Atlantic Ocean Wall A4 5.9

Currently 3.0/5

El Capitan

Yosemite Valley, California USA

Trip Report

old walls-Atlantic Ocean

Monday February 9, 2009 3:39pm

another blast from the past! me and johnny barbella on the big stone...

Trip Report Views: 1,368

deuce4

About the Author
deuce4 is a climber from Hobart, Australia.

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pyro

Big Wall climber

Calabasas

Feb 9, 2009 - 03:46pm PT

Bitch'n

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

Feb 9, 2009 - 03:56pm PT

Wow! cool stuff, John. That roof sequence was wild.

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Feb 9, 2009 - 03:57pm PT

Wow, best quality photos of all so far! Did you use a different camera?

(The climbing looked really cool, too).

Walleye

climber

The Hot Kiss on the end of a Wet Fist

Feb 9, 2009 - 03:58pm PT

Another Good One DEUCE EYE!

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

sawatch choss

Feb 9, 2009 - 04:08pm PT

This may be the best one yet!

The new ground, the roof, the trundle, arriving at the belay to eye the next pitch. Bag toss, the free gun in the Fires. I love it! Thanks Deuce.

(So how much of that thing is still up there?)

climber

Mudcat Spire

Feb 9, 2009 - 04:24pm PT

Sickness.

(Too bad Skully missed this one. Right, Skully?)

Edit: What's the story on this Barbella cat? Seems like homeboy ticked every other sick route on EC.

Bruce Perschbacher

climber

Carbonale,Ill. 62901.

Feb 9, 2009 - 05:47pm PT

Superb photos of way cool stuff. Thanks again John for sharing with the rest of us.
Cheers,
Bruce.

drljefe

climber

El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson

Feb 9, 2009 - 05:47pm PT

Exploring a sea of stone, rad.

TKingsbury

Trad climber

Feb 9, 2009 - 05:53pm PT

Somehow missed this one too....really nice! Glad it resurfaced!

EDIT: now that I look at the photos again, and look at the timestamps on the posts, I'm confused on how I didn't see this earlier today...crazy how stuff slips by you...

Lynne Leichtfuss

Trad climber

Will know soon

Feb 9, 2009 - 05:54pm PT

Dude, totally GRATE stuff and totally serious Jazz ! Yo pics brought me BITD when my dudes were doing this. Grate memories. Blessings to yo ..... special !!! lrl

Edit: Some of those flakes looked a little unhinged....glad they didn't decide to "dance" when you were there. Peace.

Mr_T

Trad climber

Northern California

Feb 9, 2009 - 06:42pm PT

The Bag Toss is teh awesome! I have ALWAYS wanted to do that, but figured I'd kill someone on the ground...

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 9, 2009 - 06:44pm PT

PRICELESS!!!!

This is just awesome Deuce.

I have not seen Barbella in such a looong time. What a cool mellow guy he is.

He did a lot with Avery Tichner when he was alive. I remember when they got the hell stormed out of them on the Mushroom and managed to finish.

I wish I had some audio tape of Avery on one of his rants. He was one of a kind for sure!!

If you ever talk to Barbella, please say hi for me.

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

Feb 9, 2009 - 09:21pm PT

This ain't no goddamn winnie roast!

Love the pic where you're standin' on that #2 friend ...

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Feb 10, 2009 - 08:47am PT

Definitely the best yet, probably because the photos are actually in order!

I like the cleaning photo with the three poinked-out heads on the rope.

Do you have any photos from the first three pitches that have since fallen off? I would really like to see what used to be there, and what you guys actually climbed to reach El Cap Tree. I walk over those first few pitches from time to time.

And what were you thinking climbing up there without helmets??? Sheesh.

P.S. concur with poster below - would love to hear the stories!

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 10, 2009 - 08:50am PT

John,

You need to get in here and participate in your threads a little more brother.

How about some stories? We need some meat to go with all this pudding, and then you can be counted amongst us Shameless Self Thread Bumpers!

