Going back in time and getting scared all over again
Gnarling
about a climb in Yosemite. Clint Cummins just wrote to me that he had
come upon the story in his google search and in turn sent me his
recent account of the climb, which gave me the chills all over again.
(Hey Clint! Post your TR, it is superb!)
Here it goes--Inez' story of barking up, or rather, dogging, the Book
of Job:
*********************************************
this may be boring if you lead 5.11...
this may be boring because it is so long too....
Trip Report
"Off Route"
Saturday, May 14 had finally rolled around. For two years I have been
wanting to do Braille Book (5.8, 5 pitches on Higher Cathedral Rock,
Yosemite). My friend Pat McLaughlin and I have been wanting to do
some good Yosemite crack climbing and chose this moderately rated
route as our first endeavor together outside the plastic crags of City
Rock in Emeryville. We teamed up with 2 others, Sue Edwards and Mike
Perona. The weather was wonderful, we got an early start up the spire
gully which leads to the bottom of this much recommended and very
popular route. We arrived before 8 a.m. and noone was there. We
weren't quite sure of where the start of Braille is, but Sue and I had
done the Northeast Buttress of Higher last year and had a pretty good
idea. "There it is," someone says, "right there." A big old shady
steep line going up next to a huge wide mossy chimneyish formation.
The first pitch at 5.7 calls for an initial face section which leads
into the crack system. I felt like a hardwoman and announced that I
would lead the first pitch. What I really had in mind was that since
we were swinging leads, my start would give the "wild stem" pitch to
Pat who is taller and leggier than I am, as I had been warned that
this pitch required real legs.
I rack up, deciding that this pitch didn't require doubling up on the
big pieces. The topo states that the belay is up a ways from a bolt
or piton. I spot a purple sling, i.e. the belay. Looks straight
forward, up I go. The face is crumbly, dirty but has pretty little
wildflowers peeking at me in places. I put in some pro and head left
towards the flakes and cracks. All of a sudden a foothold comes off,
oops. I have a good handhold and don't fall. "Watch this, it is
really crumbly up here." Strange, such a popular climb and this
rotten? 25 feet up I move over a bulge and look at the crack. Boy,
this thing is wide, but there are lots of little seams around it and
the face has nice positive features. Stemming, I find places to
protect and move up. This is very vertical and rather hard. More
pro, I keep moving, thinking that this is really difficult for a 5.7.
The crack gets thinner, I can stick my fists and arms in there and
lock. The face is polished, the rock is cold. I don't like this at
all! I plant a big piece and creep up. By now I am verbalizing that
this is hard for a 5.7.
"You're looking good." Pat tells me. I'd better look good it think to
myself. If I look bad on a 5.7, I might as well quit climbing.....
The thing gets tougher and tougher. I am starting to chimney. I can
stick my arm way in there to place my big pieces. The rock is
slicker, the features around the thing are disappearing. What is it
anyway? It looks like an offwidth to me, but it can't be, the
offwidth on Braille is on the 3rd pitch and it is only 5.6. This
ain't no 5.6..... I am panting, sweating, slamming in my big cams. I
finally reach a nice new pin, clip in, pant, ask for tension and rest.
This is embarrassing! Resting on a 5.7!! By now my pride is
dwindling. I look up at the purple sling. A long way to go and not
much pro left. The topo indicates I have to go past this spot, this
is not the belay. Okay, I'll go to the sling. My rack is looking
like a skeleton, I have a few nuts left, a couple of small friends and
a number 4 friend. I wedge myself up, sticking my right foot way in
with my left side dangling out, nothing to edge on. Just tentative
smearing on a mirror like surface. This is awful. I am meowing. I
hear people below on the ground, an unknown male voice drones: "Ah,
the offwidth from hell." I am getting desperate inching up yearning
for that purple sling. Boy this is long, this is HARD!! Looking down
I can no longer see my last piece of pro. The purple sling is too far
above me to leave my one big friend.
So, I am walking it up as I wiggle and squeeze, trying to chimney,
face and crack climb. I can barely reach in there. Ah, it is
narrowing for a few inches, plop, in it goes. Pant, pant. I am
hanging on my shoulder. It occurs to me that I might be off route.
