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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Shuddup Todd.
Stance drillin' is for p#ssies!
Peace out, my nigaaa.
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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" The Beauty of It "....as Shipoopi and I used to refer to stancing. I was mentored by the best :
The Schneiderator 12c R, is to my knowledge the hardest stanced route in Yosemite! I drilled the first bolt - a 30 minute affair - 40 ft up - hideous stance under a roof. Used my head to push against roof in order to free up both hands. Steve's was even worse - 45 minutes and a 40 footer that I held on a waist belay! 4 more balancing act bolts over 2 days and the redpoint awaited.
Other stance highlights :
Kurt Smith on Grace Under Pressure 12a R/X
Bachar on Johnny Rock,One Armed Bandit, Body and Soul and The Believer
Stevie and Burke on the aforementioned Coup de Gras - what a line !!
Caunt & Settlemier on Omega Race and Murder by Numbers
My personal best - Testify on the Nazgul Wall -9 grueling screwtop shorties over 2 days
The majority of these routes are unrepeated !?!?
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A little desert action
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Miwok
climber
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Find Hook from stance.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap....
Placing bolt
smackin in a tied off and moving on..
Too many hook moves to a bolt (so scared I almost shook myself off the hook).
edit - I use to stance but now I'm to old to hang out that long on the toes.
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Greg Barnes
climber
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Nice pics folks!
aldude, that's quite the list of sick ground-up routes. But - just out of curiosity - are the particular drill stances that nasty? Seems like nasty drill stances and the hardest boldest routes would often not go together - once the runout got huge then it'd be too risky to try a super dicey stance.
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Hand drilling on the lead from stances aint' all that fun;...it's just another bad habit....(I wouldn't call it a lost art either;.....it's alive and well at many crags.....)
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MisterE
Social climber
My Inner Nut
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Aldude: Thanks for posting up. Excellent reporting. Lost arts are always inspirational, and make one re-assess current values.
Erik
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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Stance drilling is not dead if you keep it alive...
but beware because those routes will become museum climbs!
I care not what level of obscurity my routes have fallen into because i will never lose those memories and moments of fear and energy of getting that bolt in...
my biggest scare on the lead was second and only other bolt on "path of the pastor" @ whales back..sliding off the sloper stance 40' off the last bolt and 70 off the deck...
there were a lot of folks pushing it in the 80's and the rap bolting took the wind out of our sails but the memories and routes are still there...
ks
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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also go check out "general dynamics" to the right of the first pitch of the nose. Ducey taught me how to drill off a shitty copperhead on that one.. 5.13 as well so go get em gym rats!
just to the left is unfinished multi pitch unpinned scarred start to the nose- "duty now for the future"
ks
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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I've probably told this story before, but here it is again
(pardon the rambling...)
Toughest stance drilling story:
After CC3, Rusty Reno and I climbed the FA of the Deuceldyke (an unlikely looking 5.8) just to the right of Snake Dike, it became obvious that the dykes on Half Dome represented incredible potential.
The incredible twin dykes over on the left side of the South Face of Half Dome were Cole's vision, I could see that it was going to be a major effort, and, as I was gearing up for another big wall project of my own, I declined the invitation to join their team initially.
After some untold days, perhaps a week or so, Rusty and Cole had established 10 pitches of the right dyke (later to be named the Autobahn). They had been stopped where the dyke ended and an imposing roof loomed, and had made several attempts to climb around the roof to both to the left and the right. Finally, Rusty had to leave (he had a real job), and Cole recruited me to help finish the final pitches of the climb.
After a stellar morning swinging leads on the first 10 pitches,it was my lead, and Cole suggested the line to the left of the roof was the most likely candidate for success. I looked at it, and it looked like it would be an unaesthetic wandering finish to an otherwise spectacular direct line.
I looked up at the roof, and imagined a dark splotch above the roof as a bomber chickenhead. Cole was skeptical. After climbing tenuous moves above the belay, with one bolt for protection, a series of difficult undercling moves led me to the lip. The blotch was just that, a (blank) blotch, but I discovered an edge on the lip of the roof that if any of you are familiar with the Bates Problem on Columbia Boulder (B1), reminded me of a mini-version of that small toe hold which requires a semi-mantle move on that problem. The hold was about the width of a dime, and about the same in size (imagine a dime pasted on the wall, in other words).
