free solo of zombie roof

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Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Jul 19, 2012 - 05:09pm PT
This may be important to some or amount to "picking flyshit out of pepper" to others.
As I understand it, there were a couple pieces originally placed on aid, fixed in the roof when it was first freed.
On the second ascent, I cleaned out the fixed gear and placed my own gear, free on lead "yo yo ing" my way to the lip ("California Pinkpoint"?).
Don't know who did the first redpoint or on sight flash.
Either way, it would be a lot harder hanging in there placing the gear in one go.
hamish f

Social climber
squamish
Jul 19, 2012 - 05:18pm PT
Man I hate pickin flyshit outta pepper. I think I enjoyed a combo, some fixed gear and a few of my own friends. I remember fighting it out at the lip for awhile, eventually plummeting off, lowered to the ground and pulled the rope, as that was the style in the old days. It would've been purer to rip all the gear out and then place it again but I'm not sure I had the ability for that, or the patience. Got it next go, ten minutes later, once the blood emptied out of my arms. Phew.
24 years later and I'm going to see how badly I can embarass myself in a mtn. bike race on the weekend. Will has got me psyched... thank god I don't have to leave the ground.
climbski2

Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
Jul 19, 2012 - 05:30pm PT
wow history right here on ST

So cool to see the progression
S.Leeper

Social climber
somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 19, 2012 - 07:17pm PT
This is why I posted this; thanks for the awesome history lesson!
JLP

Social climber
The internet
Jul 19, 2012 - 07:25pm PT
I'm usually pretty critical of soloists and find most of what they have to say about their activities to be disturbing. This one didn't seem so bad, though.
tarek

climber
berkeley
Jul 19, 2012 - 08:06pm PT
Probably looked so good because he decided to solo it, as opposed to it soloing him. Seems likely he has more climbing mileage than the combined bottom 50% of st "contributors."
Ratings probably only apply loosely. Didn't M. Reardon toprope ebgbs 50x before soloing it? (it's only 10d, right?)
Probably looked a hell of a lot scarier than zombie by its nature. I haven't seen the footage.
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Jul 19, 2012 - 11:58pm PT
One sure way to confirm the grade.......hop on eh?

I will probably beeline for it if I make it up that way, would like to check that out sometime.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Jul 20, 2012 - 12:17am PT
I will probably beeline for it if I make it up that way, would like to check that out sometime.

Not all that far from Portland, and I expect there'll be a warm welcome laid on if you let folks know you're headed up. They offered to throw beer cans at me if I got on an easy 5.10 toprope, so no telling what kind of extravaganza they'll lay on for someone who says he's going to lead the Zombie.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Jul 20, 2012 - 12:20am PT
They edited the "pelting with beer cans" part out of the video.

For Yanks, we might use a 105 mm howitzer. Should be a good fit.
ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber
bouldering
Jul 22, 2012 - 03:51am PT
Stanhope is one of the climbers that repeated Southern Belle, right?

http://willstanhope.blogspot.com/2010/11/southern-belle.html

"On Nov 1, Alex Honnold and I repeated the Southern Belle on the South Face of Half Dome. It was first climbed in 1987 by Walt Shipley and Dave Schultz and freed the next year by Schultz and Scott Cosgrove. In 2006, Leo Houlding and Dean Potter made the second free ascent.

Hazel left to go back to the UK on October 8th, which left me a few weeks before I had to leave Yosemite too. Jason Kruk and I had an Arc'teryx photo gig to attend in Joshua Tree on Nov 5. Alex and I had made plans to climb together and were shooting ideas around on email. We hoped to get on a big wall but October's weather was surprisingly unstable. Storms were rolling in every week, it seemed. Perhaps a one-day mission was the go? The idea of climbing the Southern Belle had been floating around in my head for a few years. I popped the idea to Alex. He responded, "Everything I can find on the internet says that it's certain death, but I guess you never know till you try."

As soon as I figured it was game-on, I cranked up the Strokes on the I-pod and hiked the three hours to the south face in a raging rainstorm. I stashed a rope, rock shoes and water at the base.

When we arrived at our stash on try number 1, the rope and shoes, despite being wrapped in multiple plastic bags was all wet. There was verglas on the approach, and we hoping that route was icy, too. It was one of those days where we were looking for any excuse to bail.

