Discussion Topic |
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 27, 2014 - 08:12pm PT
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I have lots to be thankful for, but I won't be thankful for doing ......
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nov 27, 2014 - 08:35pm PT
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Tough one Mike. The ones that I escaped with the skin of the teeth intact often have good value and I wouldn't want to give up those experiences, but if you asked would I want to relead it now? Well, I got a couple of those.
Though I loved doing Premeditated (post hoc reasoning here), I don't know that I would want to go back up on lead on it.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 27, 2014 - 08:36pm PT
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^^^^ What would cause one to go up something like that?
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 27, 2014 - 08:49pm PT
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Funny cause the rope thread made me think this might be a good topic, but I have bee having a hard time identifying one. I guess a bad day of climbing beats a good day of work any day. But if pressed I guess it would have to be the North Chimney on Longs on a very dry year when I caused a rock slide about three pitches up that almost took out my younger brother. We then bailed from Broadway when there were people were on the route we wanted to do. . We should have known it was going to be a bad day when we got tooled by a ranger in the parking lot before leaving for taking a nap before our planned departure time at midnight.
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Moof
Big Wall climber
Orygun
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Nov 27, 2014 - 09:27pm PT
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Your mom?
Actually, I can't think of any route that was memorably bad just now.
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enjoimx
Trad climber
SLO
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Nov 27, 2014 - 09:57pm PT
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Something at the Pinnacles
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nov 27, 2014 - 10:29pm PT
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Yeah, it's those routes where someone gets really hurt that leaves the worst taste.
As much as we need the adventure/unknown/risk elements, we don't really want those tragedies to occur.
I can think of couple of trips too where I got injured on the approach, fairly minor injuries like a rolled ankle. Those were more like worst climb I did at some point, but at the one time it sucked.
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j-tree
Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
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Nov 27, 2014 - 11:00pm PT
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I would gladly go up and do premeditated again, I think I could get it clean this time. But I probably would only go up there again because it's been long enough to forget. I do have notes from the climb that repeat over and over, "never ever ever again." But that's the hallmark of a great aid climb.
To answer the why of a climb like that, aid climbing is often about pushing yourself as far as possible. The rock on premeditated really tests your idea of what you're willing to stand on since if one placement blows, the rest probably aren't going to stop you either
I'm getting the beta on an aid FA in the pinnacles, can't wait to go up and mix my tears with the crumbling dust again.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Nov 28, 2014 - 02:47am PT
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I tend to avoid choss, but one of the few longer routes I swore I'd never do again was the North Face of Dragontail Peak (in the Stuart Range). The route basically involves tiptoeing up loose blocks in an avalanche chute with a few 5.6 or 5.7 rock moves mixed in. I suppose it could make for an interesting ice (mixed) route if conditions are right, except I'm a rock climber, not an ice climber.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 28, 2014 - 03:07am PT
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Worst in what way?
Worst, like the worst/scariest rock?
Worst, like I was going to die?
Worst, like the least enjoyable?
I would have to say that the "worst" climbs that I ever did were the ones that always involved multiple rappels on loose rock and shitty anchors and stuck ropes and pacts with God to stop climbing if I got down alive.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 28, 2014 - 06:52am PT
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The first pitch of Serenity Crack....a complete abomination.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Nov 28, 2014 - 07:07am PT
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I agree with Donini's and Sierra Ledge Rat's posts. Define the question or refine is better, do you mean heralded 'stared' routes that do not live up to the hype?
As in the case of the first pitch of Serenity Crack, a bashed out environmental scar that is an embarrassment and a strong warning to clean climbers??
The last forty feet of some pile of crap mixed trickle of exhaust fumes and mossy wet snow
that God let me survive?
The climb on Military/government property that could of led to a SNUFU or Leavenworth if we had been detected?
Some thing only mild and of no account except for the sad loss of a soul, or some literal Lightening Strike, a sudden mishap?
Worst? a word like Nice not enough info.
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Nov 28, 2014 - 08:07am PT
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The worst climb I did was probably still a lot more fun than the best day at work.
