Excalibur wood blocks

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Arturo

climber
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 26, 2014 - 02:10pm PT
I saw in the Supertopo guidebook that for Excalibur you can carry "five-inch cuts of a two-by-four, used in conjunction with the large cams". How do you use them? Has anyone a photo?
I guess that two-by-four is in feet.
Do you use any specific kind of Wood?
Rock!...oopsie.

Trad climber
the pitch above you
Apr 26, 2014 - 02:15pm PT
I guess that two-by-four is in feet.

I'm guessing you didn't take woodshop in HS.
RP3

Big Wall climber
Sonora
Apr 26, 2014 - 02:20pm PT
You could also bring a Honnold:

http://alpinist.com/doc/web13f/newswire-allfrey-honnold-alligator-excalibur-yosemite
crunch

Social climber
CO
Apr 26, 2014 - 02:24pm PT
mhay

climber
Bishop, CA
Apr 26, 2014 - 02:27pm PT
Meters actually. As far as type of wood goes you want a laminate of different hardness. The side against the rock should be a soft deformable wood. Perhaps eucalyptus. The side against the cam should be something very hard; padauk? Of course the lamination of these different hardnesses means that the temperature/humidity range of functionality will be greatly reduced due to differential bowing. This means Excalibur can be done only when it's between 60f and 70f with a humidity of about 55%. If you examine the record of ascents I'm sure you'll find this to be the case. We expect a TR soon.
ms55401

Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
Apr 26, 2014 - 03:05pm PT
need an Outdoor Gear Lab "Gear Review" on wood blocks, stat

mucci

Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
Apr 26, 2014 - 03:29pm PT
The new rack is a Honnold or Allfrey.
snakefoot

climber
cali
Apr 26, 2014 - 03:30pm PT
i like the crunch post of 4X4 wood blocks...ha
j-tree

Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
Apr 26, 2014 - 03:34pm PT
here's the photo from nopantsben's link

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Apr 26, 2014 - 04:09pm PT
Now would those be Hemlock or Doug Fur?
Ihateplastic

Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
Apr 26, 2014 - 04:13pm PT
Meters actually. As far as type of wood goes you want a laminate of different hardness. The side against the rock should be a soft deformable wood. Perhaps eucalyptus. The side against the cam should be something very hard; padauk? Of course the lamination of these different hardnesses means that the temperature/humidity range of functionality will be greatly reduced due to differential bowing. This means Excalibur can be done only when it's between 60f and 70f with a humidity of about 55%. If you examine the record of ascents I'm sure you'll find this to be the case. We expect a TR soon.

Best post in quite a while
Don Paul

Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
Apr 26, 2014 - 06:43pm PT
I once found one of those wood blocks at the base of the Nose while scavenging for gear. Didn't know what to do with it, so I used some vegetable oil to stain it a nice dark brown color and gave it to my girlfriend, telling her it was a valuable El Cap relic from the early days of climbing.
Arturo

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2014 - 01:40pm PT
Rock!...oopsie, I usually use millimeters. I thought that it would be too small in inches. Thank you everyone for the information! There is only one thing left: find phsyched partner or try it solo.
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Apr 28, 2014 - 02:36pm PT
Anyone ever do a pull test on one of these cam+block combos? It seems like the block could split, slide, the cam could dig in deep enough to invert, or a host of other failure modes. It seems like the recent 2x4's I have been getting are barely a notch above balsa wood in their density.

E

Ice climber
mogollon rim
Apr 28, 2014 - 02:57pm PT
wood blocks are out of fashon....black diamond green #6
and valley giant cams make the wood seem a bit dicy
btw when I did the excaliobur i found that a pair of new generation bd #6s were the preferred cams on pitch 9 as you can hook out right avoiding the widest section at the end.
pretty tipped out but better then overcammed like the valley giants were.
I imagine that that crack dimention changes size cuz of thermoflex action
also crack in picture is a cam selfie taken on scorched earth's Levittator
pitch....way wider, up to 12"

EE
crunch

Social climber
CO
Apr 28, 2014 - 04:22pm PT

This worked great, leapfrogging Valley Giant and old #5 plus composite, ex-palette wood-prduct block for 30 feet or so. No splitting.
johntp

Trad climber
socal
Apr 28, 2014 - 05:45pm PT
We zipped a down jacket over one of our haul bags and tossed it from seven pitches up with a death scream to go along with it. The arms were flailing like the real thing, and some friends down at Moby Dick didn't see the humor that we did.

That is just too funny!

I'm sure for the people at the base it was not quite so humourous.

edit: moof is back! Can you spell psycho logical protection?
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Apr 28, 2014 - 06:52pm PT
Moof is back? Did I leave? I'm confused.

I've never had the balls to do it, but I have wanted to wait till dusk and huck a cheap head lamp off El Cap and let out a scream. Not sure I could take the beating SAR would give me if I got caught.
westhegimp

Social climber
granada hills
Apr 30, 2014 - 12:17am PT
This is a cool topic! Please continue.

Wes
Todd Eastman

climber
Bellingham, WA
Apr 30, 2014 - 12:42am PT
Crunch, that is far better use of the wood's grain...
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