MudNCrud Forums
Climbing and ... Climbing => Masters of Mud -- Pinnacles => Topic started by: Brad Young on April 18, 2007, 07:52:48 PM
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West Face of Seldom Seen Pinnacle 5.8 X. Two pitches both at 5.8 X, and both loose. Dave Harden's been climbing since 1970 and he also thought it was the worst climb he's ever done. Possible, at at least one point, for a lead fall to kill both the leader and the follower. One bolt in 350 feet of climbing. Other than that, a tree down low and cams that were illusions in loose rock. Belays at the top of the first and second pitches were body position only. No gear and no bolts. First Ascent: Denny and Colliver, 1974. Those boys were beyond bold on this one.
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Gee Brad, the rock hasn't gotten better with time?
The things you have to do to get every route in the monument..
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Was the FA done with pitons? If so, it may have been safer for them than you.
Maybe, it's better to solo it and hope nothing breaks. At least then, only the "leader" is unsafe. :shock:
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:shock: :shock: :shock:
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Karl, I've done a few Denny routes that were just this season "rediscovered" through Clint's discussions with him. (Factor, I think, recalls another such route he did with me earlier this season) These latest few sounded sketch enough that I brought a handful of pins. From the looks of the climb (from below) they wouldn't work so I left them on the ground. I got three cams in the only crack like areas of rock. Pitons would have blown the rock apart there, so I'm not sure I didn't have "better" protection than they had. While I was climbing I was especially attuned to Knifeblade or Lost Arrow placements (out of curiosity), since these are hard to replicate with cams. No dice on the first pitch (the second pitch is pure face climbing).
These two must have been very comfortable on Pinns rock, and used a nearly ultimate "pure" approach. I think Dave and I did the second ascent of the route. Maybe in 30 years it'll get a third.
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Dam, sounds like a classic. Where is it?
West Face of Seldom Seen Pinnacle 5.8 X. Two pitches both at 5.8 X, and both loose. Dave Harden's been climbing since 1970 and he also thought it was the worst climb he's ever done. Possible, at at least one point, for a lead fall to kill both the leader and the follower. One bolt in 350 feet of climbing. Other than that, a tree down low and cams that were illusions in loose rock. Belays at the top of the first and second pitches were body position only. No gear and no bolts. First Ascent: Denny and Colliver, 1974. Those boys were beyond bold on this one.
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Karl, I've done a few Denny routes that were just this season "rediscovered" through Clint's discussions with him. (Factor, I think, recalls another such route he did with me earlier this season)
We are all forgetting to bring the "Denny arm" as Warren called it. The guy had a huge reach. Combine that with a little boldness and you've got a heads up route.
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The funny thing is Mr Mud, I walked right to the base of this route and several others last December 23, while you were finishing the scrubbing up on SOB. This route in particular faces directly at SOB. Two of the other, nearby routes Denny reported I'd thought might make OK future FA. Three months later I find out they'd already been climbed.
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I think Dave and I did the second ascent of the route. Maybe in 30 years it'll get a third.
Good for you. I am nervous just reading the post.
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Yeah, I'm actually glad now to be done with the Pinns season (and, with all the field research for the book!!). Every season I do several climbs down there that are pretty out there on the protection. One only has so much of that kind of mental energy per season, and I'm out of it now until at least November
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One only has so much of that kind of mental energy per season, and I'm out of it now until at least November
You mean that your not going to switch to hard aid in the valley? At least that gear can hold sometimes. Maybe you'll find A3 a comfortable hike in comparison.
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I've done a fair amount of A4 and lots of A3 in the Valley. I've also done Premeditated in Pinns, another fairly tenous aid climb.
The comparison is interesting. Granite aid placements, and Pinnacles free climbing holds both can just blow with no warning. Unlike most falls free climbing, there is no warning - you're suddenly just airborne. I call it the "ticking time bomb effect."
The bigger difference is the angle. Most A3 and A4 is steeper and falls can be long, but often you wouldn't hit anything. At Pinns the falls can be like sliding down a cheese grater. My friend Jim took a 45 foot tumbler last month on Vin Ordinaire. A hold broke. He could have died, but somehow hit full on on the whole meat of his back, square to the rock at the base. Walked out. But the torn and ripped flesh on his palms and other body parts was a sight not to see.
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oh shit, I didn't know that's why he was out of commish.
are we talking Mc Jim? or Lund?
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The one that lives up here. We were there with several families, doing mostly easy stuff with the kids. Luckily only Jim's girlfriend and I (and Jim himself) saw the actual fall. Steve took photos that I haven't been able to look at. Email him and I bet he'd forward them to you.
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oh, ok.
damn, that's a brutal slide.
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It was more of a cartwheeling tumble. Just like the cartwheeling tumble I saw Factor take, but Uber "snatched" Factor out of the air before he hit anything solid (Uber indeed! Never seen anything quite like that save!). Jim hit a large block of rock at the base. If he'd hit it head on instead, he'd have died for sure.
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Hey Brad - I remember hearing that Glen Denny learned to climb on Sonora Pass. Any truth to that?
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Interesting. I have absolutely no idea! Where did you hear that?
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Years ago when I climbed with Dale Kaiser I think he said that Glenn was a TA of his or student and had gone on to climb bigger and better thing. At that time I didn't really know the name and I could be 100 % wrong. Jeff
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Years ago when I climbed with Dale Kaiser I think he said that Glenn was a TA of his or student and had gone on to climb bigger and better thing. At that time I didn't really know the name and I could be 100 % wrong. Jeff
Was this Dale Kaiser a prof. at Stanford, i.e. Chris Kaiser's dad? I climbed with Chris in the 70s.
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Dale was a high school teacher in Sonora. He did have a son Chris who climbed a bit it the 70's and did a bit of stunt work. He was a football player at Cal in Berkley for a couple of years. Chris died a while back of a heart attack,in his mid 40's, while jogging around the track at Sonora High. Dale taught many years part time at Colubia JC. Jeff
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Thanks, Jeff. It was a different Dale and Chris Kaiser that I knew! Sorry to hear about your Chris' untimely passing.
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Hey, Clint, if/when you talk to Glen again would you ask him if what Jeff heard is true? I'd be kinda funny if he got his start on the rocks on Sonora Pass.