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lehertu
Big Wall climber
spain
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Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 6, 2009 - 02:47pm PT
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Hello, I am a climber of BASQUE COUNTRY (SPAIN), and I need good information about the routes on the Snowpatch east wall, information about DEUS ES MACHINA, BECKEY-MATHER....
CAN YOU HELP ME??
THANKS
LEHERTU!!
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lehertu
Big Wall climber
spain
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 6, 2009 - 03:43pm PT
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THANKS YOU
MIKE,
EPIC EPA
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Lehertu,
There are good topos for several of those routes in the Benson and Green Bugaboos guidebook. Routes which do not have topos will have photo overlays in the Atkinson-Piche' guidebook. Here's a list of routes:
80. Beckey-Mather 5.7 A2, 17p (topo, mislabelled as Deus ex Machina)
81. Vertical Party 5.10a A3, 600m
82. Snowpatch - East Face Diagonal 5.7 A3
83. In Harm's Way 5.8 A4
84. Deus ex Machina 5.9 A2, 17p (topo, mislabelled as Beckey-Mather)
85. Deus ex Machina var. 5.10+
86. Les Bruixes Es Pentinen 5.10+ A3, 12p
87. Parker-Brashaw 5.9 A1
88. Sunshine Wall 5.10- **, 11p, upper chimney system (topo)
89. Warrior Way 5.10- A2, 4p LFC, joins Tom Eagan Memorial, MP
90. Hockey Night in Jersey 5.9 A3, starts 100' R of Warrior Way
91. Sweet Sylvia 5.12b, start 2p on Tom Eagan, then left to 400' ow, AAJ
92. Tom Eagan Memorial 5.9 A3 **, 13p (topo)
93. The Power of Lard 5.13, 7p, 1.5p Tom Eagan to p6 of HH, 8 12b 11c 11b _ 13
94. White Ducks in Space 5.7 A3 (topo)
95. Hobo's Haven 5.7 A4, 6p (topo)
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Howdy! Deus ex Machina! Now there is a name I have not heard in a long time. John Shervais, Dennis Sanders, and I did the F.A. August 3-5, 1974. It is a really nice line, almost direct to the North Summit of Snowpatch Spire. When I saw your post, I dug out my notes of the ascent, and as I read them great memories came flooding back. As I gaze back through the wavy, distorted lens of time, it seems to me that that route could very possibly go free. When we did it, there was major gardening on many pitches, with huge blocks of moss and dirt whizzing through the air. I will transcribe my route notes in case anyone ever wants to know::
Deus ex Machina VI, 5.9 A2 16 pitches
August 3-5, 1974
Michael Jefferson, John Shervais, Dennis Sanders
East Face of Snowpatch Spire
Bugaboo group, British Colombia, Canada
Several hundred feet right of the Becky-Mather route on the East Face of Snowpatch is a left facing flake system. The first two pitches are free and climb this flake system to a good ledge. The route then follows left-leaning thin cracks to and then past the obvious break in the ceilings. The route goes right, then left and up cracks to the North Summit.
Pitch 1: (5.9, 140') Climb wide cracks in a left facing corner past a pillar with a sling and belay at the base of an 18" wide, shallow chimney.
Pitch 2: (5.7, 110') Climb the chimney to a large dirt covered ledge.
Pitch 3: (A2, 135') From the top ledge, nail a small right facing, left leaning open book (left hand of two obvious cracks) to a small ledge with a 1/4" bolt anchor (hanger and nut missing).
Pitch 4: (A2, 100') Continue up the left leaning crack system to a good ledge.
Pitch 5: (5.8, A3, 120') Continue up cracks on the left; then nail a loose flake right to a 5.8 corner (jam); continue to a small sloping ledge.
Pitch 6: (5.7, A3, 130') Nail up the leftmost cracks past small ceilings and loose flakes; pass large ceiling on left and belay (slings) from an upwards right-slanting horizontal crack above black down sloping ledges, just below final ceilings.
Pitch 7: (A2, 110') Climb a series of strenuous overhanging corners and then a crack on the face to the right to a belay alcove just above and right of the final ceiling.
Pitch 8: (5.7, A1, 165') Nail up corner on left, then free climb up and right in low angle gulley to good ledges (good bivy site).
Pitch 9: (A1, 30') From a block atop the ledges, nail a left leaning right facing book to another good ledge.
Pitch 10: (5.8, A2, 165') Walk left and nail to the top of a pillar (35'), then traverse down and left and step across (5.7) to a crack system. mixed climbing leads up to a small belay ledge at the base of double cracks.
