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mucci
Trad climber
sf ca
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 8, 2008 - 03:58pm PT
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October 7th 2007
Last fall Tyler and I decided to have a go at the Direct route on Washington Column. Once a popular route it has since faded and for good reason. We had no Topo, just the memory of the old description in Ropers green book. The direct garners a III 5.7 rating read "old school 5.7”. We started at around five in the afternoon.
The route started from the 3rd class ledge system that leads up to the line of demarcation splitting the arches and the column. Bulging puke starts to the left about 60 feet I think. I lead 3 200 ft wandering pitches with just a touch of 5.7, This brought us to a ledge with a tree we dubbed “Helper Monkey Ledge”. IT was dark and we had a monkey party at our perch hundreds of feet above the valley floor.
Pitch off of Helper Monkey Ledge leading to Lunch Ledge:
Morning, The wine is gone and climbing has to ensue! I lead up and left on chimneys and corners traversing to a bolt and hard offwidth I think is named “Offenbacher chimney”? The old book said it was 5.6, well as I soon learned Don’t take the book to heart. I make the Lunch Ledge and its around 9:00 am. Tyler wasted no time taking the next lead the notorious Fat man Chimney 5.7b. Toward the end of the grunting and the rope I hear “Slack, Take, F*#k, AHHH. He makes the belay. I follow with the Mini Pig on and have a brutal time. I notice the sporty runouts between the ancient pins and Thank god T led it. At the belay Tyler explains that the last pitch may well have been the hardest pitch he has ever lead. We laugh and I take the lead on the “Friction Step” Pitch, Starting by a tree on a large ledge I notice a big right facing corner, go for it and then back off of it moving further out and right to a tremendously exposed face/friction move into a crack, then 80 or so feet of loose rock to the belay.
All the while up to this point the rockfall was moderate. Rope drag was a constant problem and following pins and aiming for the Great Chimney was only working so well. Communication was non existant due to wind. This made the long wandering pitches difficult on both of us.
A few pitches that are blocked from my memory, read: SCARY! Voila, The Great Chimney. This was going to suck. T led the 1st pitch. A huge 6-foot Death Spike lay right under the start of the chimneying. T was apprehensive about the pro and so I told him I would tell him where to put it when he got there. No problem he says. 25 feet later I’m yelling purple Camelot, 6inches higher, yeah now push! First piece is in, now comes the pin and then squeeze technique.
The chockstone belay. Now That the famous picturesque first pitch of the Great Chimney was down it was my turn to lead the second. Steep, Loose and filled with ancient soft iron pitons. I commit to the kitty litter, wandering up this chute thinking; it’s not a Death chute, it’s not a Death chute.
Pitch 2 of the Great Chimney
I make it up to a very large tunnel made by a chockstone.
Then a 2nd class forest. Its now around five thirty, where has the time gone? T and I decide there is no way we are going to bivy on this route twice and begin the summit assault.
In the roper book it mentions the forest and that there are many options on exit pitches, all around 5.7. We take stock and decide “Were on the direct, may as well go directly to the summit. These last 3 or so pitches involved everything in the book and some 5.10. Finally, after T runs it out 75 feet on suspect rock in the dark He yells, “I see North dome”. Sweet, I take one look behind me and see the campfires 1800ft below and think “Grade III 5.7 my ass”. We topped out. No idea how many pitches, beat up worse than the grade V we had done together and all alone on the Column’s summit.
A huge bonfire and much ranting to folks on the RNWF of half dome and we were asleep.
This was a fantastic chimney fest and definitely much harder than the Royal Arches route. 16 or so odd pitches with its fair share of bad rock. Read: A must Do!
Peace Mucci
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mucci
Trad climber
sf ca
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Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2008 - 04:18pm PT
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sorry bout the size I'll do better next time
mucci
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mucci
Trad climber
sf ca
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Topic Author's Reply - May 8, 2008 - 04:30pm PT
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it wasnt that big but gave us warmth and energy for the jingus descent. Thats another story!
