MudNCrud Forums
Climbing and ... Climbing => Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles => Topic started by: cobbledik on October 16, 2011, 06:41:17 PM
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Finished pitch 1 of premeditated today. No nailing needed.
Will be back in two weeks to finish the 2nd pitch. Driving home now, will post TR soon. Gopro video of the entire 3 hours it took to lead it.
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Nice job! Looking forward to the TR.
Hopefully you and the girlfriend are still together. :)
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Nice. I'll look forward to the trip report.
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Will get to the TR soon, still sorting through the video.
Here's a link to the picasa album of I have of the day.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111001858119976450058/PremeditatedPitch1101611?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKeMsJXr9vSbtQE&feat=directlink (https://picasaweb.google.com/111001858119976450058/PremeditatedPitch1101611?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKeMsJXr9vSbtQE&feat=directlink)
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It must be close to Pinns season, we've got two super Pinnacles related climbing threads going at once.
I'm loving the autumn days up here on granite 40 minutes from home, but I hear her calling...
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Kev! You made her clean the pitch too!! ! OMG!!!
;)
I'm using those pics with my SO to show that I'm not such a bad guy. ;)
Seriously though, nice job getting back in the saddle. Coming back to those things can be harder than going the first time.
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Awesome.
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Good Work Kevin!
I can see that going at around C3ish/+ or so. Munge had a few good cams on that pitch. The only pins he had going were after you traverse into the plumb crack. One was the most bomber pin I may have ever cleaned (Video of this somewhere).
P2 would be incredibly dangerous to try clean through the crux. My hands are sweating just thinking about that!
Best of Luck on round Two!
***All ascents except possibly Barbella's(Which is not confirmed they made it to P2), have been after fixing a portion and returning at a later date.
No continous ascents of this pinnacles mega classic!
I remember that double cam (hold the flake in the middle) placement. Thanks for the pics of pro.
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Cool pics, Cobbledik. 8)
Scope is good. I'm sure Bucky would approve. ;D
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Hey Mucci, (or Munge, or anyone else that's been up there) do you think ball nuts will work on the arrow placements? I'm assuming the rock is too fractured for inverted cam hooks there? Also do you think there's any reason to bring my big Pika Hook? I'd rather not bring it if I don't have it since that thing scares the fuck out of me when it's hanging off of me; like climbing with a massive sword out of its sheath.
Also, how many other teams have done the first pitch clean? (just sort of egotistically wondering)
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I like ball nuts and have used them successfully at the Pins.
I am fairly sure you are the only one with a hammer-less ascent.
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Big hook off the belay might make the first move clean.
If your going clean, bring the whole enchilada. I would also hand place every pin I could. Sew it up so tight, soooooo tight.
The roof/diagonal crack might take ball nuts suprisingly well, Probably a six pack of the blue Balls would be a good start.
The last few moves are through gravel, with not much for anything to grab on, hooking might bring you to the anchors.
Kevin, you have just set the new standard on the 1st pitch, Way to take your time and focus up there.
Let us know when you are going for round 2, photo's are great by a third party...
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We're planning on Camping East Side Friday night the 28th, driving around Sat morning the 29th, then making a reservation at the nearest hospital for Sun night the 30th.
I have a feeling that I may have freaked out my GF a bit when we were hiking in and I made her go over multiple times how to escape a belay if needed and where to run to if we needed help. Pretty sure she'll get freaked out even more when I make her repeat how to escape a hanging belay and rap on the remaining lead and tag line if necessary.
Part of our conversation on the hike in.
"So, how dangerous is this climb then?"
"Oh, it's fine. You know, like, it's, you know."
"So it's 'I know, fine' as in you can't get hurt?"
"Yeah, well, you know... it's... you know."
"Oh..."
That being said, there will be a hammer waiting at the belay with my iron juuuust a quick and tasty tag line away.
6 Blue ball nuts? I think I may have just thrown up in my mouth. (hehehehe, "blue balls")
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I do not think climbing with blue balls is a good idea.
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He said blue balls. he, he he.... :P
Are brass nuts on the gear list?
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It's good to be back in the mud.
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If I can't send it clean, i'm looking forward to sticking my pecker into the soft mud. Then my GF with probably be able to pull my pecker out with just her hands.