Pitch 11: (5.8, A1, 165') Free climb up 15', then nail a flaky crack (lots of nuts) in a right facing corner below a chimney. Exit left into the chimney and climb 30' to a ledgy area with a bolt (ok bivy).
Pitch 12: (A1, 100') From the top of the ledges, nail up the rightmost crack up a small right facing corner to a belay ledge.
Pitch 13: (5.8, A1, 165') Climb up to a small flaky ceiling, then right and up a right facing book to a good belay ledge at its top, beneath a black flared chimney on the left.
Pitch 14: (5.6, A2, 75') Move left and face climb a ramp to the base of the flared chimney; climb this corner to a ledge at its top.
Pitch 15: (5.9, 75') Climb a wide, steep jamcrack in a right facing book to a belay ledge in a low angle corner.
Pitch 16: (5.7, 160') Continue up the low angle corner, then move right; then back left to a ledgy 3rd class area 70' below the North Summit.
When we did the route, we fixed 2 pitches, then started up at around 8 am. We ended up bivied in slings [this means sitting in a belay seat, with assorted slings and runners and so on wrapped around various appendages and clipped into the belay to support them](this was LONG before porta-ledges) at the top of Pitch 6, just below some ceilings. It was a fairly uncomfortable night.
The next morning, John lead over the ceilings and I had the pleasure of lowering Dennis out from the belay. Much like the legendary story of Warren Harding recruiting a wandering bum named Desert Frank (if memory serves me) as a partner on the FA of Keeler needle, Dennis had never really done much climbing, and we showed him how to jumar at the base of the climb. He was pretty game, and hardly even whimpered, but when I lowered him out from the belay, he ended up about 20 feet out from the wall, about 800 feet above the glacier, clinging to his jumars with a death grip and slowly spinning around and around. His eyes were as big as saucers, but all he uttered through clenched teeth was "How do I stop spinning?". He gamely climbed the rope while I cleaned the pitch, but I don't think he was ever the same afterwards. As far as I know, like Desert Frank, this was his last, and almost only climb. But perhaps it was what lay ahead that turned his brain to jello- if only we had known...
The rest of the second day was spent working up corners and gardening. 50 pound lumps of moss were trundled every few minutes, revealing wonderful cracks beneath. But gardening long aid pitches is slow work, so when we got to the top of the 11th pitch, we called it a day. We fixed one more and settled in for the night on fair ledges. At 7:30 pm, it was clear as a bell. At 11 pm the skies opened and Noah's flood descended on us. The temperature was just above freezing, the wind was howling, and as is common in the bugaboos, the storm was accompanied by lightning. THe Bugaboo Spires are natural lightning rods, and we had a ringside view of it all. For hours, the freezing rain and wind blasted us, huddled in our Chouinard cagoules, wool knickers, fishnet underwear (!!), and woolen sweaters. Our legs were encased in large garbage bags. As the lightning started, the hardware all started to light up, with blue streamers coming from the pins. We relocated the rack to the end of the ledge and sat on the ropes. Presently we found out the truth of Mark Twain's dictum that "Thunder is impressive, thunder is fine, but never forget that it is the lightning which does the work". And work us it did indeed. Normally when one encounters lightning, there is a flash, and then a short time later, a Boom!!. Not so only a few hundred feet from the top of Snowpatch spire!! There would be a gawdawful KaBLAMMMMMM as a massive lightning bolt would explode in the near vicinity, with no separation between flash and bang. At first we were terrified, convinced that we would die. But after a while, a strange sort of calmness and even exhaltation began to fill us. As the hours passed, and the storm raged, we accepted our destiny- we would live, or we would die, and nothing we could do would alter things one iota. We found ourselves cheering each strike, and laughing like madmen after a close miss. I do not think at that point we really cared whether we lived or died. Being lashed to this isolated spire of rock, helpless, freezing, and at the mercy of our fates was as intense as life gets. And as rich. The cold, the wet, the fear, the misery became meaningless in a sense. We were as ALIVE as I have ever been, and as in the moment as one can probably get. No thoughts of the past, no thoughts of the future- just the moment of the instant and another actinic flash and soul shattering BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
But all things end, and the storm eventually passed. After a few more hours of shivering, the sun rose on another fine Bugaboo day, and we climbed the final easy pitches to the summit. The descent was amazing. The normal descent from the North Summit of Snowpatch was straight down the West face. Using rusty ring pitons (usually only one) placed by the Spaniards in 1682 when they first climbed the monolith, or so it seemed. Being Yosemite hardmen (or harebrained men..) we were schooled to regard a single tattered runner on a crumbling flake of rock as a potential deathtrap, not a bomber alpine anchor, as seemed to be the prevailing ethic then. So we fiddled about, placing pins, a few bolts and many new runners as we reset the descent route to something resembling the illustrations in Advanced Rockcraft. Until we got to the last rappel. This was from a huge ledge about 120' above the glacier. This ledge was absolutely featureless, with no cracks, no flakes, no nothing. No anchors at all. We were baffled- clearly this was part of the descent, but how to proceed? Finally we spotted the anchor. Someone had taken a nylon bootlace, and placed it over a fist size bump of rock near the lip of the ledge and then to "secure" it, they had placed about a 50 pound rock on top of that. What was amazing was that not one party (ok, perhaps they were in desperate straights in a storm), but THREE separate parties had rappeled from that tattered shoelace, as evidenced by three burn marks on the nylon. We had had enough with the "live a life of danger" stuff, so we placed a bolt and rapped off. Descending the Snowpatch-Bugaboo col in EBs with only a piton hammer for an ice ax was another epic, but we finally made it back to the hut that evening.
