Discussion Topic |
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 20, 2014 - 05:11pm PT
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I did it in the early 70's and only remember that it was burly. Thinking about jumping on it again, anyone done it lately?
I'm in Yosemite for the month and want to have some groveling in the mix.
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jstan
climber
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Apr 20, 2014 - 05:59pm PT
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Pete Ramins and I did it somewhere around 70. The roar of the falls was over powering. A very unusual experience.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 20, 2014 - 06:34pm PT
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I loved it. Great route and now safe. Do not hesitate; it is not hard just tends to wear climbers down. Avoid dumb Harding hole for the best pitch on route on the outside. DO NOT DO IN WEATHER OR ICY CONDITIONS ; you cannot avoid anything that may be falling
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Apr 20, 2014 - 06:53pm PT
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Didn't Greg Cameron (eeyonkee) free solo it back in the late 70s?
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
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May 20, 2014 - 02:57am PT
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Ed, I'd go up it with you. Unless you crave the uncertainty of climbing it with someone who hasn't been up it before. It's no drama, just a good day of solid climbing.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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May 20, 2014 - 03:18am PT
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Didn't Greg Cameron (eeyonkee) free solo it back in the late 70s? Yes - I've bumped or commented threads about it a couple times.
Here is the gist ...
Sitting here recovering from shoulder surgery and going through this site is bringing back a flood of memories. Only a few friends know this hopefully interesting free-solo story - so here it is.
The inspiration, really, was Henry Barber's free solo of the Steck Salathe - in 1977, I think. I was intrigued by this, and in 1978, I too, free-soloed the Steck-Salathe. I did it the same way Henry had done, I brought a long sling and a carabiner with me to protect the one scary piece of face climbing. The whole climb took about an hour and a half to complete.
The Steck-Salathe was a climb I had done several times before, and, frankly, free-soloing it did not seem to be such a big deal, in retrospect. It occurred to me that an on-site free-solo of a Yosemite classic would raise the stakes. I don't remember what made me think of the Lost Arrow Chimney - it wasn't a climb that was really on my radar or anything, but I was very confident in the wide crack arena and figured there was no way that I couldn't free-solo 5.10a.
So, sometime in the late Spring of 1979, I let some of my friends in on it and told my buddy Alan Chase that if I didn't show up for dinner the next night, to walk up the Falls trail the following morning and throw a rope down to the notch so I could prussik out.
I left in the morning, excited, of course. I brought a paperback book, "The Myth of Sysiphus", that I stuffed in my cotten warmup pants, just above the ankle. The climb went quickly and rather uneventfully. Because I figured that I might have to hang out at the notch all day anyhow, I took my time - hanging out at certain ledges - but still the whole climb took only about 3 hours. Like on the Steck-Salathe, I took a long runner and a carabiner. I used the runner on a fixed pin at the scary, flakey section discussed in this post, and then abandoned it.
When I topped out on the notch, there was a party setting up to do the tyrolean traverse of the spire. Two clearly inexperienced guys were at the notch, and one guy in particular, was really spooked and could not believe that I had soloed up to that point. I asked if I could use their ropes to get out. Both guys ended up jumaring up to the top of the wall. I was expecting that maybe they would send jumars down for me, but after the second guy went up, nothing happened for like 15 minutes, in spite of my yelling. So I got out two small cords and prussiked their rope to the top of the wall.
I hiked back to Camp 4 with little fanfare. I do remember John Long congratulating me the next morning.
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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May 20, 2014 - 04:25am PT
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Nice BIOTCH!
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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May 20, 2014 - 04:44am PT
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Jim or Ed, if you're looking for a "will they make it or not" adventure to create some trip report drama, I'm your guy. My credentials:
1) One trip up Steck-Salathe, spent the night after the narrows pitch. But I never pulled on gear and did it on-sight.
2) I tried Generator Crack once a few years ago, and got up it first try with a lot of struggle. And I had to use the tree at the start.
3) Nearly 18 months on the couch under my belt, except for about a year ago I flailed on Hourglass Right and only saw the top because Alexey got the rope up there. Ed, you were best positioned to witness my flailage :)
4) Lately I've started going to a climbing gym again, and got my basic hand jams dialed in again, and ring locks coming together too. Heck, I even pulled a gym 12a crimper with a fall 1 hold from the top. No wide practice to speak of in an eternity, except an embarrassing showing at Scuffy's place some time this winter.
