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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 21, 2008 - 12:32pm PT
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mcreel,
In 1987 just after you went up there, our first time up the "good stuff" on DNB, we rapelled Paradise Lost, specifically to beef up those anchors. We added either a quarter inch taper lock or a 5/16" split shaft to each station (kind of a minimal job); -- so you should be good to go, ha!
... then a few days later, we climbed Paradise Lost with decent anchors.
Although the DNB does change in character and quality at mid-height, it's always nice to get full value and top out on stuff, but come to think of it, mostly top out, I think most parties go left on the catwalk anyway right?
I think that when we did North Buttress we kept on going straight up to the top.
My recollection of the first half of the DNB, having done those pitches twice and having done the upper pitches once, is that the intricate climbing on the first half, with a nice mixture of naturally protected face, switching back and forth through folds of clean granite -- all that was pretty sweet stuff.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona, Spain
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Apr 21, 2008 - 12:56pm PT
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Yup, if you don't like that, you don't like rock climbin'.
edit: placing 5/16" bolts is no favor to anyone! I did it myself. Charles Cole will certainly do some time paying for that in the future. But 5.10 rubber is great.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 21, 2008 - 01:16pm PT
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Hahaha,
No doubt mcreel.
By modern standards yes; but back in the day, those 5/16" things were beefy and much preferred to the rusty death anchors that were in place at the time on Paradise Lost and elsewhere...
Nevertheless, I think it was actually the quarter-inch taper locks that I used on Paradise lost and I think I remember that jammed knot you're talking about; man that was mank. Right about that time I got pretty good punching in 3/8 as well --and switched over.
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yo
climber
The Eye of the Snail
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Apr 21, 2008 - 01:20pm PT
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clustiere, you get on it or what?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 21, 2008 - 01:23pm PT
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So, Clint,
Per the Ho Chi Minh Trail --
I recall Mark Chapman? had been working on an alternate finish to the upper bit of the DNB, heading out right toward/onto the thirsty spire; is that pretty much what the Ho Chi Minh Trail wound up becoming?
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona, Spain
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Apr 21, 2008 - 01:47pm PT
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I have to say that the 5/16" bolt is certainly worth a 500 post or so wank-fest. I guess that it must have seemed great to people placing bolts in the Valley, but for softer rock it was a great PITA. (wasn't this thing tested in Josh!) Here you were, without money, but trying to put up good routes. You spend a bit more on a stainless steel bolt with a bigger diameter that takes about twice as long to drill, and when you pound the damn thing in it craters the rock all to hell. It was enough to drive you to rap bolting and putting in 3/8" Rawl long lifes, with a Makita. I also did that. Looking back, I'm a lot happier with leaving some decent bolts rather than some eyesore pieces 'o sh#t that are probably not safe by now.
But I also think that overbolting and eating up the adventure for the future generations are problems. This climbing and posting business is so complicated. Vy can't ve chust all play some poker?!
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Apr 21, 2008 - 02:36pm PT
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The DNB is like mountain climbing - the rock will not always be mint, but the adventure is usually high.
JL
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Apr 21, 2008 - 02:41pm PT
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That's good enough for me.
Damn, now I want to do the thing again!!
Royster and I had a ball up there. I wouldn't get up it in the same good time right now....ahhhh age, ain't it great?
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Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
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Apr 21, 2008 - 03:09pm PT
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wes, clint,
the way i recall that 3rd pitch, is more like what wes remembers, although i followed it. i am 5-5 and the crux comes well before the bolts, as you exit the top of that corner moving up and left. if you are taller you just reach through to a semi-jug, otherwise it's a difficult pinch/match/barndoor thing w/ serious fall potential back into that corner. the climbing at the bolts is easier to the point of being humorous.
i was glad to 2nd that pitch, but i did have some excitement up higher where being short is again a disadvantage- what pitch is that where you reach up from the off angle undercling to the scoopy ledge? you are looking down at least a body length from your feet to some marginal gear, over what would be a really bad fall even if it holds you, and i had to dyno it- of course my partner (same height but better climber) did it static on TR from a slightly higher foot, one which i was unable to commit to in light of the consequences.
good route, we got lost transitioning to the turret (p11 or 12?) and after wasting an hour we decided to rap from there (left only 2 runners and a single biner because we had twin 60s). still look fwd to returning and finishing it up.
did the catwalk in the dark after a late start on the north buttress- it's no big deal for a climber capeable of getting there.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 21, 2008 - 04:07pm PT
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mcreel,
There are good rappel anchors to at least p5 of the DNB now (and I think to p6, but I don't remember exactly - I don't usually go that way).
Good chain anchors were added at the end of p5 and atop the p2 pillar sometime in the late 80s/early 90s.
Before that, the anchor atop p5 was an old fixed baby angle and fixed wired nut, which was kinda scary with
p6 starting right off on runout 5.9. In the early 90s, I placed a 5/16" bolt to back up the belay at the end of p3, which was
formerly 2 low fixed pins and some wired nuts.
On that May 2006 trip in the photos above, I added a new bolt/chain anchor to ledge at the end of p7 of the Ho,
where it branches right from the DNB, and replaced the bad bolt on p8 (pitch numbers on the topo; it's easy
to link p6 and p7 with a 60m rope; also p8 and p9).
