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Strider
Big Wall climber
Denali National Park, Alaska
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 14, 2005 - 07:40pm PT
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I live and work near the valley and a fellow employee said she saw a rescue going on today on El Cap. Just curious if everything is ok?
Hoping there were only minor or non-existant injuries...
-n
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JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Chatsworth
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Oct 14, 2005 - 07:51pm PT
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Deep cuts?
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Russ Walling
Social climber
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
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Oct 14, 2005 - 07:55pm PT
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Cuts and Rope burns... Dawn Wall. Werner will have the scoop after he cashes his free meal coupon over at the Curry Cafe for a job well done.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 14, 2005 - 07:58pm PT
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Glad it wasn't Dave.
Again.
{snicker} He must be getting close to the top, eh?
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Oct 14, 2005 - 08:51pm PT
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Hows the party doing on North American Wall? One of the guys up there is my normal climbing partner Mikey I from S. lake Tahoe.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 14, 2005 - 10:29pm PT
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"One of the guys up there is my normal climbing partner Mikey..."
No normal person would ever be found on El Cap. Especially on North America Wall. Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 14, 2005 - 10:33pm PT
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Couple of guys from ….. damn I just had diner with them and already forgot what country they’re from. Scandinavian country. Denmark!
Anyways the leader blew a hook move because the placement broke a block off. Hit him in the head and shoulder and then cut his arm just above his wrist. 10 or so stitches.
We lowered two rescuers from the top to them and then lowered them to the base from there. Long ropes! 2400 feet
Tommy and Beth did the nose free and topped out while we were up there.
Thus another fine day in the California sun
P.S. Maybe Link will post all the gory details, on this, as I already forgot everything that happened a few hours ago.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Oct 14, 2005 - 11:05pm PT
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Just another day at the orifice eh Werner?
If you get the Nose free, should we call it "picking the nose?"
It'll be interesting to hear the details. Wonder if Beth got it? I told her once that she should go for it since she's built for it. She said it was hard!
Peace
Karl
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Shack
Big Wall climber
So. Cal.
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Oct 15, 2005 - 01:54am PT
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"If you get the Nose free, should we call it "picking the nose?"
Yeah Karl, and if you don't get it, it's called "blowing the Nose".
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Darnell
Big Wall climber
Chicago
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Oct 15, 2005 - 02:01am PT
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Which pitch??
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JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Chatsworth
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Oct 15, 2005 - 02:16am PT
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Werner,
Was that the 1200ft ropes tied togehter?
Juan
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up2top
Big Wall climber
Phoenix, AZ
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Oct 15, 2005 - 02:28am PT
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Uh, wait a minute...not to trivialize the injuries and the rescue, but Werner you can't just plop down with an "...oh yeah, Tommy and Beth freed the nose..." without dishing out the details!
If they both freed every pitch of the Nose this is news worthy of a new thread, ya know? HUGE news.
Ed
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elcapfool
Big Wall climber
hiding in plain sight
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Oct 15, 2005 - 08:04am PT
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Why would it be huge news? It has been done before by a single leader, in a day.
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 15, 2005 - 11:38am PT
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Juan
The main line two 1200 footers tied together.
The belay line one 1200 footer and three 600 footers tied together.
Knot transfers galore .......
Tommy and Beth both did it free. I don't know all the details.
Ask them.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 15, 2005 - 11:52am PT
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I know Thomas Huber and Ivo Ninov were up there working on free climbing the Changing Corners pitch a few weeks ago, after Alex hurt his foot and had to bail on their Nose speed record attempt.
News? Hell, yeah. Many have tried, only one had succeeded [truly] up to that point.
Werner - I think I read somewhere that Karl Baba had lowered someone [or something heavy] off of El Cap by joining ropes together using a Euro Death Knot, and then using a munter hitch and [apparently easily] passing the EDK through a wide-gate locker. Does this work? Have you tried it? I never have, but it would be another good arrow to have in one's quiver.
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 15, 2005 - 12:05pm PT
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Pete
What is an EDK? Never did death knots lowering myself.
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maculated
Trad climber
San Luis Obispo, CA
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Oct 15, 2005 - 03:08pm PT
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EDK= overhand knot with long tails.
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Link
Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
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Oct 15, 2005 - 03:10pm PT
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Man, news travels fast around here :)
Quick version:
A climber leading the 14th pitch of New Dawn (the traversing pitch leading into Wall of Early Morning Light) pulled a flake off while hooking. That flake hit his helmet as he fell and bounced off his arm, leaving a large cut on his forearm. Though not debilitating, his injury was enough to require medical attention, so the team decided to retreat. Unfortunately, they could not go back the traversing pitch they had just led (this pitch includes a pendulum that would be extremely difficult to reverse), and the prospect of down aiding Wall of Early Morning Light with a bad arm injury seemed out of the question.
The team called for help on Thursday, and after communicating with them by loudspeaker that afternoon Yosemite’s rescue team decided to wait until Friday morning to begin a rescue attempt from the summit. On Friday morning a team of rescuers flew to the summit by helicopter, and by 11:30 two rescuers were with the injured climber and his partner on the wall. Both climbers were lowered to the ground, and all rescuers were back in the Valley by evening.
The whole operation took approximately seven thousand feet of rope (double lines all the way down the wall, plus rigging on top), and we had to add three bolts on the summit (hidden under manzanita). All told there were about thirty-five people involved in the rescue, twenty of which were on the summit.
For more details on the rescue (and some photos from the wall), check out the Friends of YOSAR webpage (friendsofyosar.org). We should have some info up soon. Huge thanks to everyone who helped out, and lets hope this is the last climbing accident of the year.
Climb safe, climb clean,
Cheers,
-Link
PS: for the tech folks out there, we use a double (or triple) fisherman’s to tie the rope lengths together. Thanks to the weight of the ropes on operations this long (thousands of feet), the main line and the belay line end up taking almost equal loads. We use a brake rack on each line and tandem pursiks as a belay. As a side note, it’s just over 2400 feet from the lip down to the ground if you drop off above the New Dawn Wall. As for Beth and Tommy, we offered a long top rope, but they declined. Guess that makes the send legit.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 15, 2005 - 05:25pm PT
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The "Euro Death Knot" from the Petzl catalogue:
It an overhand knot tied with long tails, as Kristin points out. It's a superb knot for joining two rap ropes together as it pulls easily over edges, and provided it's tied correctly, perfectly safe.
The Euros came up with it, and because it looks scary, some of us this side of the big pond call it a Euro Death Knot.
Note: do knott tie this using a figure 8, or it really is a death knot!
Repeat: anyone tried lowering stuff or people passing this knot through a munter on a wide-gate locker?
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Eric Chisholm
Trad climber
Sebastopol, CA
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Oct 15, 2005 - 09:02pm PT
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Pete,
there is a report in one of the Accidents in North American Mountaineering about this. It caused one of a team of two to fall from a repel station, killing him. They think it is possible he used an 8 to tie the two ropes together, not the "Death Knot". Both rope ends where found near the body completely untied.
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