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Hopefully she cleans your blue balls with care.
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be safe, but have fun!
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Been working on a TR for a while now, I want to make TRs that are more like creative nonfiction, something more like art and less like a retelling of events. Anywho, it takes a bit longer than I'd like (things would be so much better if I didn't have a job wasting all my time.)
Here's an excerpt of what I'm working on for my premeditated TR.
"Once I’m in the crack, protection works in almost a predictable cam, cam, nut pattern. My memory reminds me of an obvious behind-the-head-on-the-right-sidewall placement in a pocket that took me 20 minutes to find on my last attempt. My memory did not remind me of the aura of fractures extending out from that same pocket. Bodyweight bomber, but who knows for a lead fall. I decorate the cam with a yellow and green screamer and move on.
Climbing clean is always the intent. The main reason is to keep the rock in the same condition as you left it, very Boyscout motto-esque. The Pinnacles brings a different issue to the table. My very presence changes the route, mini gravitational pulls as I stand in my aiders rips the dust from the wall as I pass by. My finger placed into a horizontal crack to feel the inside walls makes the entire bottom of the crack fall down to the ground. What is left is a gaping mouth, mimicking my own as I halfheartedly yell “rock.”
Dixie had started out belaying from 20 feet away from the wall but gave up that position quickly once rocks started chasing her on the ricochet. From beneath an overhang at the base of the climb, she is protected as she stares away from the wall towards the saner routes on Machete Ridge and The Citadel
I wonder how much of me is here to climb the rock and how much of me is here to retrace the steps of those that came before me. Bridwell, Mucci, Mungeclimber, Brad Young, all climbers whose trip reports I have read over and over again. In the case of the Bird, reading books, articles, watching videos, and tracing my fingers over lines on topos like painted highway lines left behind for others to follow later.
This idea of history is turned on its head on this route. I attempt statistical equations in my head. What percent of the rock that falls to the floor is part of that highway touched and paved by those before me? To carve out a new placement with the barest touch of my finger can be seen as holistic retrobolting as the path that Bridwell made with tied off bongs and angles crumbles to dust and spreads out into the wind between my feet and the ground.
Aiding at the Pinnacles allows one to gain a first ascent with every step. Second ascents and all other ascents are made at the base of the climb as you step on the fallen past while flaking rope and preparing the rack."
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ah, nice, take your time. I'm in for the full ride amigo.
The word ephemeral comes to mind as I read of the dust falling from the shuffle of the aiders. So true.
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This idea of history is turned on its head on this route. I attempt statistical equations in my head. What percent of the rock that falls to the floor is part of that highway touched and paved by those before me? To carve out a new placement with the barest touch of my finger can be seen as holistic retrobolting as the path that Bridwell made with tied off bongs and angles crumbles to dust and spreads out into the wind between my feet and the ground.
Aiding at the Pinnacles allows one to gain a first ascent with every step. Second ascents and all other ascents are made at the base of the climb as you step on the fallen past while flaking rope and preparing the rack.
The rock on this route is not the only thing that is impermanent.
I've got to run out with Tricia and get some guidebook work done. But two "photos" will be coming.
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Your comments about the impermanent nature of the rock on Premeditated got me thinking about which is less permanent, the rock, or the people who climb on it. And that got me to thinking about one of the route's first ascentionists, Jim Bridwell.
Soon after the new 2007 guidebook came out (four years ago almost to the day), I was talking with Tom Higgins about it. In this conversation Tom asked me if I would sign his copy of the book. I laughed robustly at this request, but only for a little while (until I realized that he was serious). I laughed because to me the concept of me giving a signature to someone of Tom's stature is very slightly short of ridiculous. Verrrrry slightly. But he was serious, and so I agreed.
But I thought up one condition: I'd sign his book if he'd sign a second copy of the book for me.
And thus was born an ongoing project of attempting to get a signature in this same book from every Pinnacles first ascentionist I can find.
Many of you are familiar with this project because many of you have signed this book. It now contains about 80 signatures, including those of very many of the "big names" that have done Pinnacles first ascents.
