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bandycoot
May 8, 2003, 2:40 AM
Post #26 of 42
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I tried half dome once. It was my first bigwall attempt and we heard horror stories of having to wait days to climb. We brought the portaledge for just in case if a ledge we wanted was taken. Anyways, we had a lot of weight, like you're planning on having and I'm sure the hauling is similar on the beginning of the routes. My friend and I were really excited and jazzed about the trip. We were willing to spend as much effort and time as needed (thus the ledge) to get up the wall.
Well, a heat wave struck. The temperatures soared over a hundred degrees and annihilated us. My partner stopped performing as well as he could due to heat cramps so I was leading a lot and ended up with heat exhaustion while hauling. I was slurring my words and slowing down A LOT. No matter how badly we wanted to get up that wall, we couldn't have if we wanted. The heat completely annihilated us.
The points of my post:
Be prepared to be disappointed, things may get out of your control and spank you off even if you are descently prepared.
The lighter your load the better. This is so important I can't even begin to stress how much the weight killed us. I just couldn't haul that in the heat!
Good luck, may the stars align in your favor!
Josh
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simzboardr
May 8, 2003, 3:10 AM
Post #27 of 42
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Registered: May 9, 2002
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Anyone know how to retain water well...salts or something?
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tim
May 8, 2003, 4:10 AM
Post #28 of 42
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Registered: Apr 4, 2002
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It won't help... you will friggin' MELT at 100+ degrees in the Valley. That's why people do walls in the spring and fall.
Go climb the Matthes Crest if you're going in July and want to climb dozens of pitches in a day. Run a few laps on Fairview. Maybe climb the West Face of the Leaning Tower. But get the hell away from the Nose unless you are prepared for serious suffering.
Buy some potassium citrate and magnesium citrate, and mix a pinch of each with a pinch of salt per gallon of water, if you must. But please understand that the Valley can be an oven in the summer and you really will have a better trip if you just head for Tuolumne or a High Sierra "wall" instead. Cripes, try Keeler Needle if you want a stiff challenge.
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iamthewallress
May 8, 2003, 4:25 AM
Post #29 of 42
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In reply to: Hey man i do have a clue, i know its gonna hit me hard when its up there. But i get myself into things like this all the time... I know there is huge room for epic, and it doens't bother me, theres plenty of places to bail. Its just july is the only time i could go untill next year, and the nose has been my dream ever since climbing, so why not get a taste of it even if i dont' get the whole way its worth it.
If you're ready to love your time up there no matter what the outcome, then at the very least you definately have the right attitude for taking on the Nose in July as your first wall. Good luck.
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simzboardr
May 8, 2003, 4:27 AM
Post #30 of 42
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Registered: May 9, 2002
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Thanks
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apollodorus
May 8, 2003, 5:18 AM
Post #31 of 42
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The first day on the wall is the worst. It gets easier and better the higher you go.
The Nose is not going to defeat you because of lack of aid skills. It will defeat you because of its length. If you bring enough water (AUGUST! Bring 4 liters of water per person per day, minimum, in 2 liter soda bottles), and the bulldog tenacity to get up, you will pull past the final bolt ladder to the summit. Eventually.
Bringing the ledge on the Nose is not a bad form of insurance. The extra 10 pounds is not going to make-or-break the ascent. Also, it will let you bivi at the usual ledges even if they're already taken by other parties.
Doing aid pitches is not going to help you get the other ropework systems dialed. Find a place and practice hauling. Do a trad climb (or eight, or ten) on aid, with the second following on jumars, and hauling. Do traversing routes, and know how to clip the bottom of your jumar around the rope so it doesn't pop off.
Find a place to dry-run the King Swing monster pendulum, and figure out how you'll follow it. There are a couple of TRs on the web that talk about this. Some guys (use "Loobster" in your search) wrote about doing it the right way. The Fish website (FISH) has beta for the Nose, and he makes a point of noting that the King Swing is "Epic Central, as evidenced by all the stuck ropes".
