Discussion Topic |
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Burns
Trad climber
Arlington, VA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 30, 2006 - 10:58am PT
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I'm heading out to Vedauwoo this weekend (yes, from VA) for a day or two. Hoping to get on Friday the 13th. Wanted to see if there were any other recommended routes at or easier than that level (at or below 5.11-) Also want to get on a couple of the classic OW's, although I'd have to aim a fair bit lower than 5.11- for that, as I'm not all that honed on Vedauwoo OW. I'll be bringing gear up to WC #6. Any good ones? Also, one of my partners just tourqued the bejeezus out of her ankle in a bouldering fall, so short approaches are not necessary but certainly are a bonus. Thanks!
Matt
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hardman
Trad climber
love the eastern sierras
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Jun 30, 2006 - 11:05am PT
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mainstreet, horn's mama. go to ryenolds pooh's corner, climb& punshiment, hung like a horse, penis demension, i'd rather be in philly. i also dig some the climbs out in jurassic park. bring tape
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Trashman
Trad climber
SLC
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Jun 30, 2006 - 11:35am PT
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GRIN
3 rolls of tape, a shitload of aluminum and springs, and a new car charger for the laptop to get me from SLC to wide country
off to lose some skin
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 30, 2006 - 12:02pm PT
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I'd second Hardman's list, though Reynold's Hill is probably too long an approach on a bad ankle.
Mainstreet is a great 10a OW
right next to it are Bell Crack, .10+
and Boardwalk .11b are about a three minute approach.
The Nautilus has a lot of Bang for the buck, approach wise.
Progressive,9+ hands
Flying Butress .10b everything
GhostDance .11 kinghell flare
Friday the Thirteenth .11 corner, fingers, undercling, hands.
The tubes .10-11+ wide/fist
the cupcake boulder is a great 10a handcrack perfect warmup to the area. Boulder or TR
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Jun 30, 2006 - 12:06pm PT
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My favorites:
Flying Butress: Steep, interesting 5.10 bombay flare with good hands.
A lot of folks like Curry's Diagonal: moderate 5.10, less burly, more technical.
Beefeater: good 5.10 thin hands.
Max Factor: excellent 5.11 fingers.
Boardwalk: 11- thin hands.
Hung like a horse: (11- sort of burly)
Disclaimer: my names and ratings might be a tad screwed up, maybe Jaybro will sort that out...
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Jun 30, 2006 - 12:11pm PT
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Yes Jay:
Ghost Dance, I recall a bit of -thin pro, spool it up and go!
-To get up that one!
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Trashman
Trad climber
SLC
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Jun 30, 2006 - 12:42pm PT
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one more ST tangent related to this thread.
while perusing "Fat Crack Country" last night, i noticed the lack of stars. time for a locker-esque venture through the rocks. don't need no stinkin' star to tell me that the flared, just too wide, fissure that goes uninterupted for 80 feet is good.
i did make a back up list of semi-remembered classics last night though, just in case.
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Burns
Trad climber
Arlington, VA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 30, 2006 - 01:27pm PT
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Thanks all, this is great. Can't wait to go suffer on the wide stuff!
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hardman
Trad climber
love the eastern sierras
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Jun 30, 2006 - 01:31pm PT
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you'll love vedauwoo. place is great, and go have a beer at the buckhorn in laramie for me.
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maldaly
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Jun 30, 2006 - 01:57pm PT
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Flying Buttress is awesome but a huge sandbag at 10a. Hesitation Blues, just to the right of Friday the 13 is a must-do as is Curries Diagonal. When you rap/lower Curries, you can TR or bold lead 11 Cent Moon a killer face/thin corner. If you like face climbing, Spider God is primo and bold. To the left of Spider is a huge wall that forms the right side of Bell buttress. Don't remember the name of the route ther but there a killer .11+/12- on that wall.
Mal
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 30, 2006 - 02:13pm PT
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Yeah, for a semi-wild moderate, Flying Butress can't be beat, originally rate 10+, 10a Would be a bit sanbaggy. But what do I know.
