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maculated
Jul 25, 2003, 10:21 PM
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Registered: Dec 23, 2001
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Another fun epic:
I swear that's the lake, I swear!
Technically last year there were two Beta Babes and we were never able to climb with eachother because our days off didn't coincide. But, being highly dedicated, highly hard core, highly badass chicks, we made every attempt to climb after work together.
I'd just gotten an new copy of SuperTopo Tuolumne Classics (thanks to my bearing the same name as the owner and having a predilection to being a grammar nazi) and we had the 'time it takes to climb' marked out for us as saying that nothing on Stately Pleasure Dome would take more than four hours.
That means, we thought, that if the Beta Babes got off work, we could high tail it to the dome and hop on and off before sunset, or at least just after. Well, we said, bring it on!
We chose South Crack as our route du jour and packed the goods in my friends' Van and headed off to the rock. One thing that the author says about the climb is how it caters to the lazy climber. This is true. You just park your car at the base and cruise up the slab to a point where you're uncomfortable and that's the start of your climb.
I need to preface this adventure by stating that I am a slab-climbing whiz. In addition to being a baby-ready body, I have big, huge calves thanks to growing up on steep hills and being a weird toddler who only walked around on her toes. The doctors actually thought they might have to cut the tendons and stretch them out. It turns out I am just really strong there. I won't even tell you about my god-like way of retaining . . . woah, almost did, didn't I?
I have total fear when I get vertical, but slab? I'm has happy on slab as a gecko on . . . on . . . rock. Ahem.
Anyway, so we get going. I'm still a shaky leader at 5.8 at this point so I elect my friend to go ahead and lead the first few pitches and I'll take care of the runout slabby face.
So, she starts up. My partner is a very careful climber. She takes her time, checks her placements and keeps on truckin'. The minute she puts me on belay, I'm up with her, pretty much. 5.8 finger cracks are fine, fine, fine.
But, since she's been taking her time . . . she's taking forever. A four pitch, half-bolted climb shouldn't take more than two hours in my estimation. Somehow it happened again, though, and we were stuck in the wee hours of twilight.
Lest you think I didn't learn from my first epic, I brought a headlamp. But what kind of headlamp was it, Kristin? Well, gentle reader, it was certainly not that 'can light up the room' one that you never take. It was the kind we all take, our beautiful Petzl Tikka. It gets the job done, doesn't it?
But not so much when your bolt placements are 20 or so feet apart. Imagine if you will, me weaving and bobbing my head, hoping to catch a glint of the first bolt in the moonlight. Do you think I had luck?
Of course not! So daylight's burning and the sun is already gone, alpenglow basking us in a cool red bath. I take a deep breath, "I'm going up, I say."
I've got the Supertopo of this climb stuffed in my pocket and I look at our belay and say, "Gotta head thatta way" pointing vaguely up and over. I gingerly hop onto the face and head left, bobbing my head, hoping to catch that elusive bolt.
Twenty feet, "Not seeeeeeing it!" I call. My friend calls back, "Try more right, and more up."
I cross over and up. "Not seeing - hey! Yay!" Clip.
I squat down now and look up again. Bolt? You out there? Bolt? Nope? Only one thing to do, press onward!
So I cruise up and according to my topo, there's some kind of Nike-swoosh-shaped dish action that should have a bolt just below the feature. I cast my light about and look for this feature. I see something that has a crack in it. Swooshy? Not really, but right now I'm about sixty feet out without pro. I get to the ledge and look at it. There's a crack in it so I get to building an anchor.
My friend shouts up, "What are you doing?"
"well, I am not seeing anything but blank face for the next hundred feet and damned if I am going to climb that unprotected. You're coming up."
"Well, just keep going, you're doing fine!"
"I am *not* going to have to down climb slab, you are COMING up! On belay!"
She comes up and we decide to let her switch leads and have a go. I am left on my half-ledge staring after her as she creeps slowly upward and shouts, "Where do I go?" In the dark, twinkling sky I can make out a big pine tree. "See the tree? Go toward the tree!"
"The tree! I don't see any effing tree!"
"There, about 1 o'clock, the tree! Just keep going."
She grumbles about my ineptitude and finally comes upon it.
She slings it and I shout at her, "Keep going, right toward that head wall,there's got to be a way off." Off route? You betcha.
She goes up a little bit and then starts cussing a blue streak. "There's no effing way I can do this, Kristin! This has gotta be 5.12!!!!"
"Go right, see how it just drops off, it should be pretty easy." I am beginning to suspect she doesn't have very good night vision.
She is getting angry with me so I finally call her back and I tie in to lead. I follow the head wall, hobbiting along low angle corner and placing pieces. I hit the end of my rope again and belay her up. By my estimate, we are only 40 feet from the top of the dome.
She anchors in and I'm off. Easy 4th leads to 3rd and were off! Hooray!!
You think it stops there?
I look around and go, "So how do we get off?" She says she's heard of a walk off on this gully between Harlequin and SP. Fine to me. We go over there and look but can't seem to find the way down in the dark. Spend about a half hour exploring, going down, and getting scuttled. I finally decide to go back and try walking off the back side as I've done once before (in the dark).
