The last moves on Third Pillar of Dana.

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micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 19, 2014 - 01:05pm PT
Macronut explaining the final moves to me this morning at church after he and Limpingcrab successfully bagged this long anticipated route yesterday.A church member texted us this photo after the service with the comment "when climbers come to church".

I just wanted to give a proud shout out to Macronut and Limpingcrab on styling a route that has been on Macronut's bucket list since I first drove him out here from South Carolina a decade ago. It was the first major High Sierra formation he ever saw as I drove him over Tioga Pass all those years ago and countless adventures together later he finally checked that box.

Well done fellas!
Crimpergirl

Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
Oct 19, 2014 - 01:34pm PT
Like.


:)
adam d

climber
CA
Oct 19, 2014 - 02:11pm PT
That route can make you psyched.

mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Oct 19, 2014 - 04:22pm PT
Props to y'all, Macronut and Limpingcrab!!
GDavis

Social climber
SOL CAL
Oct 19, 2014 - 05:46pm PT
By summer 2011 I'd lost all my weight. I'd gotten some confidence and even done some decent stuff while rock climbing. With a partner 'five ten' went from the monzonite domes of Joshua Tree to the iron cliffs of Suicide until finally the high sierra spires called to us by their more historic and intimidating passages.

Each month another week in the Sierra, each trip a success due in part to hard training at home and long clear weather windows. By September we made a serious dent in our aspirations - The Red Dihedral, The Mithril Dihedral, The Northwest Face of Half Dome - and a warm spell brought us for one last trip into the Tuolumne High Country to bid adew to the shirt sleeve days of summer.

After four days of trouncing easier classics at my request (one of humility for my own lagging skills and aspirations), we had come to our final day and final objective - the Third Pillar of Dana. All week long, and all summer, this was to be the last stepping stone before the big boy climbs, the type Harding and Nettle put up in the high country.

Hiking out in cotton T's and Khakis, we felt like we were already there. We were bad ass. Sure, we were barely repeating classics from the 70's, but we didn't march concerned to our objectives anymore but strode to them with strength and ego I'd long since felt and may never again. In a last ditch effort for youthful rebellion we were just starting to make waves for ourselves, so we had thought.

One party. Two parties. By the time we had gotten to the plateu we'd passed a half dozen other climbers, faces pinched in worry at the So Cal Alpine start we'd all had and the encroaching horde crowding the little summit tables.

We turned back. We could do this any day. We were ALREADY above it, in our heads, and laughed the way back to the car and a long drive to San Diego. Whatever humility I lacked then I wish I had now for no tool is greater for success in athletics than an absolute ignorance of ones true ability.

Two years later I'm finally on the last pitch. My partner had recently passed away and despite putting it out of my mind I couldn't not think that he was being cheated this glory, this last crux pitch that I would have certainly and feebly handed over to him as he led me up something else that I couldn't have done. Now it is my turn and I'm scared. I'm still scared. I'm scared every time, just as I always had been, but that's OK. I like who am I after I am done, I like that the parent-mind can rise above the child-mind and make great things happen, if nothing more than for a short few minutes alone on a summit after shedding fear and ego and being baptised clean by rock.


Norwegian

Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
Oct 19, 2014 - 05:59pm PT
an echo of your sentiment if i may,
jay smith and i were running laps on the conness ridges,
up, down. naked. drunk.
it was a thorough day...
we had to hustle back to Pollock pines
for sunday church which started in 6 hours.
we booked it to the truck and jumped within
finishing the last of the beers....

long about that reservoir on 120, ja's 85 toyota stared coughing
wheezing, missing, cutting and finally stopping.
oh shite I'm gonna miss maria's beautiful eyes.
so i get to trouble shooting and i think it's fuel supply....

let's try the filter. i lay neath the passenger door and find the plastic filter.

"jay get me a pencil." 'Ok." i pull the filter off and attempt to shove the smart end of the utensil into the rubber fuel line only it takes me several tries and a good cup or two empties onto my face and hair and shirt,
finally i get it buried deep and cease the flow.

i pull off the filter and we take turns blowing it.
i re-install and get another pint of fuel on me,
though we're off.

i insist that we stop for more beer on account of that bullshite sesh.

so we show up to the Baptist and I'm trying new moves on maria but my hair
is fresh off a week long climbing trip, an im now doused in petrol and my breath smells like beer and un-brushed teeth shy of hygiene and i offer maria a sparkled covered, pink-frosted donut.

where i hoped for an invitation to an after party at her place
all i got was a promise for prayers, my way.

after that i gave up on the church.
it's a terrible place to chase tail.
GDavis

Social climber
SOL CAL
Oct 19, 2014 - 06:02pm PT
^^^ shoulda stayed in Tuolumne!
micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 19, 2014 - 06:38pm PT
so we show up to the Baptist and I'm trying new moves on maria but my hair
is fresh off a week long climbing trip, an im now doused in petrol and my breath smells like beer and un-brushed teeth shy of hygiene and i offer maria a sparkled covered, pink-frosted donut.

where i hoped for an invitation to an after party at her place
all i got was a promise for prayers, my way.

after that i gave up on the church.
it's a terrible place to chase tail.

Brilliant Norweege.
limpingcrab

Trad climber
the middle of CA
Oct 19, 2014 - 07:45pm PT
Awesome climb in an awesome location with an awesome partner! (except for my way off-route version of the direct start) Thanks for extra the stoke micronut, soon you will be healed, strong as ever and the nut brothers will unite on the stone again!

Larry Nelson

Social climber
Oct 19, 2014 - 07:54pm PT
Very cool post. Maybe my favorite Sierra climb.
Hilarious comments Norweegie
F10

Trad climber
Bishop
Oct 19, 2014 - 07:58pm PT
One of the best top outs on an alpine route.
Heard it called the one of the best 5.9 pitches around, have to agreed. Great location.
StahlBro

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Oct 19, 2014 - 08:04pm PT
The good morning picture says it all.
micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 19, 2014 - 08:05pm PT
GDavis, what a ride man. Thanks for sharing your journey. See you out there some day.

Scott
briham89

Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
Oct 19, 2014 - 08:59pm PT
Haha that picture is great. Nice send guys!

Thanks for the stories GDavis and wege
ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber
extraordinaire
Oct 19, 2014 - 09:57pm PT
I remembered Werner saying in another thread that they threw Bob Locke's ashes down Cocaine Chute on Mt Dana. http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=446216&tn=20
Fuzzywuzzy

climber
suspendedhappynation
Oct 19, 2014 - 10:45pm PT
True.
Bad Climber

climber
Oct 20, 2014 - 06:03am PT
One of the best routes I'll ever do. But is it just me, or is that mantle not much of a move? I was expecting some full-on mantle, but I found a couple of hand rail jugs and just sort of pulled up. Nothing especially memorable about the last move. Now getting there, that's another story! Best pitch ever.

BAd
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Oct 20, 2014 - 11:27am PT
I may need to visit that church again. I've only been there for some of the musical programs where my sister and brother-in-law participated. The best problems in my church are chimneys (flared and parallel-sided) in our sanctuary, but the trustees tend to get upset when I start up them. . .

John
snowhazed

Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
Oct 20, 2014 - 12:23pm PT
weg wins the internet today

congrats to macro!
HighTraverse

Trad climber
Bay Area
Oct 20, 2014 - 12:52pm PT
Real Alpine Climbers don't whine about cold fingers!!
;-)
Well Done. Still on my ticklist. Cursing meself for not getting on it this year.
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