Now, having the Bates Problem so wired that I could do it in a pair of Cole's original five-tennies was just the muscle memory I needed for this move. From the tenuous undercling, I put my foot on the dime edge, and mantle up with everything I had. The last bolt was only eight feet below, but the tumble that would have resulted from falling off a mantle move like this would have been grim because of the way the rope ran, it would have tripped me up and sent me backwards over the roof (and only wimps wore helmets in those days).
As I mantled up with all my might, I blindly reached up hoping for some sort of help from above, and miraculously, I found a small one-finger sidecling indent, just enough to give me the balance I need to complete the one-legged mantle. But that hold became useless once I was standing, and there were no other holds of any kind anywhere.
Although the remaining moves (which turned out to be 5.10a or so) to finish the pitch looked easy (the angle backed off a bit), I knew I needed a bolt to protect them. With only my right foot on the dime edge in this super-balancy position, I somehow managed to extract the drill out of my bag, then in ultra slow motion, grab the hammer, I started the bolt. I could only drill for a few moments before I had to slow-mo lower the drill, lower the hammer, and regain my balance, only to repeat the process about a gazilion times before I had enough hole drilled that I could actually count on the drill as a (extremely tenuous) point of balance. My right foot was all that was supporting me, and I was probably on that micro-hold about a half hour drilling that 1/4" 1 1/4" deep bolt (normally I could drill the same bolt in about 2 minutes). To actually place the bolt was another exercise in slow-mo dynamics to get the bolt, line it up with the hole, grab the hammer, and pound it in. By that time my right foot was burning in agony (as it had been within minutes of arriving at the spot).
We rated that pitch 5.11+ but it soon was considered solid 12a .
Definitely made all my other stance bolts seem easy in comparison!
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Have any of you guys ever skidded onto your drill and managed to get back on stance?
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the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
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sic story Duece4...
got any pics from that ascent?
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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I remember a few really desperate struggles to get in the bolts...
On Hairline, we were drilling 1/4 inch holes with the old rawl 3-edge bits. In the middle of the 5.9 moves it took us about 45 minutes to get each hole drilled.
On Temple Crag, (Planaria,) I had to use the knuckles of my drill-handle hand to undercling a knob to keep from pitching off backwards. Fortunately, by that time we had carbide tip bits, so the hole went in pretty quick.
Good pics! I have a few somewheres, but don't remember where.
Drilled three holes from stance on Friday. 3/8", but BIG stances.
Funny how a good, beefy bolt can go in 10 minutes or so at a casual pace when sitting or standing comfortable, but a smaller hole can take forever if ya have to keep adjusting your balance and repositioning your left foot on that tiny edge so as to not fall.
Brutus
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deuce4
Big Wall climber
the Southwest
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Yo, Kid-
no pics.
At the time, of course, you and Schnieder were known to be the true masters of stance drilling. Burning Down the House comes to mind.
heh, I remember walking around the base of El Cap and joining you guys when you were doing General Dynamics. Shitty coperhead? That thing was A1!!
cheers
ps Melissa, generally back in the day, you wouldn't really want to put too much weight on a 1/4" drill, known to snap fairly easily when loaded sideways depending on the brand. But generally there's a little help in the balance department when it's over 1/4" deep in the hole (before that, it would probably pop out if you put too much weight on it, say, in the case of a "slide").
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Of course, you wouldn't _want_ to slip onto the drill, but I thought someone might have a good story of getting away w/ it in a really precarious position.
I guess the other side of that question would be interesting too...Anyone ever take the feared tumbler halfway through a hole?
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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maybe Brooks or Kelly can speak to this, but isn't there a story of Pinns and the cut away feet and hanging from a hand drill and people yelling to jump because they were going to break the bit?
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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OK Lead Stance Hardman Goes to Greg Mayer(SP) and also Mike Tupper(both .13's), but speed bolting goes back to my bro Minerals, He's ok with a hammer on a construction job but with a bolt, or a pin he's a Phucking madman....
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piquaclimber
Trad climber
Durango
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Todd,
Captions my friend... Captions.... :)
What tower is that?
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