How can that be, there is no other way! The offwidth stares at me and
my useless rack like a gargoil. The gargoil is spewing me out. I
hold on to dear life, right foot wedged, left palm on the face for a
mantlish smear to keep me from popping out. The gargoil purges. I
don't want to fall 50 feet and grab my friend. The hell with this!
"I am having to hold on to the piece!" I howl, hoping that my dignity
will be intact for immediately fessing up to the crime of grabbing
pro. "Can you make it to the sling?" Pat yells. "Yes, just give me a
few minutes, I'm sorry this is taking so long, I'm sorry I am such a
whiner!" "That's okay, looking good!" I pull myself up, skating madly
on the glassy surface. I am thinking of the Three Stooges "Inch by
inch, step by step, njaa...." There is the sling, I grab it, clip in
and scream for tension, pant, pant. I've made it, I'm here. I
mention to Pat that I think I may be off route. Pat wants to know if I
am secure.
"Yes!" I howl.
"Inez, this is NOT Braille Book, you're on the wrong climb."
"What do you want me to do?"
"You have to come down."
"You don't want to follow this?"
"No, come down."
I look at the sling which is not attached to a nice bolt anchor. It
is mereIy draped around a protrusion... not an optimal anchor and
building one would have required several large pieces which, of
course, I didn't have.
Okay, I feel like panicking but decide that I am a Yosemite hardwoman
who can cope with anything. I fix myself to the sling with my
remaining draw, pull the rope, let it back down so Pat can tie another
rope to it. I am working, concentrating on all the important stuff,
like make sure you don't lose the rope. Finally, I am set to rap
down. Now comes the fun and really scary part. I have to clean my
pro. I am hanging away from the rock, this isn't vertical, it's
overhanging!! I begin to rappel, cleaning as I go down, struggling to
stick to the rock and not swing out. This is scary as hell. All of a
sudden, I can't hold on to anything, whoosh, out I swing. No, not
this.
"Relax, I say to myself, stop dangling, slowly push back into the
rock." I can barely reach it with my toe. There, done. Pat, talk to
me! I continue on down all the way in this manner, retrieving my gear
and thanking the God I have a hard time believing in for having saved
me. Pat hugs me and tells me that I have just gained his undieing,
neverending respect.
"We realized when you were struggling that you weren't on the right
climb, but didn't want to tell you so you wouldn't freak. You looked
in control." "Yea, thanks, I was. After all, its only 5.7."
We collect our stuff and walk around the corner to the real Braille
Book. It looks like Paradise! Someone has a guide book and we look up
what I just did. I climbed the first two pitches of Book of Job, a
10b offwidth. I had led the crux of Job! I was elated.
Lesson learned: Tell Inez its a 5.7 and she'll lead anything. (in
2002, this no longer applies, by the way)
I graciously offered Pat the lead on the first two pitches of Braille,
and took my turn on the 3rd pitch, the run-out offwidth, and top pitch
with the airy traverse and gorgeous knobby face. The stem pitch,
incidentally, is truly wild. I should have led it!
Brad Brandewie
Brad
idrix...@ucsd.edu (Gnarling) wrote in message news:<2a3bd3cd.0206...@posting.google.com>...
elmar
e.stefke
Clint Cummins
It's not as exciting as yours, since we had a fairly good
idea of what we were getting into. But we felt quite challenged
and had a pretty good adventure up there.
Clint Cummins
---------------
Yosemite - Book of Job 6/16/02 with Joel Ager
Sunday. We planned to do Book of Job (right of Braille Book
and Perfect Vision). We had been curious about the route and
at this point, the idea of climbing all the routes on the Braille
Book buttress seemed like it could be done readily. We knew
that Steve Annecone had done it when mistaking it for the Braille
Book, and had described doing a lot of fully split stems.
Plus there was a posted trip report of doing the first 1-2
pitches by Inez Drixelius which I found with Google. So we
had a little beta to work with.
