him and he checked out with us. We met in the parking lot at 1:45 p.m. and headed off by way of what we thought would be an easier approach. Almost 2 ½ hours later we were at the base of the climb. We had waited so late so that the route would be in the shade. It was 4:00 p.m. before we started the climb. I gave Ben the first pitch as I thought it would give him momentum going into the 2nd pitch crux. Besides I had already led the 1st pitch last year. I did not tell Ben that I was dizzy and felt like I was going to puke on his shoes. Altitude and the heat were taking it’s toll. He flew up the 1st pitch I followed and cleaned. He smoked the 2nd pitch crux of the route in 16 min. I took off after managing the rope I was dragging. I needed to pull it and flake it in a pod to make sure the wind didn’t get it stuck in a crack. The crack was beautiful. Hand over hand. Great feet. Where my feet got tired I was able to smear on the face. About have way up I was huffing and puffing so hard that I had to stop. My mouth was a dry gapping hole and my tongue was starting to swell up to the point that it was difficult to force enough air into my starving lungs. I had water so I made a jam with my hand had a solid stance with my feet stuffed in the crack grabbed the water and took a long drink. Chris was down at the base with binoculars and a stopwatch. He said as he watched he could not believe what he was seeing. “Did he really just stop to take a drink of water?” It was either that or collapse from heat exhaustion. I continued up and finished the pitch with no falls and no tension on the rope in 17 min according to Chris’s stopwatch. Ben had threatened that he was going to make me lead the last pitch. Upon arriving at the belay he wanted me to lead past up to the pod above him. Making that move was very interesting I used the nest of webbing as a step of an aid ladder and hauled myself up and pleaded with Ben to take the next pitch. He said he had always wondered if he could lead all three pitches. I said today is your day. Ben took off and finished the pitch and put me on belay. I French freed the last few moves by pulling on gear and flopped up on the top of the 3rd pitch. It was 7:00 p.m. and we needed to get off.
Darkness was approaching and the crux of the route is the approach to the base and the trail leading to the bottom. It has to be one of the worst trails ever. The trail is covered with exfoliated Granite the size of marbles. To descend this in the dark was torture. To add to the misery my knee started acting up again. The muscle was cramping and threatening to just seize up, while my pack was attempting to throw me down the hill.
We made it off with headlamps. I carry two with me and gave one to Ben. We made it off thanked Ben and got into the car. I felt like I had been beaten with a bat. We had made a date to go out in the morning with another climber. I made up my mind that I would not even decide whether I was going in the morning or not. I knew in the state of mind I was in I would not be making a rational decision. I was cooked. Another great climb ticked off the list. But not really I would like to have done it in better style. So this route stays on the list.

Center Route 5.9+
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/cathedral_spires_area/105748816


Morning came too early. Chris woke me up and I shuffled to the bathroom. I could hardly move. I thought when I get to climb El Cap I will certainly feel just as bad. Just keep moving I told myself. As I moved I felt better and better.
We were meeting David at Starbucks at 9:00 a.m. He and his wife and I were going to climb the Martyr. One of the best crack climbs in the state. When we arrived I shook David’s hand and I knew I was going. I could tell this guy can climb. He informed us that his wife would not be going with us as the rain was threatening and we would need to climb fast. I ran in to get my go juice. I got a Grande coffee with 2 shots of espresso and an inch of ice so I can drink it fast. Chris told me “This guy moves fast so you will need to really move it to keep up.” That fired me up and I just focused my mind to keep moving. We made it to the base of the climb with the clouds threatening. David led off and finished the first pitch in 16 mins. He built the anchor pulled up the rope and yelled on belay Scott. 20 secs later I yelled climbing. I cleaned the pitch and was off belay in 12 mins. Chris was again at the base timing the climb. We exchanged gear and David lead the 2nd pitch crux in 10 mins I followed and cleaned it in 10 mins. The goal is for the 2nd climber to clean the pitch in half the time. But to match his time was good. The rock on this pitch was beautiful. The rock was the most amazing Granite. Every hand jam was perfect. Feet slotted into the rock easily. I was climbing so smoothly. I was flowing up the rock. Not thinking just moving dynamically. Every hold was there on demand. I was one with the rock. We got to the 3rd pitch and David had a hidden treat. We needed to make a traverse about 300 ft off the deck on little ledges for the feet and almost nothing for the hands. David gave me specific instructions on what to do. He made it to the belay and yelled “Off belay”. It was my turn. I climbed. I did not think about climbing. I moved. It was like I was in a meditative state. Everything was so clear and right now. I was so present. The rock and the movement was all I was conscious of. The rope led up into a small upside down cave. It was like bomb bay doors. There was nothing below me for over 300 feet. The holds were large and the foot holds were there, but the consequences of a fall would have been a swing into space. It is just better not to fall in some situations and this was one of them. I would have been fine as long as my heart did not explode from an overload of adrenaline.
I removed the last piece and moved out with feet and hands engaged. Out of the Bat Cave I climbed. I reached the end of the roof after 5 or 10 ft and slammed my arm into the crack above with an arm bar. I was locked in and was not coming off. I continued by throwing my leg around the arête at the end of the cave and threw my other arm into the crack. Moved my feet up, made a couple of more hand jams and I was at the summit. Combined time between us 20 mins. 10 for David 10 for me. WOW!!! This had to be the best climb of my life. I figured the best way to thank David and Chris was to climb well. We got ourselves off the summit and back to the packs just as the rain started to spit.
David was a very inspiring climber and I was able to rise to the challenge in the face of physical pain and mental fatigue. I was so ecstatic it was really a privilege to have been able to climb such beautiful rock with a master of the stone like David.

The Martyr 5.9
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/colorado_springs/old_stage_road/105756922

I had to thank Chris for putting himself out there to find partners for me to climb with. I had the time of my life and climbed 4 out of 6 days. This has to be one of the best climbing trips yet. And the adventure continues.

Scott Peterson/Plaidman August 26, 2009

Climbing Gear Ninja

You gotta see my buddy playing with his climbing gear after drinking whiskey.