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Ken
Trad climber
Arroyo Grande
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Dec 27, 2012 - 11:39am PT
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Wear out your free climbing boots to a debilitating point. Continually get hammered first at night only, but then by mid-morning on the Curry Deck as well. As the personal hygiene deteriorates to a homeostatic point you begin to see "natural lines" up there and start collecting bitchin' water bottles.
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philo
Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
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Dec 27, 2012 - 11:42am PT
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WARNING: Typical smartass comment coming.
I started at the bottom and climbed toward the top.
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philo
Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
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Dec 27, 2012 - 11:46am PT
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Before the Game's a-foot.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Dec 27, 2012 - 11:51am PT
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Let's see:
fallopian tube
first communion
losing virginity
army
first lead with goldline rope and kronhoffers
pilgrimage to yosemite
first grade 4
salathe wall
edit: did the nose the next year....end of big wall climbing and on to alpine
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Onewhowalksonrocks
Mountain climber
portland, Maine
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Dec 27, 2012 - 12:37pm PT
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When I started climbing I didn't think I was only going to climb one pitch, boulder or only free climb. I thought climbing as a way to get to the top of something using any tool needed. So, I learned how to free climb the same time I learned to aid climb.
So, to answer your question. Start small and go big. As you would do anything in your life.
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Dec 27, 2012 - 01:40pm PT
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Year one
Top-roped
Led sport
Year two
Led trad
3 weeks at Indian Creek
Spent about 10 days in Zion doing these routes all in a day or less
Organasm
Touchstone
Spaceshot (2 times)
Moonlight Buttress
Then went straight to the valley for 5 weeks
South Face of column -2 days
Accepted that "I'm gonna die"
Salathe -4 days
Half dome -1 day
Then about an el cap route a year for next 10 years
Nose
NIAD
Mescalito
SS to PO
Zodiac -solo
Eagle's Way -2 day push
Shield
Salathe
Shortest Straw
NA
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Dec 27, 2012 - 02:24pm PT
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You can't do walls unless you can be fast and efficient.
Progression:
Long free climbs
"Aid bouldering" for practice
Long free climbs with a little bit of aid
Grade V with easy aid
Grade VI walls
Climbing aid is not a progression, it's a regression.
I'm calling you outside, pal
People who make fun of aid have never done anything hard.
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mechrist
Gym climber
South of Heaven
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Dec 27, 2012 - 02:26pm PT
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+1 Warbler
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BigWallchris
Trad climber
Boulder
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Dec 27, 2012 - 03:32pm PT
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The book "Freedom of the Hills" was very useful to me.
Vail
Eldorado Canyon
Moab
RMNP
Zion
Camp 4.
Michigan to Vail (Ski instruct)
Chick's dig it.
Penis Envy.
Another season in Vail (89 to 96)
Spring skiing at Snowbird
Bouldering little cottonwood canyon
climbing in Moab
Boulder (School)
Calypso.
Tagger.
Great Zot.
Stettners ledges.
Trip West.
Joshua Tree
Zion.
Another Road Trip West
Mount Baker
Rainer
Index
Liberty Bell
Worked Kids Camp.
Dunn-west Bay
Tombstone
Moonlight Buttress
Lunar X
Spaceshot
Swoomp Gimp
Prodigal son
To yosemite.
only Zodiac
Nose
Prow
Tangerine Trip and
Wet day Dream
Time to start Alpine Climbing.
1989-brought chalk bag, climbing shoes, roomates say "Chris your going to kill your self".
1990 spring-Brought lead rack of set of stoppers and hexes and 10 hand tied quickdraws and a rope. Roomates say "Chris you REALLY are going to kill yourself". Started setting up top rope anchors and top roping.
