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Forums :
Profile : apollodorus
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Registered: Feb 18, 2002, 7:00 PM
Last Logon: Nov 17, 2011, 3:56 AM
Posts: 2157 (0.3 per day)
Local Time: Apr 27, 2024, 10:35 AM
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Personal Profile
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Name:
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Tom Kasper
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Occupation:
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engineer
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Email:
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No email entered.
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More Info:
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[image]http://home.pacbell.net/takasper/anicam1.gif[/image]
[image]http://home.pacbell.net/takasper/anicam2.gif[/image]
I first climbed the local rocks with pins, hexes and stoppers at age 13. Back then, there were no cams; I first saw one in a [b] [url “http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/5584/fyeo.html”] James bond move[/url][/b] later. My younger brother and I ordered some stuff from [b][url “http://www.rei.com”] REI[/url][/b] and just went for it. There was no one around to show us what was what. We read [b][url “http://www.bigwalls.net/climb/Royal.html"] Royal Robbins[/url][/b] two Rockcraft books and figured we had it wired. I was placing bolt belays and developing the local rock in the eighth grade, because there were no other climbers in the area.
And besides, after they filled the huge 10-foot deep semi-Olympic sized swimming pool at the [b][url "http://www.cambriapineslodge.com/"] Cambria Pines Lodge [/url][/b], skateboarding wasn't a feasible way to get onto the vertical anymore. At least not locally. My father lived a few miles from the [b][url "http://www.skatepunk.net/skateboardingphotos/baldy/baldy1.html"] Mt. Baldy Pipeline[/url][/b], so I was still able to take unroped whippers there.
Later, I spent a season in [b][url “http://www.nps.gov/yose/"] Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows[/url][/b], working up to a Grade V wall ([b][url "http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listArea.php?AreaID=1847"] Lost Arrow Direct[/url][/b]. My last official climb B.C. (before the couch) was using [b][url "http://www.bdel.com/rockclimbing/pro_lost_arrows.html"] Knifeblades and Bugaboos[/url][/b] to nail up a 100+ foot eucalyptus tree to recover an expensive radio-controlled airplane and return it to the owner. $50 cash booty, at his insistence. Cool. His buddy later had me get [i]his[/i] RC plane out of another tree. Gotta like those RC fanatics.
After a haitus of over 18 years, I recently decided to go climbing again.
I made up some gigantic cams. An oversize titanium friend I'd seen in 1983 festered in my mind's womb until I birthed a whole rack of mutant cams of my own.
[image]http://home.pacbell.net/takasper/slcd/bigrack.jpg[/image]
[u][b][url “http://home.pacbell.net/takasper/slcd/valleygiant.html”] Click Here For The Valley Giant Cams Website[/url][/b][/u]
[image]http://home.pacbell.net/takasper/slcd/9and9p9.jpg[/image]
[image]http://home.pacbell.net/takasper/slcd/9and12p9.jpg[/image]
For my first climb in 18+ years, I conned [b][url "http://www.rockclimbing.com/users/list.php?UserID=passthepitonspete"] PassThePitonsPete[/url][/b] into doing the [b][url "http://www.supertopo.com/rockclimbing/route.html?r=ybelexca"]Excalibur[/url][/b] on [b][url "http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listSection.php?SectionID=1920"]El Capitan[/url][/b] with me. We took ten days on the wall, and another five humping loads to the base and carrying our stuff down the [b][url "http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listSection.php?SectionID=1922”] East Ledges Descent[/url][/b].
[b]And now?[/b]
He says that I also have the perfect gear to do the "Leavittator" on El Capitan's [b][url "http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/listSection.php?SectionID=1922"] Scorched Earth[/url][/b]. This is a knifeblades-to-WIDE 5.11+ OW pitch up the right side of the "Golden Finger of Fate". He says that the route's been done maybe five times since the first ascent in 1987. And says that there's some "good nailing" on it, modestly rated at A4+.
[b]O'Really.[/b]
Do people really get away with things they shouldn't, and then push their luck even further than they should?
[b]People do[/b]. [b][url "http://www.rockclimbing.com/photos.php?Action=Show&PhotoID=5017"] Click here to read the Scorched Earth Trip Report[/url][/b].
[image]http://www.rockclimbing.com/images/photos/assets/6/270716-largest_5258.jpg[/image]
Here I am trying to get fired up for another day on the Excalibur. I turned the ledge out for the photo, but then realized it would be pretty cool to sleep that way. If the wind didn't kick up. [image]http://photos.rockclimbing.com/photos/55/5573.jpg[image]
It may not look it, but this isn't a shot of me on the [b][url "http://www.marksynnott.com/expeditions/great_trango.shtml"] Great Trango Tower[/url][/b], or some other freeze-fest. This is El Capitan in late May, leading P10 of the Excalibur. All that loose, white cotton clothing kept the sun off me. I never got hot on the wall. And six days's worth of water lasted ten.
Those things on my feet are [b][url "http://www.scarpa.co.uk/mountaineering/freneyinfo.html"] Scarpa Freney boots[/url][/b]. They made the perfect approach, wall and descent boots. The crampon-rated soles were very comfortable for standing all day in aiders. They were also good for those few free moves of OW.
The camera was tilted in this picture, making the angle seem less severe than it really was. I am standing straight up, so the camera is off about twenty degrees.
See that purple thing on the rack? That was PTPP's [b][url "http://www.bdel.com/rockclimbing/pro_cams.html"]#4 Camalot[/url][/b], which I dropped near the top of this pitch. It's not a good idea to drop your big cams on the wall that [b][url "http://www.supertopo.com/rockclimbing/route.html?r=ybelexca"]SuperTopo[/url][/b] describes as having "more wide cracks than any other Yosemite climb."
[image]http://www.rockclimbing.com/images/photos/assets/5/269985-work-5556.jpg[/image]
That white thing behind me used to be a portaledge. It got so twisted and distorted, it was worthless by the time we got to the Round Table, which is where this photo was taken. Luckily, I had room to sleep on the rock ledge right where my feet are. Not shown in this picture is the excellent view of the SW face from an extraordinary position. The little grass bivy between the Round Table and Thanksgiving Ledge is a classic. The ubiquitous paper cup and bag of coffee came from [b][url "http://www.virtualslo.com/uptown/"]Uptown Espresso[/url][/b]; the coffee hottees there wanted me to take photos of the cup to hang in their shop.
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Climbing Profile
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Skills:
Lead | Follow
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City:
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San Luis Obispo
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State:
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California
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Country:
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United States
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Hostel:
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Contact
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Ascent Log  View Full Log (25)
 The 5 most recent ascents recorded by a user in our Routes Database are shown on the user Profile.
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Onsight
Hang Dog
Red Point
Flash