Report back, afterwards.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jun 30, 2006 - 03:47pm PT
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I heard that Lucille was downgraded to 5.10 - might be a good one :)
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 30, 2006 - 03:50pm PT
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gotta be old and fat enough for that one, though.
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Trashman
Trad climber
SLC
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Jun 30, 2006 - 03:54pm PT
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my first time there last year, we passed your article around the car on the way too, and from. 5 dirtbags gained a bit of respect for your tenacity, and a new understanding of the word "project" by the end of the trip.
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ChrisW
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Jun 30, 2006 - 06:17pm PT
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Hesitation Blues 15 feet right of Friday 13th is good. Heard the 3rd pitch is easier then the 2nd pitch with good beta. This place can get Crowded. right around the cornor is Left Torpedo tube. The Flying Butt is a must do. No other route like it anywhere. Same goes for Currey's Diagonal. I don't think any route feels like 5.11- at Vedawoo. It's all ++++++ climbing. Tape up and have fun. Horn's mother is just plain Hard. Don't get psyched on it unless you have a good amount of time. Just talked to my friend who sent Silver Salute 2nd try and couldn't send the start of Horns mother and he's a respectable crack climber.
I want to try Mainstreet it looks really good.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jun 30, 2006 - 11:36pm PT
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Thanks Trash. I hear a young gymanst from Junction, Matt Lisenby, onsited Lucille, last season.
Burns-My latent dyslexia read 4th of July where you wrote Friday the 13th. But keep that one in mind as well, fairly stought, but the crux is flaring thinhands, kinda, there is some mandatory OW, though, to keep you honest. Easy to set up on TR as well-did I say that?
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BrentA
Gym climber
estes park
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Ive known Matt L and his wife for years. He's a monster. Totally reticent...but a monster. I would be more surprised to hear he DIDNT onsight it than he did.
He has a sick route called Industrial Strength in CO Nat Monument if anyone is psyched. sandbagged 5.12 OW.
Cheers, Vedauwoo ROCKS!!!!!!! Northern lights or OCtober lights, some name like that is awesome OW too.
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Burns
Trad climber
Arlington, VA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 5, 2006 - 03:01pm PT
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I'm back, alive, although with a little less skin. Vedauwoo was awesome, of course. Thanks again for all the beta. Unfortunately, my capacity to plan and the weather conspired to limit my time and climbing a bit. Two days turned to about 3/4 of a day, as the plans of climbing partners aren't within my control and some thunderheads chased us to shorter stuff (bouldering, yikes!) for a little while. I'm, sadly, back at work, so a full TR is yet to come. I also haven't even looked at my pictures yet, so I may find out that I had the lens cap on the whole time. But, a TR will come soon, and as a hint to how it went, it will be titled:
A Whuppin' in Wyomin'
Stay Tuned.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Hey, That's good livin!
Glad to know you made the foray.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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How did that 3/4 day go?
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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I'm going to Vedauwoo this weekend with the girls and, hopefully, my French climbing partner, Laurent. Gonna take an up-close look at Lucille - but not ready to try it yet. Vedauwoo is a great place to camp with the kids in addition to the climbing.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Grug-as you probably know, there is some kind of OW event going on there this weekend. Get odub's autograph!
Vedauwoo (in good weather) is one of the coolest places to hang out, period; trails, vistas, hoodoo's, tons of scrambling for kids and adults and too high for rattlesnakes.
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Grug
Trad climber
Golden, Colorado
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Jaybro. Actually, I didn't know about such an event. This might be extra interesting.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Greg, check your e-mail
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Burns
Trad climber
Arlington, VA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 7, 2006 - 06:13pm PT
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I flew out to Colorado with the intent of spending two days at Vedauwoo getting my butt whupped. Some re-arrangement of plans and the fact that I'm just too poor to rent a car meant that I was at the mercy of my friends who were willing to drive me around and go climbing with me. As a result, I only got up to Wyoming for one day, and it rained and stormed a little, so this TR is a little shorter and less exciting than I had hoped it would be when I solicited beta in the first place. Also, its going to take me a little while to post pictures, but I'll stick 'em in here when I get it all organized. So here it is:
Trip Report: Vedauwoo, A Whuppin' in Wyomin'
We drove up to Vedauwoo from Ft. Collins, employing a super-secret ninja dirt road (I'm pretty sure ninja trucks don't rattle that much on washboard, but hey) that delivered us directly to Vedauwoo. Because we only had one day, we decided to hit Nautilus, as one of the climbs I really wanted to do was Friday the 13th.