EDIT: I found the link of W.W. Wright and the Loobster on the Nose, but it's 404: http://www.geocities.com/~wwwright/ElCap.html
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lambone
May 8, 2003, 5:30 AM
Post #32 of 42
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Registered: May 1, 2003
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awh, the wall ain't that bad in July...I have three planned. Once your up high the winds kick in and yur fine. Move slower, drink a ton and enjoy the heat...
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atg200
May 8, 2003, 5:32 AM
Post #33 of 42
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Registered: Jul 27, 2001
Posts: 4317
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ok, i'll start the pool. i'll give 4:1 odds, and put $100 on it. first person to cover my spread gets my bet.
sidebets for getting plucked by yosar or getting heat stroke?
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iamthewallress
May 8, 2003, 5:45 AM
Post #34 of 42
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Registered: Jan 2, 2003
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I'll go 4:1 they bail. (2:1 if they haul the ledge and bring water for the expedition length climb)
If bailing does ensue I'll go another...
2:1 on snail eye after the first day.
5:1 on snail eye from the meadow.
100:1 on YOSAR.
20:1 on heat stroke.
0.1:1 on heat misery.
0.5:1 on righteous sunburn
I'm not putting up any money, but if these boys make it to top, the beers are on me in 4 years when they are old enough to legally drink them! In the meanwhile, I'll raise mine in their direction and buy them ice cold root beers if I cross their paths.
The poll is in good fun. It's always more fun to see the longshot pull through, so I hope that y'all are twisted enough to find this silliness motivating.
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alpinelynx
May 8, 2003, 5:52 PM
Post #35 of 42
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Registered: Aug 11, 2002
Posts: 280
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at this rate there won't BE a summer and they will have to bail because of snow.
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rollingstone
May 8, 2003, 7:44 PM
Post #36 of 42
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Registered: May 22, 2002
Posts: 273
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Pete: If you are lucky summer will be delayed and it will not be scorching hot in July when you are ready to blast. But, fwiw, I did the Nose as my third Yosemite wall, but I had been climbing 9 years by then, with lots of climbs in places other than Yosemite. We hauled at least 5 gallons of water for our climb, and we had planned to spend at least part of a day on El Cap Tower; we fixed to Sickle on Day 1, slept at Dolt on Day 2 (worst hauling here, but the Stovelegs went mostly free for us if memory serves me correctly; left Dolt at 10:30 on day 3, and arrived at EL Cap Tower around 1:00-1:30. Napped until 5, then fixed to top of Boot. Next morning went to Boot and did the King Swing; that was mine and I recall having to lower a little further because I was too high on my first attempt, but I clipped the fixed peg in mid swing, and then lowered again and just swung around the corner pretty easily. We had anticipated a lot of difficulty there, but it really went very quickly. We tried to get to C. 5 that night, but missed it by half a pitch, and we were too conservative (chicken, maybe) to finish the pitch by headlamp (I did not even think of rock-climbing by headlamp in 1980)...We hung in slings and a hammock in the little corner there (I think it's called the Glowering Spot), and crawled in to C. 6 for night #4 on the wall (not recommended because it smells terrible there), and topped out next day. When you get to the last bolt on the Harding bolt ladder, make sure you are ready to hang there for a while, cuz it's a sweet place, and you want to remember it for a l-o-n-g time.
Oh, and I forgot, but read Russ' advice again. And Melissa's, and Brutus'.
We're pulling for you guys. Remeber, we're all in this together.
Enjoy, and send!
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brutusofwyde
May 8, 2003, 8:29 PM
Post #37 of 42
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Registered: Nov 3, 2002
Posts: 1473
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In reply to: The first day on the wall is the worst. It gets easier and better the higher you go.
Hmmm. My experience is that as I start up a wall, there is a rubber band stretched between the team and the ground. As we climb higher, the rubber band pulls at us tighter and tighter, day by day.
The trick to my being successful on a wall is to keep climbing and straining against that rubberband.
