TR: Seneca with a Bang (long)
Mark Cato
July 6 - 7, 2002
Wade and I have been talking about getting down to Seneca together, and we
finally pulled things together for July 6th and 7th. Wade's only been to
Seneca once, and I've never been down without my buddy Dave. While I'd
hate to confess it to Dave, he's sort of my trad mentor (but don't tell
him, it'll inflate his ego). This should be interesting.
Wade picks me up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. We have a fairly
uneventful drive down. One wrong turn or two never killed anyone. We make
a quick stop at Yokum's for provisions, and head to the parking lot. I get
confused on the hike up and take the old trail. Wade tells me we can only
make one mistake a day, and I remind him we already made one wrong turn on
the way down. "That was a happy accident," he says. I let him get away
with his Bob Ross attitude, and we make our way to Luncheon Ledge. We plan
on starting on something easy that we're familiar with, so we wait for Old
Ladies (5.2) behind a couple of older guys who are just racking up.
They're quickly away, and I start up the first pitch. I feel comfortable
as I work my way up, and I make my belay a little further back from the
pair in front of us. By the time Wade's at the belay, the traverse pitch
is clear. I pass over the rack and he takes off. The other guys are
taking a line to the right of the third pitch, so the coast is clear when
Wade hands me the rack. I enjoy bouncing from the wide crack to the
outside of the fin, and the great view as I belay Wade up to the top. We
make our way to the rappel that touches down at the base of Old Man's
Route. I tell myself that if I feel good I'll give Conn's West a try.
There's a group of 10 kids mulling around the base of Old Man's, so Conn's
West will have to wait. I lead the way over to West Face to Gunsight
(5.0). After a bit of exploring, I reach the start of the route. I tell
Wade what to look for and send him off on lead. We make the long southerly
traverse to the start of Gunsight to South Peak (5.3). I throw the rope
over my shoulders, leaving enough tail so Wade can follow at a safe
distance, and we scramble to the exposed belay ledge. It sits in the
middle of the Gunsight notch, with an amazing view of the east and west
valleys. I rack up and shimmy up to the fin of rock dividing the east and
west faces. I've followed the route, and I know it's heady but easy
climbing. I quickly find the right holds and move past the traverse. I
clip a pin and start up the wide crack. I thought it would be nice to give
Wade some exposure, but the joke's on me when I realize he has the big cams
back at the belay! Aside from the thrill of clipping two fixed pins in a
row, the rest of the pitch goes smoothly. The second pitch takes us along
the ridge to the south summit, which we have to ourselves. We enjoy the
summit for a little while, and Wade looks through the register. We
scramble down to the Summit Ledge and the same rappel. There's a bit of a
line, but we're in no rush. When we reach the ground, we discover that
about half of the kids are at the first belay of Old Man's. A guide we're
chatting with at the bottom bets 50 cents that they won't be down before
dark, and I'm afraid he's right!
Wade and I make it back to our packs at the base of Old Ladies and I vote
for pizza. Wade waffles, but soon hunger beats the climbing bug. We start
our decent by 5:00. Pizza at the Front Porch, setting camp, showers and
snacks ensue. I try to call my wife to say hello, but I get the machine. I
settle for telling the machine I'm safe and happy. I find out that Wade
has to be back in town by early evening, so it's another early morning for
us. We crash out at 9:00 p.m., after watching the shadows work their way
up the west face of Seneca.
6:00 a.m. comes a little too early, but we eat a quick breakfast and break
camp. We manage to shake the rust off and get to the lower parking lot by
6:45, and we're the first car there. We make our way over to Skyline
Traverse.
The first pitch, a right facing chimney crack with plenty of features, goes
well. I feel tucked in by the back wall, not crowded. At one point, I
lean my back against it while searching the rack for pro. It's nice to
have opposing walls to rest on! I can't decide if I should go right or
left from the last ledge to the anchors, so I angle right. I clip a couple
lockers through the bolts and rig my cordelette. Wade reaches me, and I
make sure to have him look over the ledge before he starts the first airy
moves of the second pitch. That's what Dave made me do, so I figure it's
only fair. Wade clips the old piton at the start, and moves out of sight.
He has some minor route-finding problems, but he finds his way. I climb up
to meet Wade at the belay, and I laugh a bit when I see he's finally
managed to use a tricam in the anchor. He was complaining that we hadn't
placed any yesterday!
I warn Wade about the loose bowling ball-sized rock I encountered on the
third pitch a few weeks ago. When he brings me up, I see the spot where it
used to sit. I hope it didn't do any damage when it came down. We make
our way across Broadway Ledge to A Christian Delight (5.3). I only have
one spot of difficulty when I get out of sequence half-way up the route. I
start up off a ledge without finding good feet first. I work my way up a
few feet above my pro and find good hands, but I don't think I can hold
them and get my feet established safely. I know there's enough rope out
that I'll hit the ledge beneath me if I come off. That's been the case
before, but I didn't feel this shaky then! I slowly work my way back down
to the ledge, take a couple deep breaths, and find the 5.3 moves. At this
point the blinders come down a notch, and I zig when I should have zagged.
I get off route, worming through small trees and shrubs, working my way
around lichen. I realize what's happening, and I lean back and look at
where I'm heading. I think I can press on, but a couple of my earlier
pieces are causing some drag. I finally work my way to the small ridge
between Humphry's Head and the Cockscomb and shimmy over to the start of
the Old Ladies Traverse. By this point I'm physically pulling the rope as
I go. I build my anchor and yard up the excess rope before putting Wade on
belay. I tell him to shout out if slack's building up, and I keep the
belay fairly tight. By the time he gets to me, I'm winded just from
belaying. I apologize for leading him astray as I pant and hand over the
rack. "The last two are yours!"
