Pate
Trad climber
The High And Lonely
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Apr 21, 2009 - 09:42pm PT
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Great TR Peter. Such great pics. A sea of granite up there.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 22, 2009 - 12:08am PT
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Wow, Joe - thanks. Those are really nice.
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QITNL
climber
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Apr 22, 2009 - 03:58pm PT
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Thanks fellas - I really appreciate your kind words. Coming from you guys it means a lot. I'm happy to be of help.
I should be working on my photo albums over the next couple of weeks. Might have some other useful stuff.
The backstory behind Quiet... I was in the music business for years, saw the tail end of its golden age. Now I can't really stand the stuff. The handle represents a turn in my path.
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
Vacaville Ca,
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Apr 22, 2009 - 07:04pm PT
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Has the right-leaning arch (center) been done ? That could be the start to the next independent line .
I don't think so. I got a good look standing under the thing and it looks thin... really thin. Besides, the exit from the corner is a bit overhanging as is much of the whole south face.
On the true south face, the rock is much steeper than it appears in photographs, especially on the far right (karma) side. The features up there seem to stretch for a few hundred feet or so and then completely blank out on dead vertical to overhanging polished slab. I don't think there is nearly the potential for free routes that most people are probably imagining. You would be hard pressed to find a route that goes from the bottom to top free, even by top down methods. That is not to say there aren't any, it would just be like finding a needle in a haystack.
There is a sizable "dip" in the middle of the entire south face running from one side to the other. The face starts out steep, but not vertical, then "dips" in and becomes extremely steep to overhanging. Eventually it backs off and becomes more and more "less steep" rounding out to the top. All the existing routes that are back there connect the upper (less steep) half with the bottom via a crack system or major dike. And of all those, every single one is in the upper .11 or .12 area in the upper (less steep) half. So you can only imagine how hard it would be to climb through the steeper middle section. There must be a sizable feature to link the bottom to the top. Only when you find that do you have a slim chance in hell of linking a whole route.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2009 - 07:55pm PT
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Well, Salami,
We have all been looking at this thing since the fifties. Really carefully. Spent days up there scoping, many of our best over decades.
And this is what we have done so far. It is quite a lot, but there is much more to do. Not everybody climbing now knows how much time has already been spent just assessing the situation up there, all these years. Some of these interested climbers are even dead.
There are a thousand reasons--- good ones --- that indicate we are done back there. And climbing has been in front of such roadblocks many times already, going back to the twenties, thirties etc. But always, and I really mean this, new talent finds a way. Here and there.
The back of Half Dome now poses amazingly detailed creative challenges for the next volley of talent. What can they find there? Can they micromanage their routes up these faces, armed with tons of information, foot by foot as it is going to require, or are they going to stand on the ground thinking the thing is “over with”, “hey, we can’t get up it”, in a broad-brush sort of way like we used to in the sixties and seventies?
We are entering, hopefully, an era in our art, where we have to have more information per foot than ever before to lead, to get up these areas on such a beautiful wall. If we are to do these potential horrific lines. And at this point you have assume the Euros are watching this thread too.
I have brought up all these images, and prompted or hosted this discussion, to show current lions of our art, that here, if anywhere, is one of the greatest NEW challenges to them. Our new route prospects ALWAYS looked like this. I can’t over-stress this point. And of course, if it were not an 8-mile hike, I think the “fundamental” view of impossibility would also be different.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Apr 22, 2009 - 08:00pm PT
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hey there peter hann and all... say, thanks for the share... this is very interesting...
sounds like it will be on folks minds in a new fresh way, all right... wow...
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Apr 21, 2010 - 10:23pm PT
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Peter I have used a version of Autostitch developed up here at UBC and it might be useful to you for your upcoming photography project
http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html
It uses AI to piece together many overlapping photos.
Bruce
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wildone
climber
GHOST TOWN
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Apr 22, 2010 - 09:39am PT
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Salamanizer and Peter- I really appreciate the thoughts you have on this amazing face. You are both right.
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QITNL
climber
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May 14, 2012 - 02:55pm PT
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Here's another cool angle, point-and-shoot zoom from Vogelsang:
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NA_Kid
Big Wall climber
The Bear State
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May 14, 2012 - 04:03pm PT
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How bout a good picture of the Snake Dike area?
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Walleye
climber
The Hot Kiss on the end of a Wet Fist
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May 14, 2012 - 04:07pm PT
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Coming soon to a theatre near you: Karma Redux..... Dig it!
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Captain...or Skully
climber
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May 14, 2012 - 04:10pm PT
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I'd wanna see that....Do tell, Walleye.
Or is this a wait & see thing?....All good, Bro.
I'll wait. Cheers.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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May 14, 2012 - 07:12pm PT
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Oh such good pics, no results...
Keep trying, Peter, keep trying.
I question the ethic of flying around taking shots and can't exactly condone all of this checking out Half Dome's backside. It smacks of violation, but not so serious as sodomy.
What would Royal say?
Seriously, I like not those archy-looking things, there could be BATSOS in there....
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 14, 2012 - 09:54pm PT
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> How bout a good picture of the Snake Dike area?
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Half Dome - SW Face routes:
On the Edge, Labor of Love, Snake in the Grass, Salathe', Two Hoofers, Blondike, Dome Polishers, Deuceldike, Snake Dike, Eye in the Sky, Snake Dance
Credit: Clint Cummins |
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Captain...or Skully
climber
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May 14, 2012 - 09:59pm PT
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Huge Stone just sittin' there, mindin' its own business....
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wildone
climber
EP
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May 15, 2012 - 02:34am PT
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A few weeks ago, I hiked/post-holed up to the top of cloud's rest, and was just so quieted and humbled by the awesome beauty back there. Like the feeling you get when you've just gotten out of a movie or art exhibition that really challenged your mind or blew away your construct of the bounds of your reality, and you just don't want to return to the banalities of life, or even hear your own voice...
It's hard for me to put into words, but it is truly a magical place. If I believed in that "energy vortex" stuff that hippies in Arizona talk about, then I'd have to say that that south face has one...
Some of the most amazing things I've ever seen are up there. Some of the most special times I've ever had were up there on that piece of rock. One of my closest friendships was forged deep in a private world of uncertain outcomes, ominous objective hazards, and hard physical labor not to mention the shared love of the quest.
I sure hope those routes don't end up being the only time I drink from that well. I can remember everything with such clarity-as if it were this morning! I will always cherish my memories from that spring and summer.
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QITNL
climber
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Sep 17, 2012 - 07:44pm PT
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Sep 17, 2012 - 08:04pm PT
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Clint, do you have any info about that Labor of Love route? I was eyeing that from the base and was mighty tempted a few months ago, not knowing whether or not it was an established route. Looks like all natural pro at a moderate grade, cruxes not more than low .10? But maybe my eyes are bigger than my stomach and balls, and my sense of difficulty is off?
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