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passthepitonspete
May 12, 2002, 4:20 PM
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Note: Title edited by PTPP to make the post current - thank you note is found towards the bottom. Cheers, Pete
Hey everyone!
Thanks so very much for all your love, support and encouragement here at RC.com! There isn't a day I open my inbox and don't find it stuffed full of great PM's. Thanks a lot, eh?
I'm going to be in Yosemite from Tuesday May 14 up until June 15 or so, possibly longer if I'm having too much fun to leave!
[What! Me work?]
I am no longer Camp 4 based - there is too much heat around there.
Dr. Piton's Office, Yosemite Branch, is located in Camp 5, atop the bear boxes in the geometric centre of the Curry Village Parking Lot, the big gravel lot that is the old apple orchard.
Here you will find my answering machine - a piece of paper with a rock on top, and a pen beside it. Please sign the guestbook if I happen to be up on the wall, or stop by for Big Wall Tips if I'm around. The outgoing message on my answering machine will tell you where I'm at, eh?
You've got a problem? Ask Dr. Piton in person.
As a Wall Doctor, I work cheaply - a bottle of Sierra Nevada Porter
will usually help you see the light, though a more complex problem may require further persuasion.
[Hint: bring two.]
If you are willing to help schlep a load to the base (Leaning Tower Wednesday May 15, El Cap SW Face - Excalibur a week or so later) then I'd be happy to offer a full on Big Wall Mini-Tutorial. Being the lazy bastard that I am, we may even come to a financial arrangement as far as sherpa duty is concerned.
If you think you will be in Yosemite and can stop by Camp 5, please reply to this thread. This is one thread I will be checking when I get my very limited internet access in the Valley.
Please don't send me a PM, as I have indicated in my profile.
Thanks very much, and I would very much love to meet as many of you in person as possible!
Cheers,
Pete
P.S. For a further beer, I would be happy to perform a live rendition of my song, however be warned - it might take you two beers to get me to stop singing!
[ This Message was edited by: passthepitonspete on 2002-06-24 23:19 ]
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radistrad
May 12, 2002, 4:48 PM
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PTPP,
I'll look you up in the valley.
I seem to be there just about every other week.
I sent you a PM regarding some Valley stuff.
By the way, last saturday I saw Chongo drive by me (he was the passanger) on 120, I did not have time to find him, but I am assuming that he is back in the Valley.
Looks like you'll see him before me...
-radistrad
P.S. I also conctacted you about life insurance a few months ago, we can talk about this in the Valley.
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crackaddict
May 12, 2002, 4:56 PM
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I looks like I will be in the valley from June 1rst - the 8th.
WOOO!!! HOOOO!!!
I will find your answering machine and leave a message. I will doing a lot of free routes.
But would like to meet the Dr. in person.
Let me know if you need any sherpas that week. I would be interested in taking a bigwall mini tutorial.
If you don't need a sherpa maybe we can bargin with a sixer of the porter.
Either way. See you there!
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rickoldskool
May 12, 2002, 11:20 PM
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PTPP, Will you still arrive tues pm and be hanging around the "deck"? I'm bringing a SIXPACK of that there ale you so dearly love. I have a notebook in front of me riddled with notes and questions that need answers. Schlep a load? YA. I'm out of work so goin' to the valley is my main job right now. In fact, two weeks ago I dragged my ass to the start of WESTY on the tower trying to imagine hearding my pig up there. I need more soloing beta (that is your specialty ain't it?). Yesterday I burned the corners off my bankcard buying gear at the valley mountain shop (after I climbed). Picked up a Yates wall rack and misc. See ya tues?
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natec
May 14, 2002, 4:45 AM
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I'll be by to welcome you tomorrow night.
See you soon.
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felixthecat
May 14, 2002, 5:11 AM
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i will be in the valley probably a couple weeks after tioga pass opens. that should be real soon. anyways i will stop by when i get there.
jen
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rickoldskool
May 16, 2002, 9:02 PM
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PTPP and CC arrived in the valley Sat eve as planned. I have been asked to extend, once again, PTPP's invitation to meet him in Yose. He should be down from the Tower Fri eve and will be hanging out at the pizza deck Sat eve, in Curry village.
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crackaddict
May 18, 2002, 5:34 AM
Post #8 of 14
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Registered: Jun 24, 2000
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Bad news for me Pete!
Don't expect to see me in the Valley
My trip has been delayed to the 15th-22nd of June.
Due to responsibilities at my job.