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Nice! I especially like the impeccable route-finding logic: “Were on the direct, may as well go directly to the summit."
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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wow, great TR mucci, go on you guys!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Great trip report! Thanks for sharing.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Yeah, with no topo, you arrive in that clearing just below the exit pitches and it's like "Let's make a deal, choose a crack"
Except they all look hard! (Maybe one isn't but having done the route twice, I haven't found the 5.7 way out yet)
I seem to remember a downclimb down a slab near a big tree and around the corner to the outerface sometime before the great chimney.
PEace
Karl
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Here's a version of your topo with the belay numbers cleaned up:
Is this overlay close?
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murcy
climber
San Fran Cisco
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that looks like so much fun. thanks for the tr and topo!
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GoMZ
Trad climber
Eastern Sierra
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Awesome! Thanks for posting
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mucci
Trad climber
sf ca
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Topic Author's Reply - May 9, 2008 - 02:01am PT
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hey clint nice job on the red line! At pitch 6 on the topo we broke up and right a few hundred feet to the 1st 3rd class forest and the start of the G Chimney. I am pretty sure it is easily recognizable from curry. Your line seems more direct but hey its a big face. The whole climb seemed like up and right after pitch 6. We followed pins on almost every pitch but there are ALOT of variations that look killer all the way up so It was tough. Roper got it right
Karl I read your tr before we rocked this thing and YOu summed it up perfectly, nice work , next time hit up the Helper monkey hotel!
mucci-
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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mucci,
This report is so cool. thanks,
There will be lines on it this weekend for sure.
Z
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lars johansen
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Thanks for the memories. I did this route 30 years ago with Mark Stockhus. I remember a suitcase size block at the top of the first belay in the Great Chimney. It seemed ready to go. Was it still there? Also remember old ring angle pins in the back of the fat mans chimney. I hope they are still there for all to appreciate.
Best
lars
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F10 Climber F11 Drinker
Trad climber
medicated and flat on my back
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Cool TR, I remember always looking at the route in the green Roper guide and thinking that would be fun but never got around to it. guess I should have,it's never to late
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Thanks for the adventure TR. I used to do this route all the time back in the sixties and seventies, usually unroped with North Dome South face. I actually did it again with Inez Drixelius back around 1999.
Your Offenbacher chimney is actually called Reigelhuth Chimney (after the climber of that name) and isn't really a chimney but multiple cracks. Another point, Instead of Fat Man Chimney, you can go slightly right at that point to gain Charlie Brown Chimney which is 5.8. It has a slightly shifty chockstone it. This variation is much more interesting and is on great rock, especially compared to Fat Man which is coarse, granulated and bottomed out. Lastly there is a really cool easy unobvious way out after the "2nd class" forest at the top, RR and I did it once but before then and every since then I have taken the other 3 options, since I could not remember RR's trick.
Best PH
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Very nice TR! I've always wanted to do this route
just for the adventure. Thanks for the topo! I
cleaned up your topo for use later. Hope you don't
mind. Here's the version I redrew...
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L
climber
The salty ocean blue and deep
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May 10, 2008 - 12:02am PT
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mucci,
You had me laughing and cringing the whole way up.
Thanks for the great entertainment!
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WBraun
climber
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May 13, 2008 - 09:39pm PT
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I remember onsight free soloing this route one winter day in the month of February. Higher up on the route I became bored with the climbing and continued to harder terrain.
It then became more and more sporty and thus I became happy.
I never have seen a topo for this thing, I just looked at the wall and eyeballed it and went.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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May 13, 2008 - 10:22pm PT
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Yes, good times!
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
Vacaville Ca,
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May 13, 2008 - 10:31pm PT
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Hey Steelmnky, what program did you use to draw that topo on? Just curious, I like it.
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ct
climber
CO
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May 13, 2008 - 11:01pm PT
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Very proud. Thanks for posting up your adventure.