How's that for some drama and tension? Now if you just want to get up the thing again with little fanfare and make it back to the store before it closes, well I'm probably not your guy. But imagine how solidly your reputation will be forever cemented if we go together and survive?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 20, 2014 - 06:19am PT
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Henry Barber's free solo of the Steck Salathe - in 1977, I think. Henry Barber's onsight solo of the Steck-Salathe' was in 1973.
Mostly a free solo, except for the long sling used for pro at one point.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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May 20, 2014 - 08:01am PT
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Yeah, just for the record, I was WAY off on the timeline for Henry Barber's solo. I got the year of my LAC chimney solo wrong too. It was 1978. And it was just a solo. As I said in my little write-up, I used a sling for protection in one spot of hard face climbing.
We'd love to hear from you if you do it, Jim.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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May 20, 2014 - 10:15am PT
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Sacherer once said that the day you do the LA Chimney you do more work than in any day of your life. This is one I never got to.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - May 20, 2014 - 10:29am PT
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I didn't get to the LA Chimney when I was in the Valley this April. Yosemite Falls was in full bloom and I thought it might be wet. All I can remember from climbing it in the 70's was that it was more work than the Steck Salathe.
A note on Henry's SS solo. He asked me to climb it with him the day before and then we proceeded to close down the Mountain Room bar. Henry came by my tent early the next morning but I begged off with a hangover. The next thing I remember is Henry back at my tent (with me STILL in it) flashing a big smile while telling me he had just soloed the SS.
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steve shea
climber
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May 20, 2014 - 10:30am PT
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Larry Bruce and I did it in '78 in a nice long day. But, Molly Higgins and Barb Eastman hiked up and dropped lines for us to jug out of the notch. So did we do it or cheat? We had done the SS a few days earlier and the LAC was more work but great fun. I remember the granular section, yowza!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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May 20, 2014 - 10:44am PT
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It's beyond me why you'd ever want to do that thing again. Great route but a groveler for sure with some heavy grain plus (as I remember circa 1973??) sketch pro from hangerless old Salathe bolts. I remember Phil Gleason saying not to fall out of the hard bit up high. My first real girlfriend's dad was Chuck Wilts, who did the 2nd ascent including the tip and he had a photo of himself in his office at Caltech, frictioning up the final slab with tennis shoes (1950??). Imagine doing those initial wide cracks with tennis shoes and no pro. Arrrrrrg.
JL
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Barry Bates
Boulder climber
Smith River CA
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May 20, 2014 - 10:58am PT
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Jim, Peter is right its a great route one of my favorites. Ive done it twice first time was the best in 68 goldline rope and kronhofer shoes when we topped out my big toe was sticking out the end of the shoe from so much heel toe in the chimneys. Always thought about doing the LA chimney and Steck-Salathe in the same day, people probably do that now days in a few hours. Anton Nelsons account, "five days and nights in the lost arrow chimney" is a great story of the first ascent.
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Send
Trad climber
Central Sierra
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May 20, 2014 - 11:49am PT
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Was up around the base of this a couple weeks ago. Looks nice!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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May 20, 2014 - 12:09pm PT
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So hopefully, J-Do, you have done or will do the LA Chimney on this trip and haven't worried yourself too much about the route huddling at the base of Pine Line.
I like Barry's idea of a one-day LA chimney+Steck-Salathe putsch. Similarly storied adventure classics from the golden era and on decent-enough rock in very iconic locations; it would be a somewhat mocking effort in response to most of the awesome very high level link-ups we have all been reading about the last couple of decades! Barry you always find the wry aspects in things!
I think of the LA Chimney as a chance to evaluate how overly isometric ones big crack technique might be. With a 1,000 feet of it, if you are inefficient, it will show up.
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curt wohlgemuth
Social climber
Bay Area, California
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May 20, 2014 - 12:30pm PT
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I just want to say "Thank you" to all the legends posting on this thread. It's keeping my pessimism about the downgrading of ST at bay!
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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May 20, 2014 - 01:26pm PT
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Cool thread bump.
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Ryan Tetz
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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May 20, 2014 - 01:54pm PT
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Do it! We were stoked to have a #4,5, and 6. I placed the #4 bro in the safety valve, next to the old terrible bolts at the crux, and the super long squeeze pitch, but most people hate that piece or don't know how use it lately and the bolts are good at the crux now so it isn't backing up a possible maiming fall anymore.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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May 20, 2014 - 05:00pm PT
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Curt, in my opinion, what made the LA chimney a very serious climb from the Sixties onward was the protection of the crux (aid or free!)-- that one short pitch. Outside of that 15 feet, the climb was varied enough, terrifically historic, nothing ghastly, and the route contained tons of 5.7, 5.8, and some bits of 5.9 in my experience. And had no hanging belays.
