MudNCrud Forums
Climbing and ... Climbing => Everywhere Else => Topic started by: mynameismud on June 25, 2018, 12:05:54 AM
-
Just got home. Seriously thought I was going to get benighted. Phone battery dies a couple of minutes after getting to the car. It is really dark in the forest up here after the sun goes down. I brought hat and a rain jacket but no head lamp. Thunder and lightning at the moment. Buddy did not even eat. Drank some water and got in his bed. I was so hungry on the hike out. Was fun, but at time stressful. Just at we were getting close to the creek bed and a way out I stepped of a ledge (the brush is really that high), thankfully it was only 5 1/2 feet high. Buddy went around
-
No damage?
-
Glad you are okay Mud (assuming you are).
I didn't share this before but now that Mud has shared something similar - I'll come clean.
The day I led Pinch or Lynch with Kat, I was standing atop a big split boulder at the staging area.
Kat came down and said "I need to change my shoes". As she moved past me, I lost my balance and started tumbling backwards. Luckily there was lots of scrub oak to cushion my fall and the ground at the base of the boulder was covered with leaves and soft, loose dirt. We were both laughing pretty hard afterwards from the adrenaline. The look on my face as I fell, clutching everything in sight must have been priceless. Sometimes we just get lucky.
-
Buddy went around
Now you know he won't jump off a cliff.
Phone battery dies a couple of minutes after getting to the car.
Using it as flashlight?
Good you are intact. You must of gone far out. Climbing?
-
Not to belittle your epic, but this sounds like many of your "normal" days at Pinnacles.
And it's not clear to me what you were up to. Biking? Climbing? Checking out a new cliff?
Glad you're OK!
-
...sometimes we just get lucky.
And sometimes we don't (it's been a month since we lost two off El Cap).
Mighty, mighty glad you're OK too John. Getting hurt falling off a staging area would be hard to live down ;)
-
That’s why you didn’t respond to my texts.
Stick to sport climbing, much safer.
-
Don't make me come up there and keep an eye on you. >:D
I did a bit of a wobble on the ledge we were on Saturday. Kind of exciting. Guess I won't be bopping around on 4 foot wide shelf above a 20' granite slab for awhile. :)
-
Did not plan on this being so wordy and I cannot really put everything in here. It was non stop for six hours or so. Just one thing after another.
In the first post I only put a few details since it was fairly late but here is a short trip report. I do not go into all the details, I have no idea how many time I hoisted Buddy up or down using his harness. There were countless time where I would be yarding up branches with him in my lap pushing him along in front then lifting up up on ledges until he got his feet under him. This was a high value adventure.
---
I had some work on the house and was at a breaking point, it was either start up with something else or take the dog for a hike. I chose take the dog for a hike. One another occasion I had tried to get to the top of a peak in order to get some good view of potential rock but was turned around by deepening snow. I figured the snow was mostly melted out so now was a good time. Most of the approach to the peak is straight forward and about half has a rough cut in trail. The upper part has a fair amount of bushwhacking. We made good time even with one rest where Buddy could sprawl out in the snow for five minutes while he cooled off. The last 300 yards is a bit technical so I ditched all my stuff and told Buddy to stay.
From the summit I could get a good view of the basin below which has a lot of slab most of which is fairly easy 3rd to 5.6 territory. One buttress on the ridge line holds some interest for steeper stuff. I had tried to get into the basin a couple of times but kept following the wrong creek bed. So I hatched a wonderful idea to drop down from above into the creek bed and follow it out. In order to do this we had to drop down over the back side traverse a ways then climb up to a notch from there we could work our way down via treed areas between the slabs that lead to the creek down below.
The challenge is the treed areas tend to get narrower and have ledge / cliff lets. The first obstacle came after dropping down close to 1,000 feet. We were ledge out on all side with steep walls blocking us from getting into the trees. We backtracked a ways when I spotted a weakness up on the left. I put Buddy on belay (put on his leash), and we worked our way up. The first attempt resulting in the two of us sliding down a rather steep slope about 30 feet or so to the creek bed. I just rolled onto my back held onto the dog and waited it out. Everything worked out except I lost my glasses which I eventually found. Now most people would just say ok lets bail and come back solo. But, I figured it had to go. Second attempt worked out. The slope / cliff turned out higher and harder than I had anticipated but we got it. Buddy to say the least was very happy to be on relatively level ground.
We continued working our way through the treed ridge and actually managed to get all the way to the creek bed. It was long and at a few places a little adventurous. But we did it and Buddy got a long drink of water. We followed this for a bit, not nearly long enough before coming to a split. Both splits come to a 20 to 25 foot drop. Solo it was manageable, with Buddy I just saw way to ways things could go wrong. We managed to find and escape out left that interestingly got onto a narrow ledge capped with a roof that went quite a ways. But it would not let us get back into the creek bed.
We had to go up and over then traverse and work our way down this ridge. At one point I went up a steep slope and Buddy just looked at me. Typically I can call him and he will just work his way through. This time no way. So I came down clipped his leash onto his harness and up he went without hesitation. I guess he was just telling me that he wanted to be on belay. Whenever things get sketchy I clip his leash to his harness and I guess he made that connection. This happened a couple more times after this. Well being pushed further up and to the left we finally came to another draw with a small creek.
We went left again and got pushed further left and up. After a bit we managed to work down and right toward the main creek bed. We were about 200 feet above the creek bed when we ran into cliff after cliff. It was also getting late in the day so light was diminished. At one point I found a log and thought we could use that to chimney down but after leaning way back I realize it was a solid 30 foot drop. That was a no go. I found a cave I could get into and was convinced that I could work Buddy down this but he was having nothing to do with it so I finally gave up on that. The last option was to go up a steep slope the cut over through some sketchy stuff. This became Buddy’s first full on rejection of one of my plans. He adamantly was not having anything to do with this plan and manage to wiggle out of his harness which meant he was off belay. Being off belay here was really not good. So I grabbed him by the scuff of the neck and got his harness on and bailed on that plan.