Looking back, with Porta-ledges, bivy sacks and rain flies, microfleece and goretex, cams and advanced nuts, Beaks and heads, and high friction shoes as the modern norm I am so very impressed at what an adventurous attitude, some solid leading skills, and an enormous amount of ignorance and chutzpah can accomplish. Perhaps it is only the young that can muster up this magic combination of tenacity and stupidity, but it is a great thing. With a silly home-made haul sack, a handful of pins, some hexes and early stoppers, and a good eye for a fine line, we had one of the greatest times of my life. Anyway, if you do the route, please let me know how it went for you, and how it is today.
All the best,
Michael Jefferson
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crackfiend
climber
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WOW!!!!
What an amazing story. It is incredibly generous of you to put the time into helping someone else enjoy your route. I sure do love the Taco...no where else
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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lehertu
Big Wall climber
spain
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 7, 2009 - 02:23am PT
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Thank you for all you!!!!!!
thank you Ferretlegger........
SORRY!!!!!! My english is very-very poor, and I need some little time to read and understand Feretleggers post,
so, are neccesary "lost arrows, knifeblades, coppers,,,, " for the route? How are the belay stations?
THANKS AGAIN..,,
if some of you needs some little information about Spain, Alps, Madagascar, Maroc...maybe i can help you.......
LEHERTU
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Hello Lehertu,
The route description I posted is from the first ascent. It is 34 years old. You don't want to know how old I am!!! I have no idea what the modern rack for this route is, but we carried a moderate rack of pitons and old school nuts (hexes and stoppers). I bet that a modern aid rack of cams and stoppers would do the job, perhaps augmented with some cam hooks and a good nut tool to dig out the cracks if they are dirt filled. THis is not an extreme route by any means, and parts we aided might go free today. I suggest consulting a modern guide book.
Please note that the weather in the bugaboos can be very violent and cold, and it can change very fast, although it can also be quite splendid. For what it is worth, please insure you have good waterproof shells (top and bottom) and something pretty robust to bivy in if needed. Carry a lot of extra sling (9/16" supertape nylon webbing) for rappel anchors.
NOTE TO READERS: Lehertu has written me a note offline asking for more details, and perhaps a good guidebook recommendation. He also has trouble with English, but speaks Spanish. If anyone has any advice for him and speaks Spanish it would be a nice contribution.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Fantastic story there Ferretlegger....
...but any mere lightning storm has got to be a breeze compared to a toothy weasel let loose in your trousers, no?
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Hi R-R,
THe old ferretlegger story has always seemed to capture in a nutshell the general themes of my life. I have, over and over, committed myself to things which create intense sensations and which are best dealt with by remembering Reg Mellor's parting comment:
---But Reg Mellor refuses to acknowledge that his talent is made of the stuff of heroes, of a mixture of indomitable pride, courage,
concentration, and artless grace. "Naw noon o' that," said the king. "You just got be able ta have your tool bitten and not care."
The version of the King of the Ferretleggers which is presently on the web is incomplete- only the first half of the story. The paragraph above is the last bit, and has always seemed to me to describe in a nutshell what climbing is really all about.
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marty(r)
climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
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Jul 17, 2013 - 06:08pm PT
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"Perhaps it is only the young that can muster up this magic combination of tenacity and stupidity, but it is a great thing."
TRUE THAT!
Bump for more ferret-legging and more Basque adventure.
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