Edit- well maybe not at the time
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Nov 28, 2014 - 08:51am PT
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I haven't done it but there is a route at Skaha called "A Real Piece of SH*T" The old guidebook description was "an awful crack climb disowned by the first ascentionists"
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RP3
Big Wall climber
Twain Harte
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Nov 28, 2014 - 09:27am PT
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Funny this topic has come up. Mtnyoung took me to Pinnacles for my first time last weekend. He gave me a tour of a whole bunch of AMAZING pitches and I cannot wait to return.
However, I also got to climb that new pitch of Mungie's on the west side of the Balconies. I understand that it is an access pitch to much better-looking climbing above, and I definitely appreciate the effort and bravery that goes into a Pinnacles FA, but good lord, that pitch was awful!! Munge - You have definitely lived up to your Avatar!
I must add that I say all of this with the utmost amount of positivity and respect. I suppose my climbing career has been somewhat sheltered...
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east side underground
climber
Hilton crk,ca
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Nov 28, 2014 - 09:41am PT
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did a fa in the portal up the meysen lakes trail called it " enlichenment" you get the picture
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Nov 28, 2014 - 10:00am PT
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... I suppose my climbing career has been somewhat sheltered...
Only up until now. It's downhill from here buddy; we're gonna make you a Master of Mud.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Nov 28, 2014 - 10:09am PT
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Probably the scariest climbs I've ever done were at Pinnacles National Park. I've done a fair number of climbs there.
But I refuse to call any of them "worst." These were pretty bad, but hell, now that I've done them (and never ever have to go back), I like them a lot:
TOP FIVE SCARIEST LEADS AT PINNACLES (that I have done; not in any intentional order):
- 520.5. Seldom Seen Pinnacle - West Face 5.8 X (Take a rope, it'll make you feel like you're not free soloing. Besides, with a rope, if the second pitch leader falls, he might take the belayer with him. Did this with David Harden. One of several routes of this type at Pinns put up in bold, bold style by Glen Denny and Gary Colliver.)
- 854. Herchel Berchel 5.11a R (I had to be rescued from the third pitch of this the first time I tried it - thanks again mynameismud. Did that first try with Mungeclimber. Then did it with mynameismud - he led the crux pitch though. So I went back and led that pitch again with R2D2. I've led all three pitches.)
- 0.5 Flake Don't Break 5.9+ (Will any of your gear hold a fall? Will any of your holds stay on the rock? I would definitely recommend this one to my worst enemies, if I actually had any enemies.)
- 413. Needful 5.8 R (We joke about "kitty litter" at Pinns. On this one it's true. Total crap rock and total crap gear. For most of a rope length. I estimate that, while leading this, I knocked off a cumulative total of at least 100 pounds of rock. Did this with Mungeclimber.)
- 828. Desperado Chute Out - Denny Colliver Direct 5.9 R (Start on an easier route, at a one bolt belay 200 feet up. But that one bolt is backed up by gear scattered between knobs at your feet. And then it's only one rope length to the top; I used a 75 meter rope and still had to brace myself among lodestones for the belay. With no anchor. Oh, and bonus, there's a bolt protecting that 75 meters of climbing. And yes, that's meters, not feet. Both bolts are nearly 40 years old. Did this with Ubergoober.)
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Nov 28, 2014 - 10:51am PT
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I would put the choss I've climbed, where the rope was merely a formality
(or a psychic connection to your partner if you want to get touchy feely),
up against anybody's, but that doesn't justify it. And there was certainly
nothing enjoyable about it other than surviving it.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Nov 28, 2014 - 11:02am PT
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I spent the first few years in the sport climbing on the Seward highway..
One good thing about that is everything after seemed like 5star climbing.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Nov 28, 2014 - 11:26am PT
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Possibly the Calgary route on Yamnuska featuring squeeze chimneys that are probably 5.6 but feel like 5.9.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Nov 28, 2014 - 12:18pm PT
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Summer 1982 I decide a “direct start” for the classic North Ridge Goat Perch route in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains would be an “interesting challenge.” Goat Perch is in the same valley as Elephant’s Perch and looks inviting from near “the Perch.” I had already climbed the North Ridge and thought rock quality would be good.
