HOOKS!!! HOOKS!!! HOOKS!!!

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Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Dec 31, 2012 - 11:54am PT
Well, I was probably 3/4 done with the pitch, all hooks on potato chip flakes and heads behind thin, lose and hollow sounding flakes, I looked at leaving a sling on a good looking flake but realized that if it pulled, it would pull a big ol honkin block with it, much like Marcus on Tribal Rite last spring.

Anyway, I reached high off a head or something to a hook that I couldn't quite see or feel well. When I got on it I could see that it was okay but really not in the best spot on the edge. Up and off to the right was a large head in a legitimate head placement. I leaned over, clipped it and bounced it as well as I could considering that it was well off to the side and the quality of the hook I was on. It held so I got on it. I could see a good crack above and I was happy that I was finally going to get a good piece. As I was climbing up my steps, the head pulled.

The first thing clipped below me was a smallish head with a Scream Aid on it. The Scream Aid fully deployed and the head pulled. The next thing was the Meat Hook on a large but hollow sounding flake. The Scream Aid fully deployed but the hook held. If It had pulled I'd probably be dead now, I stopped about 20-25 feet above a ledge.
The fall was very fast, I remember feeling the hook pull and then stopping, that's it, nothing in between.

It didn't bother me a bit. I immediately raged back up the pitch, using all the same hooks and heads as before, avoided the head that had pulled via a hook and then placed the same sketchy hook as before and welded a head into the spot where the one had pulled. Bounced it, got on it, and hammered a good Pecker behind a flake.
Ihateplastic

Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2012 - 12:32pm PT
kaitb...

NOW WE'RE TALKIN'!!!
Texplorer

Trad climber
Sacramento
Dec 31, 2012 - 12:36pm PT
Bad ass Hudon. I remember seeing this pic and hearing you fell on it and thinking that it was interesting that a hook held a fall like that. I didn't know the full details behind the fall.

I took a short static fall onto a standard BD skyhook on Zodiac just before the anchor on one of the grey circle pitches. It held but almost totally straightened the hook. After some hammering and levering I got it back to it's original shape and still use it. After this incident however, I was under the impression relying on a a hook to catch you was not something to count on. I suppose the placement is key . . . and not taking static falls probably helps too.

philo

Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
Dec 31, 2012 - 12:39pm PT
1: RIPPED HOOKS
I have ascended a fair number of routes in the Black almost all of them in the pre-cam days. In all that time the Canyon scared me enough that falling never seemed like an option. I have in fact only had two falls off those walls both from ripped hooks.
The second one was a terrifying but harmless wiff off the Hallucinogen. But the first was a doozie of a plummet off of the Hooker. I was climbing into the unprotected pegmatite crux with my friend and partner Dave Henritze belaying. I was feeling controlled and confident even though my last piece of a pro, a good wired stopper, was with every move up quickly fading from sight. There was still a long way to go before good pro would be available which I must say really sharpend my awareness. Soon I came to the climb's namesake the dubious free-pro hook placement. I didn't have any tape to secure the little bugger but I placed and clipped it any way. As soon as I started to move on the nasty thing started to wiggle and pivot. I thought that can't be good. The oh so brilliant idea came to me that I should "set" it in place. so I slowly eased my weight on it relieved to see it actually holding. Then I bounced on it a little while still holding on the rock. It stayed put. So I put a good solid drop on it to try and somewhat fix it. The little metal devil immediately ripped hitting me smack in the teeth. I proceeded at an alarming rate straight down the wall head first. Did I mention that in those days to save weight only the belayer wore a helmet. Well this was obviously not a good situation. I started thinking of all the things I hadn't screwed up at yet and it seemed I had a looong time to think.
I am not at all sure how long of a fall I took But it was far and away the most air time I have ever logged. I ended up hanging in space still head down alternately staring wide eyed at the river directly below and My belayer directly to my left. Dave had never seen me fall before and didn't expect it I am sure. So I don't know which of us looked more like a deer in the headlights but his eyes were fairly bulging out of his head. Mine were only kept in place by the glasses strapped to my face. Well as it all worked out I was absolutely un harmed and un scathed. But very very dazed! My family jewels had been sucked up so hard that I thought I felt them squeezing my Adam's apple out of the way. Needless to say we retreated.

That hook was the only possible pro for 60+ feet of serious climbing on pegmatite.
Wish I would have had tape on it!
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Dec 31, 2012 - 12:56pm PT
I was not counting on it holding, I was hoping it would, I was figuring that it might help.
Tfish

Trad climber
La Crescenta, CA
Dec 31, 2012 - 01:33pm PT
2 hooking pics.

E

Social climber
Tujunga CA.
Dec 31, 2012 - 02:06pm PT
summit shot of hands and hook after AO
E

Social climber
Tujunga CA.
Dec 31, 2012 - 02:37pm PT
Timebomb Hourglass
Russ Walling

Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
Dec 31, 2012 - 02:43pm PT



Ihateplastic

Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2012 - 03:04pm PT
Thanks Russ! Those get the juices flowin'
Nilepoc

Boulder climber
Tx
Dec 31, 2012 - 04:07pm PT
Hope this works, my iPad was rotating all the photos.






Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
Dec 31, 2012 - 04:32pm PT
Does this thread prove that climbers are all in need of serious psychiatric intervention?

Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Dec 31, 2012 - 04:55pm PT
So far for me, the best string of hooks has been on the top of the Sun and Steel pitch on Shortest Straw. The fall is clean but the hooks are small and far apart (for me).
E

Social climber
Tujunga CA.
Jan 1, 2013 - 10:01am PT
this pitch used to have a fearsome rep....but with the hook selection available today............PDL
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Jan 1, 2013 - 03:02pm PT
ARgghhh! E calls the most dangerous pitch of my life Pretty Damn Lite! I'm taking up knitting!
scooter

climber
fist clamp
Jan 1, 2013 - 03:17pm PT
I would have to say the crux of Lost In America doesn't exist anymore. The Fly or Die pitch has one to two chicken bolts right in the crux. Making it more like tricky placements behind fragile flakes with bolts for pro. There were 2-3 pitches that seemed more dangerous to me.

Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Jan 1, 2013 - 03:23pm PT
Yeah, the Fly or Die pitch is really screwed up. That 3/8" bolt in the middle of it should be removed. Who the hell placed that? That didn't really kill it though, the fixed heads did, it's just a head ladder clip up now.

The pitch marked the current crux in the ST book is not too bad at all aside from a lose block in the middle.
Rhodo-Router

Gym climber
sawatch choss
Jan 1, 2013 - 03:26pm PT
Great story philo. Perhaps it should serve as the subject of a cartoon?
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Jan 1, 2013 - 05:54pm PT
Cheyne on Shortest Straw, feeling the psych for the Meat Hook!

prickle

Gym climber
globe,az
Jan 1, 2013 - 06:08pm PT
wow i never saw one of those cam hooks in action. very interesting
Messages 41 - 60 of total 106 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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