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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Incredibly nice photos Jerry! Very beautiful stuff...thanx for sharing.
Film or digital, might I ask?
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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Awe shucks guys. blush
All film. (This was in '99...) Mostly Fuji Velvia 50 and some E100VS. I was nervous that nothing was coming out. Bracketed a lot, shot about 55 rolls of 36. The camera, a burly Nikon N90s broke on the drive home. Shutter jammed open. Too much sand in it. Didn't have a backup.
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Mimi
climber
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Great pics and story Jerry. What a wild looking route. Thanks for taking the time to post em up.
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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Terrific photos and nice writeup. Thanks for sharing.
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slayton
Trad climber
Morongo Valley, Ca
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Some absolutely stunning photographs. Actaully makes it look like fun.
Thanks for sharing.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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A nice TR! Is the climb anywhere near where Sushi Fest will be? I'm quite weak on the geography of that part of the world.
A wise old climber once observed that climbing is simply applied Newtonian physics, which in turn is firmly rooted in geometry.
Speaking of which, how does the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle apply to these situations?
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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thanks jerry for all the great photos!
ill chime in some stories:
As luke finished pitch 4 , I almost got the chop. I belayed on the left side of a 3' x 1' ledge. When he finished the pitch, i took him off belay and moved to the right side of the ledge. A few minutes later, as he was pulling up lead rope, i looked up as a tv-sized block came ripping down and impacted within a foot of me. It erased the part of the ledge i had been standing on just minutes before... i mean how often do you hear of a belay ledge getting vaporized before your eyes?!! Luke didn't knock anything off and never knew it happened... which means just pulling up the rope must of dislodged the big block. Anyway, had i not moved to the right side of the ledge when i had, i would not have just been dead, i would have been and unrecognizable heap...
but i was really glad luke led that pitch. it was one of those chimney pitches that had nailing so you had to bring all the iron and just thrash. typical zion route: you have to earn the amazing pitches with a few no so amazing ones.
pitch 5 was amazing. placed so many small blades that i had to back clean a few times. the wall gently overhung and i was so unsure about the quality of the blades and beaks i stayed in the third step and never got into my second step. but amazing pitch i think that pitch took something like 15 beaks and 25 blades.
luke's pitch was an amazing 200 foot blade and beak pitch to finish the awesome Dreamcatcher pillar/headwall.
The next pitch "changing latitudes" took me forever because i tried to get creative. I tried equalized two rurps under a roof. after 30 minutes of work i tested the pieces and they blew. then did the cool hook move that jerry got a few pictures of. the edge was out of reach so i extended my daisy with a quick draw, put on the hook, then slid the hook up with the top of my hammer. i asked jerry how it looked. he thought it was ok so i climbed up on it. it was the worst hook placement i had ever stood on: a downlsloping sandstone edge. i dont know how the hook held. it was the type of hook i would have never stood on had i actually seen the placement. jerry must have just wanted a falling shot.
overall it was cool to have jerry dangling there. i think at one point jerry almost had a rope cut through? jerry? how many feet did you jumar to shoot that route?
That tsunami pitch (cover of the book) was definitely the coolest top out of any big wall i have done. off the last bolt, you can topstep and just grab the giant jug at lip. you then have to hang from one arm, Stalone/Cliffhanger style, and unclip from you daisies and aiders, then match hands, throw up a foot and do a 5.9 mantel onto a flat ledge where you can instantly unrope.
my only regret from that tsunami pitch was having my white socks pulled up so high. jerry, where was your fashion advice when i needed it!? photoshop?
luke gets all the credit for finding the line. i just showed up and he had it all worked out. i still dont know how he saw that 400-foot seam on the "dreamcatcher."
also, the route was called los banditos cuz some bandits stole some sleeping bags and gear from jerry and crew at their campground.
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Fluoride
Trad climber
California somewhere
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Christ Jerry, those are some stunning pics! Thanks for taking the time to post & share 'em.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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Hah. Yeah, it was almost named Agent Orange because of the defoliating gas caused by a batch of rice and beans that Chris consumed throughout the ascent.
I forgot about the ledge incident. I'll scan a shot of Luke in the chimney. You can see the hanging blocks-o-death right at the top.
This thing was steep and scary to rap off. When I came off the lip of the Tsunami it was about 350 feet before I touched the wall. Damn that was scary. I couldn't stop thinking about the sharp edge at the top. Then when I lowered over another huge roof I was way out in space from the Dream Catcher. That whole photo set was shot spinning in space. Somehow I got a big swing going and spent several hours kicking off the wall, shooting at the apex of the enormous swing. It was amazing. The light came out real nice too. Meanwhile, my rope was slightly rubbing on the smooth wall. When I jugged back up my ascenders shreaded the sheath. Somehow I didn't notice until I stopped to rest and saw this big white ball of stuff on the rope below me. I was like, "What's THAT?!" I pulled it up, tied it out in a butterfly knot, and tried to block it out of my mind. Used a lot more duct tape and hose to shield the rope after that.
Still looking for the black mail shots. They are here somewhere.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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That was an ugly pitch. The next one was bad also, but a different kind of bad...
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More Air
Big Wall climber
S.L.C.
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Yes! no Zion wall adventure is complete without some loose rock! Fantastic trip report!
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Fluoride
Trad climber
California somewhere
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Hey marty, out of curiousity what school district/grade level uses that book?
If I had a math book with an awesome cover like that one, I might have taken math more seriously haha!
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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Beautiful series, Jerry. Truly.
I don't think most people realize just how much hard work it is when we go out on a climbing shoot, especially on a wall. I usually feel the same - I'd rather be just climbing. But at the end of the day, when going through the shots, it's all worth it.
Cheers!
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blankslate
Trad climber
brooklyn
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hey is there a SuperTopo book in the works that covers Zion???
it looks like topos of yosemite are pretty well covered, but what about people who want to cut their teeth in Zion doing clean aid?
thanks for any info...
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L
climber
The City of Lost Angels
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Jeez Jerry--This thread is just getting better and better! With a forum sadly lacking in TRs at the moment, your beautiful photos are keeping us all high in more ways than one.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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Glad you guys enjoy this. As Nefarius said, it's an amazing amount of work and effort to get these shots. To me it was just wild rapping down off a virgin wall to get photos. Very different than dropping off a popular route in the Valley.
Chris, what ever happened to Luke? Ever hear from him? Didn't he turn into a porn star or something?
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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nice stuff.
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coldclimb
climber
Wasilla, Alaska
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Awesome shots for sure, makes me desperate to go back. Thanks for sharing!
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SARgeek
Social climber
Sebastopol, CA
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Jerry, beautiful shots of a stunning route. The top out is incredible. I know Chirs Mac from a long time gone when he was young spud on the SAR team in Marin. It is fun to see him living his dream.
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