Which brings me back to Bridwell. I got his signature with the help of my friend Todd Gordon (who lives near Jim). I asked Todd to have Jim sign on page 287, at the location of his (locally) famous Pinnacles route Premeditated. And Jim not only obliged my request, he did so in a beautiful form of calligraphy using a flowing, black ink:
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6031/6280996545_681b0c36ae_z.jpg)
And, to close the circle, Jim also included in the book a separate note, written in the same pen, on a separate sheet of paper. A separate note that I thought of immediately when I read your comments about the fleeting nature of the rock on the route. Pinnacles rock isn't the only thing fleeting about Premeditated; human memories are also impermanent, they too crumble over time. Jim confirmed this:
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6093/6281512978_0426430fe3_z.jpg)
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This sunday's trip back to premeditated will be my 4th time on the route. No other route has had that same pull on me. Like I teach my students in English class, when something is given more attention that you would normally expect, it's probably a symbol with more embedded meaning than its literal meaning.
I distinctly remember talking to Brad in the parking lot the first day I intended to get on the route; he told me about the last ascent up the route that Mucci and Munge has done. He mentioned that they had used Bridwell's hammer and that they had a real appreciation for the history of the route. I doubt you know it Brad, but that exchange had a profound effect upon me.
Up until that point, I was in love with the technical experience of sick aid, feeling like hard scary aid was something I could sink my teeth into. I wanted to nail routes that couldn't be done without nailing, I wanted to do something that trade routes no longer allowed due to the eroding effect of popularity.
The "history" aspect of the route made me think that what drew me to hard nailing, hooking, and such was the idea that on those routes, I shared with a direct lineage to those that had created it. Climbing the Shield today no longer allows you step into the path of Porter, but hard routes allow you to get closer to the past. Premeditated feels that way, less like reaching for the next placement, more like reaching for places in history. (that was overly dramatic, but my B.A. is in creative writing, so I can't help myself)
Randomly, I ran into Chuck Clance at Discovery Wall, months before Premeditated was a sparkle in my eye, where we got to talking about aiding and he mentioned Mucci as someone he had climbed with and respected as a true climber and strait up guy (this all said as he down 3 cans of beer then went off to solo Portent) I feel now like, at least at the Pinnacles, I can move in the path of names like Bridwell, and, more recently, Mucci, and connect to something I can't do when I'm groundlocked.
I sound starry-eyed, but it's not that. I feel like i've been changed by climbing through fear and reluctant success. That change is part from within, but just as much from without, by people that help me understand what I'm doing and understand myself in the process.
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Mucci is the real deal. He should tell the tale, but the topo of his and Steve Bosque's newest big wall says A3+, and I know he won't ever call it A4 out of respect for other guys that have gone before him. It sounds way heads up.
The "history" is another way of saying the common cord that ties the climbing community together. It varies and is subject to human foibles, but especally at Pinns there is a certain appreciation for the absurdity of scratchin up rock faces that speaks to a few.
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Scarface is def high on my list of to-dos for next year
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Super rough edit of the first pitch. Halfway up the climb, some dust got in the gopro so it gets a bit blurry in parts. cut it down to 1 hour. Once everything is said and done after the second pitch, I'll cut it down to 30 mind or so overall.
Premeditated Full Pitch 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN_H9-_o7nU&sns=em#ws)
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sweaty palms
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Nice of you to share your thoughts while in the process of climbing a notorious Pinns route. I spent a few nights without sleep waiting to finish off that route.
Chuck taught me how to climb, and instilled a lust for early repeats by saying "Get it before it get's all blown out and bolted". He was never much into new routing, but with early repeats of Aurora, ZM, Mescalito, Mushroom and many others he was my hero. Through him I met Steve Bosque, who had done some hard new routes in Pinns in the 70's, not to mention his Valley tally. Steve was the opposite of Chuck, always down for a FA. They did the 2nd ascent of SOD wall on machete.
Both of them walked up to premeditated, well into thier aid careers, and immediately walked away. When they heard Munge and I did it, both were astonished. That was how this route was seen by the hardmen of the day. Possibly not worth getting hurt on, when you could still get Grade VI FA's in the valley. Or maybe that the West side in the late 70's had a different aura than it does today, making the balconies a truly scary place to repeat the Bird's aid route.
Bridwell routes have never been taken lightly, and the way the route was described as a 4 pitch "Evil" route in some guidebooks, is a testament to how descriptions and misinformation contributed to it having only been repeated 4 times in 40+ years.
