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addiroids
May 17, 2004, 1:46 AM
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Registered: Oct 11, 2001
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I'm sitting here listening to Zeppelin, had a good weekend of surfing and healing the finger, so here goes again. A bit of prelogue, I injured my ring finger in Josh 2 months ago, so bailed on the NIAD plans. Still had vacations planned, so during the last weekend in April, Bill and I drove from Santa Monica at 11:30pm, arrived in the Valley at 4am, got on Skull Queen (V 5.8ish C2) at 6am, Bill lead 1-6 I started leading at 4pm from 6 and we summitted at 12am. Slept at the top, woke at 6am and descended NDG, back in Santa Monica around 7pm that night for Bill to have dinner with his dad. Not too bad considering Bill got no sleep wed night and we both worked a full day of work. Skull Queen was nice, and the last pitch was a beautiful fingercrack!! Sure would have been nice to lead it in the daylight! It's worth it to climb that route only for that last pitch.
So that was speed climbing I guess. This is the 4th wall that Bill and I have done together (Prow, MB, SS, SQ)and done in good time. Grade V, not steep, and done in a push (we fixed 3 on the Prow and summitted at 4pm the next day). I thought all was good to go for our first Grade IV and my first El Cap the next weekend. Work Mon-Wed, then back to Santa Monica for another drive to the Valley:
WEDNESDAY, DAY 0:
Nathan and I drive to SM and arrive around 8pm, finish racking and Bill gets home from work at 9:30pm, we are on the road at 10:30pm. Nathan is driving, Bill and I are sleeping. Bill takes over in Oakhurst and we arrive at Curry around 5am.
THURSDAY, DAY 1:
As we are driving to El Cap, I get to thinking to myself, "I am coming here to climb the whole thing this time! No more cragging at the base!" We jump out of the car and shoulder the pigs. Nathan helps a ton my carrying the ropes and some rack while we get the water and food (planned on 3.5 days) and ledge. Inspired by my "JUG MONKEY" shirt on SQ, Bill breaks out his superhero uniform:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32157
I am so glad I met this guy, because it is non-stop laughs with his facial expressions and jokes. We start the trudge along the base passing routes I will be doing in the future, but today there is one goal...and it's way...way...over there. Tell me again why we didn't pick Mescalito for our first El Cap route? We finally get there and meet a nice German couple at the base who had fixed to 3 and hauled 1/2 of their gear up there. Ranna was sponsored by Eldrid for photos (funny to see new gear on a wall) and Steffi his g/f was doing her first wall. They were nice people and started to jug just as I started on the first pitch.
We took the right variation and I am glad we did because it eliminated a belay and looked like the right way to go. A little something needs mentioning here. On all my past 4 "speed" climbing adventures, I was perfectly fine with 2 aiders. Not here. On the 4th move, I was asking for 2 more. Fortunately we had 5 total, and Bill had to clean, haul, and belay with only one aider from the get go. On steeper and harder stuff, have 4 aiders for the leader, 2 for the follower, and 2 spare unless you are Ammon, and he doesn't even need them. At one spot I couldn't reach the next rivet, so Bill and Nathan found a coat hanger on the ground that worked as a cheat stick.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32158
The picture was taken at an angle, but if you plumb the tag line, you will see that it is steep. And yes, I am in my 2nd steps and can't reach it, so shut the hell up that I could have top stepped and gotten it. Remember we are AIDS climbing. I don't regret using it. I used it on that one move, but somehow it stayed on my harness and poked me in the butt the entire route.
We short fixed the entire route, and Bill hauled. It took a pitch or two to get our anchor orientations all sorted out so I wasn't hosing him when he had to dock the pigs, but after a couple of pitches we were moving smoothly. Not fast, but smoothly. On most of the route, I was cinching myself up then getting into my 3rd or 2nd steps rather than just running up and free climbing with my hands like on MB or SS. This was considerably slower, but I kept on it, never actually thinking "speed", simply trying to keep organized, tag at the right time, and not blow anything. We caught up to the Germans on the belay before Dead End Ledge and passed them on 5 after I back cleaned everything from the bolt ladder to the belay (a bit scary).