1990 summer lead a few 5.9's with my rack near Vail, not telling my belayer "This is my first lead watch me". and a few 5.9's in Eldo. People would give me weird looks when all i had was passive gear hanging from my rack in Eldo. ("your going to kill yourself") Tagger probably wasn't the best choice of leads with this gear. Young and didn't know the consequences of falling, was what kept me alive. the book "Freedom of the Hills" helped me a lot. roomates say ("Chris, You have not KILLED yourself YET!")
1990 later in summer. lied to a random more experience climber that I had been on a multipitch climb in Eldo before. Embarked on my first pitch of gear climbing more then a pitch off the ground. Took 1/2 hour to climb pitch. One hour to set up the belay. Random climber soloed the rest of route with me behind him. He was late for a wedding. Definitely a very good confident climber who i should not have lied to.
1990 winter- road trip to the desert and joshua tree. Figured we needed some active gear to use for the cracks. Brought 5 generic active gear "Things" from some where? We sent everything that we wanted to.
1991 winter- arrived in zion at night woke up and saw the walls. Too scared to climb anything more then a pitch off the ground.
1992 climbed stettner ledge's up near the Diamond in RMNP. We didn't moved fast enough bivied on mountain. Epic it was. I thought I was stettner himself with my wool knicker pants. First time in a alpine environment. A little rock helicoppered down on me at the start of the climb. I dove into a little nook like someone was throwing a hand granade at me. I still feel the energy up there.
1991 to 1995- Worked through the grades up to 5.11.
1996- the Diamond served as my First grade VI. A Constant struggle figuring out the tangles while leading. Luckly, had a very good experienced wall partner with me.
winter 1997- More walls in Zion. Got way faster and it started making sense.
1997-2003- Sport climbed.
2003- Camp 4 and easy trade walls in Yosemite. 05, 06, 07 more walls in yosemite. 09, 10, 11, serious injury. 2012 back to climbing.
next is Ice climbing
next mix Rock and Ice climbing
next AT skiing (Lucky, i am pretty good at this already).
next Alpine climbing putting all together in one push.
-Diamond in the winter
-Liberty Ridge
-Cassin Ridge
Mount Foraker
Mount Hunter
Mooses tooth
South America
Himalaya's if i DARE.
Still wondering if i have the motivation for this?
other big walls in Remote places.
I guess a progression is: (some people fly through this progression in 3 years or less!) Some people take 20 years or more. Some people just stay at one type of climbing and love it.
1. Bouldering, shoes and chalk bag. Crash pad or just a piece of carpet to keep bottom of shoes clean.
2. Buy rope, gear when needed and start top roping, setting up natural anchors when needed.
3.Start lead climbing. Sport and Trad single pitch
4.Start multi pitch Sport and Trad.
5.Start aid climbing when you can't send that hard Trad pitch.
6.Clean Aid climbing
7.Aid climbing. Leaning to place Pitons, Heads, Rawl Drives/Spikes (Rivts), Bolts.
8.Wall climbing Aid climbing
9.Wall Climbing Free climbing.
10. Ice climbing
11. Mix climbing
12. Alpine Climbing on Big mountains/Big Walls!!!!
Edit: Burchery, Some people do go buy 3 Grand worth the gear and walk up and climb the nose on EL Capitan with little or no experience. Crazy stuff. Works for some people.
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Josh Higgins
Trad climber
San Diego
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Dec 27, 2012 - 03:38pm PT
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I'm with Warbler, as well. I regressed for a while, and then realized that I'd much rather just train harder and free the same terrain. Now I'm back to progressing with my climbing. To me, aid climbing is purely a tool, but certainly not a goal. That said, big wall taught me a lot, and it's amazing to climb such massive features.
My progression was like many others. Trad climb, aid single pitch, practice systems, fail on a wall, succeed on a wall, free my first wall, NIAD, haven't slept on a wall since 2006, but I still climb at least one a year without aid.
Josh
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Dec 27, 2012 - 03:45pm PT
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Mission Gorge
Tahquitz
Arrow tip w/ Gallwas
Various Yosemite fun stuff
Worst Error w/ Harding
Middle Cathedral w/Powell
Fell under the Rasputin-like influence of Hemming, Harding and Mountain Red,
and completely lost touch with reality.
