Discussion Topic |
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 14, 2016 - 04:19pm PT
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During the first few weeks of October 2016, The Adidas Outdoor Team held their annual Yosemite get-together and with a lot of support from a lot of people, we managed to project, send, scrub clean and retool (replace bad bolts) two long-standing projects: West Face of Sentinel and The Misty Wall Direct, all free.
Kevin Jorgeson and Ben Rueck sent the West Face, and Jon Cardwell and Marcus Garcia sent the Misty Wall, adding a direct finish up the exposed headwall, 20 feet right of an aid variation (Escape from Tora Bora) Eric Kohl put up (solo, of course) in 2002, and finishing on a spectacular 5.12 airball splitter.
Both routes have been restored to museum quality and by all estimates are terrific modern masterpieces. Both were routes I always wanted to bag (tried the West Face half a dozen times) free but never could, so it's fun to see the young guys finally send them.
NOTE: All photos are by John Evans.
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Burnin' Oil
Trad climber
CA
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Oct 14, 2016 - 04:33pm PT
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Spectacular looking routes. FYI, John, your piece in R&I, Gravity, was brilliant.
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i-b-goB
Social climber
Wise Acres
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Oct 14, 2016 - 04:39pm PT
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Dynomite!
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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Oct 14, 2016 - 05:03pm PT
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Thanks Largo
Wow that Sharks Tooth is.... Wow!
Man oh man are those pics ever clear on my 4K display. Nice job an the photography!
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Oct 14, 2016 - 05:33pm PT
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Great photos, JL!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 14, 2016 - 05:56pm PT
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As mentioned, the photos are by John Evans, who did some of the most terrifying jugging and dangling on fixed lines I have ever seen to get those pics. Projecting those routes was a ton of work and none of it ever would have happened with Devo Derby and Marcus Garcia humping withering loads up and down the Falls Trail and up the long march to Sentinel. It was a group effort for sure, but credit goes to the climbers for pulling off the send. Misty Wall is modern gemstone but probably too hard for weekend warriors. I think now that the West Face has been brushed and polished clean as Plymouth Rock, and new bolts installed, it could be as popular and sought after as Astroman. Sure was a blast to be part of the adventure.
JL
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ryankelly
Trad climber
Bhumi
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Oct 14, 2016 - 06:01pm PT
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modern commercials are so slick they barely even look like add campaigns anymore
(hats off to the athletes for sure though)
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Oct 14, 2016 - 09:54pm PT
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thx for the report Largo! Climbs in other parts of the Valley are just waiting to be unearthed. I like seeing these guys get after it.
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Oct 14, 2016 - 10:42pm PT
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Wild. That sure is some proud terrain up there. Nice work fellas. Fantastic photography too.
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steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
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Oct 15, 2016 - 05:08am PT
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John,
Thanks for posting this, and nice chatting with you in the Valley.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Oct 15, 2016 - 07:25am PT
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Looks and sounds great, from a vicarious perch.
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PhilG
Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
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Oct 15, 2016 - 08:51am PT
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Thank you, John.
Great to feel the connection between he generations.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Oct 15, 2016 - 12:39pm PT
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What a fine accomplishment! I have witnessed such an astounding increase in athletic climbing ability in the last sixty years. Equipment like sticky rubber accounts for a little bit of this surge, but primarily it's all about the large increase in the number of climbers in the last forty years, including exceptional athletes like Largo and the Stonemasters - and the far right tail-end of the normal curve. Brilliant accomplishments!
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Oct 15, 2016 - 01:31pm PT
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Great work. Hope those beauties get some repeats soon.
Turning that shark tooth looks pretty desperate, and then you have to crank 5.12 face moves? My palms are all sweaty...
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Oct 15, 2016 - 02:50pm PT
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Sheesh!
That shark's tooth looks SCARY!!!! and with that bolt
under the lip, yes, Toto, this sure isn't Kansas!!!!
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Oct 15, 2016 - 03:32pm PT
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weuhue, Man size bite of the apple!
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 15, 2016 - 06:34pm PT
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I went up there (West Face of Sentinel) 3 different times to free it with 3 different partners.
First time with Dale Bard, (Failed)
Second time with Coz and we failed that one too.
Third time with Merry, we failed.
Where's these new 3/8 new bolts?
There were no bolts before and there was scary azz run out.
Did they put bolt in for that scary azz run out?
But these new guys are definitely supermen .......
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Oct 15, 2016 - 07:22pm PT
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I haven't seen where the new version goes, but here's the overlay I made
of the crux pitch in 2014.