So now it's time for the infamous Black Tower. I have to move fast here because both parties are at the belay and I hate holding people up. They were cool about it, but there was a party below us that looked like they had their sh!t together, so we had to keep moving quickly to keep everyone happy. I start off on lead while Bill is hauling and solo to the top of the Black Tower. I get on belay for the business (C3RF or NTB but DFU), and ask Bill to send up the pins just in case.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32160
Yes we did bring pins (only 1/2 of the thinner recommended ones and no bigger ones), but that's the only pitch we had them out of the bag on. It's a good thing I did it cleanly because I have never placed a pin yet and although I know how to do it, I didn't want to do it on a route that is supposed to go clean. So it got it clean, didn't fall (not once on the route) and we fixed the pitch for the Germans since they had to wait 30 min for me so they could bivy on 7. I started soloing pitch 8 by headlamp to give us a jump on the Germans in the morning while Bill hauled.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32159
We started to set up the ledge and since Bill hadn't done a wall in 8 years due to not finding someone competent or stupid enough to do one (I'm glad I satisfy ONE of those criteria - the later one), the ledge was totally twisted and it took about 1 hour to untwist. Bill had done most of the work that day (cleaning and hauling) and his ribs were sore, and I was mostly just there as an assistant. It was cramped quarters but we finally got it set up.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32316
I asked for a "first light" wake up call due to the Germans only being a pitch below us, and passed the fvck out.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32161
FRIDAY, DAY 2:
Around 6am we woke up, and I was absolutely fired up to lead a C3 pitch the first thing in the morning. You can just see it in my eyes.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32162
We ate breakfast, peed, packed up, and I was leading in 1 hour from waking. I guess that's pretty good.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32163
Bill was refreshed from the night of sleep and happily belayed me on the C3 pitch from the ledge. We flagged it the rest of the route to Peanut Ledge (P13) thinking he could rest but with short fixing, neither party has much down time. And I'm freakin' fast on lead! Just kidding.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32318
The cool thing about today (besides topping out) is going to be to lead the Nipple. On the FA, Charlie Porter layed back the end of the Nipple at "hard 5.9". It now sports a couple of bolts to keep the rope out of the crack (and to give us gumbies a chance). It was a nice lead, but I had to leave everything clipped for Bill to be able to clean it (with one aider, still).
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32164
Here you can see Bill hauling. It is just a cool picture because the gear is really bright. I am soloing here while he is hauling. We switch to belay as I am nearing the end of the tit.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32165
The Nipple was pretty fixed with some green and blue Aliens to supplement.
The hardest place on the whole route placement-wise was the pitch before Peanut Ledge right off the belay (pitch 13) between the bolt ladder and the 5.9 or C2 part. It was small HB offsets and I just felt it was hard to make them stick. I pulled one on light testing, but got the rest to stick. It was weird because that section wasn't even rated.
We got to Peanut Ledge (P13) and I hauled to give Bill a rest. Also, we saw some bags hanging in the constriction above, and we couldn't move until they were gone. We didn't see anyone, and didn't know what was going on (this is a change from the rest of the route - right??), so we took our time (it was 6pm by then), ate, broke down the ledge. I grabbed the big gear (1 #4 and 1 #4.5) and "free" climbed the 5.9 section and tagged my aiders at the ledge before the 5.10 section. By "free" I mean I didn't have my aiders on, but it was still 5.9 and it kicked my butt. I pulled on draws and basically exerted more effort on that 40 feet than the whole route. Kind of hard at the end of day 2 but when the entire route is overhanging, once it backs off to 80 degrees, you think, "Whoa, that looks like 5.6!!!"