The Nose
Back to reality.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 27, 2012 - 04:32pm PT
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Started climbing.
Looked up in awe of big rock faces.
Read Royal Robbins Basic and Advanced Rockcraft 100 times.
Did as many multi-pitch routes whereever found on the East Coast.
1977--drove to Yosemite with John Ely--climbed East Buttress, S.Face of Washington's Column, then Half Dome. (Stage 1)
Second trip to Yosemite, climbed El Cap Nose with Steve Chardon (ran out of water day 2).
Stage 2--interest in "nailing" routes--this was tougher, as most experienced big wallers wanted to climb with someone with experience. Tried the Shield with Ted Johnson--failed at roof (big earthquake shattered Ted's confidence). Begged a number of climbers to team up for another try--no joy.
Soloed the Prow in two bivies. Started soloing the Zodiac, took a big fall and nearly died with a "yer gonna die" self-designed solo system. Lydia Bradey joins me for successful ascent.
Can't remember what was next, but there were a few false starts, but at least now had some experience to cajole fellow sufferers.
There wasn't much information back then on what to do, how to do it, what kind of gear, etc. Even collecting the requisite water containers--old anti-freeze one gallon containers were the only thing that didn't spontaneously blow up on the first haul (but tasted toxic)--was a challenge.
Back then, there was a lot of social pressure to stick to the clean and fast walls (like Salathe) and eschew the nailing. But I figured there were bigger challenges outside of Yosemite that would still require the nailing techniques...
EDIT: here's some info from my first couple years living in the dirt of Yosemite.
This "Climbing Record" is what was required back then to join the American Alpine Club...
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Nilepoc
Boulder climber
Tx
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Dec 27, 2012 - 05:32pm PT
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I am far from a wall climber or hardman, but have managed two walls.
Started climbing in 1988
Box canyon NM trad sport and bouldering
Went to Hueco tanks for rope climbing as my first road trip
1989
Devils Tower climbs
Climbed all over the southwest slowly increasing multi pitch exposure
1990
first trip to the valley climbed nutcracker and then a bunch of routes in Tuolumne
continued climbing all over the southwest
1992
Did 30 feet of aid in box canyon NM and drove to the valley to climb the Nose
Went up 5 pitches partner bailed, found new partners and climbed it in five days on the same trip.
1994 to 2012
sport climbed a bit and then fell into the world of bouldering
Bouldered all over the planet but spent most of my time at my favorite crag, Hueco Tanks
2012
decided to do another wall
did the NA after only bouldering for the last 12 years. I certainly slowed my partner down, but we had a good epic and a good time. I cannot wait to do it again soon and have started collecting gear to make the next trip more fun.
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Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
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Dec 27, 2012 - 06:50pm PT
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This is a good topic, I hope to see a lot more posts - so far they have been great.
I am not a wall climber, yet - I am firmly in the realm of "Big Wall Theorist" as some may say. With time, training and some luck, I will get there though. It's been a long process for me so far.
I got my introduction to roped climbing courtesy of the USMC when I was still in ROTC in Bridgeport, CA. Had a great time, but it didn't "take" at that point, so to speak.
Later on, I started to do some dumbass soloing, until I had a hold break and almost peeled off a cliff. Looked down, realized I was a moron, and stopped doing that.
Fast forward to 2002, I move to Vegas and start hanging out in Red Rock a lot. Hiking led to scrambling, scrambling led to me being 80ft up in a chimney and looking down and going "Wait, I said this was stupid. It's time to learn how to climb."
When I decide to get into something, it's usually full bore or not at all. So after a short time in the gym, I went and bought the standard sport stuff - draws, rope, etc. Not too bad, cost wise. Wasn't long after that, I see my first big wall story and start drooling over Yosemite. It would be 9 more years before I actually stepped into the Valley for the first time.
