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This is page 4 in my presentation, and is a load release knot which has been talked about in the Dr. Piton Forum. This post was later moved back to the Aid Climbing Forum and is entitled Ask Dr. Piton...about attaching your haul load to the anchor - the LOAD RELEASE KNOT.

A very funny epilogue to these photos occured recently.

When I submitted these photos initially, I wanted to hide them. I take particular pleasure in hidden links and secret messages - my posts are riddled with them. So I and a few other co-conspirators voted these photos down to a "1" in an attempt to keep them unnoticed for a while.

EVERY SINGLE PHOTO in this presentation has been "hidden" on this website for a year - I bet you didn't notice, either!

A few months ago, Trevor made a post about sabotaging photos on RC.com where I learned I was the second most sabotaged user. I wrote in Trevor's post that despite my personal feelings of dislike for anyone, I would never stoop to "voting his photos down."

I was immediately presented with a scathing PM from one of the then-admins calling me a liar since I had allegedly voted down so many of his photos! He used his "powers" to access the data base of the website, providing me a list of photos showing all my "1" votes! [Good thing the government doesn't know who I vote for, eh?]

Turns out that I did in fact give a vote of "1" to a terrible, boring and blurry photo of this person - all the other "one votes" were to my own damn photos!

What a pillock!

You can imagine the "colour" of my return PM.

Anyway, this is one of my photos that I had hidden with a "1" vote.

If the climbing is getting a bit steep for you, please rappel off here, otherwise you may wish to click here to advance to the next photo in my presentation. I promise, it's actually a climbing photo!

Note: If you are getting bored, then please click here to see a photo of men with gourds on their penises.

Please click here for further information on men who wear gourds on their penises.

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This is page 15 of my presentation.

As I've mentioned, Tomaz had a helluva time getting information and beta. I truly felt sorry for the guy, and took him under my wing.

Since he had never soloed a big wall before, I gave him a mini big wall tutorial where I taught him a few of the big wall basics.

He sure as heck knew how to climb - but what he needed help with were the systems. I taught him how to build a 2:1 Hauling Ratchet so he could haul his hundred kilos of supplies up the wall, and I taught him how to make a docking tether and thence how to tie a load release knot so he'd be able to release said hundred kilos from his anchor.

When I showed him my copy of Chongo's book, he told me he really wanted a copy of his own. So off we walked from Camp 4 over to the Yosemite Lodge Cafeteria, where this picture was taken, to find Chongo and buy a book.

Predictably, Chongo was out of stock. [This should come as no surprise.]

Now, remember back on page 2 how I said when I was looking around at home for a copy of the book to scan for RC.com, I couldn't find the edition that said I was the Editor?

Anyway, sometime after turning my house upside-down looking for the thing, I suddenly realized, "Oh, RIGHT! I gave my copy of Chongo's book to Tomaz Humar!"

Now, imagine my delight when in the middle of this attack on my identity and credibility that happened a year ago, I realized I even had this photo of the transaction?

Heh heh heh.....

So check it out - Tomaz is paying Chongo for my frickin' book! [You know, the book whose existence I stated as fact, yet could not prove when asked to do so?] You may be surprised to learn that even around this place, the existence of Chongo's book is generally, but not universally, accepted as fact.

And do you know what? I never DID get another copy of the book from Chuck!

And that is the story of how my Chongo book ended up in the hands of Tomaz Humar.

Cool, eh?

But this story has a funny epilogue, which you can read by clicking here to continue with my presentation, and see the actual annotated topo of Reticent Wall that I gave to Tomaz when nobody else would help him.

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This is page 2 in my presentation and in this page of Chongo's book you can read the names of people who have helped in the development and implementation of new Big Wall Technology, which is what I now call the Better Way.

Chuck got a lot of help - the acknowledgements read like a Who's Who of Big Wall Climbing.

You'll see Ammon McNeely, who is elcapbuzz here at RC.com [at least when he bothers to show up! Sheesh.] See how many others you recognize.

Not only do I disagree that "this does not sound like a book," I cannot help but think it rather looks like one, too.

Yet something was amiss here - I was supposed to "prove" that I was the Editor, yet nowhere in my copy did I see it written, "Editor: Peter Zabrok"

I found this momentarily perplexing - I knew I had seen this in later editions.

This story just keeps on getting stranger, so click here to proceed to page 3 of the presentation.

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This is the last page - thank goodness, eh?

Anyway, this is a photo of me and Tomaz in El Cap Meadows after climbing Reticent Wall. I'm not sure who that other dude with the beer and the cigarette is on my right, but he wanted to be in the photo, so what the heck....

So anyway, like here's my reference, eh?



Subject: Re: Hi tourist....

Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 16:50:24 +0100

From: Tomaz Humar

To: Peter Zabrok

References:1 , 2

hej "f*cking bad-ass m*therf*cker" for climbing Jolly Roger

stil tourist




Like I said, if you're going to get a reference, you might as well go straight to the top.

And you can't get a better reference than that.

And that is the story of how Tomaz Humar became a "patient" of Dr. Piton.



Please click here to finish, and to look at pictures of tits and bums.

The worldwide web is a funny place. When I first arrived here at RC.com, I began writing technical and teaching posts in the Aid Climbing Forum. If you've read them, you'll know they're pretty good.

