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The Wedge
Boulder climber
Santa Rosa & Bishop, CA
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Sep 27, 2011 - 11:31pm PT
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Ya, what Levy said.
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susu
Trad climber
East Bay, CA
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Sep 28, 2011 - 12:31am PT
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Yes, nice photos.
And that is a beautiful looking hand crack!
Some snapshots of last weekend:
Thanks for a great time everybody and another full value Shuteye weekend!
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Sep 28, 2011 - 12:34am PT
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the party that never was,,
why dont you start charging membership fees?
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mooch
Trad climber
Old Climbers' Home (Adopted)
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Sep 28, 2011 - 08:06am PT
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Sprock -
Got you covered on your initial set up fees for eHarmony.
Something with wide child bearing hips and an appetite to browse low end retail stores?
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Tork
climber
Yosemite
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Sep 28, 2011 - 03:04pm PT
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Enjoying all the pics. I think we all want more, more, more.
Was amazed at all the traffic out at Big Sleep over the weekend. Seemed most folks enjoyed the climbing.
Unfortunately for me I was a pup tied to a tree on Saterday. Sun and Mon made up for it though, thanks Sean. Sling Em if You Got Em!
It was nice meeting folks as they came down from their climbs. After almost 11 years in Yosemite I finally met Brian Ketron. Also met his bud Hans...can't believe he is 60. Thanks for the Modelo boys.
Later I met Pat, John,(nice guys)Noel(very cool lady) and an unruly Kevin. Great meeting you all and also thanks for several cervezas.
Finally John and Sue came down with Mooch and Tiki. Had a fun night by the inferno with all those guys. Done a fair amount of climbing with John and Sue, they know I love them, and hope to Climb with Dave and Jerry in the near future. They also fed me several beers, thanks guys.
I guess not climbing has some advantages, all the climbers are so happy they are passing out beers left and right.
Also, who is incharge of lost and found out there? I still need my sunglasses and saterday, due to all the beers you all made me drink I lost my headlamp...I think near the Runnel Vision Wall. There was chalk on all the routes out at Runnel Vision... good to see... wondering who???
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kev
climber
A pile of dirt.
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Sep 28, 2011 - 03:26pm PT
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due to all the beers you all made me drink I lost my headlamp...
Heheheheee - You should know better with this crew ;)
kev
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socalbolter
Sport climber
Silverado, CA
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Sep 28, 2011 - 03:54pm PT
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Grahm will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the crack is Monster Magnet - 11c.
And a good part of it is far wider than a hand crack. Very nice looking line though...
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Tork
climber
Yosemite
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Sep 28, 2011 - 04:14pm PT
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Looks nice! I will bring the big boys, thanks for the heads up.
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mooch
Trad climber
Old Climbers' Home (Adopted)
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Sep 28, 2011 - 04:38pm PT
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John, Susu, Tiki -
Thanks for letting me live up to my namesake.....the jackets kept me toasty and the fuel was useful to heat up my leftover coffee. Ger....thanks for letting me haul the 30 pound pack up the stone. :P HAHA!! Bitch, bitch, bitch....too easy!
Jeff -
We didn't even get the chance to chat one on one....Ger hogged all your time! ;) Certainly hope to do something soon though. Glad you got out with "Aaron....'I Don't Know Much, But I Know I Love You' Neville" (aka Sean). Want to climb Fish one of these days.
Kev.....playing with your Balls, when you should've been playin' with us. Tisk tisk!
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kev
climber
A pile of dirt.
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Sep 28, 2011 - 04:55pm PT
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Mooch,
I was hiding out at the leap with its questionable locals...
kev
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Grahm Doe
Sport climber
Just South Of Heaven
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Sep 29, 2011 - 10:01pm PT
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Fall temps are going to be moving in. Next week they are calling for snow levels down to 7,500ft. Picture blast coming up...
P.Rob - Those cracks looked good to me too but shrink when you actually get up close to them. The rock is shattered pretty good out there and would take a lot of cleaning. As far as I know everything out there is still unclimbed.
Jeff - Louie is correct, that is Monster Magnet, full 60m pitch. I used three 5's on the FA but if you don't mind walking them a ways two 5's would be fine. The crack starts wide, pinches down to nothing then open and closes again. There's a few bolts for the non gear sections.
The chalk on all the routes at RV Wall was me. Just verifying bolt counts and grades. Struggle Within and RV are two of the best 30m bolted climbs on the ridge. Nice job on them. Do you remember the name of the one to the right of RV?
A few more pics from the Beaks area...
New High Eagle Multi Pitch
Gray Eagle
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Grahm Doe
Sport climber
Just South Of Heaven
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Wednesday: Snow. High near 44. South wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 10 to 16 inches possible.
Wednesday Night: Snow showers. Low around 30. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Thursday: A 30 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
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Nate D
climber
San Francisco
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I was aware but never knew the full reason for it and the meaning of the new name. Interesting stuff, thanks for the links!
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Stephen McCabe
Trad climber
near Santa Cruz, CA
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I came in from above and replaced the two protection bolts on the climb The Big Sleep that Doug Matthews and I put up many years ago. They were on the next to last of 6 or 7 pitches. There are three belay bolts to replace, but those could easily be done as they are at comfortable places. A #3 friend is essential for the belay marked 2 in the Spencer guide. It is actually the third belay. We were proud to have used so few bolts. However, I wouldn’t grumble if someone added a second bolt to back up the first bolt and the #3 friend at that belay. Also #4 friends might be handy for the crack and maybe some cord for tying off knobs on the fifth pitch? I don’t imagine this route will get done much, if at all, because the leader should be comfortable doing at least one move of 5.8 a very long way out from anything. From the ground, one could climb almost 200’ thinking they were on a new route before they see the first bolts at the second belay (the belay marked #1).