Sorry I won't be able to help you out on the first week of June.
Let me know if your trip extends past the 15th.
Talk to you later.
Chris.
[ This Message was edited by: crackaddict on 2002-05-17 22:37 ]
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passthepitonspete
Jun 7, 2002, 8:17 AM
Post #9 of 14
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So like, THANKS for the beers, eh, Rick?
Cheers!
Pete
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darkside
Jun 16, 2002, 10:57 AM
Post #10 of 14
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Registered: Sep 15, 2001
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I had a PM from you while I was in Utah so let me know when you are back in Oakville and we can PM or have a beer...probably not the porter
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passthepitonspete
Jun 25, 2002, 4:44 PM
Post #11 of 14
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In case you haven't noticed, I spend a lot of time writing here at RC.com.
Too much time, in fact. [My bank account will verify this]
I have often wondered if it has been worth my effort, or if my time could have been better spent in less philanthropic pursuits.
I'm delighted to say that it only took me a few minutes after arriving in Yosemite last month to realize that the answer to the above question is,
"emphatically, YES! It's been worth it!"
I would very much like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE THANKS for the overwhelmingly warm reception I've received from so many of you over the past six weeks! It has been, in a word, amazing. Truly amazing. When I introduced myself as "Pass the Pitons Pete", there were at least thirty, if not forty of you whose eyes lit up when you said, "oh - so you're Pass the Pitons Pete!" Surprisingly, only a little over half of you told me you are registered users here at the website, the other half being those mysterious "guests" we see when we click the "Who's online?" bit. As I mentioned when I met you, I'd encourage you to get yourself a username and come join in the fun! Let us all know who you are!
Things started out great when I arrived at "Camp 5", and found a note from Rick Radliff saying that he had a sixpack Sierra Nevada Porter on ice for us. I love it when people get the [hint]! Moments later Rick materialized from the parking lot and the caps were twisted off. Pfft!
Adam Petersen showed up before too long, bearing large pack and willing shoulders to help us with our carry up to the base of the Leaning Tower.
A quick check of the bulletin board in Camp 4 revealed that Stefan Kempenaers and his two mates had arrived from Belgium, and were ready to help schlep. Even more importantly, Stefan shared with Yvette and me a truly delicious magnum-sized bottle of premium Belgian beer, and what had to be the most sumptuous and decadent chocolates we had ever tasted! Oh my gosh! In California parlance, I would say, "I'm all about chocolates, dude."
The next morning found the two wall rats bounding uphill towards the Tower in fine spirit and sprightly step, unencumbered as they were by their huge load which had been distributed among our five - count 'em! - FIVE - sherpas. And let me tell you that this is no cakewalk - the approach to the Tower is close to a thousand vertical feet uphill over talus and slippery slope. So the efforts of our five willing sherpas are HUGELY appreciated! Thanks, guys!
When we returned to Camp 5 after our successful ascent of the Leaning Tower, we immediately met up with Paul Addison who had brought us a veritable smorgasbord of beverages into which we promptly imbibed. The next day, Paul and his beautiful and delightful fiancee (whose name escapes me at the moment - please forgive me!) helped me in the rather onerous task of returning the rest of our gear from the base of the Tower rappels back to Camp 5, no small amount of effort.
During all of this time, there were apologetic notes left in my "answering machine" [a piece of paper under a rock sitting on top of the bear boxes] from Nathan Chaszeyka who had missed out on the "opportunity" to "help". Lucky for him! Sweating uphill under someone else's gear isn't exactly my idea of fun. Unfortunately for Nathan, he persisted in his kindness and later paid the price of further sherpa-ing.
After a week of beauty weather, Tom Kasper showed up bringing about four inches of miserable nasty snow with him. Bastard. Fortunately for us, Tom also brought along his very bitchin' Big F*ckin' Cams, which he calls The Valley Giant. When Tom and I made our first carry up to the base of Excalibur, the wide crack horror show on the Southwest Face of El Capitan, the trail to The Nose was a "trout stream" under twelve inches of swiftly flowing and frigid water!
I would encourage you to click here to check out a photo of Tom's enormous cams, which you really have to see to believe! You can buy these things by contacting Tom. If they haven't sold out by now. Which I'm quite sure they have, because they are so bitchin'. Maybe you can convince him to manufacture another batch - those things are absolutely the shit - finely crafted and engineered, and highly recommended by Dr. Piton.