Karl, I resonate with the piece you wrote on this climb. I've read it several times, and the photos here make the retelling all the more vivid.
Cheers, gentlemen.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Feb 15, 2009 - 01:42am PT
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bump
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
pads are for girls
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Feb 15, 2009 - 03:37am PT
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WBraun :
" I remember onsight free soloing this route one winter day in the month of February . . . I just looked at the wall , eyeballed it and went . " ( my edit )
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Feb 15, 2009 - 12:00pm PT
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Good TR both Mucci and karl. This one just got taken off my "to do" list for some reason i don't think I'm going to get around to it.
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Al_T.Tude
Trad climber
Monterey, CA
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The hand drawn topo on this thread agrees virtually 100% with Roper's description in his '71 guide.
>
Using both will help considerably with routefinding.
>
Topo reads, "Offenbach Chimney?".
Roper notes this as "Riegelhuth Chimney" (his spelling corrected).
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Dirka
Trad climber
SF
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Nice job!
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Dirka
Trad climber
SF
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Nice story Karl.
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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Here's the topo redraw I posted back then...it was wiped out when I changed ISPs. I would have fixed it in my post above, but it won't let me.
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mucci
Trad climber
sf ca
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 8, 2009 - 11:36pm PT
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Steely, that's is a great looking topo! It's nice to see it in a legible form, Clint's (red-line) seems more accurate as to the line, My topo seemed to trend right, but with your hard work on the redo, It will be hard to get lost.
Great route once again, Many thanks for the Topo!
Mucci
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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You Guys are just bumping my thread to get the slander and bile off the front page@@!!
Fair enough.
Oh god, a topo has arrived. How will anyone manage to get lost and epic now??
Actually, having a topo will ensure MANY more people will get lost and epic
No doubt
Have fun!
I'll probably have to go back soon myself. I have a "friend" or two that are gluttons for em, fun
Peace
Karl
Note that off - route corner marked on the topo. Yup, Been there, climbed that. See above
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Nice photos and TR.
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kev
climber
CA
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Yo Brah!
So I've had a few 'suggestions' given to me for our adventures next week. Funny - this was mentioned but YOU'VE ALREADY DONE IT BASTARD - BAGALAAR!
Nice topo.
Hope you're keeping Bugs happy..Rain will clear but not as soon as I'd like - oh well....
kev
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Apr 13, 2009 - 11:51am PT
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This is probably not a good early season climb, as it drips water?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Apr 13, 2009 - 01:05pm PT
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No, it is a good early season climb. The Arches have quite a bit more water on them than this route. You won't be disappointed
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Jun 14, 2010 - 03:02pm PT
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Well, I gotta bump this.....
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Alexey
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Jun 15, 2010 - 02:08pm PT
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bump , again, great TR , never head about this route until last Saturday met JayBro and Daphne at Ahwanee parking lot. "Direct route on Washington Column" - wtf is that?
now I even have a topo...
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Did this yesterday. We never found the first three pitches. Had to start the route with pitch four. There is a beautiful and relentless 5.7 crack on our alternate pitch two. Got lost on the second pitch of the great chimney. I’m not sure where you should go and I looked at the three options pretty carefully but I will say don’t go right. I take some pride on being able to get lost on a chimney pitch!
Great climb! Get on it.
Zander
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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How cool Zander. And who was with you for godsake? I presume you climb with people... I am hoping it was Ed.
The key on the lower pitches is to look for the "forked tree". If you ignore this detail, you will get off-route to the right and onto tougher although better rock. No, the forked tree and the funky rock is the way up.
What you do on the second pitch of the Great Chimney: you stay in the chimney. You stay in there until it dies out in the little forest up there. It is granular, bottomed out and nearly rotten though and maybe that is why you started to look for ways out.
