Like Superheroes, All Climbers Have a Genesis Story

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christinafreschl

climber
Berkeley
Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 24, 2017 - 03:04pm PT
In December my world changed. I became a mother and my world-view expanded. Before my daughter Harriet was born, I had a pretty clear understanding of who I was. Wife, teacher, climber. Welcoming a new life into the world got me thinking a lot about beginnings. In every superhero story, the creation of the hero or genesis is always my favorite part of the tale. Whenever I meet a new person climbing, I like to ask about how they got their start. So this is a forum to share, if you want, your genesis.

I wrote one about my love for wide climbing in Yosemite Valley. Enjoy and share.

Woman Living Wide: Finding Myself in the Off-Widths of Yosemite Valley


.
Climbing for me has always been a search for identity. Whether I was seeking to fit it with others, or prove to myself that I could succeed. As a woman from small town Wisconsin, I never thought that climbing would be something that would help me overcome so many hurdles and reach so many heights, literally and figuratively. I did know when I drove through the 120 tunnel and saw the valley for the first time that this would be a great place to discover myself.

I climbed for the first time on Swan Slab with the Yosemite Mountain school in the spring of 1998 while on a trip to California with my family. I was captivated by the waterfalls, bluebird skies, and granite cliffs that dwarfed the limestone bluffs of the Mississippi river behind my childhood home. My father shared Ansel Adams with me, my mother signed me up for a painting class, where I desperately tried to capture the falls in charcoal. The possibilities of this place felt endless.

As my identity as a climber and a person grew since that magical summer, so did my link to Yosemite. I knew that this was a place where I wanted to succeed and be a part of in a substantial way. We as humans look for small, seemingly trivial ways to connect to places and a community of like-minded people, and for me this connection was forged with offwidth climbing. Offwidth climbing is not in the limelight but offers climbers an almost masochistic fascination. It is hard, but I believe that if you want to be a true Yosemite climber, you must delve into this often ignored, often painful realm.

Offwidth climbing for me has three stages of experience: Discovery, Pain, and Love, and ultimately more pain. All the long harder classics in the valley have a pitch or two of wide climbing. Learning how to stack, arm bar, and heel toe and ascend these pitches can make these climbs more enjoyable. In a certain way, these stages of experience mimic many of the glorious experiences of life.

Discovery

It was 2004 and I found myself flying out to the first place I had ever climbed. I was going there with my friends from the University of Wisconsin Hoofers mountaineering club. We were excited to test our skills on the legendary granite that we had been dreaming about in the gym or during college finals. We did many great climbs on that trip, but the three that stand out are Ahab, Generator, and English Breakfast Crack. Ahab took our image of Yosemite climbing and swallowed it like the great whale.


Even on toprope, I could not make upward progress without, "layback, layback, TAKE, layback, layback, TAKE." Afterwards, my friends and others at the base said things like, “Yeah, offwidth climbing is hard.” “It is just painful and awkward all the time.” As I listened to all that was said I thought, “I want to get good at that!”

After getting my butt kicked, I asked my friends if they knew of any other cracks like Ahab. Always knowledgeable and ready to mentor, my friends told me about Generator Crack. We set up the top rope and over the next hour I got my first real taste of what wide climbing could be. The fire in the stomach of the whale was lit.


The next day, I wanted more. I lead English Breakfast Crack. I remember the drops of blood from my ankle flowing into my shoe. I remember the pain in my shoulder from armbarring. I remember having my friend Jesse send up a #6 for the chimney part, because I couldn’t imagine how people ran that section out. I fought with this whale and popped out of the chimney on top, clipped the chains with the elation of a new discovery. (And some hardcore nausea.) Little did I know, but in that moment I became an addict.


Pain

In 2007 my husband Dan and I made a dream come true by moving to California. We had just been married and choose Berkeley for our new life. California became a perfect place for his engineering career to grow and for the next stage in my offwidth journey.

The beginning of that journey really started with a discovery of a valuable asset. The Yosemite Hardman Circuit on monsteroffwidth.com. This list was put together by an offwidth lover after he heard mention of the list in the Don Reid guidebook. I quickly used this list as a road map to learn what I could. Here are the stops on the second part of the journey (not in perfect order).

Stop 1: Bloody Elbows: Chingando It was a hot day and I took off my long sleeved shirt to keep cool. I remember getting to the top. It opens into a squeeze to chimney. I would need to run it out, because I had no more gear. As I was trying to keep my “cool” I realized that I was slipping. I gazed down to discover that my elbow was gushing blood. I wiped off as much as I could and gritted my teeth to the top.

Stop 2: Raw Ankle Bones. Vendetta: This is a climb at the Cookie. It has a beautiful #5 section of perfect hand stacks and knee locks, but there are some tricky moves getting to that pitch. My friend lost so much ankle skin on this one, he still has a scar, 4 years later. We called it the “pizza” wound, because for weeks it oozed. This problem was solved as soon as I bought TC pros. They are not the perfect OW shoe, but sure better than low tops.

