Good effort guys. It's frustrating to have to deal with crowds - and then not having the right gear. Sounds like Uber almost got it, at least he borrowed a hook and gave it a go. That crack you're moving to looks thin and sweet. Although, I suspect if I was leading it I'd whack in a pin in the bottom and then go on nuts. I'm not death defying when it comes to clean aid.
My favorite missing gear story comes from Harden. He and Bart drove 5 hours to Whitney Portal and then did a hellish 2 hour approach to bivy at the base of the Bastille Buttress. The climb is excellent: 17 pitches with about 4 of them needing aid (at A2). The first aid pitch is 6 pitches up. Fred Beckey did the pitch in the late 60s on 3/16th inch bolts and bat hook holes. (Yes, many of the bolts are smaller than quarter inchers!). Most of the way up those 6 pitches Harden remembered that he forgot the bat hooks! Now what? Well, they were pretty well committed, so they went up to suss out the pitch. Dave ended up using 2 cleaning tools (the kind with little hooks on the end) in place of the bat hooks and they made the climb. Necessity is the mother....
My favorite crowds story comes from me on the Gobi Wall. Forrest and I asked everyone we knew for info on this route. Either no-one had been on it, or those that had had bailed with tales of loose rock and terror. The topo and the written description didn't match well. Totally obscure route, no information out there that we could find. Oh, well, up we hiked. Got to the base of Sentinel and WTF? There's a party starting the Gobi Wall! Of all the obscurities we set out to do someone it on this route. And it's a party of 3. Luckily they were out of their element and bailed from the top of pitch 2 We finished the route with 2 bivies (one of which I spent in a one point hammock, which reminds me - never that again!)