I am glad the crux was properly bolted recently. The temptation over the years was not to bring a bolt kit or anything really other than a small rack and maybe water. Hauling the climb would just be ignorant, in my view. By the time you were doing that important crux pitch, you just wanted to get it behind you and fire on to the notch. And so no one did any replacement work.
But you had to be pretty good to climb that section as it was rotten, granular, overhanging, a pinned out non-crack, with the chimney narrowing out just below you like some log-pulping machine. And horrid pro, really bad pro. This is in 1972. And of course you were impelled to do it free.
Actually it should simply share a level with Steck Salathe today, as Barry suggests. The narrow cracks are not at all unrelenting like those on Elephant Rock. There you can go perhaps a hundred feet sometimes and find perhaps no means of protection.
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Trad is Rad
Trad climber
San Luis Obispo California
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May 20, 2014 - 05:56pm PT
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Im going up to do it on Friday. I haven't found any solid approach directions. Can someone who has done the approach in the way they believe to be the quickest please tell me the best way to get to the base?
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WBraun
climber
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May 20, 2014 - 06:07pm PT
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Click photo to enlarge
A = quicker
B = longer but no scramnbling to the top of Sunyside Bench
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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May 20, 2014 - 06:12pm PT
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why make noise about it, jim?
it's there.
it is not really inviting.
why do you need our consideration
to validate your attempt?
just bring a number 3.
jesus christ the forefathers
are now wearing the clean socks
of today's sorry excuse for climbers.
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Alexey
climber
San Jose, CA
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May 20, 2014 - 07:46pm PT
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I have very good memory from this route , but it was harder than I expected. All those 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9 which was rated in early 1960-th shell be taken with respect- otherwise you can be surprise. Zander and I climbed it two years ago and benighted at the notch. Next morning after decent we met Werner near the SAR base and he asked "Why you guys so trashed?"
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johnr9q
Sport climber
Sacramento, Ca
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May 20, 2014 - 09:44pm PT
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I did it a few years ago and the fixed pro was trash. I made it to the notch by noon but can't tell you who was leading. (a hint, it wasn't me)
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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May 20, 2014 - 11:26pm PT
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why make noise about it, jim?
it's there.
it is not really inviting.
why do you need our consideration
to validate your attempt?
Wow! I really don't see anything in Donini's posts that warrants such a response. We have endured your many selfies Weeg . . . JD doesn't wave his willy, he's gettin' after it.
Chill the f*#k out bro.
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wee man
Trad climber
truckee ca
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May 21, 2014 - 12:53am PT
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trad we took werners approach B which was easy up the talus above the stables and cut left above sunnyside cliffs then up an right , i was happy i took some mental notes on the somewhat slabby middle section after this, as we came down late i was also happy to have #6 on the climb enjoy
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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May 21, 2014 - 01:55am PT
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With all the trash reported in this thing, might it make a worthy Facelift expedition?
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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May 21, 2014 - 02:13am PT
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Not the anchors, Clint. Both Zander and Salamanizer reported tons of actual garbage (broken cameras, tat and rope, a radio, etc.).
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
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May 21, 2014 - 02:42am PT
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I'll lead it and help fix ropes, but I'm not bivying in there. Ya'll can follow and do the hauling. That would be a total PITA.
You'd need a small group of half a dozen or more volunteers to pull it off. Climbers, followers, cleaning, jugging and hauling with several hikers to fix the notch, with bivy gear and cold refreshments for the climbers on top.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 27, 2016 - 08:07am PT
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Very cool thread bump.
So, Jim, have you got to do the LAC, as you were thinking you might when you were a sprout back in '12?
Here's some second ascent photos I've scanned from Bullwinkle's fun new book, Yosemite in the Fifties (Pantagonia Press). All are credited to Bob Swift, who made the ascent with Frank Tarver and Batso.
Thank you, Bullwinkle, photos & captions.
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squishy
Mountain climber
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Feb 27, 2016 - 10:16am PT
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Those are sick old photos..
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Feb 27, 2016 - 04:27pm PT
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Those are very cool!
Way, more work than steck salathe....
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jun 16, 2017 - 11:45am PT
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Bump.
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