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Without doubt, "Big Wall Eric" was the Quintessential Big Wall Theorist!

He had it all - a head swager in the back of his truck, whose license plate read,

"ELCAP5"

Hell, he even

Uh, yep - that's me all right - a Big Wall Theorist if ever you saw one.

Only a BWT would drag across two haul lines and the second lead line instead of using a Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2002-03-29
Views: 93 | Votes: 17 | Comments: 2

If you set out to sink the Bismark, you had best be armed with a big gun.

Here we see Neal Weiss armed with my #4 Big Bro, a twelve-inch tube chock he used to climb the nasty offwidth of the Bismark o

Riverside Quarry - RIGHT END AREA - Dihedral To Florida / Right End route A2 Scott at top of P1. You can practice setting up your portaledge, BUT DON'T BIVY, you will be rescrued (police, sheriff, county rescue and fire dept. will show up), just as Scott.

Riverside Quarry - RIGHT END AREA - Dihedral To Florida / Right Route A2 Scott making a hook move, left had on looooose block.

As we climbed higher on the N.A.Wall, we slowly saw the snowcapped Sierras emerging behind the valley walls. This is a view of Middle Cathedral where me and Ollie climbed the Bircheff-Williams a few days earlier.

At the start of day 4, Olivier is preparing to start of from Big Sur ledge. This is where it all started getting fun. The way down would be as hard as the way up from here and that caused me to finally relax ;-)

My first dinner on the N.A.Wall. Enjoying some hot soup on Mazatlan ledge.

This is the view looking down from the Black Cave. Looking up there was nothing but a great big dark roof ;-)

During the F.A. Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt, Tom Frost en Yvon Chouinard feared that there was no way out of this dark and gloomy cave-like place. But, brilliant as they were, they found an awesome traverse first under and then over the lip of the roof (or

I led this pitch which leads into the Black Cave. No nice shining white granite here, just black diorite and some bad rock. This pitch was also referred to as 'Rotten Island' by the Huber-brothers who did the free-climb. But nonetheless I'm keeping my spi

Riverside Quarry - RIGHT END AREA - The Dihedral A3 Scott jugging and cleaning The Dihedral.

While Ollie and me were on the N.A.Wall, there were a couple of Americans on P.O.Wall gradually moving up alongside us. This is where we lost sight of them for a while, when we moved into the Black Dihedral and further on into the Black Cave.

Riverside Quarry - RIGHT END AREA - Rivets & Bits A2 and The Dihedral A3 end at same anchors. Group shot of Chas & Greg who did Rivets & Bits, Scott & (SPIKE taking pic) did The Dihedral.

Riverside Quarry - RIGHT END AREA - Rivets & Bits A2 Chas jugging and cleaning pitch 2.

Yes, ladies and gents, here you see the quintessential Big Wall Theorist - none other than Dr. Piton himself - who subsequently bailed from his attempt to climb the Regular Route on the Northwest Face of Half Dome in 1

My first ascent of El Cap in 1988!

The "Fires" should be your clue, eh?

Note: If you know that "Fire" is pronounced "Fee-Ray", then you are probably an old fart like me!

The

Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2002-03-19
Views: 119 | Votes: 9 | Comments: 6

Top left:

Three used heads from my ascent of Jolly Roger.

Aren't those the sickest damn things you've ever seen? You'd have to be crazy to climb on stuff like that! Especially twenty-five consecutive moves on stuff like that.

And that's like a "toonie" for scale, eh?


Top right:

My valid Canadian passport showing the photo of me with Wee-Wee the Big Wall Crab on my left shoulder, and a Merrican dime for scale.


Middle right:

My little pecker! The swaged cable is a custom job.


Bottom right:

Mangled and beaten-up rusty old #3 knifeblade probably bootied off of some wall somewhere, or maybe I actually bought the thing - who knows?


Bottom:

On the right is an A5 Birdbeak an amazing invention by Jim Bridwell, a piton that works with a hooking and camming action. The rad thing about beaks is that you hammer 'em in, but you can often pull them out with your fingers by just wiggling them a bit!

Just to the left of the beak is a Black Diamond Grappling Hook that I straightened out on a daisy chain fall during my solo ascent of Native Son. If you want to see what the thing is supposed to look like before you fall on it, please click here to see one with the proper curvature.

Here is a not-so-great photo of how to sling a Grappling hook. The sling is about twice as long as it should be - you lose too much height that way. Also, you'd better crank down on that knot, eh?!


Bottom right:

Kong-Bonatti Adjustable Fifi Hook rigged for left-handed operation. Even though the hook itself has "7 mm" stamped on it, you should use the slipperiest 6mm cord that you can find.

I used to need the cord to be arm's length, but since the invention of adjustable daisies you can now get away with the cord being about two feet long. Be sure to allow for the knot on your harness, and the keeper knot which is shown.

You'll also want to tie a hunk of 3 mm cord through the top to make it easier to remove. You can see that I have tied a couple knots in the 3 mm cord to prevent it from slipping over the hook. That's a little trade secret, eh?

Take a good look at that hook. You can see that it is very well used and hence the reason for its retired status. It is so chewed from hanging over wires, there is a big gouge out of thing that was making it too difficult to pull out!

Holy.....

So we've just crawled onto El Cap Towers, and we've scarfed all of Captain Kirk's food, when all of a sudden these four French dudes show up

El Cap Towers could be the most famous big wall bivi in the world! Unquestionably, it is on the most famous big wall climb - The Nose.

Submitted by: passthepitonspete on 2002-03-18
Views: 161 | Votes: 6 | Comments: 5

Photo by Tom Randall from Zodiac.

This photo was taken on my 42nd birthday - September 11, 2001.

Do you think I will ever forget that day? I couldn't believe it when Tom shouted over that th

This is a big wall leader's rack that has been custom modified.

Sketch by Dr. Piton.

If you have not already done so, then please click here to Ask Dr. Piton ... about modifying the big wall gear rack.

Water Slide - Mt. Baldy - WATER SLIDE A1 sometime you just have to use narrow webbing and girth hitch that old 1/4" bolt.

Water Slide - Mt. Baldy - WATER SLIDE A1 bolt ladder. Old bolt with new nut and a Pika keyhole hanger.

Water Slide - Mt. Baldy - WATER SLIDE A1 bolt ladder does have some verrrrry old bolts.