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Matt's
climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 26, 2015 - 09:58am PT
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Went up to Dolt tower recently-- someone has:
1) hammered in a tomahawk and a piton on pitch 1
2) hammered in 2 tomahawks on pitch 2 (before the pendulum point).
I was pretty saddened to see this.
I can't imagine an aid climber doing this (i don't think anyone goes up on the nose with a hammer anymore, and the gear purposely ignores bigger placement options)
My only guess is that someone going for the speed record added this gear? There is enough fixed gear on this route already!
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Ogden, Utah
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Jan 26, 2015 - 10:28am PT
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My only guess is that someone going for the speed record added this gear? There is enough fixed gear on this route already!
Preplacing fixed gear disqualifies any speed record, IMO.
Sad if that's what's going on but I bet it was someone who just didn't know any better.
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Matt's
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2015 - 10:32am PT
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Ammon-- I really don't think it was "someone who doesn't know any better"
It would have to be someone who goes on the nose:
-without looking at a topo or getting any beta
-without offset cams but with a full aid rack and hammer,
-decides to hammer beaks but is unable to clean them.
Given the location of the new fixed gear I'll stick with my original hypothesis...
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 26, 2015 - 10:34am PT
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I can't imagine an aid climber doing this
Can't imagine an aid climber hammering in pins and heads into tiny cracks? Woah, that would be the first! jk I get what you are saying.
A lot of fixed stuff under the great roof too. To be honest I didn't mind it LOL. Not sure if someone is after the speed record, but who knows. I noticed a few added pins on the first pitch of freeblast when i did it a few month ago. Than two were gone like a month later. CLimbers hammer sh#t in and out all the time. THse things will be gone soon. Don't worry about it.
Matt, saw you on Sunday from the meadow. If I had something nicer than a cell phone I would of taken a photo of you.
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Jan 26, 2015 - 10:51am PT
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Yeah, noticed some new bolts and fixed gear on the Dawn wall too. What is happening on El Cap these days?
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Jan 26, 2015 - 10:56am PT
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And chalk marks too on the Dawn wall.... wtf is wrong with people.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:00am PT
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These things will be gone soon. Don't worry about it.
How do you know?
metal tactics on the pre-eminent "clean" Big Wall route?
I think I remember why I don't climb in the Valley anymore. Too many rules, with too many exceptions, for the wrong people.
lol, oh well. Hand Baskets are good conveyances when driving south.
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Ogden, Utah
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:10am PT
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It would have to be someone who goes on the nose:
-without looking at a topo or getting any beta
-without offset cams but with a full aid rack and hammer,
-decides to hammer beaks but is unable to clean them.
Given the location of the new fixed gear I'll stick with my original hypothesis...
Believe it or not, climbers come from all over the world to climb The Nose. Some don't have the same ethics as we do. BUT, I haven't been up there for a few years, so what the hell do I know? Haha!
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:15am PT
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One fine June morning I was with a group of friends sunbathing and TR'ing some face climbs next to pine line. Was a glorious warm day, the kind where sitting by the creek seems like the best thing to do and hard labor maybe not so much.
While chilling we saw a group of 3 Eastern Europeans of some kind come up to the base, each with the largest haul bags I'd ever seen - the Metolius El Cap has nothing on these things. Two of them were obviously 'the climbers' as they had full goretex suits on and were wearing harnesses and a full body rack.
They informed us they were going to climb the nose. We started to leave.
As we packed up and hiked away, we saw them aiding up Pine Line, with a full set of pins on their rack. I don't think they used them, or the gnarly hook-handle thing that looked like something used to poke a fireplace at home, but it really didn't matter - at about 7pm that evening we came back to camp to get some drinks and found the Euros at a corner site near us, a fifth deep into failure vodka and looking pretty down.
"Now we go home."
Some weird sh#t happens on The Nose.
edit - met Ammon I think the next day, with shorts and a few beers and a free rack over his shoulder walking up to the captain. Stark contrast.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:22am PT
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How do you know?
I don't but it is not my problem lol. Fixed gear on popular routes is something that usually works itself out over time.
Is this post a troll? I don't remember any additional fixed peckers on the first two pitches. Remember a fixed copperhead on the first, but it has been there forever. Was my first time leading the second, but don't remember the fixed gear aside from the bolt. There was a new fixed cam on the 4th which I remember looked bootiable but I don't think my partner got it out. We were trying to haul ass and the whole day seems like a blur.
Some weird sh#t happens on The Nose. +1
And everywhere else climbers roam
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coolrockclimberguy69
climber
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:23am PT
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I saw a couple of dude's nailing on the first pitch of Freeblast in the late 90s. We kinda laid into them and offered some cams if they needed them but the belayer just started yelling at us about how the leader "hasn't climbed in a long time and he's scared."
But yeah whatever. Vitaly seems cool with it so hammer away folks!
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Matt's
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2015 - 11:25am PT
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GDavis, your story is hilarious! Sounds like I underestimate the variety of people/ethics/intelligence levels that head up the Nose...
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:27am PT
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Vitaly seems cool with it so hammer away folks!
I am not cool with it haha, but I have no power to change it and no energy to waste for caring.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:28am PT
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Nice dudes, them fellas. Hard drinkers too.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:37am PT
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I liked that one too, Gdavis! You were talking about the nose, but I could come up with a similar story for Castelton, Ancient Art, most of the crags in Indian creek, Devils tower ( esp the durance), specter an in vedauwoo, snow shed wall, too many places to enumerate in Yosemite; flat out, Everywhere.
Strange thinks happen all over the third stone from the sun!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:37am PT
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Matt's, did the fixed gear stop after the second pitch? If so, I have an even more bizarre theory: It may have been someone practicing aid techniques in what he or she thought to be a safe environment.
Considering that the Nose has gone clean for more than forty years, using only a rack of Stoppers and first-generation Hexcentrics (the kind that were symmetric about the vertical axis), I can't imagine anyone intending to go to the top placing, much less fixing, any hammered placement on either of those pitches given the alternative aid placements available. Similarly, how would the presence of those pieces assist a speed ascent, given the quicker and more reliable options?
This causes me to think it had to be someone who was new to the game, area and ethics.
John
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:43am PT
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OMG !!!! someone put a beak into the Nose
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Jan 26, 2015 - 11:51am PT
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Thanks Werner
I'm f*#king rollin, haven't laughed this hard in a while.
Still laughing
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Jan 26, 2015 - 12:25pm PT
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Sacramento
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Jan 26, 2015 - 12:44pm PT
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This could the start of new era.
2057
Regina Topstep, the great,great granddaughter of an illegitimate spawn of the notorious Fred Beckey was able to free the Shield headwall at 5.10c yesterday. She claimed the crux of the route probably came on the triple cracks pitch where there were some long reaches between handjams. Her ascent with her boyfriend Warren Caldwell was assisted by sherpa drones allowing them to stay on the wall for 3 months working out the moves while without having to actually haul their own equipment. They ascended the wall with only their genetically modified gecko appendages and their feet.
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