[Edit:] Wow, John - thanks for the details! (see below)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 15, 2016 - 07:28pm PT
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"Hang in there baby cuz everything is gonna be everything."--James McEachin, Play Misty For Me
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 15, 2016 - 09:24pm PT
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Those guys (and me too) were protective of the Yoz ethic of avoiding bolts, so no new ones were added, though several were replaced. The two shitty ones at the hanging belay at the end of pitch 2, and the two 56 year old Frost/Chouinard belay bolts below the Dogleg crack. Ryan of YOSAR replaced those bolts and filled the holes with putty. They did things right, thinking of future parties, trying to fashion a masterpiece.
Per the crux pitch - they followed the right had variation which Bil Price and I first tried in 1977, and replaced the first coffin nail (1/4 buttonhead) bolt we placed at the start of the hard face climbing. The second bolt (by the "A0" on Clint's topo), a dozen feet above, I believe Coz put in. It's a 3/8 incher though over 25 years old it still looked good with a stainless SMC hanger so they left that one as is (taking numerous rippers on it) and it protected the big dyno move that unlocked the all free ascent.
They also combined pitch 4 and 5 on Clint's topo producing a mega lead with a bunch of hard stuff basically start to finish. Plus the thing has been scrubbed till it gleamed and is ready for anyone to rock.
I suspect it will become quite popular because it's full value Yosemite (technical approach, requires varied techniques, and gains a fantastic true summit, like scaling a mountain. And if you can't huck the dyno you can easily aid a move off the bolt and still get a dandy 5.12 pitch on flint hard stone.
Ben also top roped the lefthand A5 Flake version and got all the moves but linking them would probably be 5.14. He's going back this week to give that a concerted try since that is the original line. But I suspect the right hand path will be the one that catches on, because skilled free climbers can manage that one and still do the line ground up in a long day. The A5 Flake version would take even a 5.15 climber some serious tries and several hours at the very least. It looked beastly hard.
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Oct 15, 2016 - 09:44pm PT
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F*#k, sh#t just got real.
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Stewart Johnson
Mountain climber
lake forest
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Oct 15, 2016 - 10:01pm PT
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Stellar!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Oct 15, 2016 - 10:26pm PT
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Brings back memories...Stannard and I climbed it in 1970 in July---what were we thinking? It was hotter than hell. In those days it was respectable to climb all the 5.9 pitches free, which is what we did.
Stannard led the A5 flake; shot below.
I think I had five pitons in the horizontal crack for the hanging belay anchor for that pitch. If the flake expanded and he came factor-twoing onto the hanging belay, I wanted to be damn sure I wasn't going anywhere. I don't think I've ever set up a five-point anchor again.
We basically had to solo the dog legs; we didn't have anything wide enough to protect after maybe the first few feet.
What really sticks in my mind is a pitch soon after the second dog leg. An easy traverse right, followed by an increasingly flared corner that was supposed to be A3.
Well. It was too hard for me to aid and too hard for me to free. So I did my best to chimney up the flare, placing tipped-in nested angles, tying them off, and and using the hero loops for handholds. I didn't think that anything I had would have held full bodyweight, much less a fall. The flare kept opening out, making chimneying progressively more insecure, while the intermittent crack in the back stayed as crappy as ever. I ran out of rope and set up a hanging belay on large pitons not far from a perfectly nice ledge.
The effect of the effort, the heat, and the abject terror combined to so parch my throat that I literally lost my voice, croaking a totally inaudible "on belay" and jiggling the ropes until Stannard either got so frustrated with waiting he decided to climb or else the combination of subliminal and subvocal messages somehow reached him.
When we got down I went into Degnans and drained a half-gallon bottle of orange juice without the slightest pause.
Kudos to the free ascentionists. The rock and situations up there are fabulous.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Oct 16, 2016 - 09:14am PT
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wow, Werner, Dale, Coz, JL, Bill Price, Bachar, Woodward - that is the list of the best and boldest from a 20-year span. Says a lot about how good these youngsters are these days.
EDIT: I left Merry off the list above! And, great addition Rich!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 16, 2016 - 09:35am PT
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Damn, Rich. I remember that when Steve Roper and Frank S. made the first one-day ascent they also thought that pitch after the Dog Leg Crack was the crux.
Even with cams, sticky shoes and 5.14 acumen, Kevin J. had his hands full on that pitch. And that's why I think the West Face is such a classic - it features the kind of Yosemite terrain that no matter how well you climb, it's still a big time challenge.
And all the history, the battle royales we've all had up there, makes it a kind of family affair, based on shared experience.
Once word got out in the 1980s that the West Face would "never" go all free, and as El Cap became the axis for modern free climbing efforts, the West Face fell out of favor.