Is this I-80?
We got stuck at a train crossing. It caused a huge backup.
We warmed up on the first pitch of Grand Traverse (.10a) which went just fine until I stepped into the crux and had no clue what to do. It seemed like every thing I tried was going to be .11c tips or flaring hands or something else heinous like that. I figured that it might involve stemming, but I'm pretty much the most inflexible guy I know and couldn't figure out the stemming. After spending several minutes climbing up and downclimbing I finally sat on the rope in disgust, commited to figuring it out on my own. After about a minute of staring dumbly at the wall, I thought: "You idiot. You're in Vedauwoo. Climb it WIDE". So I put my shoulder into it and wriggled up it in a sorta half-chimney mode. Falling on the warmup was a sign of things to come.
Grand Traverse
We decided after that to take a look at Friday the 13th. It was available, so we jumped on even if we weren't quite warmed up because we figured it would be crowded all day. My partner led off in an attempt to link the first two pitches. He had climbed them separately in the past. By the time he got to the anchor at the top of the first pitch, he was drenched in sweat. He placed a piece in the roof, climbed out to it, wriggled and grunted under the roof for a minute, and greased off. He back cleaned the entire first pitch, pulled the rope and handed it to me. Sweet.
Northeast end of Nautilus. Friday the 13th is the vertical shade line capped by a roof.
I felt pretty confident as I motored up the first pitch, having little trouble with the thin start and enjoying the awesome climbing to the first anchor. I was a little surprised that the section of thin hands just before the anchor pumped me out as much as it did. I spent a few more minutes trying to find a good rest, but hanging on hand jams didn't help much. Guess I need to spend more time climbing at 8,000 feet instead of 1,800. Feeling the pump-o-meter creeping closer to the redline, I headed out the roof. The feet felt so glossy that I used the highest feet I could find to get the most press from what had essentially turned into a layback. I was basically making out with the underside of the roof. I'm surprised I don't have scratches on my cheek from the crystals. About a foot or two from the lip of the roof I hit the redline, the feet started to go, my power was shot, and I was off. Fortunately, the hot girl who was at the base of the route earlier had left. I tried to give it one more go, but I would have had to sit there for a long time to get enough juice back to finish.
My partner went back up, finished the roof, and lowered from the 2nd anchor. I cleaned it, milked the lower rests more, and fired through the roof clean, fueled mostly by shame. The third pitch will have to wait until I come back a little stronger.
Wyoming. Sweet.
About this time, the thunderheads started to build and a few sprinkles came down. We decided to lay low, not wanting to be stuck on top of the tallest thing around in a thunderstorm. We wandered around and checked out some bouldering until the sun came back out (in the end, it didn't really rain much). When we came back, it was time for my partners route of choice, Maxilash (.11c, yikes!). Since it was officially my lead, I figured I'd give it a go and see if I was any better at Vedauwoo finger cracks than I was at roofs. I was not. In addition, the sun had come out in full force and the route quickly became blazing hot. Not wanting to epic the climb, I lowered off and handed over the rope. My partner proceeded to have the epic I chose to avoid. After some serious french freeing and a dropped tcu, he got to the anchors. I yelled "Clean it!" up to him after he clipped the rope to the anchor. "What, you don't want to follow it?" "F*ck no, are you kidding? I'd rather have the juice to make a proud effort on something easier" And so we did.
At this point, we were starting to run out of daylight, so I decided that I really couldn't leave Vedauwoo without getting on something wide. So we walked around the corner to Middle Parallel Space. I eyeballed the line, racked up, and proceeded to not bring the #6 Friend that I had dragged all the way from Virginia just for this kind of thing. My partner noticed my mistake once I was about 20 feet up. This was about the same time I started thinking, "boy, I might need that six".