Above the little bench/forest at the very top, there are several ways to go. I have done them all. Royal had this really cool totally unobvious way of snaking through at about 5.5--- we did together unroped back in 75 but since then I can't remember how it went. This last bit of terrain is weird anyway and can be 5.8 even if you take the right hand version. I think maybe the RR way was to start up the right version and cut left on a semi-horizontal crack leftwards and then up.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Hey Peter,
I was with my friend Greg. The truth is the original start looked too wet where you step across. The water was running pretty hard so I talked Greg into starting to climb right off the talus. Ha ha, it goes! I'm not sure how many pitches it took us.
We looked around for twenty minutes for a 5.5 ending but did the 10a way from the topo.
Climb on!
Zander
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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My first year in the Valley was 1969, which was an exceptionally wet year. One day, something like 17 parties signed out for the Direct Route, because it was one of the few relatively dry ones.
I took my first leader fall in the Reigelhuth Chimney. Roper's red guide said "beginners usually have some trouble." Right he was. A year later, I climbed much of what gripped me the year before unroped. By then, I guess I had gotten used to that sort of climbing.
I still like the climb, and maybe more so because it is so currently out of favor.
John
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Did this route in 76 with some friends... we got a late start after free coffee at the Awahnee or was it poached..? Had to take my helmet off to get through one of the chimneys and dropped the bish...We ended up doing some difficult jam crack in the dark to finish the route and shared a bivy with some large insects that kept me awake most of the night.....The chimney's were a pain in the butt and awkward...Rj
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Nice!
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Topic Author's Reply - May 2, 2011 - 05:16pm PT
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Nice Z!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Good on ya z-bro!
That's an adventure route for sure, as Melissa, and I can attest!
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Excelente!
Que stilo, y buen'aventura!
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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I took an older climber up it in 1975. I still remember the '5.7' chimney up there, like it's for real. He'd always wanted to do it and he was so pleased to get up it that he bought us a 35$ bottle of wine at the Ahwahnee afterwards and we sat on the porch drinking that. It was a good adventure, definitely harder than Royal Arches. Nice TR, men.
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M. Volland
Trad climber
Grand Canyon
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My partner on this one was John Forde. He didn't pack his headlamp like he thought he did. While following the last pitch he pulled mine out and clipped it to his chest strap just in case he needed it as it was getting dark fast. The headlamp swung and hit the rock as he was climbing, and the batteries popped out and could be heard falling down the cliff.
In no moonlight, we descended North Dome Gully by using the light from his cell phone, which would offer us two feet of light for about ten seconds every time we pressed a button.
Loved that route!
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Ferretlegger
Trad climber
san Jose, CA
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Around 1970 my buddy Dave Collins and I attempted the Washington Column Direct route. Following Roper's stellar directions, we apparently missed a critical bush or shrub or something and ended up off to the right doing some pretty strange and stiff climbing. I led a very hard (for me, at the time) face climbing pitch with almost no protection, which steepened and then ended after a terrifying mantle on a triangular ledge about 4 feet wide. There was a crack behind the ledge, and I put a piton in and brought Dave up. The cracks we had thought led upwards turned out to be nothing but discolorations in the rock, and the face climbing above looked very hard and totally unprotected. We decided to rappel.