On that first attempt we both onsighted to the crux, a 12d near vertical pitch of micro-holds. We spent a few hours try to figure this pitch out. Alex tried, I tried, then Alex tried again. A real head-scratcher. Finally, Alex saw through the sequence and we both dialed it in. The next pitch, named 'the Cuntress' by Walt Shipley, is a 150 foot left leaning micro-seam protected by very small wires. Leo told me to bring a double set of micro-wires, and that beta was critical. Its graded 12a, but the grade doesn't really do it justice. I spent about an hour trying to onsight it, and grabbed a cam a stone's throw from the top. I dropped about six of Alex's nuts in the process and arrived at the belay completely fried. Alex, terrified at the belay, stopped looking up and just payed out slack.

It was obvious the route wasn't going down that day, but we were psyched. Alex arrived at the belay bug-eyed, and said, "this route is a good adventure!" We rapped down, had pizza at Curry Village with Alex's girlfriend Stacey, and made plans for the next round.


The next round came about a week later. We blasted the first few pitches pretty quick. Alex led the fourth pitch, and I took a few falls on toprope, then sent it from a mini-ledge, no hands stance about 15 feet above the last anchor. From there we didn't fall again. The Cuntress went smoothly. Just knowing what was in store for me made all the difference.

From there we were adrift in a sea of open slabs, tick-tacking our way to the bolts, trying to make good decisions. I was concentrating really hard, and don't remember much. Dean Potter told me it was the only route that made him feel nauseous from the runouts. I can relate.

We swung leads to the top. Just as the sun started setting we pulled over the top of Half Dome. My feet hurt like hell and we were thirsty. We dunked our heads in puddles and sucked back as much H20 as possible. "Maybe there will be base-jumping chicks at the top with cookies!" said Alex. No such luck.

We loped down the tourist path, drained of adrenaline."
S.Leeper

Social climber
somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 24, 2012 - 06:49pm PT
awesome write up biotch! in other news RIP Mr Jefferson!
S.Leeper

Social climber
somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 24, 2012 - 11:48pm PT
love this line "Dean Potter told me it was the only route that made him feel nauseous from the runouts. I can relate.
"
S.Leeper

Social climber
somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 25, 2012 - 05:04pm PT
I've noticed this hypocrisy, too.

I hate to see everyone agreeing, it's booooooooooooooring.
rbolton

Social climber
The home for...
Jul 25, 2012 - 08:28pm PT
I thought that was a great piece of video. Cool young man. Judging by the size of the beer mug in front of him, he's helping keep other old Squamish traditions alive, eh?
Karl Baba

Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
Jul 25, 2012 - 10:16pm PT
He walks it!

Soloing stuff isn't such a great professional move as he can't endorse his cams or rope, and like Dean Potter, doesn't seem to care for fancy climbing pants either.

Kudos and OK letting a thousand flowers bloom.

I think there's a clear difference between naysaying and congratulating and naysaying the naysayers is just giving a taste of the medicine they are providing so I don't see the hypocrisy in the attitude that "Mean people suck"

Peace

Karl
DanaB

climber
CT
Jul 25, 2012 - 11:02pm PT
Funny how it's OK to express the opinion "It's awesome" but it's not OK to express the opinion "It's lame".

No one wants to be faced with the ultimate - being called a hater.
zBrown

Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
Jul 26, 2012 - 12:28am PT



DanaB

climber
CT
Jul 26, 2012 - 08:35am PT
**No one?

Perhaps some people don't give a sh#t...**

As regards my hater comment:

A bit of sarcasm on my part . . . Conformity and herd instinct are quite common among people who practice climbing as a hobby. If someone thinks critically, expresses skepticism, or crosses the party line - he/she is a hater.

If you have Jim Perrin's biography of Whillans, read what what Whillans said about Mark Spitz winning all those golds (?7) in the Olympics.
Big Mike

Trad climber
BC
Aug 20, 2012 - 02:59am PT
Here's a little perspective for those that might think this was easy......

Zombie Roof, looking straight up out of the initial corner
Messages 101 - 119 of total 119 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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