I went in with Bruce: a friend that I had climbed with very little. That mattered not, since Bruce was in every way my superior. He had the good genes to the max and was: athletic, intelligent, tall, handsome, and fearless. In fact he was just out of the Navy and had been a fighter pilot and then was in the Blue Angels. Oh-----and he was a born-again Christian, but he tolerated my pagan ways. He even secretly carried a six-pack of beer up to the lakes under Elephant’s Perch, for my drinking pleasure.
The first lead on our north-face Goat’s Perch route, was up a steep chimney/gully, with a jam crack at its back. At the end of the first lead, the choice was overhanging off-width, or an inviting ledge that went left to less-steep terrain above. Bruce led left and quickly turned a corner. The rope stopped. Then he called back, “there’s a little loose rock here.”
In the next half hour, he must have pulled off 10 tons of rock. The snowfield below was soon a blackened war zone. Slowly, the rope played out, then more crashes and booms would shatter the quiet.
At last I heard “On Belay” and followed the lead. The traverse was just horribly-loose, but then I reached the line that he had climbed up to his belay. The granite was simply stacks of small loose blocks, at a 70-80 degree angle. There was some “protection” slotted between obviously loose blocks. It was not an easy lead to follow, and when I reached Bruce I was both scared and angry.
“How could you justify leading that?” I barked. “Everything is loose and your protection wouldn’t have stopped a falling squirrel”
Bruce thought for a minute and then calmly replied: “It was pretty iffy, but whenever I got to a tough spot I asked Jesus where to go.” He then smiled and added: “he takes care of me.”
Never before had someone asserted to me: that Jesus took a personal interest in his climbing.
I was truly staggered. I clipped into the belay nuts, noting that they were worthless to stop a leader fall. Rappeling was out of the question, since we were now above an overhang. Down-climbing did not seem like a good option either. After some water and a little small talk, I decided that based on prior success: Bruce and Jesus could lead the next pitch too.
That pitch was not as bad, but it was worse for me: since I was now in the direct line of rock fall. I hung the pack above me and cowered as stones clattered by. The only rocks that hit me were mercifully small. Once again, when I followed the lead, the rock was all loose. The protection that Bruce & Jesus had placed would probably not have stopped a leader fall.
Another similar, but easier lead for Bruce & Jesus followed.
When I reached Bruce again, I realized we were very close to where the North Ridge route started. We had done a “significant direct-start variation.”
I was able to do a traverse over to the North Ridge on reasonably good rock. Bruce was however, very disappointed in me. I adamantly refused to continue up the standard North Ridge route with him and Jesus.
I did not write the route up, since any future parties might not have the divine protection that we had experienced. I also confess: I did not “see the light” and continued as a pagan.
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ThomasKeefer
Trad climber
San Diego
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Nov 28, 2014 - 12:43pm PT
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SW face of Lone Pine Peak overcame the impressive scenery and length with some pretty sh#t rock... Never again.
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The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
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Nov 28, 2014 - 12:54pm PT
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Haha. Nice story Fritz.
Ive climbed a lot of choss. Hard to pick just one.
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Nov 28, 2014 - 02:59pm PT
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I climbed the Greenwood-Locke on Mt Temple in 1986 and the hard pitches were excellent but some of the choss pitches were the worst I have ever done. 5.6/5.7 on loose rock with no pro and bad anchors. 5.7 on a big Rockies North wall can be a horror show.
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rincon
Trad climber
Coarsegold
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Nov 28, 2014 - 03:02pm PT
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Can't remember my worst climb...
must not have been that bad.
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SicMic
climber
across the street from Marshall
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Nov 28, 2014 - 04:04pm PT
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Monte Paterno in the Dolomites. It was an ugly rubble heap. I'm not opposed to rubble, but it was very poor. Quite scary and extremely loose.
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MisterE
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Nov 28, 2014 - 04:15pm PT
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I felt fairly secure soloing the 5.4 access route to gain The Monk and I know some of the boulders are a little more firm.