I went to put in another piton in the crack behind the ledge, and as I gave it a whack, there was a nasty groan and the ledge slid down the face a few inches!! It was completely detached, and just staying on the face due to friction!! Dave and I were stunned, followed by a moment of bowel churning horror, as we visualized the long tumble into space as the block finally fell off. We were standing on the "ledge" with no anchors, and a handful of pins (way before nuts..) and a single Goldline rope. I desperately searched for a crack, anything that would take a pin, but there was nothing. Except...there was a tiny horizontal seam, barely visible, above my head. As luck would have it, I had brought my RURP, purchased in the hope that someday I would grow to become a heroic aid climber (that was the sine qua non in those days). I had, of course, never placed a RURP, and had only the vaguest idea as to their strength, but our options were slim to none, so I whacked it into the seam and kept whacking until all that remained was the nylon sling. I hand placed a (now much larger) angle into the crack at the back of the tottering block as a "backup" which, had it become weighted if the RURP failed, would have served the same purpose as a cannon for Wylie Coyote in a Roadrunner cartoon, namely to rip the block off so we would have something to look at as we fell to our doom. We threaded the Goldline through the RURP sling, and tied a long runner around the rope and through the piton, and Dave rapped off towards a tree way off to one side, and just about at the end of the rope. He made it, and I clipped in. As I got ready to weight the RURP, a strange peace came over me. I looked at the wretched thing, and it looked back at me. We sat there for a few seconds, communing in a way impossible to describe to a non-climber. It was one of those life-or-death moments where one balances on the knife edge of one's fate. I had no choice but to rappel. I was at once both terrified and in a state of extremely heightened awareness. Everything was very clear, and focused. I had accepted my destiny, and what would happen would happen, and I was ok with that. I stepped back onto the rope, and rapped to the tree with no other adventure but that going on in my brain. Dave and I retreated, learned from our mistakes (we took a course in plant identification) and came back and did the route another time. I recall it as a cracking good adventure climb, with lots of sweating, grunting, and dirt.
There is a lot to be said for being young, strong, ambitious, naive, and just a bit.....stupid!
Michael Jefferson
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Great tell, Ferretlegger! Yeesh, rapping off a single Rurp.
Pure Death.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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yowza, nice FerretLegger
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Jan 21, 2012 - 11:50am PT
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bump...I was talking about this rig yesterday. I really wanna do it.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jan 21, 2012 - 12:45pm PT
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I think I have mentioned before on ST that the critical (although certainly not earth shattering) detail (Column Direct & Lunch Ledge) in the first pitch or second pitch is to make sure you pass through a very obvious FORKED TREE. If you miss it and are sucked into going right at this early stage, you end up way the hell off route and into much much harder climbing that perhaps doesn't even pan out, off to the right. It's much better rock over there too and when you see it, you naturally want to be there instead of the junk you do have to climb and stay on route with. Offroute and way to the right, you will even find plenty of evidence of climbing out there, like slings and anchors, thus falsely convincing you your quest is truly fated brilliance... Just stay in the lame junky terrain, pass through the forked tree and don't make any self-congratulatory discoveries out there. Keep in mind and as a rule of thumb, the Direct Route on the Column unfortunately only has four good-looking pitches on it.
The Reigelhuth Chimney (5.7),
The Charlie Brown Chimney variation to Fat Man Chimney,
The "friction step" or its alternate the short open book straight up before the Friction Step,
The first pitch of the Great Chimney.
The remainder of the leads are severely compromised by easy ground, discontinuous features, trees, scree, graininess, unsightly ledges, abominable lack of exposure. (g).
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rogro
Trad climber
Sacramento, CA
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Jan 24, 2012 - 03:43pm PT
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Sometime in the early 60's I heard that Steve Thompson had soloed Direct Route. I would guess that he did it in 63 or 64. Anyway, it's the earliest report I ever heard of someone free soloing such a big route. At least as I remember, the first 30 feet or so of Great Chimney was the hardest and scariest part, and there was no pro.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Jan 24, 2012 - 04:28pm PT
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Sweet thread.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 24, 2012 - 04:49pm PT
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The thing is a fuging nightmare! =Must Do!
As baffling and challenging in my teens as it was in my fifties, when i thought I had all the tricks wired.
Step off the path anywhere ( and you will!) and you're traveling a whole different wormhole.
Adventure climbing doesn't get better than this!
Do it today!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Jan 24, 2012 - 05:11pm PT
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Rogro, Royal was soloing it back then as well, routinely. And down climbing it too. Also the Arches, and those down climbed as well. It was not that unusual. Remember it's just 5.7.
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Daphne
Trad climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Jan 24, 2012 - 08:04pm PT
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^^^ That's why I got talked into doing it with Jaybro, "It's just 5.7" ... Ha! Just, ha!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 24, 2012 - 08:17pm PT
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Yeah, but that was some fun! Wasn't it Daph?
