Excalibur wood blocks

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Messages 1 - 35 of total 35 in this topic

Arturo

climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 26, 2014 - 02:10pm PT

I saw in the Supertopo guidebook that for Excalibur you can carry "five-inch cuts of a two-by-four, used in conjunction with the large cams". How do you use them? Has anyone a photo?
I guess that two-by-four is in feet.
Do you use any specific kind of Wood?

Rock!...oopsie.

Trad climber

the pitch above you

Apr 26, 2014 - 02:15pm PT

I guess that two-by-four is in feet.

I'm guessing you didn't take woodshop in HS.

RP3

Big Wall climber

Sonora

Apr 26, 2014 - 02:20pm PT

You could also bring a Honnold:

http://alpinist.com/doc/web13f/newswire-allfrey-honnold-alligator-excalibur-yosemite

crunch

Social climber

Apr 26, 2014 - 02:24pm PT

mhay

climber

Bishop, CA

Apr 26, 2014 - 02:27pm PT

Meters actually. As far as type of wood goes you want a laminate of different hardness. The side against the rock should be a soft deformable wood. Perhaps eucalyptus. The side against the cam should be something very hard; padauk? Of course the lamination of these different hardnesses means that the temperature/humidity range of functionality will be greatly reduced due to differential bowing. This means Excalibur can be done only when it's between 60f and 70f with a humidity of about 55%. If you examine the record of ascents I'm sure you'll find this to be the case. We expect a TR soon.

ms55401

Trad climber

minneapolis, mn

Apr 26, 2014 - 03:05pm PT

need an Outdoor Gear Lab "Gear Review" on wood blocks, stat

mucci

Trad climber

The pitch of Bagalaar above you

Apr 26, 2014 - 03:29pm PT

The new rack is a Honnold or Allfrey.

snakefoot

climber

cali

Apr 26, 2014 - 03:30pm PT

i like the crunch post of 4X4 wood blocks...ha

j-tree

Big Wall climber

Typewriters and Ledges

Apr 26, 2014 - 03:34pm PT

here's the photo from nopantsben's link

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Apr 26, 2014 - 04:09pm PT

Now would those be Hemlock or Doug Fur?

Ihateplastic

Trad climber

It ain't El Cap, Oregon

Apr 26, 2014 - 04:13pm PT

Best post in quite a while

Don Paul

Big Wall climber

Colombia, South America

Apr 26, 2014 - 06:43pm PT

I once found one of those wood blocks at the base of the Nose while scavenging for gear. Didn't know what to do with it, so I used some vegetable oil to stain it a nice dark brown color and gave it to my girlfriend, telling her it was a valuable El Cap relic from the early days of climbing.

Arturo

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2014 - 01:40pm PT

Rock!...oopsie, I usually use millimeters. I thought that it would be too small in inches. Thank you everyone for the information! There is only one thing left: find phsyched partner or try it solo.

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Apr 28, 2014 - 02:36pm PT

Anyone ever do a pull test on one of these cam+block combos? It seems like the block could split, slide, the cam could dig in deep enough to invert, or a host of other failure modes. It seems like the recent 2x4's I have been getting are barely a notch above balsa wood in their density.

Ice climber

mogollon rim

Apr 28, 2014 - 02:57pm PT

wood blocks are out of fashon....black diamond green #6
and valley giant cams make the wood seem a bit dicy
btw when I did the excaliobur i found that a pair of new generation bd #6s were the preferred cams on pitch 9 as you can hook out right avoiding the widest section at the end.
pretty tipped out but better then overcammed like the valley giants were.
I imagine that that crack dimention changes size cuz of thermoflex action
also crack in picture is a cam selfie taken on scorched earth's Levittator
pitch....way wider, up to 12"

EE

crunch

Social climber

Apr 28, 2014 - 04:22pm PT

This worked great, leapfrogging Valley Giant and old #5 plus composite, ex-palette wood-prduct block for 30 feet or so. No splitting.

johntp

Trad climber

socal

Apr 28, 2014 - 05:45pm PT

We zipped a down jacket over one of our haul bags and tossed it from seven pitches up with a death scream to go along with it. The arms were flailing like the real thing, and some friends down at Moby Dick didn't see the humor that we did.

That is just too funny!

I'm sure for the people at the base it was not quite so humourous.

edit: moof is back! Can you spell psycho logical protection?