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32166
So I get up to the bags, climb over and around them, and built my anchor and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. You can haul the final 2 pitches as one, and the party before us was belaying the final pitch and were going to rap down and free the bags. I yelled up to them, and low and behold, my good friend Kate (holdplease2) yelled back down from the belay. How cool was that? After her friend Melissa topped out, Kate rapped down to say hi and free the bags. She looked so stylin' I had to get a pic.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32167
I guess we are just destined to only meet when one or both of us are doing a wall. It was an honor to have climbed over the sh!t tube of such hotties though! Kate was all smiles and it sounds like they had a good time on the wall. I said bye as she released the bags, and tried to get started on the 15th pitch, but after the little bit of free climbing off the belay, I couldn't figure out the aids moves, so I went back to the belay and waited for Bill to clean so I could get a belay. It was just tricky and I couldn't get anything in that I liked. It was dark, I was tired, and it was thin. I fixed, Bill cleaned and hauled (we didn't haul as one, less clusterfvck to just do it normally for us), and we got to the top finally around 11pm. The hardest part of the whole route was getting the bags over the final 90 degree lip. Kate and Melissa did it the smart way, Bill and I did it the meathead way. I will leave it to you to figure it out for yourself. We found a place to sleep, and took our summit pics in the morning.
SATURDAY, DAY 3:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32169
Paul's first Grade VI and first El Cap route. Do you like the "wall shirt"? It says, "I FVCK ON THE FIRST DATE". I saw a pic of this 10 year old fat kid waiting at the bus stop for school wearing a shirt that said that, and I thought it was hilarious. I am starting a new line of apparel.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32168
Super-Cleaner packing up his sleeping bag condom. Bill's first Grade VI and first El Cap route. And he's smiling!
The East Ledges Descent was long, but Melissa had climbed El Cap a few times, so we followed her and Kate down. On the raps, we did the slabby ones away from the wall. I got in a tangle with my bag, water bottles, and the rap line (we rigged one b/c the fixed lines were questionable as to if they would reach the next station and we didn't want to pass the knot with the pigs. We got it straightened out, got down, said by to Kate and Melissa, and found Nathan in the Manure Pile parking lot. After taking the "AFTER" picture:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32170
We got back to Santa Monica around 10pm. I slept until 3pm that next day (saturday) and didn't fully recover my energy or appetite until Tuesday.
Now time to learn stuff:
1) Short fixing and letting the cleaner haul rules on the steep stuff. However, the cleaner works his butt off. I really want to give Bill some props here, because although I am faster than him on the lead and kind of had to keep leading once we passed the Germans (He was going to lead 11-14), he really did more of the work on the route. Sure I was exposed to all the nasty falls, but Bill really was fast at cleaning and hauling and his hard work is what really kept us moving efficiently. I am just the skinny little rope gun with ants in my pants to do it in one bivy. It works better when the leading takes a long time, but I was at the end of my rope just as Bill reached the station. He still had to organize the rack, tag me gear (slings usually), and haul. Many times, I was at the next belay before he finished hauling. We fixed that on day two by having my haul the bags 1/2 way, then start soloing when Bill had cleaned 1/2 of the pitch. On the dead vertical pitches, the cleaning is easier, but this route traverses alot. It was hard for him with just one aider (my fault for thinking I could do it with only 2 aiders and having to steal the one spare and one of Bill's). Also, we did the route clean with the fixed gear in place. It was pretty fixed, but still C3 where it was C3 for sure!
2) Our tag line was a 6mil cord. It was light, but twisted alot, and was useless as anything else. Much better would have been to use a thin 9mil rope that could be used to lead on if needed. The 6mil also started to get hard to pull up when the tag became heavy. Also you need two rope sacks for it since it got twisted and it didn't work too well to lap flake it. It seems like good policy to get two rope bags for the tagline to have at each station since you are pulling all of it up and some of the haul line. They are light and can almost be stuffed in a back pocket (from Fish).
3) At our current rate of consumption, we had enough food and water for 6-8 days. We had about 3.5 gals of water and so much food it was rediculous. Between us we probably carried down 30 pounds or more of food. I'm not joking. We tried to get Kate and Melissa to eat some, but they "didn't want to get fat". Your appetite isn't strong after all that work, and you are thinking of all the work ahead, and you just don't get hungry. Clif Bars tasted great and I ate them for about 2/3 of my kcal on the wall. In 2 days of climbing, I ate about the same amount of food I eat in a normal day of construction, working out and training people. It was also only hot for like 3 hours the entire trip even with pants and a long sleeve shirt, so we only drank about 1/2 gal per person per day. I always overestimate water, but I was going so slow on the route that I just didn't feel like I was working hard so I didn't get thirsty. I did drink often though so I wouldn't get thirsty and bonk like I did on Moonlight.