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Daphne
Trad climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Jan 24, 2012 - 08:23pm PT
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It was the kind of fun that is fun afterward but not during :)
I will always remember sipping drips from the gully drainage on the interminable descent, so dehydrated the thought of giardia didn't mean anything to me.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Jan 24, 2012 - 08:28pm PT
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like squirrels, you are,
climbing the stone walls of the godfarm.
a fine adventure exceeding your expectations,
good tale.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 24, 2012 - 08:47pm PT
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Finding water on top was cool!.
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
WA, & NC & Idaho
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Jan 24, 2012 - 11:08pm PT
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Gotta love the Old SKOOL 5.7++++!!!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 16, 2013 - 12:12am PT
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Peter Haan posted Plate 10 from Roper's Green Guide:
and I have tried to retrace that line on a composite of the xrez view of Washington Column:
It's not too hard to see that the pitch above the forest (above Lunch Ledge), the Great Chimney, has a bend in it to the left, where there is vegetation, to a parallel slot...
anyone have an opinion?
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 16, 2013 - 12:32am PT
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here is page 233 from the Meyers & Reid 1987 guide... the line is straight and the finish is more to the right... also did they get "Lunch Ledge" right? seems like this was higher in Roper's drawing...
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john hansen
climber
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Apr 16, 2013 - 12:44am PT
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Regarding Ferret Leggers post a bit back...
Great story, but could one put in a piton on the first 10 or 15 feet of the rappel and and clip one of the ropes? At least then if the rurp pulled you might not go all the way.
Maybe even the guy who went down first could do this while you still have some kind of upper belay.
I guess it could be interesting for the second to pass this piece.. a prussik above and below would work.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 16, 2013 - 01:18am PT
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http://www.xrez.com/yose_proj/yose_deepzoom/index.html
and then pick which vantage point, and keep zooming in. You will see all detail required. In this case The Column.
I stress that the last pitch of the Direct Route has a number of possibilities, all climbable, but some at a 5.8 or higher level. It pays to really look at what is going on on this last piece of ground.
Once when RR and I were unroping the route and So. Dome, RR above me per usual, he took this uncanny, devious line through this summit jumble and I remember it as less than 5.6. Since then, I haven't been able to recreate the line we took, but I remember going up a dihedral and exiting off left on a sharp horizontal crack (as footholds) around a corner where it diminished even further.
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kaholatingtong
Trad climber
Nevada City
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Apr 16, 2013 - 01:26am PT
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i like your style, mucci.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Apr 16, 2013 - 01:48am PT
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I think this is one of the threads where I knew Mucci was nutz in the right way, and that was ok by me.
Now he's got 3 LBC Walls.
Stacked!
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briham89
Big Wall climber
san jose, ca
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Apr 16, 2013 - 02:00am PT
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Now he's got 3 LBC Walls.
Munge I think some second ascents are to be done soon...
or maybe we talk are way into joining one
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Myles Moser
climber
Lone Pine, Ca
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Apr 16, 2013 - 02:16am PT
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Boom! That was a great read, from all directions!
Four awesome stories, a little poetry and adventure in full force!
Killer!
Nice overlay photos too
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RyanD
climber
Squamish
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Apr 16, 2013 - 02:26am PT
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Just read this whole thread as well, so many good tales of adventure! Mucci, awesome Tr! Karl's story is insane, wow! Lots of good insight on this thread, great stuff.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Apr 16, 2013 - 08:00am PT
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Fine adventure!!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Apr 19, 2013 - 01:03am PT
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Seconds?
Prolly too late for that.
But I might be into one of them. I gotta see the Tortilla Chip of Death!
but not in the summer, no damn way!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 19, 2013 - 04:00am PT
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Here's my best photo - evening light from high up on the Apron.
The lighting is key because I believe the Great Chimney and its Chockstone Belay are visible.