PS. All should go read Reillys "Thread of Life" thread.
What a story!

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Feb 10, 2009 - 10:07am PT

Gee Survival, Deucie has posted a zillion photos in the last several weeks and you want MORE! (tongue in cheek).

Fun aside, Deucie, you should at least also post your account here about enduring the 100-year storm while on the back of Half Dome. Truly one of the strongest accounts ever of The Ultra-Hideous.

Been so loving your photos. Thanks tons for all that scanning too!!

best ph.

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Author's Reply

Feb 10, 2009 - 12:29pm PT

Bump disguised as a story, or story disguised as a bump? No matter.

Hmm, AO story. Yep, that was a wild fall Barbella took with those poinked heads. He was up, maybe 20-25 feet, knowing it was going bad. I think he was trying to outrun them. Then, whoosh, back to the belay, I pulled a yard of rope in and he stopped about 2" above the small ankle twisting ledge we had the belay on.

Now that I see all the photos, I wonder what Alpinist has done with my missing photo on the roof. Somewhere out in magazine land, I suppose. There's a shot in Alpinist 25 shows me wildly hanging--that was posed, as I just got my first good piece. Another thing I remember about the roof is that I had to nail at the base of a huge cantilevered block. I called it the Tombstone. I am gobsmacked that thing is still there. The only connection of the 10 foot long block was about a foot or so of its base, right where you had to nail, otherwise the thing was fully suspended.

Pete--the first pic--that's the only pic I have of the start-- where you can see one of us jugging a rope to our belay over the roof (if you look closely). There was one belay which was all knifeblades in a thin crack (we weren't hauling at that point, so it was ok for body weight), and the wall was popping and cracking and making sounds I've not eard before or since--ominous sounds.

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 11, 2009 - 04:10pm PT

Wow. Your story bump worked Deuce!!!

I just missed it the first time around, or I would have posted then. Did you ever know Avery T.? I was trying to poke a comment out of you. I thought you knew him.

I'm tryin' to keep this wall up front John, it deserves it!
Bruce

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 11, 2009 - 04:52pm PT

I'm wondering how the poli-trolls can out post one of our own with sixty photos of a first ascent of El Cap on a climbers web-site.

I see why guys like R_ _ _ and S_ _ _ _ _ bail out.

scuffy b

climber

heading slowly NNW

Feb 11, 2009 - 05:00pm PT

"Cleaning" photo with plinked heads...

I see there are 4 heads there, at least.
So, what's next? He just goes up again and hopes they
stick better on the 2nd try?

Thanks, John. Awesome set of shots.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 11, 2009 - 05:06pm PT

Barbella was mellow and stoic.
'Dude had massive lats too, just in case he wanted to free climb...

Nice rollout John.
I sort of like that there is not a single word to go with it along the way.
This way we just keep quiet, look & listen to the big space...

climber

Cardiff by the sea

Feb 11, 2009 - 05:15pm PT

Great pictures John, Thanks so much for taking the time to post them up. Rick Lovelace and i did an early ascent of the AO and climbed the original pitches that are now at the base. We to were not hauling through that section. I remember having a very uneasy feeling climbing through all that loose rock.

Funny side note: Rick and I had done the route and were trolling the base afterwards in a altered state of mind picking up trash and sh#t bags (this was back when it was acceptable to chuck your sh#t.) Anyway you may recall that there was a big wide horizonal see through crack, maybe some 20 feet off the deck and traversing like 40 or 50 feet. There was a guy aiding across this huge expanding looking crack big cams and all. We asked what he was doing and he explained how he was practicing some aid climbing. We were trippin out on his choice of rock to climb on. That crack now rest's under all that rubble.

This may be up on the Turn pike section

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Feb 11, 2009 - 05:31pm PT

'Could do a whole thread on Lovelace right?
One of those guys that had a single-minded feeling about El Capitan.
He hit it pretty good too.