Nathan was ready the following day to help us with our next carry up to Excalibur. Back up at the base, three climbers en route to Lurking Fear paused to chat on their way by. It was another one of those moments of recognition, and when I offered to help solve their big wall problems, they immediately responded with some questions which I could [fortunately] easily answer. Just hand me a few carabiners, a couple hunks of perlon, and it's another "Dr. Piton Mini Big Wall Tutorial. These were three of the mysterious "guests", I believe, whom I encouraged to log on as legit users.
Ten days into our six-day ascent of Excalibur, Tom finally clawed to the summit after defeating the final pitch's eight-inch crack as I shivered in the dark belaying him. Let's just say the wall took us a little longer than I expected - Tom took a while to catch onto some of the systems, which is to be expected. Excalibur was Tom's first climb after eighteen years on the couch. [I tend to subscribe to the sink-or-swim philosophy, and like to think I am able to recognize latent talent from afar. I figured anyone who could make such great cams would be able to figure out how to climb a big wall...] While Tom's Clusterf*ck Management Skills were a little, shall we say, "unpolished" initially, by the end we had things moving smoothly, and most importantly, we had fun.
The fact that we arrived on the summit with absolutely no food, barely a drop of water, and no light left in my headlamp was incidental.
After scrounging around my usual stashes desperately and hungrily searching for something - anything - to eat, and after hiking all the way down from the summit of Excalibur to the top of Zodiac, I was able to locate only a rusty "mystery can," which ended up being refried beans. Fortunately, I was able to persuade fellow cavers James Englett and David Brazookas, who were encamped on the summit preparing to rappel their three-thousand-foot rope down the front of Mescalito, to share some of their food with us, which they obligingly did. Thanks, guys! Perhaps they felt sorry for me as by then I was looking something like a Biafran refugee.
Curiously, the cavers had brought freeze-dried food to the summit of El Cap, which makes about as much sense as bringing freeze-dried food on a Saharan trek - - - think about it, people.....] Fortunately for Tom and me, there was no shortage of water on the summit, since it was not yet the height of summer and plenty of climbers had topped out with extra which they had left behind
for People Like Me [read: wankers who end up on top without enough!] Hence we were able to enjoy plenty of coffee with our freeze-dried omelette and chicken-rice pilaf.
Paolo, Andrea and Danielo from Italia joined us for coffee that morning after their fairly speedy send of Salathe Wall.
I mean, c'mon, eh? I'm not gonna run out of coffee ... sheesh.
James' and David's food also came with an offer to trade an Ellison's Cave thru and back trip (involving ascents and descents of Fantastic Pit and Surprise Pit, both in the neighbourhood of six-hundred feet deep!) for a kick-ass trip into Roppel Cave, where Yvette and I are involved in the exploration.
So despite the fact that I blame Tom's incompetence entirely for my arriving on the summit with no food and water, in his defence I will point out two things. First of all, when you choose a partner for the wall, it's like a marriage - you take each other "for better or for worse." I am delighted to say that the "better" in Tom hugely outweighed the "worse". Secondly, I will also say that when I told several of the Local Valley Hardmen that not only had Tom climbed Excalibur after eighteen years on the couch, but that he had actually led ten of the twenty-eight pitches, for the most part their jaws dropped in amazement. The usual comment, spoken in Californian accent, was "that's a proud accomplishment, dude!
It's not everyone who can walk up to the base of a big wall after so long, tie into the sharp end, and just frickin' send it. But Tom did. And I believe this bodes well for a great renaissance - welcome back, Tom!
Upon our return to Camp 5, Nathan and his girlfriend Lisa were quick to offer me a place to stay with them up at Hans Florine's place, where Hans has rooms to rent by the day, week, month or season. Hans has an open-door policy in his home that is quite astonishing in this day and age - he tells me he has never been screwed by anyone, which helps restore this cynic's Faith in Climberkind. Hans' place comes highly recommended by Dr. Piton. Not only is Hans one of the fastest climbers on the whole damn planet, as his impressive resume of speedclimbs indicates, but he is also Dr. Piton's #1 Fan and humoured Dr. P. by asking him to make a live performance of his song.
Note: Hans may be Dr. Piton's only fan.....
Lisa was kind enough to allow me to use her laptop computer to check into here for a while, and willingly drove me down to the base of El Cap on several occasions after Nate caught the nasty bug that had been plaguing Hans. Big thanks to Nate and Lisa for their kind hospitality and their help schlepping my food and water up to the base, and of course to Hans, who was kind enough to allow me to leave a couple hundred pounds of gear at his place until the fall, thus saving me substantial extra baggage expense on the airline.