4) Plan on about 6 hours for the East Ledges Descent if it is your first time. Also, if you toss ropes, have the first guy go down with no pig to sort stuff out. Rapping with 2 pigs is the same as rapping with one, but increase the friction in your belay device as much as possible. Once you start, it is hard to stop until you really crank down on the rope. Even with the device spidered out from your waist.
5) Grade VI is much more involved than Grade V. Although we did it in 42 hours base to summit, we never tried to go fast, and actually ended up wasting at least 3-4 hours waiting for Bill to haul the entire pitch instead of me getting it started. That was my fault entirely. He went as fast as he could, I just thought the solo leading and all the leading for that matter would take longer. Also we had to wait about 1 hour to pass the Germans. So without hauling and going for it in a push, I bet we could do it under 30 hours. That's without any delay's. Maybe some day, but I don't need to repeat a route just for time.
All in all, it was fun, but we really worked our butts off.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=32019
I was a zombie on Sunday and at work on Monday. But I finally climbed El Cap. Our next goal is to heal my finger, do some runs up some Sierra routes (Temple Crag) and maybe a wall in King's/Sequoia (Grand Sentinel) and then Tangerine Trip in October. Time to train, although the 1% of your body you can't train (fingers, feet, lips) are what hurts the most and affects the other 99% of your body. Well I guess we will just have to sack up and bear it if we want to be wall rats.
TRADitionally yours,
Cali Dirtbag
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maculated
May 17, 2004, 5:38 AM
Post #2 of 21
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Registered: Dec 23, 2001
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Dammit. I really need to get my aid stuff dialed. I need a big wall. . .
Thanks for a great TR. Photos were AWESOME>
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holdplease2
May 17, 2004, 5:43 AM
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Registered: Dec 18, 2002
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Great trip report, Paul. You guys did a great job and in great time! It was so much fun to see you on the wall.
:)
-Kate.
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tim
May 17, 2004, 5:48 AM
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Registered: Apr 4, 2002
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awesome TR! nice job on Zodiac.
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epic_ed
May 17, 2004, 6:47 AM
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Registered: Jun 17, 2002
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WOOOOOHOOOOO! Excellent job, bro! You were moving SLOW? What are you, nutz?! Zodiac in two days is fast. I mean, for most of the climbing world. You have to be very efficient and competant to move consistently that fast. You should be very happy with that effort, and I'm extremely happy for you that you finally got to the top of that hunk 'o granite.
Plus, you ran into two RC.com'ers at the top -- how cool is that?! Can't wait to hear more from those two ladies about their adventure.
Wall season is offically in full swing, folks! I hope we'll see a lot more of these kind of TRs in the next couple of months. I'm stoked!
Ed
PS -- Dude, love the t-shirt. But it would have been even funnier to see it on that 10y/o kid.
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curt
May 17, 2004, 4:36 PM
Post #6 of 21
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Registered: Aug 27, 2002
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Nice TR, Paul. I especially like the use of all those pictures to add flavor to the text.
Curt
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frantik
May 18, 2004, 3:42 AM
Post #7 of 21
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Registered: Sep 7, 2001
Posts: 128
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Awsome job Paul!!
On the climb and the TR. The pics are great and one can learn alot from reports like this. I really like your learning advice at the end...shearing your experiences and education.
A 10 two thumbs way way up!!
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caughtinside
May 18, 2004, 5:18 AM
Post #8 of 21
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Registered: Jan 8, 2003
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Nice! That was an entertaining report of what must have been a great trip! Loved the pictures! 8^)
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bigwalling
May 18, 2004, 5:36 AM
Post #9 of 21
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Registered: Dec 29, 2001
Posts: 728
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How tall are you Paul? I think the guy who put up the variation is something like 6' 3". Nice report and pictures.
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addiroids
May 18, 2004, 5:56 AM
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Registered: Oct 11, 2001
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I'm like 5'10". I am still amazed that these guys can drill what I can barely reach.
Thanks for all the kind words people, but I write these TR's not to spray, but to show us mere mortals that this crap can be done in good time even if you aren't an Uber-climber. It is more to learn from than to say how cool I am. And believe me, I'm not that cool. Ask Bill, I suck.