Our route was put up long ago to fit what we wanted to do that day, perhaps the first route in that vicinity on that side of an obscure ridge. There was no guidebook. We were influenced by the Tuolumne guideline of the day that to be good style, below 5.9 rarely got a bolt. If we later wrote it up, the idea was that our audience who might actually go there would probably be one or two readers of the Alpine Journal who would want a lot of adventure. I know, I know: besides anchors only two protection bolts in about 5 pitches of face climbing is not enough for a current climb. I won’t defend it any more except to say gym climbers didn’t even exist then and we didn’t know if anyone else would ever go there. If I have time, I’ll read the rest of the Super Chicken Thread. Good comments on both sides, it seems. No need to rehash it all here, as this route isn’t that important.
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Slater
Trad climber
Central Coast
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Stephen, proud line. Room for all. I think Big Sleep now has a little of everything. Good to have stuff like your original route to climb when we're feeling on top of our game. Way to pave the way, and what a cool adventure you two had.
Cool pics.
Bummer about the snow. But temps look pretty good for a stretch after that.
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Stephen McCabe
Trad climber
near Santa Cruz, CA
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Slater,
Thanks. We had fun.
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Grahm Doe
Sport climber
Just South Of Heaven
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Thanks for replacing those Stephen! Hope it was with stainless steel. Slab eats regular steel so quickly up there its surprising. The wet winters really do a number on it. Some of Sean Jones routes from 2004 are already showing rust on non stainless hardware. The route is a worthy bolt replacement project for at the very least, anchor replacement. One or two bolts per pitch would be nice to keep people alive but thats just me... :-) Its your route, you make the call. Its a proud line just the way it is too. People are actually going there to climb now so its not so obscure anymore.
Leo and I climbed your route under some adverse conditions back when it was the only climb there.
Here is a recounting of that experience which I wrote a while back.
“The Big Sleep” FA Doug Matthews, Steve McCabe 1979. We started up the route in April after Jeeping through giant snow drifts to reach the dome. Blue skies and warm rock encouraged us up the route. As we climbed higher we soon realized that this was a "serious" route with few to no gear placements and no bolts between anchors. I use the term “anchors” loosely as the quarter inch bolts with rusted square nuts were barely suited to hang a hat on. Much less catch a potential 200 foot slab fall. I was on lead duty for all the pitches and Leo belayed while trying not to lean back for fear of blowing out the rusted anchor with body weight. At least the climbing was relatively easy. No hand holds mind you but good friction on shallow dishes. About 500 feet and half way up the route dark clouds suddenly surrounded us and a cold wind raced up the face. Clouds then began whirling around us and a fog obscured the route. We wanted to bail and rappel immediately but the anchors were too dubious to trust. The only way out was to climb faster before the storm unleashed its heavy load of freezing precipitation.
I found myself 120 feet run out with no pro. Leo’s belay consisted of one rusted bolt and poor sideways slotted stopper. Then it began to hail. Gently at first. The little round balls of ice looked almost comical as they bounced of the white stone and rolled down the wall. The humor of it faded quickly as some of them began to rest in the shallow dishes I was smearing in. It was cold enough that they didn’t melt straight away and I wiped them off the dishes as best I could and continued paddling my way up the wall. I began to think maybe it would better for Leo to just take me off belay and untie from the rope on his end. That way if I fell I wouldn’t rip him from his belay, breaking his anchor and sending him hurling down the wall tied with my fate. Best not to dwell on these thoughts and climb faster before the little balls begin to liquefy.
Soon I arrived at a decent gear anchor and breathed a temporary sigh of relief as it began to snow. Leo quickly arrived at the belay and we agreed that we should press on as fast as possible and climb the final two pitches to the top. The slab was getting wet and rather than risk a foot slipping on the slick granite I eyed a decent looking finger crack that broke off left. The climbing was brilliant but the rising wind and swirling snow sent me scurrying higher in search of the top. Soon the crack ended but luckily a series of knobs drifted left toward a wide flaring crack in the dome. Relief of reaching the crack after the sizeable run out was off set by the realization that ice cold water was running down the back of it. I stayed as far out of the crack as possible to avoid getting wet and ran up the crack till we were out of rope and set up a belay. It took a while for Leo to reach me and I began to shiver. Finally he arrived and I quickly realized we needed to get off this thing immediately. Leo’s long belay and not moving, had lowered his body temp. He wasn’t responding well to questions and his hands weren’t working well and his cloths had become damp.
I quickly helped him set up his belay and was glad to be moving again. I struck out up the crack to a short steep section. The water was growing in size and cascaded down the crack. It was surreal climbing this little water fall trying to stay dry and not slip at the same time. The crack turned into a slip and slide ramp and I decided to head left up a slab of rocky ribs. Ice water ran down the little gutters and the realization that the classic Shuteye ribs were formed from thousands of years of just this type of weathering was drove home like an ice pick to the brain. Tip toeing up the ribs and attempting to keep my shoes dry went on for a hundred feet. Finally the summit appeared and I threw myself down behind some small boulders for belay and escaped out of the freezing wind.
Leo slowly arrived and I could tell he was relieved to be at the top. We knew now that we would not end up frozen popsicles on the giant wall. My pants had frozen stiff as boards and we were anxious to walk off. As quickly as possible we descended an endless bush whack in the snow back to the base of the wall. We ran back to the Jeep with our tails between our legs glad to have survived the adventure.
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this just in
climber
north fork
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Could there be any better name than the Big Sleep? It's perfect. Grahm, you and Leo have had some epics, but this is my favorite.
Fuller Buttes used to be called Squaw Tit's but somehow this was derogatory too. Bring back Squaw Nipple and Squaw Tit's!:)
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