I learned all this stuff in two ways - I edited Chongo's book, and then I took the ideas to the big walls of El Capitan, often solo, to figure them out.

Yet for reasons I still do not understand, a number of people [including the then top three users on this website!] did not believe I was who I said I was. Despite me posting dozens of photos of myself actually climbing on El Cap, I was called a "fake".

I found this one particularly amusing:

"Like I asked for the publisher of the book that you "edited", as your "supporters" believe that you have done. You replied in a PM that Chongo makes copies himself at Kinkos, colates [sic] them, then sells them. This does not sound like a book, as I pointed out, but you failed to respond publically [sic] to this as well. You state publically [sic] that you've edited a book, but have failed to show the proof of this when asked to do so.

If you publically [sic] make statements as to your achievements, you should be able to publically [sic] back them up. Do you not agree ??? Or should all the users just blindly believe anything you say as do your "supporters" ???

You tend to state things as fact, but cannot prove these things when asked to do so.

Note: please click here to read my Dr. Piton Quote of the Day where I was recently called a fraud. If you are on of my "sheep" you will do this without hesitation.

"Baaaaaah..."

Anyway, based on the demand quoted above to "prove" the existence of the book, I made up this little presentation. I took my Chongo book, unscrewed it, scanned the pages, and submitted the photos. The name of the book is

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BIG WALL CLIMBING

VOLUME ONE: THE GROUND MANUAL by Chongo

The book is self-published by Chongo. I am its Editor.

Note the Library of Congress Copyright registration number - you'll learn more about that as you move along!

This is probably the most amazing and unbelievable story you have ever read - you will just have to click here, if you dare, to proceed to page 2 of the presentation.

This is the Titan, the biggest of the Fisher Towers and one of the most impressive pieces of rock anywhere. Photo: Andrew Gram

This is the Maverick on the Hindu Spire in Onion Creek, Utah. Notice my partner in the lower righthand corner for scale. Photo by Andrew Gram

It was 1983, my first visit to the mythical and mystical Valley. I had been enjoying some free climbing, and had managed to get up a couple Grade V walls.

After a strenuous few days of climbing, Kevin suggested we do the El Cap layback.

Great, thought I. Probably some desperate 10d, hard to place gear, nowhere to rest.....

"No!", said Kevin. "We go down to the Meadows and lay back and look at El Cap!"

Fine by me.

From left to right, Gerry DeMaio, John Kaandorp and Kevin Lawlor

One of my favourite pictures ever, this photo is enlarged to poster-size, and hangs in my front hallway.

Aurora is a moderately hard line more or less straight up the centre of the Southeast Face of El Cap. You get a little bit of everything on Aurora, from a mellow warm-up on the first three-and-a-half pitches of the Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2001-11-04
Views: 242 | Votes: 8 | Comment: 1

It's not that often you can get a picture of yourself soloing a big wall, so when the opportunity presents itself, you'd better grab it.

It's day 11 of a 16-day solo, my Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2001-10-27
Views: 239 | Votes: 11 | Comment: 1

It's amazing what some people will do given the proper motivation. Take me, for instance.

I was hangin' out at the base of El Cap fixing pitches for my solo ascent of Native Son.

Suddenly up walks Chris Falkenstein, the well-known Yosemite photographer. He agrees that next weekend he will schlep six hundred feet of rope up to the summit, along with all his camera and movie gear, so he could rappel down to take this bitchin' photo!

What can I say about Chris except,

"He's just The Shit!

Tower of Babel in Arches National Park. Picture taken from the Thre Gossips by Andrew Gram. Zenyatta Entrada climbs the obvious thin steep face directly to the summit.

Andrew Gram aiding the first pitch of the West Face of the Three Gossips in Arches National Park near Moab. This pitch also goes free at 5.10 hands, and is better that way since the aid is very awkward.

This is a little bit higher on the notorious hooking pitch [P4] of Jolly Roger - click the link to see another photo.

See that little blob of aluminum I'm holding? That's a #2 head. When they get this big (yeah, that's "big" for Jolly Roger), you can at least get 'em started with the end of your hammer. But you'll need your dulled chisel to really paste those little buggers home!

I was actually feeling pretty good at this point - have a look at what's beneath me! Nothing but duct-taped talon hooks on screamers between me and my belayer.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh - #2 head - it's bomber, dude!

The hard climbing on Jolly Roger comes at you fairly quickly, and it doesn't let up much, either. Get out your talon hooks, duct tape and screamers for this pitch, mate!

The only thing that doesn't make it totally suicidal is that it's not quite vertical. This photo was taken by the renowned Heinz Zak as he zipped by on the fixed lines up to Heart Ledges.

You can click to see an even scarier photo from higher on this pitch!

"Pass the Pitons" Pete Zabrok leads the pristine splitter crack that thrusts up the clean orange rock of the headwall of Sunkist. Photo by Dave Benton, this is

I - "Pass the Pitons" Pete Zabrok - stand proudly on the summit after my second El Cap route - Salathe Wall. At the time I thought I looked pretty bitchin'
The amount of gear you need for a solo ascent of a hard nail-up is about triple this amount!

Half-way up P6 on Prodigal Son, my partner (Tim Ruegg on his first wall) calls for the camera on the tag line. It was August 1999, and it was over 100°F for most of the 3 weeks that I was there.