Thanks for the beta I will never use, Jebus! ;-)
Did I mention the backdrop setting for this choss-pile is the urban sprawl that is Phoenix? I seem to remember noise and smog that day, too.
Really, just all around crappy.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 28, 2014 - 04:36pm PT
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How about any pitch on El Cap's diorite?
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KabalaArch
Trad climber
Starlite, California
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Nov 28, 2014 - 04:43pm PT
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Something at the Pinnacles
Big Sky? Jim Beyers FA.
Desperato /Chuteout was our 1st climb on the West Side. If you don't know what to expect, than what ever turns up is okay!?
Kor/Ingalls is such an OW sandbag. Looks good on paper, but really the N Chimney offers both aesthetics...and the summit.
The K/I bottom pitches, at 5.6 or so, just sucker you into the 5.9 wyde above. You can hear parties over on the K/I, through the vert faultline between it and the N Chimney; some are reduced to tears, while getting a pulley hoist TR from the leader. It's that bad.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Nov 28, 2014 - 05:42pm PT
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2nd pitch of "The cave" Devils tower--all crude bottoming hands for about 150 feet
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rincon
Trad climber
Coarsegold
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Nov 28, 2014 - 05:55pm PT
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How about any pitch on El Cap's diorite?
+1
But it's usually over in a couple of pitches, then back to golden granite, and that's always a happy time.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 28, 2014 - 06:11pm PT
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The worst climb I ever did is still better than the best climb I never did.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 29, 2014 - 08:40am PT
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Always wanted to do the first pitch of the cave route. 2nd pitch not so much.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Nov 29, 2014 - 11:55am PT
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I've done quality climbs with shitty partners and I've done shitty climbs with great partners. I think I would rather do the shitty climb with a great partner, at least these days.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Nov 29, 2014 - 03:58pm PT
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The worst climb I ever did is still better than the best climb I never did.
Elaborate, please.
This should be good.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 29, 2014 - 04:24pm PT
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Well, it's along the lines of that philosophical question...."if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise?"
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Nov 29, 2014 - 04:30pm PT
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Any climb that had another party on it at the same time.
So, Braille Book I guess. That's all I can think of...
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 29, 2014 - 05:17pm PT
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BeforeAfter:all of the hanging ice fell. The real question is: If a couple of huge trees fall in some 60 mile an hour winds and 60° temperatures above a cave in the forest with ice a bunch of 60-80 foot ice pillars on it that also fall and no one is around, does anyone hear it?
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Nov 29, 2014 - 05:53pm PT
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Mike: The first pitch of the cave is as great as the second is bad.
You traverse to the "cave"- Set up with some locker hand jams and then you cut loose and pull over--Best move i ever did at DT. Make sure some one is there with a camera
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treeman
climber
mule city
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Nov 29, 2014 - 06:09pm PT
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Climbed one day at the Bellefonte Quarry in PA long time back- buzz sawed crack, lots of poison ivy, dead dog in the pond, mullets, pretty bad outing altogether.
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Nov 30, 2014 - 06:45am PT
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Worst ever? Gotta be this hunk on the Escarpment outside of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. After I reached the sumwhat, the belay ledge fell out from under my second. The worst limestone I've ever seen.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 30, 2014 - 07:47am PT
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Carolyn's Rump in Joshua Tree. Nastiest chimney every, full of guano, no pro, just horrid. I'll never forgive my g/f for making me lead it.
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steven Curtis
Trad climber
Petaluma
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Nov 30, 2014 - 08:19am PT
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Ripcord in Vegas. I took off a 300 lb chunk which wacked me. Broken Calcaneous, crack ribs, and lacerated liver put me in ICU for an afternoon.
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maddog69
Trad climber
Ut
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Icebox, Camelback. And I f*#king loved it.
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Evel
Trad climber
Nedsterdam CO
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Climbed one day at the Bellefonte Quarry in PA long time back- buzz sawed crack, lots of poison ivy, dead dog in the pond, mullets, pretty bad outing altogether.Quote Here
I remember that dog. We got him out of the water and buried him. And it was a Stihl demo saw. Geez.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Any climb that had another party on it at the same time.
BOOM, end of thread.
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