TRADitionally yours,
Cali Dirtbag
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climbsomething
May 18, 2004, 5:59 AM
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Registered: May 30, 2002
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Respect. It's good to see some RC.com'ers succeed! :)
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pirate
May 18, 2004, 6:13 AM
Post #12 of 21
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Registered: May 12, 2003
Posts: 106
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Hey Paul
nice to talk with you again.
Thats an awesome trip report and congradulations on a great climb!
Maybe Ill see you in the fall and we can share another pizza someones about to throw in the trash!
:wink:
cheers
Shawn
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karlbaba
May 18, 2004, 6:27 AM
Post #13 of 21
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Registered: Jul 10, 2002
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Pretty dang proud to do your first El Cap route clean and in two days. Congrats
I can't believe the nipple was mostly fixed! Last time I was up there, there were two fixed pins to start the thing and then one nut near where it started to get wide (and some heads up higher) Aid route just go back and forth. What kind of stuff was fixed in the horizontal section that usually takes HB offsets and aliens?
Great job
Karl
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twoliter
May 18, 2004, 4:11 PM
Post #14 of 21
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Registered: May 14, 2004
Posts: 32
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Zodiac April 9th - 11th here. You guys were movin, nice.
How about the four or five aiders, how does this work, and why is it faster then two?
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atg200
May 18, 2004, 4:32 PM
Post #15 of 21
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Registered: Jul 27, 2001
Posts: 4317
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great TR paul. sounds like you are having fun.
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addiroids
May 18, 2004, 9:59 PM
Post #16 of 21
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Registered: Oct 11, 2001
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In reply to: Maybe Ill see you in the fall and we can share another pizza someones about to throw in the trash! Shawn
Yeah, what the hell is wrong with these people?!?!? Don't they know there are starving Ethiopians living in Camp 4? Ohh wait, those are just skinny sunburned white dudes who haven't worked since the early 80's and have been scarfing since!
And Karl:
From my picture with the gear and belayer (in the Nipple section of the TR) you can see that there are a lot of fixed nuts. I think I only placed 1/2 of the needed moves on that. Mostly blue and green Aliens, pretty fast and much less of a horror show than I have heard in the past. We left the fixed gear because my ethic is that if it is traversing, or if I have to reach really far to make the move to the fixed gear, to leave it (nuts of course). No reason I should get it and the people below me not get it.
TRADitionally yours,
Cali Dirtbag
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climbinginchico
May 18, 2004, 10:42 PM
Post #17 of 21
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Registered: Mar 24, 2004
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Awesome TR. Great photos too.
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kalcario
May 19, 2004, 7:00 AM
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Registered: Sep 25, 2002
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Congrats on your first trip up the Big - I know it's a good feeling to finally stand on top of that thing, even if you never got out of your aiders...now if we can just get you up to mid 70's free climbing standards, you can do the Nose and the Salathe...oh, and that stuff about finding the coat hangar at the base? That might fly here on gumby.com, but don't try it at the Deli, they've heard that one a few times before...
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addiroids
May 19, 2004, 1:22 PM
Post #19 of 21
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Registered: Oct 11, 2001
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About the coat hanger, no dude, we really found it there. We didn't bring a cheater stick. If we did, I would tell you. I might as well have used my nut tool, but when I started b!tching, they started looking for something to use. If we had a cheater stick, don't you think we would have used it there.
And I did free climb the 5.6 and 5.7 stuff. I really liked that hand traverse on 15!! I flew across that...at 10pm...by headlamp. I sure can free climb hard huh? I felt like I was on Olive Oil again (but with double the rack).
TRADitionally yours,
Cali Dirtbag
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roughster
May 27, 2004, 4:23 PM
Post #20 of 21
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Registered: Apr 3, 2002
Posts: 4003
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Great read man! I forgot to bumpersize it when I read it initially. Hopefully this will get some more peeps to look at it. Sounds like you guys had a blast!
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lambone
Jun 1, 2004, 4:42 PM
Post #21 of 21
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Registered: May 1, 2003
Posts: 1399
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Hey, nice job and nice TR. 1 bivy (and a summit bivy) is damn impressive. It's hard to haul, and climb fast, sounds like you guys were dialed!
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