We consult and she says, "Ok, we'll do that." And promptly heads off in the direction we just climbed up from.
"Uhh, where you going?" I ask.
She narrows her eyes at me and says, "Home."
"Not that way you aren't. That there's the lake."
"Shut up, Kristin, this is the way back."
"No, it's not." Have I mentioned I have an inherent ability to tell these things? I do.
"Okay smarty, how do you know that."
"Well, for one, look where Scorpio is. That would indicate South, hence our climbing the South face of SP dome, right?"
"I don't know my effing constellations!!!"
"Okay, well, I think that's the road there."
"No way."
"Fine," I say, "Lets just head that way and see what happens."
We trek south for about fifteen minutes until she looks down and acknowledges that this is, indeed, the top of the climb. In an ordinary situation, now would be the time to gloat and say that a certain someone owed me a beer, but I could tell that my partner was a bit taken aback and it was time to get down to business.
I start heading off, looking for cairns I know are up there and following them as best I can. I've gone this way before on more of an adventure than an epic, but I think epics qualify when your partner starts suggesting we bed down for the night. "Nope," I say, "we're getting down."
So, silently we downclimb and hike our way off the dome. At one point we end up on a big ledge that doesn't look familliar to me. "Huh," I could have sworn there was an easier way down than that," I say, looking at what appears to be a twenty foot vertical 5.8 hand crack leading to more soil. "No," my friend says.
"Gonna have to do it if we want down," I grumble as I start getting in the position. My friend looks at me, "Why don't we just spend the night here and come down in the morning." I stop downclimbing and look at her, "No. We are not more than a hundred feet from the road at this point."
So, we survive our tremulous crack downclimb and hit the nice, soft soil. Yay! The rest of the trek around the north side of the dome to the car is spent fantasizing about the quality smoothie that I have promised my partner on return to our cabin.
The end.
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sspssp
Jul 25, 2003, 10:30 PM
Post #2 of 10
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Registered: Jan 2, 2003
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In reply to: Lest you think I didn't learn from my first epic, I brought a headlamp. But what kind of headlamp was it, Kristin? Well, gentle reader, it was certainly not that 'can light up the room' one that you never take. It was the kind we all take, our beautiful Petzl Tikka. It gets the job done, doesn't it? But not so much when your bolt placements are 20 or so feet apart. Imagine if you will, me weaving and bobbing my head, hoping to catch a glint of the first bolt in the moonlight. Do you think I had luck?
Finding bolts in Toulumne at night is hard even with a full strength headlamp. My partner and I attempted Crest Jewel as night was falling (this was our idea of how to beat the heat). When my partner stepped on a bolt that he hadn't yet seen (and would have otherwise climbed past without clipping), we decided to rap and stick with cracks for our night climbing.
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mtnjohn
Jul 25, 2003, 10:36 PM
Post #3 of 10
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Registered: May 17, 2002
Posts: 230
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Absolutely CLASSIC
nighted on South Crack, Ilove it!
Between this and you run up Cathederal you may start finding it tough to find partners!
Of course I'm teasing!
I love good stories and you tell them well.
keep on keepin' on
PS when did they put bolts on South Crack
I remember a pitch of 5.7 with one placement
and a 5.5ish pitch with nothing near the top
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maculated
Jul 25, 2003, 10:41 PM
Post #4 of 10
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Registered: Dec 23, 2001
Posts: 6179
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I haven't done it since. I think there were maybe three bolts in the two artificial pitches I did.
I would just like to point out that every one of these epics didn't go nuts because I am such a solid person. I was sure my friend was going to fling herself off the top of the climb if I didn't make her keep her cool.
Besides, what do I care, it is already hard enough to find good partners. :)
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hallm
Jul 25, 2003, 11:00 PM
Post #5 of 10
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Registered: Aug 11, 2002
Posts: 170
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There are no bolts to protect any of the face climbing on South Crack (there is a two bolt belay near the top, but you are able to skip those if required).
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maculated
Jul 25, 2003, 11:04 PM
Post #6 of 10
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Registered: Dec 23, 2001
Posts: 6179
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So I probably was on route, eh? Very cool. See, that's what epic posting is all about!
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climber1
Jul 28, 2003, 4:32 AM
Post #7 of 10
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Registered: May 5, 2000
Posts: 484
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Great story Kristin. Having spent some time on SP I know what you went through trying to find the bolts.
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karlbaba
Jul 28, 2003, 5:01 AM
Post #8 of 10
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Registered: Jul 10, 2002
Posts: 1159
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You write great trip reports Kristin. Keep em up. You write well.
The one Tim posted on rec.climbing was great too
Peace
Karl
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coldclimb
Jul 28, 2003, 7:38 AM
Post #9 of 10
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Registered: Jan 14, 2002
Posts: 6909
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I have never epiced on Stately Pleasure Dome. :D
But then I have never climbed it and not epiced either. :(
Love the stories, just make sure you keep them coming, and don't epic too extreme. ;)
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climbingcowboy
Jul 28, 2003, 10:07 AM
Post #10 of 10
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Registered: Jun 24, 2002
Posts: 1201
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great TR again, just remember epics are what make us appreicate those perfect days, kinda like rain and sunshine :wink:
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