I wouldn't be ragging on the Midwest, guys. Remember those guys who went to Yosemite from there and did a pretty decent job crushing the Nose in Day recently?
You're right Mark, but climbing the Nose isn't an adventure race or some event where working out.....getting awesomely fit is the key. I knew a guy in Lander who would do sets of pull ups shouting "Walker Spur" with each one. Yep, he was training for the Walker Spur....nope, he didn't climb it because he didn't have the proper skill set. But damn, he was honed and could do a ton of pull ups.
Successful climbing requires good physical conditioning but the emphasis should be on developing climbing skill, and, concerning the Nose, learning the techniques a climb like that requires.
Maybe I'm the only one here who actually subscribes to supertopovideo on youtube, but Chris MacNamara has been posting instructional videos every week for the last couple of months. There's no end to the number of tips and tricks in this game.
The thing about El Cap is that people always want to climb it before they are ready. When we were young, and when El Cap was less crowded (late 60s), we could partially get ready by just going part way up. I was 17 when I made my first trip up to the ceiling on the Dihedral 6 or 7 piches up. We used to go up to Sickle ledge pretty frequently it seemed - just for the view. I checked out the West Buttress once with Mike Dent. I even almost wrapped off the end of the rope once coming down from Sickle! I was in awe I suppose, no knots on the end of the rope, when I realized I was 10' past the next rappel bolts.
But damn, he was honed and could do a ton of pull ups.
I did not mean to emphasize the fitness training over the climbing. The pull-ups were alway just supple'mental' and I did not spend that much time with them. When I actually did my 1,000 I simply could not sleep that night so I went out and burned it off. We have all known people that were real pumped up but could not put it all together.
It must have been about the time I did those 1,000 chin-ups that I wrote one of the few poems that I have. It was 2 years earlier when I was 23 that I did my first serious solo atempt of the Dihedral when I was 23. That time I quickly built up to 800 chinups doing the sets of 10 thing. I got iced off that climb. I think I was on Spring Break at school. Anyway, here's the poem;
Pullups
Bleachers
Pullups
Bleachers
What is
This strange creature?
It was also at this 'bleacher' period that I showed up at an all-comers track meet and ran a 2:09 half mile. That was pretty exciting, and with just 3 guys in the race. Seems like I took second in that - I remember chasing. Jim Ryan was one of my heros at the time. Much of my training then was also for cross-country ski racing so I had reason to have some upper body strength other than for just climbing.
I hope I have this memory straight, but hanging out at Stoney Point I overheard Don Loria, or maybe it was Ken McNutt relaying it, that Don and Dennis, as part of their North America Wall training did all the 5.6 climbs at Taquitz, the all the 5.7 climbs and so on. I also remember that Don could run a 36 minute 6 mile run. It was exciting being at Stoney Point and hearing that they made it up the NA. I think the way this played out though, was that I learned the other stuff later. The excitement about the NA was palpable that day at Stoney. I don't think I even knew what the NA was at first - but it seemed as though it was a big deal! I remember too that I got into running to Stoney from my home in the Tarzana-Woodland Hills area and that Westridge Mountaineering would not hire me because my plan was to ride my bicycle to Santa Monica to work! Perhaps they were the realistic ones!
The first time I did El Cap I had just completed my second Workout From Hell tour. As a result the physical part of climbing The Nose was no issue. One other workout that proved successful for me was to put up a crack machine and do laps. With a crack machine it is easy to calculate footage.
Schaumburg, IL is in a good spot - less than 3 hours from Baraboo, WI (home of Devil's Lake).
Get out to Devil's Lake and climb dawn to dusk.
Devil's Tower, too.
Get together with the Chicago Mountaineers and find a psyched multipitch and big wall partner! http://www.cmcwebsite.org/
One of the things I really regret is spending a lot of time doing pullups, etc., rather than just climbing. Work at improving skills and gain strength through time and practice on the rock.
Well, they're probably only as dumb as the person doing them. I don't agree that they are a total waste of time but I gave them up after a serious shoulder separation 12 years ago and do just fine without them. I'll agree that the more specific the exercise is, the better. That's why I like to builder. When I cross-country ski raced, I built what amounted to todays Total Fitness machine to simulate double poling. All the dips in the world could not produce what it did, but doing various kinds of dips as second best was not 'dumb'. I have known a few people that wanted to climb El Cap, but just could not seem to get off their ass to do the work.
I attempted to do the Muir Wall in 1990. My friend and partner was going to just follow me and clean, and because he never really knew what it took endurance-wise, even after coaching him, we had to bail after the 7th pitch. It's easy to underestimate what the work really takes. I'm sure if he had done his 'homework' we would have been fine ( I was in Washington and he was in Califirnia while we 'trained' - he was even in Yosemite and got to look at El Cap every day!). It was just 'dumb' for me to go up there with somebody that didn't get it.
As a footnote, my friend had never done a wall but wanted to. It was dumb for me to do what I did, and it became apparent after just the first day. I'm glad I was able to give my friend his El Cap experience though - he died 5 years later, out of the blue, because of an aggressive brain Tumor at the age of 48.
I never could do more than 7 pullups-never. Going on 67, I've been training pretty hard all winter; since I've got the time and motivated, and can probably squeeze out ten now.
When I did the Nose, in 1971, I was a weak scrawny kid. I still feel the mental "challenge" is more than half the battle, in doing any big wall.
Focus on climbing/moving efficiently for 12 hours at a time on the rock.
Sleep not more than 2 nights on the route. More than that and it becomes crazy work (man do I know this!) 3+ nights and u'll b hauling a junk show like Hud does nowadays :-) PITA.
If you climb fast for many hours at a time, you will be covering so much stone u will be in shape and you will be a better climber.
"3+ nights and u'll b hauling a junk show like Hud does nowadays :-) PITA."
Even as impressive as Hud is, even he didn't take the junk show when he did his recent Nose in a Day. He had a photo of not nearly enough gear and I was thinking, crap, where's the rest of it! LOL! That's just badassed to do, not just at his age, any age. He trained his ass off starting in Feb. for an Sept or Oct ascent well in advance though. Do a search and find that thread, good stuff.
Let us know!