I was avoiding trad climbing like the plague due to my "full bore" mentality for a couple years, but then a friend took me out to Moderate Mecca one day. The first piece of gear that I cleaned, and I was hooked. This was awesome, I could see the placement, knew how long it had been there, and there was so much variety...not like unknown old bolts at all.
Fast forward 2 months after that, I have a pretty much a full double rack, and I am a month behind on my rent. Go figure.
So eventually, I came to a realization. I'm pretty lazy, and I don't have the desire or determination to train enough to climb "hard." I'm the most happy on 5.8 and 5.9, a good day is 5.10. And you aren't going to find a free big wall at that grade. So the thought of aid climbing started slipping into my head again, no matter how much I told myself that I wasn't going to spend money on all that damn aid and wall shite.
*Click* Full Bore Mode activated. Damnit!
Aiders, big wall harness, pins, ledge, sub bags, haul bags, bug the sh#t out of the Fish for gear, more pins, more gear, Chongo's Big Wall Book and How to be Bitchin book, tons of time on ST bugging Hudon, PTPP, poop tubes, jugging and setting the ledge up on the third floor porch, aiding dumb stuff, more aiding dumb stuff, more gear, more gear, bug PTPP and Hudon, etc etc. etc.
I used to laugh when people said their gear room was worth more then their car. They would just give me a sad look. Now I know why.
Anyways. so far I have managed a grand total of part of a pitch of New Dawn, which ended in a helicopter ride out of Yosemite and a break. Back to climbing, back to learning system, have a good climbing partner that's got it all down that's willing to teach me. Plans for Zion in the spring and maybe the Valley too. 10 years and counting, and I'm still not there yet. But I still wannabe ;)
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Dec 28, 2012 - 12:50am PT
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Duece, those scans are neat. Somewhere in there you've got something about an attempted FA of lower Sentinel. Would love to hear about that some time.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 28, 2012 - 12:20pm PT
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yes, made an attempt on Lower Sentinel--it was a brilliant ice season--we climbed a new route near Nevada Falls, then tried the Lower Sentinel. First time up my crampons completely failed as I started the first pitch. Went back later and conditions had changed and got gripped at a dripping wet overlap about 90' up--I recall thinking that a whole section could come loose, but that was before I knew much about ice climbing.
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Dec 28, 2012 - 12:43pm PT
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Awesome Post Deuce,
When I started climbing you were already a big name. Cool to see how you grew into your big shoes even after numerous failed attempts. Kind of epitomizes the drive behind alot of your bigger known exploits.
Your list is a sort of who's who of climbing. I was particularly impressed with your many runs up Astroman. Seems today that people doing bigwalls are often pretty poor free climbers.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Dec 28, 2012 - 01:03pm PT
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got more "glory days" scans if you're interested...
Tex, leading every pitch on Astroman was definitely an early goal of my climbing career.
Interesting looking at my own notes--back then, I only called myself a "5.11b" climber, because I could solidly lead all kinds of 5.11b (flash onsight, in other words), including offwidth. I think the hardest offwidth I could flash was 5.11b, hence the 5.11b overall self-rating. But I had also flashed a bunch of 5.11d's and a couple 5.12a/b's back in the day... (but sometimes I didn't flash routes of those grades, not to mention that I couldn't dream of doing any offwidths harder than "Bad Ass Momma" at 5.11d, so I never called myself a "5.12 climber").
Is "flash" even used anymore? It meant: first try, no hangs, etc. Back then, it really seemed the only definition of true "free climbing". Like Jim Erikson had wrote in his Boulder guide, any time you hung, you used aid and one could never consider that particular route as climbed free (I paraphrase).
Another interesting memory from looking at these old notes is the new route on Conness I did with Grant (and someone else I vaguely recall--maybe Walt?). There doesn't seem to be any record in that in the current guides. I had almost completely forgotten about that route, climbed during one of my tenures on the Tuolumne Rescue team.
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