I spent the next eight days in blissful solitude making a solo ascent of The Shortest Straw, a fairly hard A4 immediately left of Zodiac. For the first time in a while, I actually stayed in Yosemite, and enjoyed the benefits of being "on form" rather than working through my usual state of climbing off the couch. [Though]pull-out couch ascents can have their own merit......heh heh heh]
I'll write up more detailed trip reports on our ascent of Excalibur and my solo of The Shortest Straw when I get some time. I wanted to write this thankyou note first, eh?
The Shortest Straw is supposed to be pretty hard, but actually felt kind of tame, which rather surprised me. I'll put it down to being much more warmed up than usual, and of course to the Russian Aiders I borrowed from Brutus. It is Dr. Piton's bold prediction that within the next five years, the Russian Aid System will render completely obsolete the traditional aider system, in the same way that adjustable daisies have rendered traditional daisies obsolete. Mark my words on this one, mates.
Interestingly, I was actually climbing too fast on the Straw, and was concerned about arriving on top with too much food, water and beer remaining. So I slowed down, and spent quite a few hours sitting in my ledge and writing detailed notes about the systems. I also took some photos of my perfectly vell-organicized systems which I will be publishing here shortly. If this frickin' website doesn't keep buggering up my photo captions like it appears to have done. You'll see very bitchin' photos of the Continuous Loop Method with Solo Tagging which I will finally be able to complete for you. You'll also see photos of my solo tag rack and my 2:1 Hauling Ratchet in action, among other things. You can also count on seeing photos and reading a detailed description of the eagerly awaited Far End Hauler, a system that allows the soloist to haul from the bag, essential to know when you have to haul over roofs by yourself.
I still ended up on the summit with a sixpack of Olde E left, much to the delight of Cole and Josh who arrived with no food or water after their two-and-a-half day ascent of Zodiac, their first El Cap route ever! This is a very respectable time for this route for a couple guys new to the scene. Not only did they help me in getting my massive mountain of climbing gear down to the parking lot, but they drove me up to Hans' to stash it, so that I was able to make my airplane home. Thanks, guys!
I apologize to the people whom I have accidentally left out of this message! During one of my climbs, it would appear that some over-zealous ranger removed my "answering machine" from the bear boxes at Camp 5, which was full of notes from friends and well wishers.
And there are at least fifteen or twenty more of you whom I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to meet, but who took the time to either leave me a message at Camp 5, send me a PM, or leave a posting here on the site. I'm sorry I missed the opportunity to meet with you, and hope we can hook up when I return to Yosemite in late August and stay til about late September.
Dr. Piton's Mini Big Wall Tutorials come at a modest price - throw me a glass of beer, hand me a piece of paper and pen, or maybe a few carabiners and some cord, and I'll help you solve your big wall problems. Hopefully you'll be appreciative enough that you'll offer to help schlep some loads, too, as so many of you did.
In return, I'll do my best to keep answering your questions as best I can. And damn, have I ever got a lot of catching up to do, eh?
Sheesh.
Guy goes climbing, and the whole frickin' forum fills up.
Heaven help you all - - - -
I'm back.
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darkside
Jun 26, 2002, 5:02 AM
Post #12 of 14
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addiroids
Jun 26, 2002, 6:31 AM
Post #13 of 14
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Registered: Oct 11, 2001
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Yes!!! Three walls in three tries!! That's a good spring for sure. Well Pete, I'm glad I could share some revelry with you and Yvette. Too bad more couldn't be shared among friends (I mean a wall here dude) but everyone gets tired at a time. Lindsey sends her best. I am glad you and Tom were able to send in style. With the combination of Valley Giants, Friction Hooks, and Lead Heads never more will there be any of this "mandatory free climbing" crap on walls and you can retire for good.
It was great to meet you finally, and hopefully we can hook up in mid-August to mid-September when I too, will be ascending the BiG StOnE finally.
TRADitionally yours,
Cali Dirtbag
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passthepitonspete
Jun 26, 2002, 3:41 PM
Post #14 of 14
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Send it, or suffer the Wrath of Public Humiliation!
What the, what the hail is a "friction hook?"
Sheesh. Guy spends six weeks climbing, and misses out on all the new inventions.
Better go read that one in the Aid Forum!
I have, incidentally, used lead heads - got some from a Spanish dude, and I welded those m*therf*ckers into the A5 crack on Jolly Roger.
They're the bomb.
I'm all about the bomb.
Dude.
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