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Apr 28, 2014 - 06:52pm PT

Moof is back? Did I leave? I'm confused.

I've never had the balls to do it, but I have wanted to wait till dusk and huck a cheap head lamp off El Cap and let out a scream. Not sure I could take the beating SAR would give me if I got caught.

westhegimp

Social climber

granada hills

Apr 30, 2014 - 12:17am PT

This is a cool topic! Please continue.

Wes

Todd Eastman

climber

Bellingham, WA

Apr 30, 2014 - 12:42am PT

Crunch, that is far better use of the wood's grain...

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Apr 30, 2014 - 12:45am PT

Tom Kasper designed and manufactured his 9" and 12" Valley Giant cams specifically for our ascent of Excalibur. They worked perfectly - superb craftsmanship.

I wonder if he still makes them? You should get some, Arturo. I have one 9" VG I could loan you, for some beers and a few schlepps to the base.

The 2x4's that people refer to here are metric chunks of wood, 2cm x 4cm. You place them between the cam axles to thermomogulate the receptors and thus mitigate the thermoflex reaction that E describes above.

Here's Tom with his Valley Giants on Excalibur:

Nice route, Excalibur.

RyanD

climber

Squamish

Apr 30, 2014 - 01:11am PT

Awesome stuff Pete.

nutstory

climber

Ajaccio, Corsica, France

Apr 30, 2014 - 05:10am PT

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Feb 6, 2016 - 10:22pm PT

So can you get by on Excalibur with just a single VG9? The topos only show a few spots with >6". Anyone have comments about how bad the 5.8 no pro really is?

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

ne'er–do–well

Feb 6, 2016 - 11:31pm PT

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Feb 7, 2016 - 04:29pm PT

Drunk spiderman is a real help. Thanks for that...

thebravecowboy

climber

The Good Places

Feb 7, 2016 - 09:44pm PT

I'd loanya my niner there Moof, but I'm a bit outta your trajectory it seems.

speaking of woodblocks though....

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Feb 7, 2016 - 09:45pm PT

Thanks Mike!

I think we'll have 2x 6", and 2x 7", and a 9". I'll bring a couple wood blocks and go for it.

Any suggestions on the pin rack? The ST one is pretty beefy, even calls for 1/4" nuts (really?!).

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Feb 8, 2016 - 08:03am PT

Excalibur was my 17th El Cap route, back in May 2002. It seems like only a season or two ago - where has the time gone?? I remember it as being a lot of fun over really good rock, with NTB hauling for the left side, and plenty of easy pitches with nothing really hard at all.

I've never tried the wooden block trick, but I would sure like to have at least two #9's VG with me for the long sections of wyde. In 2002 the bolts along the wyde bits were pretty bad - I wonder if they have been replaced and upgraded?

I would think that the "new" big Peckers would take a lot of the bite out of the old crux nailing pitch P6, but you may still have to make eight hook moves in a row at its top.

There is a huge and virtually unknown/invisible-from-the-ground cave at the top of 10. You could climb up into there to bivy during a storm, and would never feel a drop of water.

Frosty's Claustrophobic Bivy is also a one of a kind place on El Cap, or anywhere else for that matter. I won't tell you exactly what it is, except that it has an area of one hundred square feet, and a volume of one hundred cubic feet.

We did have hybrid Aliens with us, but my notes also mention using sawed-offs in quite a few places. But big Peckers can often replace sawed-offs, just tapped into the bottom of the hole. Incidentally, I usually keep detailed notes, so if anyone is heading up this route [or any other] on El Cap, email me and I can send you some beta.

Cheers, eh?

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Feb 10, 2016 - 04:14pm PT

Thanks Pete!

The notes are a little nuts, but quite helpful.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Feb 10, 2016 - 06:07pm PT

Dru Marquardt and I climbed it ( excalithe, actually) in June of '88 or '9, without wood blocks. It was a free attempt and we had big Yates cams.

Anyone know if that was the first block free ascent of those lower Wyde pitches?

TrundleBum

Trad climber

Las Vegas

Feb 10, 2016 - 06:23pm PT

I swear I've got one that I found at the base area half a dozen years ago...
That I helped John Rutt make/cut in Camp-4 30 years prior :)

I aught to give it to the museum. I bumped into it the other day and it's getting pretty dried out.