Kevin, I felt the same way about Brad, Jim, Eric, Rob etc... They had made the history (or found it) and were part of my "introduction to pinnacles adventure".
Good route to test your mettle (metal?) on...
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Finished pitch 2 today. Managed to get the first 2/3 clean, placed 5 pins on the long left traverse, clean through the final bulge and one last pin to get the anchor.
Final score:
Premeditated in 6attempts.
1. Walked up and walked away (did bongladesh instead)
2. Freeclimbed to first bolt, too scared to do traverse into crack, bailed off bolt
3. Made it 2/3 of the way up first pitch, rangers informed us that it was bird closure, I say omg I'm so sorry I forgot to check built anchor, came down
4. Intending to rap in and solo rest of first pitch, I walk to top, find bolts, then decide to find another place to climb
5. Send first pitch clean 3.5 hours
6. Send 2/3 of second pitch clean, nail the rest. 5 hours.
7. There will never be a 7. Ever.
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Ya know what they say
Never say never.
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Nevernevernever.
I had an emotional breakdown at the 4 hour mark ( which is when I decided to nail ) sobbing and repeating a chorus of "I think I can do it" the followed by " I'm going to die" over and over. I've never been that scared or mentally exhausted before when climbing.
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YEAH!!!! fuk yay!!!! you didn't die!!! victory is yours!!!!
now just imagine how rock solid granite A3 will feel!!!! like taking candy from a baby
if you left a rope fixed I might go back up there to try a third pitch, but I don't want to relead that shit.
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I had sugar plum visions of maybe a third, but by the time I got to the anchors, I was out of there and just wanted to be on the ground. I didn't even look around and we pulled the rope. But you can alway rap into the second pitch from the top.
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Well Done!
Like everyone here, I was kinda cheering you on for an all clean second pitch, but that crack up under the roof is really incredibly thin and I didn't know whether that would go.
Here's a suggestion: since you're obviously in a PInnacles frame of mind, do the second ascent of Los Banditos on Machete (it's in the new routes sticky thread). To my knowledge this hasn't had a second ascent and I think it's really pretty good (and the aid is bomber A1).
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Working through a TR (hard to find time with grades coming due for my high school students) but thought I'd share some of the pictures I have from the second pitch. I was taking video with my GoPro and so didn't get many pictures of the clean placements up to the final section because the camera was taking care of that. Once it ran out of of batteries, I then switched to taking pictures of the placements.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111001858119976450058/PremeditatedPitch2?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIWOoP_l07D3Vw&feat=directlink
a few selected pix:
Belay Anchors (LOL, I just realized that the pano program I used to stitch together the three images of the anchor made the red sling seem to separate in midair.)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4sr-NcVv_KQ/TrDDFW0nzTI/AAAAAAAAGjg/bn4AtXdBM4A/s640/Pitch%2525201%252520Anchor.jpg)
Looking back on nailing section
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-wXpWb5QbxH0/TrDDM7B6w4I/AAAAAAAAGkE/fk2KYYTyw9A/s400/DSC01505.JPG)
Bomber cam to return to clean at the last leg to the anchor (kitty litter to blind to blind to large pika hook - why is it that clean after nailing feels lame compared to the clean before resorting to nailing?
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--Lw6HnQm2jE/TrDDP6aWfHI/AAAAAAAAGkU/C2VHLx096ns/s400/DSC01509.JPG)
Dixie (my gf) starting to clean the pitch.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FfBf9w9iqcw/TrDDT-ztvxI/AAAAAAAAGkk/2i47L2Tbo8U/s640/DSC01515.JPG)
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You'll stick with Dixie if you're smart. I've never met her, but she seems tough and devoted. I've gotten a very good impression of her already.
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she looks like shes going to whip around the corner!!! yikes!!
stay low, stay low!!
afraid to open the picasa pics :)
maybe heading down this weekend. you going to be around?
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She did whip around the corner. I have video of it that I'll post. I told her she had the choice of lowering off a bolt or just taking the swing... I turned on my camera because I had a feeling I knew which one she'd choose. She's like me that way.
She's amazing, I've never found anyone who learned how to second so quickly. Believe it or not, pitch 1 of premeditated was the second time she'd ever cleaned an aid lead and pitch 2 of premeditated was the third time she's ever cleaned an aid lead.
