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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Feb 23, 2008 - 01:05pm PT
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I've been lusting at that Planaria feature for years. It just speaks to you.
Too high an admission cost though and you just had to wonder "why only one or two unrepeated routes on that wall?:
Wonder what the next wall to suddenly get interest? Will we ever get around to Panorama Cliff?
Peace
Karl
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2008 - 01:45pm PT
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Here’s a link to the Obscurities pdf that includes topos for When Hell Was in Session, Strange World, and Sargantana:
http://www.supertopo.com/topos/yosemite/obscurities.pdf
Klaus and I never released a topo for Sky is Falling.
Aaron, you certainly are determined! Hey, did you climb to the right of “The Hand” and behind it, or to the left and outside of it? Eric climbed to the left, onto the features shown in the topo.
Yeah, the “Right or Flight” pitch was pretty cool. I remember when Eric was cleaning it and got to the last circlehead before the hooking section. He had to commit to the #2 circlehead and then lower-off of it. If it blew, he was going into the ramp. I assured him that it was bomber… :)
You hooked GRASS??? LOL!!! Damn!! That pitch was kind of groveler, aye?
Don’t worry about missing that bat-hook – I’m not. That should be yet another lesson to first ascentionists that drilling bat-hook holes on totally blank rock is just dumb.
Klaus had the descent wired because Epperson figured it all out to get his photo gear up to the top of the wall in ’95 to shoot Klaus and Pete. We made it down pretty easily, both times.
Great pics, Klaus! Got more?
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2008 - 02:20pm PT
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This is “Agent Orange”, pitch 9 of Strange World, Eric George cleaning. I loved this pitch – favorite of all time. We were going to try some weird cam-on-the-end-of-a-cheater-stick to get the first placement, but it didn’t work. So I went left instead and made a huge reach back right, to get into the main corner. This pitch ate up a bunch of thin to medium pins and beaks. There is a horizontal wide crack to the right of Eric (climber's right) in the above photo. This must be the area with solution pockets that you referred to, Aaron. I remember taking a lunch break on a beak, before the wide section, and called down for the wide cams and an OE. I choked down half of a Clif bar and slammed the OE. Woohoo, nothing like a little refreshment in the middle of an all-day lead! I climbed up to the wide crack, buzzed and feeling like I owned the world. To my surprise, the crack was filled with several cool minerals – epidote, tourmaline, and a bunch of pink feldspar. The geologist in me was psyched to see such cool stuff in the middle of a wall and I was hooting and hollerin’ like I was flying on the moon. That was so great!
The last section of the pitch was a little tricky – a bunch of #2 and #3 heads that were awkward to place and then a big reach to the right, to slot a #3 head into the bottom of a flake that was slightly expanding. The next placement was an aluminum #2 head that I pounded into a wedge-shape before carefully slotting it above. It held! I then enhanced a #2 placement (the crack blanked out here) and then got a beak, a rurp, and then more beaks. I got to a logical spot for a belay under a series of roofs and called down for the bolt kit, while hanging from another beak. The tag line and the bolt kit seemed really heavy and I was a little worried that the beak would pop with the additional weight. But I was so exhausted and my brain was so numb that it didn’t really matter. I was cooked and just wanted to open another beer and get the belay finished so that I could start hauling. It’s days like these that make getting into your portaledge so nice!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Feb 23, 2008 - 02:40pm PT
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not that I have any business being up there but I did notice the sublety
"released"
;)
killer thread and pics bump
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Feb 23, 2008 - 03:43pm PT
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extracted from obscurities.pdf for easier viewing here:
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Feb 23, 2008 - 04:07pm PT
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Eric and Brian are the yosemite wall care takers!
you are a big inspiration to me.
so let's have a safety session.
thanks for the pic's
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aaronj
Big Wall climber
injured reserve
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Feb 23, 2008 - 04:33pm PT
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sweet agent orange pic! porcelain is by far the most beautiful wall in the park. so many colors on a STEEP white wall.
i went right and behind the hand. i bootied your nut on this pitch. i saw once on the thumb that it was way better to go left. hard pitch for me and f*#king painful.
i bootied that nut, a river hanger, and a goofy KB painted purple with your initials on the secong pitch.
agent orange was awesome. to think about it though every pitch had something rad. except for the lawnmower which blows. RUNNING with water, slime filled my boots and my hands were pruny by the end of the lead.
i totally forgot about trundling on my stuff nick! dave filmed me do that penji and dropped my cam hook on him, not that any uses that crap anyway. then i trundled, for my own safety of course, that flake and it totally hit my bags out on the haul line below me. i almost core shot the line! totally worth it.
that wall was a blast. tons of ledge time due to storms. i had 20 days of storms out of 50 wall days in 2006. but i starting climbing walls in february with the straw so i guess thats what you get!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Feb 23, 2008 - 06:50pm PT
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Klaus,
Here's my best guess on an overlay photo, using the topos:
Probably better to draw them in yourself! Here's a cropped version of Nicola's photo:
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Feb 24, 2008 - 01:52pm PT
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Really nice thread fellas,
You don't see up close and personal shots of the Porcelain too often, if at all.
