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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Hmmm. This thread really needs more photos!
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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My goodness, Pappy that is a horrific story I missed amidst so many other great stories.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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great stuff Bob J!
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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BASE-
Thanks for posting that one up. I was tempted to do it myself, but figured it was not my call.
Hope you are well.
Cheers!
John
edit: There wasn't anything for me to do but to reel in arm loads of slack and try to keep him off of the lower knobs
A requisite belay technique for Quartz. After all, the routes were so run out you actually had time to yard in a few yards of rope.
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Crump
Social climber
Lakewood, CO
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I was on my Honey Moon doing the climbing thing back in the early '80s. Being plugged into the C-Springs clan, hanging with Muff, etc., and being a bit of a slab dude...
Muff sent Karen and I up onto Pikes and the Crags, and some nice slabs on Old Ironsides...
What. Beautiful place, alpine, nice scenic approach... Pikes Granite... Simply Honey Moon heaven...
First we did Excitable Boy, classic C-Springs 5.10 slab... First pitch, 150 feet of no pro 5.8... To a double split-rivet belay to a stellar 5.10R pitch to the top... Loved it and he were having big fun.
So the route Muff was actually sic-ing me on was Keelhauled... Which started from the same first belay as Excitable Boy. It took off to the right with a 40+ foot run out to the first bolt.
My Dearest and I descend off off E-Boy and set up again on the two 1/4" split-rivet bolt belay and I set out on Keelhauled... Very thin, sustained, complex, right leaning... So focused on my moves in this sea of featureless slab... I find myself even with the first bolt 40 feet above and right of my wife... 8 feet left of the bolt.
Oh sh#t, i am off route! Only thing to do is work farther right to the bolt... And sh#t it is really f*#king thin... My tips are going numb, this hasn't been climbed much so lichen is an issue... My world starts to deteriorate. I realize that I am not going to get to the bolt... As my tips start melting i open up a dialog with Karen.
"Hey Honey, i am going to fall." She says "OK, what should I do?"
I say, "take in the slack". She immediately takes both hands and pulls the rope through the draw clipped into the belay, dropping the 8-ring she was belaying with...
I say, "No, pull it through the 8-Ring!" This she does all the while i feel the skin separating off my fingertips. She does it and I tell her, "Put both your hands behind the 8-Ring, she does and as I see she is set, i let go...
I surf some 60 feet riding my toes and hands down the smooth slab, right foot low, heels down, left foot and right hand controlling my balance, my left guarding my face...
Right when the rope tightened, I popped up on to my feet and run the arc of my swing out... Karen was slammed, 8-ring into the draw on the belay, and I mean seriously she hung on! I don't think an inch slipped through as I was taking 15 foot strides to run out the swing. Best belay I ever had!
As my nerves were shot and my feet were blown up, we (I) limped out to our car... Me blubbering about her great catch... Of course years later she realized I wasn't such a great catch and threw me back...
On all my other slabs I was always too afraid to fall, but on that day I had been Keelhauled.
Muff just chuckled when we told him about it.
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okie
Trad climber
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Dec 16, 2013 - 03:45pm PT
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Yeah, Johntp, the hip belay was a good way to go. Duane saved me from the evil pit beneath the headwall with that quick-reel method once when I came off in a dumb spot.
I've never led Big Bite. Followed it once or twice. I recently mini-traxioned it when I was back there visiting. Modern rubber has made the moves easier but I would have to spend a lot of time getting dialed into the place to have any business with that one. You also have to take into account things like temperature and humidity which really influence how hard things are there.
It doesn't surprise me where Base fell. That climb isn't over until you get to the belay. In fact the top is the least secure spot for me.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 8, 2016 - 09:49pm PT
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BUMP
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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I didn't read the whole thread (although I am most impressed by McHale's tale) so sorry if this got mentioned.
I saw a guy take the big one off Sidewinder. He got out to the end of the traverse and he was so gripped he was shaking. Right at the end, at the exit move, there's a slot where you could place a small cam, and this is what he proceeded to do. His mates on the ground were yelling up "Nooo! Just do the easy exit now!" So while he was fussing around with this cam he shook himself off.
He fell down for a bit and then accelerated in a huge inverted arc across and back up to collide with the roof after which he swung back down and whacked into the smaller left side of the arch. Then he just hung there limp. His friends stood in stunned silence expecting the worst. Then the dangling body moved gingerly up to a sitting position in his harness. "Ha! I guess I had you guys going this time, eh?"
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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This thread rocks! Great stories- must read from start to finish.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 9, 2016 - 10:25pm PT
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YA BUT I GOT GOOD STORIES FROM IT
SO
YA
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Synchronicity
Trad climber
British Columbia, Canada
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First ever slab lead, A Question of Balance - Not a super hard climb( 5.9) but suitably runout (thanks Anders!) I understand why, not a lot of stances to stop and drill. Led it in shorts on a steaming hot day, real greasy. What was I thinking, glad I didn't leave a bloody skidmark.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Jan 10, 2016 - 06:16am PT
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I took a hundred footer off of a .10b slab route when I was 18 or something. It is one of those routes without a crux. Every move is .10b. I smoked the hardest part and was pulling over the top when I skated a foot and went for the ride. There was only one bolt on the pitch about 20 feet off the belay.
It was rough granite like much of Josh.
Injuries: Loss of all skin on the pads of my hands. Any raised part of my hands was ripped clean.
Lost one ass cheek and various large sections of other body parts.
The worst was laying on a bed with my shorts around my ankle while Duane Raleigh's mom spent three hours picking lichen out of the wounds.
I healed up very nicely on the outside. On the inside I suffered from PTSD for years.
It would have been truly severe or death if Duane hadn't realed in armloads of slack as I was falling. He caught me after I was well past the first pitch belay.
Ah, the joys of Oklahoma climbing. At the time no one used anything other than a hip belay as it was the only way to reel in rope fast enough. Climbing those routes was good prep for Suicide.
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