We quickly work through the last two pitches of Old Ladies. I kick myself
for repeating these pitches two days in a row. Bad route planning on my
part, but at least they're fun. Wade doesn't complain. He's a bit bummed
that he doesn't find any good passive placements on the third pitch, so I
remind him of the success with the tricam. Wade manages to get a large cam
in on the wider section, and fiddles in a smaller one in a notch I never
noticed. It's nice to see protection points through someone else's eyes.
We're soon standing on the Summit Ledge. We head towards the Traffic Jam
rappel, which I think I've done with one rope in the past. We make the
first rap to the vegetated ledge without problems, and ask a couple of guys
if there is an intermediate rap station. They lead the way over to the
northern rappel, and say there's a tree partway down. We thread our rope
through the anchors, and I set off on rappel. I see one smaller tree on a
fairly high ledge. There's someone top-roping off of it, and I don't see
any old slings. There must be something lower. I think the rope's
brushing the Le Gourmet traverse ledge, so I head down to check it out. I
radio to Wade and tell him I've run out of rope, and I'm going to scout out
a downclimb. He agrees, and waits at the top for my report. I take a walk
to the short end of the ledge, and sure enough we're only about 20 feet up.
The route's 5.4, so this can't be too hard. I radio Wade, and he joins me
on the shelf. I wrap up the rope as fast as I can since I saw a few people
preparing to climb at the base.
One of the folks at the base, a local guide, gives me a funny look as I
peek over the ledge again and apologize for cutting through. "Where are
you guys coming from?" he asks. I explain that the 60 meter rope didn't
let us off as low down as I expected, but I thought we could manage the
down climb. He tells me that if I stopped on the higher ledge I would have
had an easier scramble to the north, towards the start of Old Man's Route.
"But it's good to know this is an option," he adds as I touch down. Wade
is having a bit of trouble with the downclimb, as the rack keeps swinging
in front of him. He can't get a good look at his feet. The guide offers
to climb up and fix the rope so Wade has an easier time coming down. "You
know, this is sort of like a high-ball boulder problem with a bad landing,"
he says. I know he's trying to help, and he's super friendly, but I don't
think that would have bolstered my confidence if I was Wade. The guide
climbs up, and Wade climbs down. We change our shoes and drink a bit of
water before making the hike back to our packs. We agree that we've
learned our rappel lesson. We're sticking with what we know works, even if
it makes for a longer walk. We would have been able to ascend or build an
anchor to get down if we had to, but we can't always count on fortune to
make up for poor planning.
All in all it's been a good trip. I've managed to lead some familiar lines
that have intimidated me in the past. I've ticked off 3 of the 4
recommended 5.3 routes at Seneca, and I'm looking forward to bumping up the
grade. I've climbed with a friend who's only been down to Seneca once
before, and without the benefit of Dave's knowledge. Best of all, we've
made mistakes and learned from them, without any injury. We head for home
with plenty of daylight left. I feel happy and humble, and eager for more.
_____________________
Mark Cato
mdc...@andrew.cmu.edu
Matthew Rutledge
> Seneca with a Bang *or* How I Spent My 4th of July Break
> July 6 - 7, 2002
<SNIP!>
Thanks for the great TR Mark!
And thanks to everyone else posting trip reports and letting the rest
of us explore new areas through your eyes.
-Matt
--
"Odd. I keep hitting the 'home' key, but I'm still at work..."
remove pants to reply
wroth
climb a friggin' 5.4! Although you're right about our guide friend, he was
very nice guy, his "words of encouragement" didn't do much for my
confidence. (note to self: practice down climbing outside not just in the
gym!)
Actually, the crux of the trip from me was not throwing up sitting at the
belay in the Gun Sight. I didn't realize how afraid of heights I am. I'm
looking forward to leading Gun Sight to South Ridge next time though. It
should be a good lesson in focusing for me.
Wade
"Mark Cato" <mdc...@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote in message
news:562715.3235461657@cfa-302-1.cfa.cmu.edu...
Mark Cato
--On Sunday, July 14, 2002 2:04 PM +0000 wroth <wr...@attbi.com> wrote:
> Good job Mark... but now everyone knows I'm a pussy because I can't down
> climb a friggin' 5.4! Although you're right about our guide friend, he was
> very nice guy, his "words of encouragement" didn't do much for my
> confidence. (note to self: practice down climbing outside not just in the
> gym!)
>
> Actually, the crux of the trip from me was not throwing up sitting at the
> belay in the Gun Sight. I didn't realize how afraid of heights I am. I'm
> looking forward to leading Gun Sight to South Ridge next time though. It
> should be a good lesson in focusing for me.
>
> Wade
Let me say in my defense that I in no way implied it was my friend Wade
Roth in the prior trip report. I could know more than one Wade. I don't,
but I could.
Wade did a great job with the exposure, and was a lot more comfortable
moving around un-roped than expected. He's one of the most
safety-conscience climbers I know. Besides, I think deep down I'm a bigger
wuss than my friend. Given my extreme level of wussitude, that might not
be saying much...
Hope I'm not boring you folks too much with my meager reports! Hopefully
I'll have a pathetic trip to the Gunks to discuss before the end of the
season.
mark
_____________________
Mark Cato
mdc...@andrew.cmu.edu