Thanks for the cool Supertopo rarity.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Feb 24, 2008 - 02:52pm PT
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Wow! Nick's blog is fantastic! Tons and tons of Yosemite climbing photos. And the Porcelain video is definitely worth watching.
So what's the best time of year to climb Porcelain Wall? I guess the trick is to make sure you can get snowmelt, to avoid bringing up water - is that what you guys did? If you had to choose an approximate time of year to climb, after the weather has warmed up in the spring-summer but before the snow has melted, when would you go?
Kate! Are you paying attention here? Despite always having loved the look of that yellow Planarian, I'm kinda thinking "orange" might be the colour of choice...
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Stanley Hassinger
climber
Eastern US
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Feb 24, 2008 - 03:40pm PT
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Pete,
How did you get to Nick's blog? Clicking on the link only took me to the photo.
SH
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Feb 24, 2008 - 05:30pm PT
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Try this, Stan. Got it from Bryan's first post:
http://www.nicolamartinez.blogspot.com
It's quite huge with lots of photos, and could take a while to load. Hey Nick, can you not bust it up into pages?
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nicolamartinez
Big Wall climber
Brazil
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Feb 24, 2008 - 07:52pm PT
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Hey Pete, thank´s for the comments on the blogsite and I wish I had the knowlege to do it, But I don´t do really good with this type of stuff, I´ll get someone to help me out at some point though. I think the best time to be up there is around april/may, there is still snow around the weather starts getting better... I have to thank my brother Dave Turner a lot, cause he always inspired me and got me psyked on a new adventure... When he climbed the Reticent I did Mescalito, when he climbed Tempest I did the Sea with Scottie Vincik, ( that´s when he got caught on that big storm and had to stay for 5 days on his ledge a pitch and a half from the summit ), my first wall pushes, Zodiac ( Dave Nick and Walt ) and NA ( Rich, Eric Sloan, Walt and Dave ), when I did Tempest the was putting ou Atlantis... Lot´s of good memories and respect for the man. He put up a beautiful line up there, "House of Cards" with his friend Matt. Worth checking it out, no second ascents yet... Hope you´re all doing good, I´ll be back in april for some more... Peace. Nick
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Stanley Hassinger
climber
Eastern US
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Feb 24, 2008 - 08:46pm PT
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Thanks, Pete. Great blog, Nick! Loved the pictures.
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nicolamartinez
Big Wall climber
Brazil
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Feb 24, 2008 - 09:08pm PT
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One more day inside my ledge, hooking pitch was fixed and another storm rolled in... The only big ledge on the headwall, it´s like a big avenue... Diving board on the background
Peace
N
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Feb 24, 2008 - 10:07pm PT
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Thanks, Nick. Dave is a great source of inspiration, isn't he? When I'm up on the wall, I frequently hear him on the radio - also up on the wall - giving advice and beta to the wannabe's on the ground.
Dave: "So look, it's gonna take you longer than you think, but no worries. Grab yourself a few extra cans of ravioli and a couple extra gallons of water, and go send!"
April or May up at Porcelain? Brrrrrr.......
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Gagner
climber
Boulder
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Feb 25, 2008 - 10:55am PT
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Bill Crouse and I did the 2nd ascent of the Luminescent Wall in 1989, I think that was the year. In my opinion walls are like real estate -location, location, location. And the Porcelain Wall is in a very, very cool location - great views of Half Dome from the side, and the rest of the upper valley. Also, topping out is interesting - the wall goes from overhanging to kicked back in the other direction - fun to haul the last pitch.
Paul
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Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 25, 2008 - 12:35pm PT
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Well…… So much for the wall of no second ascents until 2006!!! Thanks for posting, Paul.
More photos to follow at some point here…
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nicolamartinez
Big Wall climber
Brazil
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Feb 26, 2008 - 02:44pm PT
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This photo was taken when I was on the top of th Planaria feature... The only wet part was where Dave was climbing. I don´t remember when we blasted, could you help me Aaron? It didn´t look like Klaus photo, but the wall drips in the morning... Peace. N
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Red = Luminescent Wall
Let us know!