Not only that but she only started climbing trad and leading trad (both on the same day) two months ago. This weekend she led Ordeal and Jorge's Crack with no falls and every piece she placed was solid (I think seeing me lead pitch 1 of premeditated made her appreciate what rock at the pinnacles can be like and so she takes that into account when placing gear)
Edit: just so nobody thinks I put her on pinnacles trad at such a young trad leading age, a quick list of routes she's already led in those two months
Pop bottle
Corrigation corner
Last pitches of bird on a wire on lost horse wall in J tree
Chasing the sun in Indian cove Jtree
Half of whodunnit
She's a natural pitbull who is willing (and has) to whip on her gear and understands how to run it out through fear to get to better placements rather than force crap placements. Scary bu inspiring to belay. She's probably the only thing that got me through my freak out at the four hour mark of the second pitch of premeditated
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LOL!!!
what, it's possible to fix and not hang out at the belay while the second cleans? ;D
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like this one in particular...
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LdhDBd2h_ZA/TrDDehx8r7I/AAAAAAAAGlY/PdzEpZpAXJE/s800/DSC01536.JPG)
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Rapping from the anchor to watch from the ground on this route, yes. 51% of me wanted to be able to see her at all times so I could help her if she had any problems with the traversing nature of the route or with removing the iron and such. 49% just wanted to get off the damn route. So it was sort of good?
I'll be down in Riverside this weekend working on my solo aiding process, then the week after i'm heading down south to try to aid one of the nailing pitches on Tahquitz clean. We'll see.
I can still see the first part of the final traverse on Premeditated that stumped me and caused my breakdown. In hindsight (or course) I feel like a tricam (which i had on me) would work to solve the first 2 pins I placed. Maybe it would have worked and I'm pissed at myself for not thinking that at the time. Could the rest of the traverse go with ball nuts and/or inverted cam hooks? probably. I was so fried I couldn't get my head together to go clean again until the final bulge. I told myself that I had to fall before I'd nail, but The Fear got the better of me. I should be proud of the send but I'm instead just beating myself up constantly.
Damn you pinnacles, I'll make a lady out of you yet.
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The swing
Cleaning Pitch 2 of Premeditated (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptxmStSCcEU#ws)
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lol
yeah, don't knock your ascent. But it will be there if you want to try again too.
brilliant to go to the ground. the poor mucci guy must have been futtered in the head not to think of it. hahahaha
Kev, you going to post up on the Taco?
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I'll post on the Taco and Bigwall once i finish the TR (probably 2 weeks to finish it. It's getting very creative writey. My college profs will be proud)
Yeah, that climb is like giving birth (based upon what I've been told) Once I was on the path back to the car, I already couldn't really recall the physical fear I felt on the route. Everything was, "that wasn't sooooo bad" So My Name is Mud was right, "never say Never"
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I wouldn't beat yourself up too much. Aid falls are serious business. On PreMed, you could assume A4 bodily injury if you fell.
Clean rating? Man, I would not want to test ANY of your clean placements in a fall. But I would say that a fall from the crux, where you started nailing, would end your career.
Remember that your life is worth more than maintaining a clean ascent. I think you showed good judgment up there, finally nailing where it was mandatory. Showed the old dogs what can be done with a few cams and such:) A few well placed pins can and just might save your ass in the future.
Look at what you already accomplished on this route.
1st time the same person has lead both pitches
1st time P1 went clean.
1st female ascent.
4th, possibly 5th ascent.
Good job Kevin.
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Thanks Mucci and Brad and Munge and the rest of you guys. It means a lot to me, seriously.
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4th, possibly 5th ascent.
thought it was 6th? definitely an "early" repeat.
thread around here somewhere on that...
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Munge-
Barbellas ascent was never confirmed, (he could not remember).
I also remember reading they rapped off bolts in a lodestone, which is p1
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roger that
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Will that thing go free? Unfortunately, after closer recon of our Bridwell Bolts Free project we realized that the ten feet of rock that looks like it will break off will break off. Whats the story with freeing this?
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Do you mean will it go clean or free?
Clean = yes
- - - I only nailed a 15' section of rock, I believe that camhooks and tricams and hooks will get past it, not sure if i'll ever go back up to test my theory.