But now, it's back, and it's fantastic to see all the old stories rolling in. It's a regular resurrection. Tom Frost (1st ascent with Chouinard in 1960) was in the valley when we were there and he thought it was "magic" that his old testpiece (the 3rd Golden Age wall climbed, after Half Dome and the Nose) was back in play. Again, kudos to Ben, Marcus, Kevin and the YOSAR team who brushed and cleaned and restored the old masterpiece to museum quality.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Oct 16, 2016 - 01:42pm PT
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Cool thread, glad I stumbled in
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Oct 16, 2016 - 08:50pm PT
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Hi John. Sacherer and I did the first one day ascent, 14 hours. Both our arms were cramping on the last few pitches. I did think that the pitch above the Doglegs was the hardest. We had a four inch bong and i used it twice.
Regarding the original bolts, I remember only one, a belay bolt at the end of the above mentioned pitch.
Sacherer had the second Dogleg and led it without protection. There was a wooden wedge way back inside, a relic from the first ascent I assume. It was so far in back that he didn't clip it and I didn't want to take the time to try to remove it.
A note on the flake: I found a thimble sized knob on the face of the flake which would take a tie off. I only had to place two pins consecutively on it. Probably trivial now with small cams.
Big congrats on the free ascent. I remember this as a very pretty route, and steeper than it seems from Camp 4.
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Oct 16, 2016 - 09:50pm PT
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SO cool.
What a feature so high off the deck!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 17, 2016 - 01:32pm PT
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My bad, Eric. I meant to say you and Frank did the first one day ascent. Quite a feat with pitons and no cams.
Eric's account of this (did I see it on tape??) is very good.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Nov 26, 2016 - 07:56am PT
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I never made it up there, when I was climbing at my peak, although it was always on "the list."
Suddenly I regret that I never did.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 26, 2016 - 09:29am PT
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To John's post on Eric's account of climbing the West Face with Sacherer in one day: Video of Eric Beck comments--Sacherer Memorial Yosemite Valley - Saturday, May 22, 2010--climbing with Frank Sacherer
I don't recall if this comment is in the recording, but Eric and Frank's goal was to climb the then Grade VI West Face of Sentinel in one day. Frank was leading and trying to do a move free, Eric was thinking and worrying, "Oh no, there is no time to try anything free." Eric and Frank also did the DNB all free, just in case anyone thinks that only speed climbing was part of their bag of tricks.
Nice thread John. Great results on both the West Face and the Misty Wall.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Nov 27, 2016 - 06:37am PT
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I climbed the west face with Steve Quinlan in May, '79. I got the doglegs and he got he got A-4 expando (thats what Meyers called it.) each of us thought the other got ripped off
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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Nov 27, 2016 - 09:30am PT
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Gersh
Trad climber
San Diego, Ca
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Nov 27, 2016 - 10:30am PT
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This thread is awesome!
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Nov 27, 2016 - 04:17pm PT
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congrats to the ffa'ers ... jolly good show!
wish i could remember more than the approach, being bashed by battleship sized clouds cruising up the merced at mid level in blue-oo skies, my first night in a hammock (which was the point) heavy frost and glazed manzanita on the summit where my MD partner insisted, so we brewed up ... 'cuz my vote to descend the gully straight away was "hypothermic thinking" (ever forced frozen lips to defend level of consciousness to an anesthesiologist?) and that hellweather broke loose the moment we hit the trail. forty years have passed but still, i wish i could remember ... more
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Nov 27, 2016 - 04:27pm PT
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Holy Smokes! What a man that little gym rat became! Much respect for BR!
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Nov 27, 2016 - 08:26pm PT
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Is the photographer John Evans the person who climbed in the Valley, in the mid 60s? And was also on the FA of the Hummingbird Ridge on Logan? And wrestled alligators for a living?
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Al Barkamps
Social climber
Red Stick
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Nov 27, 2016 - 09:14pm PT
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Does Adidas also make their athletes change their clothes while thrutching through 5.13 off widths? I know they made Jim Furyk swap his kahkis for navy blues in the middle of a heinous putt at Augusta.
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Byran
climber
Half Dome Village
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Apr 14, 2017 - 04:17pm PT
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Just watching that dyno makes my rotator cuff ache.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Dec 20, 2018 - 11:06am PT
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 20, 2018 - 01:35pm PT
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Wonder if anyone's repeated this thing free. A classic.
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BryanE
climber
Minnesota
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Dec 20, 2018 - 06:29pm PT
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Anybody have the new link for the video MagNaniMous posted? Didn't turn up anything when I clicked on it. Cool thread.
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BG
Trad climber
JTree & Idyllwild
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Dec 20, 2018 - 09:38pm PT
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"god damned rats chewed through two of our fixed lines..."
Same thing happened to me and Coz on How the West Was Won in 1995. We'd left some fixed lines overnight, and when Coz jugged the up the last fixed line it looked like a rat had chewed all way through the sheath, exposing an inch of core. It wasn't at a spot exposed to any edge abrasion, so we blamed it on the wall rats!
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| Messages 1 - 44 of total 44 in this topic |
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