The pull of that force is something difficult to comprehend until we're two days up the Captain, realizing that we haven't even gone a third of the way. This wall is huge. So huge. Climbers get injured, climbers get sick to their stomachs, drop gear critical to the ascent, do whatever they have to do in order to retreat at this point. However it manifests itself, it can be called Wall Stomach. It is the crux of the wall. It is not a physical or technical crux. It is something far more difficult to overcome than a mere climbing problem. It is the time when I feel overwhelmed, when I question my motives for being where I have planned and schemed to be for more than a year. It is a feeling of terror and helplessness that curls in the gut like a coiled reptile, or like a greasy, partially digested amphibian.
But if we keep going, if we take the climb one pitch, one move and one moment at a time, neither unaware of nor fixated on the enormity of the task we have undertaken, eventually we reach a point where another rubber band exerts its influence: One pulling us up toward the summit. As this force becomes more tangible, the pull of the ground gradually fades away.
There must be a psychophysic theory in there somewhere, one of strong and weak interdimensional forces exerted by flat ground, felt even by the psyche; the pull of flat ground below and the pull of flat ground above.
Traversing the schism between these parallel universes of flat ground is the journey that represents wall climbing; for truly when one tops out on a wall there is a clear sense of having left the world below and arriving at the world above, which is the same world but for the relativity of the perciever, who has shifted position along the space-time continuum in such a way that a pat of butter now tastes like the finest chocolate, and the gnawed corncob on the plate in the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge Dining Room makes an incredibly soft, warm pillow in the middle of dinner... I'll just rest my head here for a minute...
ZZZZZzzzzzz
Brutus
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iamthewallress
May 8, 2003, 8:41 PM
Post #38 of 42
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Registered: Jan 2, 2003
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Bravo, Brutus! :wink:
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wonderbread
May 9, 2003, 2:37 AM
Post #39 of 42
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Registered: Mar 13, 2002
Posts: 197
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Dude, ignore all these people trying to cut you down. Yeah it's going to be hard and painful beyond imagination, but you can do it. I did the Nose after two years of climbing. I had spent the night on two walls previously and done another one or two walls before that in a day. It's just determination and keeping your head on, be able to think clearly when you're stressed beyond on your limits. Get your systems down. But most importantly, be able to think and improvise smartly. I'm sure all these guys would have shot me down at age 18 when I said I was going to climb a wall, in a day, having never jumared before, led one 30 ft pitch of C1, and was with a partner who'd also never done a wall. Practice until blast off time and you'll do it. Practice hauling, penji's, following penji's, getting fast at easy aid, and jumaring.
Try this as your strategy, it worked super for us.
Day 1-fix to Sickle
Day 2-pack, jug/haul to sickle, fix the next pitch or two, sleep at Sickle
Day 3-climb to El Cap Tower, fix the next 2 pitches (to top of Boot)
Day 4-Climb to Camp 5 fix next pitch
Day 5-Up to the top
Come down and buy a coke, eh kid!
I'd leave the ledge at home and pray for cool weather. Have fun and send.
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bigwalling
May 9, 2003, 3:16 AM
Post #40 of 42
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Registered: Dec 29, 2001
Posts: 728
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Dude, The only reason you will fail is because of fear or an injury(some really badass climber pull through injury). Also it took me a while to relize that knowing alot about the route can only hurt you. If you hear that a certain pitch is hard, that is what you will think about.
I know how you feel. I used to want to know about routes that I was going to try. I still haven't gotton up a wall but I will!
Don't fail before you even get there!!!
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simzboardr
May 11, 2003, 3:50 AM
Post #41 of 42
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Registered: May 9, 2002
Posts: 232
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wow! positive stuff! i love it!....
Thanks for the help everyone
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rollingstone
May 12, 2003, 2:56 PM
Post #42 of 42
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Registered: May 22, 2002
Posts: 273
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Et tu, Brutus? Well said! You have captured the essence of the mental battle exactly. The mind cannot listen to two masters at once. Either the vertical or the horizontal will prevail. Pull long enough against the rubber band and its effect becomes perceptibly less each day until eventually horizontal is, as you said, of the world but not your world, for you are in the vertical.
It's a sweet place, is it not?
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