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cowpoke
Sep 14, 2005, 3:29 PM
Post #1 of 4
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Registered: Aug 3, 2005
Posts: 142
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"I’m looking forward to the TR.” Having recently joined rc.com, my anxiety welled up as I considered Larry’s last comment before I left to climb the Grand. Did he think I should post the TR online? Casually firing off an email to friends was one thing, but chronicling my climb for total strangers was another. What if they hated it and didn’t mind telling me so?
Rather than enjoy the scenery between Laramie and Rock Springs (i.e., oil refineries), I brainstormed possible narratives. Spending more time thinking about the report than the approaching trip, I mentally fumbled through stories in which climbing was simply the backdrop for wisdom yet untold. No doubt, the climb alone would not suffice for a report; tales of getting gripped on a well-trodden route simply wouldn’t do.
Fortunately, meeting Liz and Brandon in Jackson helped me focus on the trip and forget the reporting. Indeed, before I could conjure up another silly storyline we were hiking (and hiking and hiking). After a few hours sleep, we made our way to the base of the Lower Exum, having stashed our gear there the night before. Then, with harnesses and headlamps on, Brandon was off.
With our leader halfway up the first pitch, however, another party emerged. They were also a party of three and after exchanging “good morning,” their leader took off in the same direction as Brandon. Knowing that this was often a crowded route with numerous variations on which parties can pass and be passed, we assumed she would be picking an alternative line. Yet, to our surprise, she climbed the same line as Brandon. The exact same line! As Liz and I followed, there was a mess of ropes to cross under, over, and between.
At the top of the pitch, I began to “explain” that although there were numerous means of passing another party courteously, simply following the leader up the same line was not one of them. But before I could finish my sermon, Brandon interrupted to say that an apology had already been offered. Tanya, a British guide living in Chamonix, agreed that for the next pitch she would take her party (two university students from the UK) out on the face as we climbed the chimney. Things were now civil, but we all knew the race was on and there was no way we were going to let a guided party beat us up this climb.
Brandon cruised the chimney and grabbed a slightly higher belay than Tanya’s, but she wasn’t letting up and as Brandon raced up a crack in the back of a dihedral, Tanya climbed out onto the arête just a few paces behind. Left at the belay, I started to consider how this type of race could really spice up speed climbing. Imagine Hans Florine and Dean Potter racing one another (rather than the clock) up the Nose, pawing side by side for the best holds, when suddenly there is a well-placed hip check and…
Liz had the next two leads. Dispatching a short, left-angling jam crack, she cranked up a series of steep bulges. Tanya, however, started far to our left, then traversed back right towards Liz’s line and in the process developed some wicked rope drag. Although we were starting to increase our lead over Team Tanya, the next pitch forced everyone into a chimney and again there were ropes everywhere. Yet, instead of angry, everyone was now amused. Our competition was, in fact, breeding collaboration. At belays, we made room for everyone and took photos of each other with the Middle Teton looming in the background.
With the sun finally peaking around the Grand, we arrived at the Black Face – my lead. Unfortunately, rather than grabbing the baton and pulling my team ahead for the home stretch, I totally blew it. In my rush to outpace Team Tanya, I didn’t look at the topo. Instead, I raced off and missed the standard line which, as Liz and Brandon repeatedly pointed out later, is an obvious straight-up crack heading directly to the next belay with multiple pitons pointing the way.
Floundering in no-mans land, I finally saw it. A piton! Or was it a ring bolt? Who cares, someone had been here before (poor fool)! I clipped the piece, swung through an awkward lieback, and headed for the belay. I somehow still manage to beat Tanya, who upon joining me at the top of the face noted that the “pitch’s a bit spicy, eh?” I couldn’t tell if she was mocking my route finding skills or giving her own opinion of the pitch, until I noticed the non-mocking grin.
From there it was one more pitch of easy crack and then the Upper Exum, a simul-climbing/4th-classing race for the summit. On top, we basked in our glory of being the first group of the day to arrive via the Lower Exum. Team Tanya arrived a few minutes after us. We hear stories from their last week in the Winds and consider the possibility of racing again on their home turf.
On the descent, our teams are truly united by a common enemy: a really, really slow party at the Owens-Spalding rappel. After waiting for much too long, we shared ropes on the rappel and my mind drifted back to possible storylines for the TR, even going so far as thinking of ways to use the alliance between the colonists and British as a metaphor for our united, formerly warring parties.
Breaking up my flirtations with TR-greatness was the realization that Tanya and her party were tiny spots well below us. Thus, with seven miles of hiking between us and a Subaru that won’t die, I came to understand that the crux of my story would not contain wisdom yet untold, but would simply reveal that we’d been bested by an Englishwoman, with clients in tow no less.
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steelhands
Sep 22, 2005, 12:17 AM
Post #2 of 4
(1956 views)
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Registered: Aug 13, 2005
Posts: 73
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Good TR. I really liked the semi-speed-climb part. But I thought you guys beat them to the top? Who cares who got back to the car first! Keep climbing and reporting.
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jdouble
Sep 22, 2005, 12:30 AM
Post #3 of 4
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Registered: Jun 15, 2004
Posts: 564
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Great job, well written and funny.
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cowpoke
Sep 22, 2005, 4:12 PM
Post #4 of 4
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Registered: Aug 3, 2005
Posts: 142
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Thanks for the positive feedback. Steelhands brings up an interesting question about feeling bested because the other group beat us back to the car. I think it has something to do with "chosseneering." Greg Child may have coined the term (is that how he spelled it?) when describing climbing with Lynn Hill and even though she was better on the climb he was better at negotiating alpine approach/decent obstacles. I resonate with the idea of taking pride in chooseneering and so to have Tanya guide a party past me was a little humiliating. I'd be curious if other folks feel similarly/dissimilarly about chosseneering...maybe a topic for another thread?
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