Stop 3: Scab covered shoulders: Twilight Zone This one is an intense, left-side in gorgeous splitter line at the Cookie Cliff. Even with a long sleeve shirt after a long time arm-barring with all your might to stay in the #6 sized crack, my shoulder was rubbed raw. I recently went and did this one a third time. The shoulder scab is still there, but ever so faint.



Stop 4: Goose egg on head: Mental Block. This climb has two wide pitches on it and a weird roof on the third pitch. You must traverse under the roof out right to again gain the crack. Helmets can sometimes be a hindrance more than a help in wide climbing. For this climb that was the case. After clipping the helmet to my harness, I pulled up to the roof, went for a confident step left, and crashed my head into the roof.

Stop 5: Abs Cramping: Offwidth bouldering can perfect technique. Climbs like Cedar Eater and Ghettosnake are great training for roof cracks in the valley. They are only feet off the ground, but offer a full-body workout. Your feet are above your head, you are hand-fist stacking and wishing you had done one more set of abs at the gym and drank one less beer the night before.


Stop 6: Bruises and scrapes on every surface of your body. Basketcase. This was a climb that a friend and I did right after the Facelift, an annual service event. I won’t tell that tale here, but afterwards I don’t think I have ever been so completely covered in black and blue. It got so bad for a while that when my husband Dan and I would walk into stores, women would give him death glares, assuming that he was a wife beater. He longed to tell them, “No you don’t understand, she would kick my ass!”

I wrote a trip report about it on Supertopo, entitled “Losing Our Marbles on Obscure Yosemite Offwidth” if you would like to hear the whole humbling story.

http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Losing-Our-Marbles-on-Obscure-Yosemite-Offwidth-The-Way-Kim-and-I-Survived-Basketcase/t12148n.html


After all this pain and hours of huffing and puffing up tight spaces, I had made a huge dent in the hardman circuit and I was beginning to feel like a hardwoman!

Part 3: the Love

Even through infancy and pain, the love has been there all along. It is really about 3 things; the love of a place, the history, and a community.

Yosemite is a place that alone holds so much wonder and majesty for me already. But getting to love the experience of climbing there has made that feeling even stronger. Now I have seen a wide range of the valley through the lens of looking for the wide. It never gets easy and yes I still get all these bruises and my left elbow is so covered in paper-thin scar tissue that it bleeds as soon as it sees granite. (side note, many of the OW in the valley are left side in. For a short list of right-side in see appendix) I love the sweeping view to the fine cut, micro-crystal that I crimp as my face is shoved sideways in a #6 crack and I am desperate for a break filling the space with my body.

As an art history major in undergrad, I have always loved the stories that are associated with great places and feats. In Yosemite I have been truly able to stand on the shoulders of giants. The history is seeping with richness and awe. Being scared because I only have one #6 and one #5 camalot to help protect my ascent is humbling when you think about the first ascents done in boots with blocks of wood. When you read about the history of early wide pioneers, I am always in awe. Chuck Pratt lead Twilight Zone on chocks. Allen Steck and John Salathe suffered the summer heat on The Steck Salathe. Gear rattling out was a common occurrence. The Reid guide gear beta for wide climbing says up to 4”, which I can only think means that you were supposed to run it out when it got bigger than that. I have been run out above tipped out gear before. I have bumped a single big piece longer than I should have, but nothing like these early wide climbers. These tales are not often published but exist more as mythology. The weavers of these tales often limit their spinning to the campfire, but when you are lucky enough to hear one, you are sure to be inspired.

The last part of the love comes with the community. The wide community is a nutty bunch, but we are close knit. We share the discovery, pain, and love of climbing in cracks that most people think are awful. We spray on the internet, we meet up for events (see Balchfest TR on Supertopo.com), we share valley giants, and help each other train. I would never have found Cream without the help of some old-school Yosemite crushers. I wouldn’t know how do a “wide pony” without the help of an invert guru. And I would not have gotten to the offwidth part of the climb without literally standing on a girl friend's shoulders to reach the first hold on Mental Block. Our shoulders may be scabbed, but they are willing to share the load.


And then you find yourself on the Scotty Burke offwidth thousands of feet up El Capitan and the fear melts away. Your body knows what to do, you have just enough gear, and you trust your partner completely. This is when the love truly comes though and that small section of rock climbing is the most glorious pitch you will ever do. Well, at least for now...


I have yet to get out on a pitch of offwidth since having my daughter, but soon enough. It will be a different experience with hopefully less run-outs and heavier racks. I did get a custom-made #8 at my baby shower. Got to use it!

neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Apr 24, 2017 - 03:11pm PT
hey there say, christina... wow, what a neat share...

just dropped by... am busy working in house and yard, but will read more
later... very nice and fun to read!

thank you for sharing...


edit:

oh, by the way... i LOVE stuff about how folks start off, get mentored, etc,
whether in climbing, dance, singing, music, or language, etc...