I found the 5/16" bolts frustrating as well. Apparently it was undersized bits, or maybe a soft rock
problem like you mentioned. The 5/16" bolts on p2 of Perfect Vision are some of the ugliest bolts
people have ever seen. We had to really swing the hammer intensely hard to get the bolt in far enough
to make the hanger flush with the rock. So we ended up hitting the SMC hangers a few times in the
process and the dings are not nice to see. Those bolts are not going to come out easily, either (that
could be good or bad). As a result, Joel bought a Bosch so we could put in better bolts the rest of
the way. Then arguments about bolting next to gear placements, bolting on lead or on rappel, etc.
ensued, unfortunately.
Roy,
I also remember reading that somebody tried an extension out right of the regular DNB finish, but
I couldn't find the source when I went looking. We didn't see much evidence of other people
on those Ho pitches, after the first 2. On those first 2, there was an old Lost Arrow left of where the Ho
eventually went, a pin at the ledge at end of p7, and another at the ledge ending p9. The pitons were
pretty old, and I wonder if that was the original aid line of the DNB. Of course, people could have been free climbing out
there and not left any signs - there are lots of cracks for pro.
weschrist,
Yes, maybe you missed that bolt - it could have been slightly hidden by the mantle hold?
Matt,
Yes, at 5'5", that reachy move leaving the corner on p3 would be way desperate. I can barely
reach the hold, and I'm 6'. I tend to sketch a little on the 5.9 mantle above it, too.
If the route were done as a FA nowadays, there would probably be a bolt right at that 5.9 mantle and
we would probably hardly remember it except for the reach below.... Fortunately doing that section
is within the range of people who are up there to do the rest of the climb.
> what pitch is that where you reach up from the off angle undercling to the scoopy ledge?
you are looking down at least a body length from your feet to some marginal gear, over what would be a really bad fall even if it holds you, and i had to dyno it
p8 of the Ho, with the 5.10c move on the topo. You can get some small cams and tiny nuts there, and there is a fixed pin
which is tantalizingly out of reach, even for me. On the FA, there was a 1' detached flake on the right which I could
stand on to reach up and clip the pin. That flake has since disappeared. In 2006 there was a fixed nut that I didn't trust,
and I ended up just grabbing gear and pulling up to clip the fixed pin before trying the move. I will add another fixed pin there which
is clippable the next time I'm up there (assuming a pin fits well there). I also need to go up and replace the 1/4" Taperbolt
that protects the crux move on p10.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Modesto
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Apr 21, 2008 - 06:08pm PT
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geeze, if you bail after the first pitches you didn't do the DNB. It is one of the true classics of Valley climbing.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Apr 22, 2008 - 12:43am PT
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You didn't like the DNB? Why are you even in Yosemite Valley? Try Williamson next time, or maybe any gym.
Whiners.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Apr 22, 2008 - 11:57am PT
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"geeze, if you bail after the first pitches you didn't do the DNB. It is one of the true classics of Valley climbing."
And if you bail after Freeblast then you haven't done the Salathe wall, another true classic.
Cheers
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 22, 2008 - 12:10pm PT
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Word up!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 22, 2008 - 12:19pm PT
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"I'm notorius for missing stuff."
Now there's a headstone vignette for ya! LOL
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SteveW
Trad climber
State of confusion
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Apr 22, 2008 - 02:23pm PT
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People knocking the DNB? I remember how amazed most of
us were in 1977 at the news that Charlie Fowler had
free soloed it. Still a pretty radical accomplishment!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Apr 22, 2008 - 03:20pm PT
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Must do the whole route......
If'n you don't, as they used to say in valley vernacular,
"Yer waay light!"
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Apr 22, 2008 - 05:42pm PT
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First pitch of the DNB, the world's hardest 5.7. Rude way to start the day, I say.
The exit out of the corner on the 3rd is way scary to lead for us shorties. But I've found a nice intermediate ;-)
On the mantle: I've done it always from the left and indeed it seems 5.11. I can't figure out the mantle straight on so I can't imagine it's 10b but I sure could be wrong.
The first couple of times I hit that, I was perplexed. I'm very weak at mantling, so it was A0 for me. Then I found the secret beta, and indeed I think it's .10b. Done it thrice that way.
Gotta watch out for one of those belays, above which is some run 5.9 face (the stuff Karl mentions perhaps?). It might have been from here that two folks ripped their anchors a few years back.
I love Middle, and I love the first part of the DNB (I've got to go back and finish them chimneys though ;-). But, I did find my way up the Ho Chi Mhin. After three tries (but that's another story). Awesome climbing, that is.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Apr 23, 2008 - 02:31pm PT
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An alternative descent to the Cathedral Chimney is to go up around the summit of Higher Cathedral Rock and down the spires gully. No snow, no rockfall. From the highest notch several hundred feet of third lead to one 5.6 pitch in what I remember as white rock.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Apr 23, 2008 - 02:51pm PT
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After doing the North Buttress (not the DNB), I also hiked up and over the top of higher. And I would use this descent again. It seems a long way to go, but it is easy hiking. No gulley descent, no catwalk, and no dropping loose rocks on to the climbers hanging out around Central Pillar.
Oh, and I thought the North Buttress was a fun route. The slab/pinnacle at the start is a little vegetated, but no biggie and it is pretty fun after that. A little dirty/loose from lack of traffic (has the feel of a great Sierra route--except for the traffic noise--with a mellow approach/descent).
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