Based on this, Ed, your xrez overlay is very good.
3 edits:
1. jog left and then straight up to Lunch Ledge instead of diagonal left
2. keep straight in the Great Chimney - don't jog left (? not sure - see next post with xRez photo)
3. I'm not sure about the finish above the 3rd class forest - apparently nobody is!
And you are correct, Meyers and Reid 1987 has Lunch Ledge marked too low.
Note: I haven't done the route, so there might be mistakes in the above.
But it seems consistent with Josh's topo and my previous overlay.
Roper notes that many people get lost on the first pitch above Lunch Ledge -
instead of the left facing corner, "climb an inconspicuous crack system 25 feet to the left"
which becomes the decomposed Fat Man Chimney.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 19, 2013 - 12:45pm PT
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That's it Clint, right on the money.
My topo leans a bit to the right, but as you climb this route it feel like that due to the wandering.
We gauged our location by how far to the right we were from the line of demarcation.
I want to do the charlie brown corner var next time!@
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Norwegian
Trad climber
the tip of god's middle finger
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Apr 19, 2013 - 03:45pm PT
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i too, set a personal standard to
be merely perfect.
we've both, overachieved mucci.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Apr 19, 2013 - 04:11pm PT
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There is a lot to be said for being young, strong, ambitious, naive, and just a bit.....stupid!
Hear, hear, Michael! What a story!
Clint, I'm not sure, because it's been a while I last did the route, but I remember going left and under a chockstone/tunnel before the final Class-3 forest. I see something that looks like that a bit to the left of your marked line. I know it's possible to go up that squeeze chimney (because I've done that, too), but it's far easier to make the detour left.
John
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Apr 19, 2013 - 05:55pm PT
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These dudes look bad ass. If I ever encountered them in real life I would pray they 'get' my online humor. Especially if they had that bottle around. LOL
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 19, 2013 - 05:57pm PT
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Thanks, John. Josh mentioned tunnelling under a huge chockstone also.
Here is an xRez photo version which also has the good afternoon lighting and the Great Chimney is plainly visible.
It shows the upper left chimney option better than my other photo,
and may show the "tunnel chockstone".
As for all the finish options, probably best to just go up there and check them out....
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Apr 19, 2013 - 07:04pm PT
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Xrez is a wonderful thing. Thanks, Clint.
JOhn
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scooter
climber
fist clamp
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Dec 30, 2013 - 03:56am PT
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Climbed this route today. Pretty hard. Very fun though. We climbed all the way into the back of one of the chimneys and did some fun squeezing and tunneling. It felt like summer until we go t back to Valley Floor. Then it was 28 degrees! Did it in about 8 pitches with a good deal of simul-climbing. Long Route! Physically more taxing than E Butt of Middle or E Butt El Cap. The rock was surprising high quality as compared to what I had read and heard.
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Keith Leaman
Trad climber
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Dec 30, 2013 - 08:46am PT
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Pat Merrill, Phil Gleason and I did this route around 1970. Our 10AM start resulted in reaching the top just as it was turning dark. We weren't sure of the descent route, so bivied without bags, food or water. Luckily one of us brought matches so we stoked a small fire and were treated to a light dusting of snow as we dozed till dawn.
I recall leading an unprotected chimney, grabbing a chockstone at it's end and swinging out onto the left face to clip a pin. May have been the Great Chimney. Here's a drawing I did of Phil above the chockstone. The 'Charlie Brown' variation sounds familiar.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Dec 30, 2013 - 11:18am PT
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nice keith!
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scooter
climber
fist clamp
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Dec 30, 2013 - 01:18pm PT
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Really nice drawing of Phil G. His son John is one of my climbing buddies!
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Ed H
Trad climber
Santa Rosa, CA
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Nov 10, 2014 - 06:28pm PT
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Bump
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j-tree
Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
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Now this is a real tr.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Bump for climbing and ball bearings...
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| Messages 1 - 92 of total 92 in this topic |
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