New beaks and pitons fixed on the Nose

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Matt's

climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 26, 2015 - 09:58am PT

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!

ElCapPirate

Big Wall climber

Ogden, Utah

Jan 26, 2015 - 10:28am PT

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.

Matt's

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2015 - 10:32am PT

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...

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Jan 26, 2015 - 10:34am PT

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.

Texplorer

Trad climber

Sacramento

Jan 26, 2015 - 10:51am PT

Yeah, noticed some new bolts and fixed gear on the Dawn wall too. What is happening on El Cap these days?

fear

Ice climber

hartford, ct

Jan 26, 2015 - 10:56am PT

And chalk marks too on the Dawn wall.... wtf is wrong with people.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

Nothing creative to say

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:00am PT

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.

ElCapPirate

Big Wall climber

Ogden, Utah

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:10am PT

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!

GDavis

Social climber

SOL CAL

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:15am PT

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.

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:22am PT

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

coolrockclimberguy69

climber

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:23am PT

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!

Matt's

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Jan 26, 2015 - 11:25am PT

GDavis, your story is hilarious! Sounds like I underestimate the variety of people/ethics/intelligence levels that head up the Nose...

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:27am PT

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.

GDavis

Social climber

SOL CAL

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:28am PT

Nice dudes, them fellas. Hard drinkers too.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:37am PT

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!

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:37am PT

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

WBraun

climber

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:43am PT

OMG !!!! someone put a beak into the Nose

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Jan 26, 2015 - 11:51am PT

Thanks Werner

I'm f*#king rollin, haven't laughed this hard in a while.

Still laughing

GDavis

Social climber

SOL CAL

Jan 26, 2015 - 12:25pm PT

Texplorer

Trad climber

Sacramento

Jan 26, 2015 - 12:44pm PT

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.

LearningTrad

Trad climber

Jan 26, 2015 - 01:50pm PT

A little spray, a little name-dropping, a little back-in-the-day.

I like this thread.

Don Paul

Big Wall climber

Denver, Colorado

Jan 26, 2015 - 02:12pm PT

It is kind of weird they left the pins behind. Those things are expensive. Maybe the guys with the huge haulbag made an anchor there and bailed.

coolrockclimberguy69

climber

Jan 26, 2015 - 02:26pm PT

Tomahawk = $14
$14 x 3 = $42

That's $42 in gear for running up the first two of the Nose, ppl.

If they're still there by Wednesday then The Art of Dirtbagging is truly dead in it's grave.

Don Paul

Big Wall climber

Denver, Colorado

Jan 26, 2015 - 02:30pm PT

^ Then cruise up into the stovelegs and hammer out some of the fixed cams that accumulate there.

micronut

Trad climber

Fresno/Clovis, ca

Jan 26, 2015 - 02:52pm PT

When I was first getting into rock climbing.....1990.......thats right, 1990, my high school buddy and I laid siege to The Nutcracker with a full rack of pitons handed down by his "uncle the climber". Our only resources were an old copy of Advanced Rockcraft, this old iron rack, and tons of teenage stoke. He spent three hours NAILING the first pitch. I freed then NAILED a bit which brought us to the big ledge, where we promptly declared ourselves victorious and set about learning how to rappel right then and there.

One of my fondest memories. Can you imagine what teams below us must have thought of hearing "tink" "tink" "tiiiiink!" from 40 feet up the 5.8 lieback!

I still laugh and cringe at our act of blissful ignorance. Its a great campfire story.

Imagine if the internet had been around for us to get flamed for our dastardly act.

Don Paul

Big Wall climber

Denver, Colorado

Jan 26, 2015 - 02:59pm PT

^ on my first lead, I had an army surplus machete on my belt, in case there was a bushwacking pitch. As I pulled a roof move, it almost slipped out of the sheath.

GDavis

Social climber

SOL CAL

Jan 26, 2015 - 03:28pm PT

Damn micro, that's amazing! haha

mastadon

Trad climber

crack addict

Jan 26, 2015 - 05:35pm PT

I'm proud to be able to say that I backed off the Center Route on Moby Dick because I ran out of 3"-4" bongs (in 1971).

Big Mike

Trad climber

Jan 26, 2015 - 05:41pm PT

Lol Micro! I had heard that quite a fee parties nailed on it after Robbins put it up, but i didn't think anyone had done so recently! Lol

Foiled by his own book.. Lol