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 11, 2009 - 08:26pm PT

Nice job T2.
Thanks for adding your pix and thoughts.
How many ascents has that thing had, and what is done for the bottom section now?

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Author's Reply

Feb 11, 2009 - 10:35pm PT

wow, the thinly disguised bump worked. All the usual suspects posting up though, heh, heh...

SuperPundits Unite!

(I think I'll see 'bout posting sometin' on one of Survival's threads now...)

ß Î Ø T Ç H

climber

Feb 11, 2009 - 11:39pm PT

Oh !

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Feb 11, 2009 - 11:49pm PT

There are some great shots here! Thanks, but it seems somebody 'shopped' (brightened the shadows, etc) them from the first time I looked at 'em. They look much better, or maybe I'm getting more blood to my eyes than normal...

Russ Walling

Social climber

from Poofters Froth, Wyoming

Feb 11, 2009 - 11:57pm PT

T2: That probably is the Turnpike section. This looks like the same pitch from our Iron Hawk outing, where it hits the Turnpike too. The topo calls it pitch 14, A3+ heading to rivets.

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 12, 2009 - 06:13am PT

Did I miss something?
What do people do on the bottom section now?
Scary stuff reading about you guys climbing through that BITD.

Delhi Dog

climber

Good Question...

Feb 12, 2009 - 06:50am PT

Whoa thanks for sending this one back up!
Fine shots.

"I sort of like that there is not a single word to go with it along the way.
This way we just keep quiet, look & listen to the big space..."

I'd have to agree.
It work.
Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
DD

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Feb 12, 2009 - 01:15pm PT

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO ON THE BOTTOM SECTION NOW?

Sewellymon

climber

.....in a single wide......

Feb 12, 2009 - 01:28pm PT

ha ha ha

ever since i saw that bolt sticking out of the fallen slab, i've wondered the same...

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Author's Reply

Feb 12, 2009 - 01:31pm PT

I reckon you can just climb El Cap Tree...

Cameron Burns

Social climber

Feb 12, 2009 - 01:53pm PT

John, Remember running into Alex Lowe coming down off the AO in 1993? He'd been trying to guide it. Remember his client? "Yeah, he could do it, I couldn't." But Alex blamed hot weather or some such. What class.....

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Feb 12, 2009 - 02:05pm PT

Thanks, John. AO is still on my Hit List. I think these days I would prefer a rope gun for the finish - that scared the livin' bejeepers outa me when I soloed Iron Hawk.

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Author's Reply

Feb 12, 2009 - 02:18pm PT

Cam, yep I remember that. What a guy that Alex.

Pete- yeah, but soloing that thin face is a lot different than having a partner down below... I've led that thin face twice, and it's most likely 5.10, 30 foot runout stuff, sort of like the 5.9 over on Middle.

jiff

Ice climber

colorado

Feb 12, 2009 - 02:22pm PT

Wonderful pictures! thanks for sharing.

climber

Cardiff by the sea

Feb 12, 2009 - 08:08pm PT

Russ: Yea my pic is taken probably right where you are at in yours. The shadow in you pic is really cool

'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber

like Ontario, Canada, eh?

Feb 12, 2009 - 08:16pm PT

"but soloing that thin face is a lot different than having a partner down below"

No doubt! IH was my first solo, and I was using a Solo Aid. I didn't know how to pay out slack one-handed, so I just pulled out 30 feet and went for it. Holy Factor Two, Batman! [I have since switched to a Grigri]

bluering

Trad climber

Santa Clara, CA

Feb 12, 2009 - 08:26pm PT

Maybe Russ should post some more shots...I know he's got 'em!

Cool thread though. Aid climbing used to seem like cheating to me but some of the shots John and Mussy post obviously are likely to disprove that.

20 foot falls on the belay would make most free-climbers sh#t their pants...and then pray to God. Let alone 40, 60 foot falls!

I respect you weirdos.