:)
Stephen McCabe

Trad climber
near Santa Cruz, CA
Apr 24, 2017 - 03:52pm PT
Great post. Climb the wide with pride!
Studly

Trad climber
WA
Apr 24, 2017 - 03:55pm PT
Inspiring!
caughtinside

Social climber
Oakland, CA
Apr 24, 2017 - 04:19pm PT
Great story and photos Christina!
rick sumner

Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
Apr 24, 2017 - 04:56pm PT
Beautiful story and pics and a beautiful baby you have there.
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
Apr 24, 2017 - 05:09pm PT
So this is a forum to share, if you want, your genesis.

The details of my origin story are quite inconsequential.

Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving slab climber from Joshua Tree with low grade backpacking tendencies and a penchant for fisheries. My mother was a fifteen year old finger crack abuser named Chloe with clawed feet. My father would go to Yosemite, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the RURP. Some times he would accuse SAR of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.

My childhood was typical, summers in Tuolumne, Mammoth Ski lessons. In the spring we'd make black diamond helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a squeeze chimney and given penalty slack, pretty standard stuff really.

At the age of 12 I received my first gobie scabs. At the age of fourteen, a hippy named Vilma ritualistically dragged me up El Cap. There really is nothing like an aid fall, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

:)
SC seagoat

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
Apr 24, 2017 - 05:38pm PT
What a beautiful share...and a baby to boot!


Susan
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Apr 24, 2017 - 05:57pm PT
Way cool - thanks for sharing!
Good to see that you enjoyed Alexander Cooper's site monsteroffwidth.com, too.
steelmnkey

climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
Apr 24, 2017 - 06:12pm PT
Breath of fresh air. Bravo!
Passion is the mother of intention!
Easy Wind

Trad climber
Oakland, California
Apr 24, 2017 - 07:41pm PT
Go Christina Go!
mtnyoung

Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
Apr 24, 2017 - 08:15pm PT
A daughter? That's just fantastic;)

Oh, and the climbing story was really, really nice too. Inspiring!
slobmonster

Trad climber
SF (via NH & CO)
Apr 24, 2017 - 08:34pm PT
Solid. Nice one Christina.

(Hope to see you and Dan the Man soon. And Hattie too.)
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Apr 24, 2017 - 08:45pm PT
I don't know much about offwidths, but I know a lot about raising babies. I think offwidths are probably easier, but, when you look back from far in the future, I think you'll agree that raising babies is more rewarding.

And then there's the whole superhero thing. As far as I know, I'm one of the only two genuine Superheros on Supertopo. You want to know about that, you have to go to: http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Climbers-save-their-country-Yes-this-is-damn-on-topic/t11830n.html

Thanks for posting. Reminds me of what is really important in life (babies, not offwidths).
mtnyoung

Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
Apr 25, 2017 - 03:10pm PT

... but, when you look back from far in the future, I think you'll agree that raising babies is more rewarding.

It sounds like she's set her life up in a way that, far in the future, she'll feel that kids and offwidths were both very rewarding :)

NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Apr 25, 2017 - 03:44pm PT
Beautiful!

I got the empathetic grating/shooting pain in my ankle bones while reading parts. That moment of just taking a deep breath and waiting for the pain peak to subside.
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Apr 25, 2017 - 04:27pm PT
With all due respect, on Ahab you've got an index finger hooked on a crab, which is an aid point.
Nah, her finger is just orienting the biner and making sure it is reachable, so she can make the clip.
I doubt she's weighting it. With a knee in, she doesn't need to hold the biner to keep from falling backward.

On sport clips, the normal way is to hold the rope in one hand, and put one finger of that hand in the biner with enough weight to hold the biner still, while pushing the rope in.
Would this be aid in your view?
phylp

Trad climber
Upland, CA
Apr 25, 2017 - 07:26pm PT
Christina, what a great story!
And what a beautiful baby! Congratulations!

My origin story is pretty simple:
I went out on a date with this guy who was working in the lab across the hall from me. He told me he was a climber. I had no idea what that was. He offered to take me climbing. So the next weekend we went up to North Conway and he borrowed me a harness and shoes from EMS (he was guiding for them on the weekends sometimes).

We did an easy slab route on Whitehorse Ledge. I ran up it and loved it! After that, the guy and I stayed together happily ever after, and he taught me to climb. A year after we met, we moved to Palo Alto and I met a bunch of other climbers at Stanford, many of whom have remained friends to this day. I've never stopped climbing.
Ksolem

Trad climber
Monrovia, California
Apr 25, 2017 - 10:23pm PT
On the one hand you could play middle C on the cam sling there.

On the other she says "having another go."

F'cking give her a break dude.

I'm thrilled that someone wants to do all that wide stuff, and is good at it. Takes it off my list. Looks horrendous. If I can crimp, or get my thin little tips in it, or use the thinnest of feet I'm as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine. Steep is cool too. But that wide stuff takes a real woman.
Bushman

climber
The state of quantum flux
Apr 26, 2017 - 11:21am PT
Once a Doo Doo Head, always a ...
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