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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Sep 25, 2016 - 10:32am PT
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Thanks to Robert Landfear, my high school biology teacher, I was fortunate to ascend the log in 1977 . . . I went first, as I weighed less. Great day on my first ever Yosemite climb!
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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Sep 25, 2016 - 10:36am PT
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Yeah, I, too, have seen the guys girth-hitch a sling and clip the rope in, thereby cementing their relationship with the plummeting plank of death.
Last I did it was sometime in '83, and I still clearly remember the sort of harmonic vibration the thing picked up, no matter how carefully I moved.
Plenty of people rapped the route from before the log, not willing to head up the thing. I remember being on the little ledge with a guy and his girlfriend. I tried to talk them into it. I even offered them to follow on our rope after my partner and I were passed it. They didn't even want to follow the thing. After all, it's not like the follow would be much better. If it went with you on it, you'd be plucked off of it only to swing over and slam the face and dihedral it had rested on.
Exciting times.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Sep 25, 2016 - 10:50am PT
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I swarmed up that thing - in '53 I think - with eyes like targets, quivering like a jellyfish on a
Model A fender. It looked terminal even then. Glad no one has done a Dr. Strangelove descent on it.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Sep 25, 2016 - 11:58am PT
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Ha. Then we could name the new way up the "Slim Pickens Pitch."
1953? Jeez that's the year I was born and I'm old...
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Sep 25, 2016 - 12:43pm PT
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Here you go Wayne, an ascent in 1957 and several other notable ascents from names in the past.
I first climbed it in 1958, my first Valley climb and over the years Roper and I would have a time contest on solo ascents. The Rotten log always scared the sh#t out of me.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Sep 25, 2016 - 01:00pm PT
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I climbed it in 1980 on my first trip to the Valley. Typical blind Camp 4 date. Nice guy who wasn't dissuaded by climbing with a skinny 16 yr. old. He led that pitch. It didn't really feel that sketchy following, though I remember how some sections rotted out to make nice handholds, and there were a couple of friction moves on places worn smooth with hand oils. Still, back then, you could tell it's days were numbered. I'm surprised to learn that Fossil Climber found it sketchy back in '53. Maybe that means it wasn't as much of a time bomb as it seemed back in the 80s.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Sep 25, 2016 - 03:33pm PT
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Went up RA a year ago with Amac, and did the new var that goes up to the oak tree that's held there by bark and wishes. When that goes, the move will be hard.
But when I did it in the early 90s, we climbed well left of the current direction of travel. I remember it being steep and allegedly only 5.7 because the rating on the free climbing was supposed to be like 5.7. Felt like 5.9 and way harder than free'ing the pendulum when wet.
Anyone else have pics of this left hand variation? It ended by the little pine. I remember being quite happy to be at the belay on what was my longest single free climb to that point.
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Edge
Trad climber
Betwixt and Between Nederland & Boulder, CO
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Sep 25, 2016 - 05:28pm PT
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I climbed it on September 20, 1984, and honestly can't remember if it was there or not. If not, then it had just come down judging from the timeline in the thread.
I had just met a German lady in the Awahnee parking lot and although she didn't speak much English and my German was limited to phrases from Hogans Heros, we launched up Royal Arches together. I led the whole rig, simulclimbing most of it in good time, and we descended North Dome Gully which I had previously done in the dark coming off of the S Face of the Column.
A partner and I ran up Crest Jewel the next year in four hours car to car. A classic romp for sure!
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Sep 25, 2016 - 06:04pm PT
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Wow - Guido - where did you get that register?
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Sep 25, 2016 - 06:59pm PT
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Yo Wayne
Spent a good deal of time at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley several years back looking for old Yosemite Registers in the Mountain Record Section through their vast but deeply buried archives.
Quite a lengthy procedure as you have to have the Registers brought up from the basement in small groups at a time, have the pages copied by the library and put onto a disk and produce some real money to get all this done.Takes several months for the procedure but the results are well worth the effort. Salathe, Nelson, Terray, Steck and even Wayne Merry!
One of the problems with the Arches Register is very few people could find it and the records show that over and over.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Sep 25, 2016 - 07:10pm PT
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I'm also one of those fossils who climbed the rotten log back in 1965. With a top rope it wasn't too scary. :)
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Sep 25, 2016 - 07:50pm PT
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Lionel Terray climbed the Rotten Log with Al Steck and Leo LeBon. How cool is that (or maybe demeaning). Conquistadors of the Useless: The Rotten Log (Without irony)
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Sep 25, 2016 - 10:07pm PT
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Nobody ever had to climb the Rotten Log, unless they wanted to. It has always been easy, about 5.7, to bypass it. That is now the regular way to cross that section.
The log was intentionally broken and trundled in late summer, or fall of '83. The trundler thought it was hilarious, and he attempted to regale an assembly of disgusted climbers in the Camp 4 parking lot. He not only endangered other people with two huge projectiles, he vandalized and damaged the route. He boasted about how hard he had to bounce on it before it broke, which indicated that it was still strong enough for a skilled climber (as opposed to an idiot) to safely ascend.
I had climbed the Log earlier that year, and it seemed reasonable to me. My partner wouldn't wear the eight-pound rucksack to follow my lead, though, and he wouldn't do the 5.7 on toprope, either. So we spent a LONG time screwing around with rigging a Tyrolean Traverse. We ended up in the Jungle for the night.
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Alan Rubin
climber
Amherst,MA.
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Sep 26, 2016 - 07:17am PT
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An earlier poster mentioned "pin scars" in the log. We climbed it in June (I think), 1966 and my recollection was that there was a fixed pin about 1/2 way up the thing and we had a debate about the wisdom--or lack thereof--in clipping into it--though today I have no memory of whether or not we did so. I do remember having the same thoughts as someone who posted earlier in the thread--this was first climbed in the 1930s and "they" named it the "rotten log". I know that I have a picture of one of us on it, but unfortunately it is deeply buried someplace. Still one of the 'wilder' pitches that I've ever done.
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steve s
Trad climber
eldo
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Sep 26, 2016 - 07:50am PT
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I remember climbing the rotten log with Keith Ned Guy in 1980 right after an earthquake. Might have been the mt. Saint Helens episodes. But we didn't think twice about stomping around on the thing in fact Ned, being a smartass, tied the thing off! I was ready to take him off belay which wouldn't have been hard to do since it was barely even a waist belay. Pure fun. And kinda dumb. Now puke.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Sep 26, 2016 - 10:54am PT
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I climbed it at least 7 times between 1970 and 1981, and intended to do so again in 1984. We didn't bother looking as we raced up until we got to the pendulum, and noticed something missing.
While the bypass is more conventional and stable, the Log had a certain something about it. Here's a poor copy of a picture of me taken in 1974:
I always gave the first ascent party full marks for adventure.
John
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slabbo
Trad climber
colo south
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Sep 27, 2016 - 10:30am PT
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82? or83? it seemed to even have small pockets in it for fingers ! Sure made the climbing quick 'cause you thought it was coming off at any time
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Sep 27, 2016 - 11:05am PT
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Somebody ought to see if there's a piece of sound wood in the debris and carve a piece of climbing art out of it. Oops - did I say that? It's in a National Park, isn't it.
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TomKimbrough
Social climber
Salt Lake City
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Sep 27, 2016 - 04:48pm PT
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This thread has a special meaning for me this week.
In 1966 I climbed the Arches with Kim Schmitz, 50 years ago.
Plus my son is in the Valley and did the Arches for the first time this week.
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