This meant going up and back the way we came from. But we managed to find a way across and onto the next ridge over and after a while a way down. Ultimately, Buddy unlocked the way down after vetoing my plan and going off on his own. I really did not think this would go but it was after nine and light was fading fast. We had to negotiate a few more challenges but over all it went smoothly. This is where I walked of a ledge and dropped almost six feet. The brush here was thick and in places tall. At one point I walked into a log a thigh level. I could not see it. Once getting to the creek bed it was almost a blind step into the creek and I was there when I heard the gravel crunch.
The rest of the hike out was fairly easy. I could tell Buddy had developed some trust in me because when we came to small drops I would climb down then call him over and grab his harness and lower him down. Toward the end he basically just walked over and I grabbed is harness and off we went. The last bit of creek I had to use the flashlight feature of my phone. I was so hungry and this point that it almost hurt. I brought 4 bars, and 5 quarts of water and everything was gone. I was so happy to find the trail and be on the walk out. Just another 30 minutes or so. At one point I tried to turn the lite off but literally could not see a friggin thing. So lite it was, Buddy was very happy with the trail and made a point of making bushes about 50 feet or so. I think he had a point to make. Just made it to the car before the battery on the phone died.
Analysis, what caused this. Well I really should have brought a head lamp. The long extended adventure was caused by me being me. I really knew better and knew that giving it a go had risks. I was fully aware that there could and most likely would be drops. But… I had to.
-
...now most people would just say ok lets bail and come back solo. But, I figured it had to go....
There's the story of your climbing career in a nutshell. Whodathunk that your "hiking" career would follow :P
-
The first attempt resulting in the two of us sliding down a rather steep slope about 30 feet or so to the creek bed. I just rolled onto my back held onto the dog and waited it out.
The dog is teaching you tricks. :)
-
The dog seems really mellow today. I jingled the car keys this morning and he just looked at me. Typically he gets fairly excited. I myself have not been this sore in quite a while. I look like I got in a cat fight, scratches everywhere. Last night when taking a shower my forearms kept cramping. Toweling off was a chore.
Yeah, that "its gotta go" feeling has made life interesting at times but typically it does. I think I am ready for some bolting.
-
We need pictures of the crag.
Glad you are tough as nails and only need 2 out of the 10 essentials.
I’ll drink a beer for you for all of that hard work.
-
No Pics, I was busy.
Cheers for the beers
-
I mean, how hard could it be, right? :)
-
you do have a point there. Guess I have to do it again.
-
Thanks for the laughs and a new found appreciation for the things you do :yesnod: :biggrin: :thumbup:
-
Guess I have to do it again.
That goes without saying. Trick is getting Buddy to go.
-
If you need a bolt installation specialist, let me know.
-
I think his memory might be as short as mine. I think next time will be solo since there are some slabs that I want to explore and I want to get to the top of the South Summit. The South Summit is higher and rockier.
No worries, I cannot help but laugh at myself a fair bit.
My watch says it was a 10 mile day. As my Mom used to say, it is not the miles, it is the mileage.
-
Noal, have you been out hiking? I hiked Diablo a couple weeks ago and was very sore. Made it out for a few 4-5 milers since.
-
As my Mom used to say, it is not the miles, it is the mileage.
Nice :biggrin:
-
Noal, have you been out hiking?
Yes. Last weekend hiked from Courtright to Disappointment Lake. Forgot to pack insect repellent. The mosquitos were bad. Got chased all the way back to car by a big black cloud. I ran the whole way and still had a 50 or so bites.
That's a mileage experience.
This weekend will hit Kings Canyon with DEET.
-
That is one thing I did not mention, bugs. Oh man a mix of mosquito and and some kind of fly thing. In places if we stopped just thick as heck, they would get in my ears and in behind my glasses. Ugh.
Noal, good getting out there.
-
At least engage strava on your epic. That way I can see you suffer real-time
-
I haven't checked the forum for a while. Only learned about and read his trip report after I saw his cat fight marks all over his limbs in person today. We went out for a long walk in the hood after dinner. On the way back, I looked to the steep drop into the creek on the right and asked him, "was it steep like this?"
(http://mudncrud.com/gallery3/var/resizes/Others/Postings/IMG_5684-01.JPG?m=1530161237)
(It is a lot steeper than it looks in the photo.)
He looked over, "nah, it was steeper than this. This, I can walk up and down without using my hands."
Then he looked over to the left (uphill) side of the fire road, "it was more like that."
(http://mudncrud.com/gallery3/var/resizes/Others/Postings/IMG_5685-01.JPG?m=1530161245)
(I honestly do not see a way up or down it.)
So, my question is, does anyone know if there is a special club to join for people like Alex Honnold's mom and Tommy Caldwell's wife? You know, you kinda believe they possess the incredible skills to get themselves out of any bind, but yet, you find your heart ascending to your throat when you found out what kind of bind they can get themselves into.
Yeah, F4, you keep an close eye on that Strava live track, 'cuz I certainly could not stomach the suspence.
-
I just choose steep parts where there are roots, rocks and branches to use. Vine Maples are really good for climbing
-
I need cheap entertainment.
At his expense.
-
Sounds like this could be a good candidate for the next issue of Almost Accidents in North American Climbing...
-
As my Mom used to say, it is not the miles, it is the mileage.
Mom knew what she was talking about.
Whew! Man's Best Friend indeed!