Free = yes
- - - The moves are there for a moderate grade but then again, I wouldn't be surprised if a free attempt wouldn't just keep pulling rock off until you dig through to the other side of the balconies.
R/X = yes
- - - None of it can be protected well enough to survive the force of a lead fall without drilling bolts.
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Hey Mittens, lets go with the Tommy Caldwell method and rap bolt that shit!
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We're looking for the steepest most chossy piece of rock in the pins to work our magic on.
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LOL
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Mr Mud will free it.
Give him 2 weeks in Golds...then watch out!
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A better project would be to check out Great Spectacular....the bolts are there..
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This route wont work for steep, the slab is the best part because everything that comes off hits the slab and breaks more off. A pinnacles snowball rolling downhill.
Mustache would be a good route to free, boulder to a bomber cam at around 15' then normal dirty crack climbing.
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Or, nearby "The Great Spectacular" is "What If?" which might go free but would likely need a little wire-brush affection first.
Yeah... you guys could make Pinnacles history.
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Hey Mittens, lets go with the Tommy Caldwell method and rap bolt that shit!
And, really, Adam I thought with your obviously high intelligence that you'd be better at spelling and at grammar in general. But even you screw up on spelling, having obviously omitted the letter "e" as the last letter of your adjective in the quote above. Shame on you; I award you a B- as your grade.
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Hey Mittens, lets go with the Tommy Caldwell method and rap bolt that shit!
And, really, Adam I thought with your obviously high intelligence that you'd be better at spelling and at grammar in general. But even you screw up on spelling, having obviously omitted the letter "e" as the last letter of your adjective in the quote above. Shame on you; I award you a B- as your grade.
This makes my English teacher heart grow.
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Hi Mittens... let's go down too Pinnz, that Tommi SCaldwell Rape bolt method is the shite... Hahahh... Hhahahhhahhh!!!! WE gonna do these thingz with.... authoriti!!! Premediated is goonna be rad!!!...!!! NEW boltz retroactively placement. Hahh hhhahah! Will we there letz smash those new boltz onderneath that roof!!! This is gonna be the shite!!!
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It's typed as "teh"
sheesh, do you even know what teh standards are!!!
;)
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U N33d 2 uS3 wE1Rd Ca9iTal1zAtnz!!1!
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We now have three examples in a row of what happens when one mixes too much youth with way too much coffee and blends it all with text-speak.
Holy sheep dip (to borrow Mud's phrase).
"Huh," to paraphrase my own initial reaction.
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Brad, u try to take all the fun out of the forum. I'm off to the facebook page...
Nope, I still love this place you guys are rad.
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Wait, what's this thread about? I need to get to work on this TR once I finish inputted quarter grades for my students today. yyeeeeaaaah..
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Brad, u try to take all the fun out of the forum.
Yes. And my efforts are completely Premeditated.
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This is starting to look like a supertaco thread, Wayyy off topic.
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I bet Obama could free Premeditated, we should occupy Pinnacles until he does, did you know that 1% of the rocks on Premeditated hold up the route for 99% of the rest of the rocks?,
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Now it looks like a taco thread. But that 1% comment is fairly funny.
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I was proud of that one.
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mud mud mud mud mud mud
MUHHHHH HHHHHHUUUUUUDDDDDDD
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Here's an excerpt from the TR i'm still working on. Pushing 10 pages so far.
keep in mind this is still unedited, to take that for what it's worth.
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Pitch 2:
The traverse off of the belay lodestone does little to make you happy about the rest of your day. Remembering pictures of Mucci avoiding the pendulum at the beginning of the pitch by standing on Munge’s outstretched palm, I realize I’ve placed the powerpoint of my anchor two feet below the lodestone. So much for planning ahead.
To my left is a wasteland of crumbling flesh that I poke at halfheartedly as Dixie jugs up to the belay. Long ago ceasing to call rock, I watch passively as everyplace I touch falls away towards her. She looks up at me with angry townspeople carrying pitchforks and torches in her eyes. I stop playing with the face to my left.
The last time Dixie was at the belay, she immediately rapped back down, racing the setting sun. Now, as she sets up her belay seat, sheet of wood cut to size in Home Depot and slid into the padded slot of the gratis boson’s seat that came for free with my Black Diamond haulbag lying crumpled at the bottom of the climb, she looks at the lodestone, the rusting button head anchors coming out of it, the equalized rusting angled in a suspect crack, C3’s and small metolius offsets and mud raining down every time her belay seat rubs against the wall.