Parallel space is, mercifully, in a corner for the first 30 feet or so, so after struggling with fist jams and arm bars and whatnot, and unable to get my knee in the crack to grovel properly, I gave up and just laid it back for about 15 feet. After that, I could get my knee in and proceeded to grovel, farther and farther away from my #5. I got to the ledge and prepared to reach up and latch the flat top... and then spent a further few minutes slapping at slopers and groveling the last few feet until I could mantle up to the ledge. From there, it is one of the cooler chimneys I've done because there's a handcrack in the back to put pro in. Chimneying without the usual terror! Sweet! It also has one of the cooler topouts on the detached spire. I belayed from the top and enjoyed the view of more storm clouds approaching, then rapped off and hit the road back through Laramie.
Impending T-Storms on the high plains
One (partial) day, four pitches (well, sorta 5), and every one of them a kick in the pants. Can't wait to go back...
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Thanks Burns. You are bolder than you imply. You took that stuff, head-on, and that's (inmvho) what it's all about. I had some similar epics on a lot of those same pitches, but, since I was a local, I had time to refine it, (sometimes much) later.
Congrats! What will be on the list next time?
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Burns
Trad climber
Arlington, VA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2006 - 04:57pm PT
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Thanks Jay, you give me more credit that I deserve. I have repeatedly failed to post the few photos I took, can't seem to get them hosted in the right format or something. Argh.
Next time? I think the last roof of Friday the 13th looks like the best part. Need to get a little stronger, but it looks like its worth it. Hopefully next time I'll be able to spend more time there and go explore some of the rest of the area. Any idea what the area to the northeast of Nautilus is (a good distance away, 1/2 mile or more)? Looks like a bunch of tall spires kinda? It looked awesome. Need to get back to Wyoming.....
Also, anyone have a good website to host photos to post them on ST?
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Burns wrote: Also, anyone have a good website to host photos to post them on ST?
http://www.photobucket.com
BTW... if you stayed on the thin cracks and face climbs. You would have a much better time. LOL
My favorite's... Reading Raymand Chandler, Static Cling, Bug Squad, 11-cent Moon, Ghost Dance, Spectre-Man, Blade Runner, Arch Stanton and Max Factor to name a few.
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Burns
Trad climber
Arlington, VA
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2006 - 05:44pm PT
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Thanks Bob! Finally!
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spectreman
climber
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You must have been looking over towards the Reynolds Hill complex to the North and East from Nautilus. Must do's in that area include: Climb and Punishment, Penis Dimension, Hung like a Horse, Gloria, Pooh Corner (both pitches!)... Just to name a few.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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The photos are a nice addition.
The second roof on FT13 is actually more straight forward, easier, than the first one. It's been there 1.4 billion years, it'll wait for you.
Again, what they said about the reccomended routes. Bob D''s list is a good tour of the thinner routes,a theme that often gets overlooked there, weird considering how good those routes are.
I think I've said this before but Spectreman, it is sort of eery to encounter someone whose avater is the name of a climb I was in on the first ascent of. Or are you a fan of 60's japanese TV?
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spectreman
climber
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Jaybro - I'm just a huge fan of the climb itself. I started climbing at Vedauwoo 27 years ago and when I was finally good enough to redpoint that pitch it was a pretty great day for me. One of my all time favorite single pitches, nice work! Hopefully your not offended by my stealing the name, it was all I could think of when I signed up for this forum.
I don't think I've ever met you and you certainly wouldn't know me. I grew up in the Fort, so I'm one of those greenies who overrun Vedauwoo.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Cool, thought it might be something like that. Amazing what you can find if you poke around out there. Definitely one of the good ones. Your climbing career and that climb are about the same age, then.
Greenie, eh? Well, I'm ostensibly a californian now, we get sh#t from everyone for our overrunning.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Jul 12, 2006 - 01:38pm PT
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ee-yonk, did you get there last weekend? how was it?
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Jul 12, 2006 - 02:38pm PT
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That would be a negatory jaybro. It rained all weekend - no camping, no climbing. I was wondering how the event went.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Dec 22, 2011 - 12:36am PT
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uh oh bump
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| Messages 1 - 36 of total 36 in this topic |
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