“This place is horrifying.”
“Oh, you know, it’s… you know. Yeah.” Pitchforks rise in her eyes again. I change the subject by pointing at the end of the pitch.
“Right around the corner, up there… I think.”
“Do we have to ducktape the corner?” I imagine the mental effect up a strip of tape grinding against the chicken headed corner and falling off once the mud and dust cake enough of the gum on the tape. At a certain point, psychological safety begins to trump physical safety.
“It’ll be fine. I have to go up that way first” I point to my right at the gapping gap of a crack that looms above he lodestone. “then across, then I’ll probably backclean and so it’ll run across the face.” I have no idea if this is going to work. My thinking face is a nodding head with a frown. This shows concern and confidence. I force myself to nod along with my frowning face. She seems to accept this.
“ok.” The villagers in her eyes lower their torches but grumble amongst themselves.
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May get hoipolloi Dave on this one yet!
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"There is an amazing sense of speed once the iron comes out. A simplicity
to the mashed and forced nature of nailing versus the previous 4 hours of fiddle,
test, fiddle, ease on, jump off, fiddle, replace of clean placements.
My placements fly into their nests, upside down, hanging out of the perfectly flakey pie crust like the
heads of (find those fish that pop in and out of the holes) I hang to my left, balancing
against the fifi at my waist by pushing my feet backward towards where my last
solid cam continues to shift in its place as the rope pulls against it.
“Watch me!... Keep me tight, well… relatively tight… enough to feel me, no,
you’re pulling me backwards, just you know just enough slack” Dixie makes motions
like she can’t hear me. I’m not really yelling loud enough for anyone but myself to
hear anyway.
My voice is the sound of the 2 packs-a-day dust habit I’ve taken up
since this morning. For the first time, I imagine what it would be like to have a
cigarette right now. I’m suddenly glad I quit 2 years earlier, I happily envision
myself hanging against the Balconies Wall on my fifi and smoking cigarette after
cigarette, never moving, and remaining there until someone finally came and pulled
me off this route.
I continue to scan for clean placement but air is long out of that sail. Now is
the race across iron to the end. I am John Henry fighting for the jobs of the rest of
the railroad construction men. I focus on my placements again before I begin to
dwell on the ultimate end of John Henry’s myth.
Amazingly, most of the pitons sing in this final section, I should write that
as “sing” in the Pinnacles filter that everything takes on. The lost arrows and angles
(X in all) mumble the melody of nailing, muffled, but loud enough to imagine the
scored music. I grasp each staff line of the sheet music like rungs on a ladder to
make myself slide across the face."
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Going through some of the gopro footage from pitch 2 and figured I'd post some up here for you guys
Working on the traverse from the lodestone left to the corner system (short)
or rather, "fkin sht this rock is crap"
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18765538/Premuditated%20flakey%20goodness.mov (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18765538/Premuditated%20flakey%20goodness.mov)
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Hahaha, love it!
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dude, that incut was bomber you should have freed it.
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I think he just upgraded the route by knocking off those key holds.
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yeah now it is 5.9+
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I later took the offset out of the incut and used a tension off my daisy to reach a higher point to place a #3 between large cobblestones above and to the left of the incut.
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Made this video collection of stills (and some vid) from the gopro footage to grab stills of the placements on the route (pitch 2)
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cool
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filth!
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Sick video! I got sweaty palms the minute you left the belay.
So, where are we at with a comparison of the 2 hardest aid pitches in pins?
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Kev already said Icky was the ickiest, I think. I'd trust that post.
6 hours?
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Icarus is harder (less placement opportunities but better rock with thinner nailing and hooking)
Premeditated is scarier (many placement possibilities all of which suck and prob will drop you into a zippering fall of pain)
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Icarus is harder (less placement opportunities but better rock with thinner nailing and hooking)
Premeditated is scarier (many placement possibilities all of which suck and prob will drop you into a zippering fall of pain)
Quotable
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Quotable
ugh you guys are men. I am weak with small eggs to boot.......zippering fall of pain. That sums up why I keep walking until Lava