We had slept in leisurely and started up the route at around noon,
after doing the approach up the Spires Gully and taping our
hands. A red helicopter came by and hovered at a couple of spots,
no doubt investigating the accident there during the Braille Book
rescue attempt a few days earlier. It did not seem windy,
and the helicopter seemed to be able to hover smoothly.
p1 5.9, Clint led. Easy 5.6 face past an old fixed Tech Friend
(all trigger wires broken), to a short 5.9 hands section at
a block. It introduced us to the standard technique of the
route: get a high handjam, get your feet high, then reach as
far as possible past the 4" section to where the crack is narrow
enough to hand jam again. I stopped at a small stance with a
slung fixed pin driven between 2 flakes. I backed it up with
2 wires and a small Camalot. I could see booty fixed gear ahead
on the next pitch.
p2 5.10b, Joel led. This started with an overhanging flaring
section with a 3-4" crack. Joel reached up to place a #4 Friend
as high as possible, then tried stemming out to the holds.
This was one of the other standard techniques on this route.
After a couple of tries, Joel grabbed the Friend to get past
this section. I was able to free it on toprope by having my
body further out, but such are the luxuries of toproping.
Right after this section, Joel reached 2 fixed wired nuts;
a sling with 2 rap rings was on one, and the other (wired #7 hex)
had a bail biner. From here it is a long section of overhanging
hand and fist (when the crack is not 4"). The dihedral angle is
perhaps 70 degrees, so stemming is effective at times. The
left wall has featured black undulations, while the right wall
is fairly smooth with gold polish. So the favorable position
was to use feet on the left wall and butt on the right wall.
Joel cranked upwards with hand jamming past gaps and stemming,
making use of the double Friends #2.5-4 and one #4.5 Camalot for
the 4" bits. Above a fixed Tricam with bail biner, he eventually
ran out of gear and lowered to back clean enough to finish the pitch.
The crux was a rare fist jam to reach an incut "ledge" (12" wide
jug with 2 good parts) on the left wall. The crack above the
"ledge" was 4", but Joel employed an interesting mantle technique
to get his knees (and then feet) onto it. When I was following
here, I dynoed to the "ledge", then inserted my right leg deep
horizontally into the crack above me. I then twisted my leg
to lean back from it and started the mantle with my left hand.
I chicken-winged a bit with my right arm. Quite a wild section.
The belay was at a couple more big fixed wires and a bail biner.
p3 5.7, Clint led. This was a tight chimney (back to knees,
nearly a squeeze). After perhaps 20' of this, there was a crack
on the left wall which took a good wired stopper for pro.
I then traversed horizontally to the outside of the chimney
where the width was friendly (back to feet). Eventually I reached
a big overhang and the highest fixed sling on the route (draped
over a 3" thick flake with lots of bird poop). The overhang
was supposedly a 5.10a move, but the main crack was 4-6" (ow)
above it, and the right crack was overhanging thin and I
didn't think that could be 5.10a either. I placed the #4.5
Camalot and #4 Friend, but knew I couldn't lead the ow.
So I made a belay at a stance deep under the overhang and
brought up Joel for a look. Joel followed easily, and
managed to avoid the narrowest part by going quickly
to the outside. He then cleaned my wired stopper by
getting above it and flicking it out with the bight of rope.
p4 5.10c, Joel led. Joel did a very wide stem and reached
higher in the right hand thin crack, where he found it would accept
fingers and gear. He aided up it with a couple of pieces of
gear, and then switched back left to the main crack.
Here it was a squeeze and then back to knees chimney for a ways
above his last gear. He uttered a few occasional moans of
desperation, and also the phrase "I am a Valley man."
[i.e. I have the experience to deal with this; I can get
it done somehow]. This phrase was also dusted off on a couple of
of other hard and improbable sections of the route. He eventually
got a #2.5 in and moved it higher. More chimneying followed
to below a chockstone. Here the "long reaches between hand jams"
technique (5.10a) was used to gain the crow's nest on top of the stone.
He tried to grab a piece of old perlon here to help make the move,
but it was just sitting loose in a nest. A mantle to the next nest
and he belayed there with 2 #3.5 Friends. On toprope, I managed to free
the right thin crack at the start at 5.10c, after removing the
gear to enable hand and finger jams. I had a very difficult time
in the squeeze and knees section. Joel had been in the wider outside
section of the crack here, using his left foot on a few holds on the
left wall. I tried this at first, but my left foot seemed too tenuous
on them. So I tried to chimney it direct. It was painful on my
knees and elbows. Possibly part of the problem was the haul line
fully hanging free in space from my shoulder sling rack. So I tied
it to my tie-in to partially unweight it at times (depending on how
hard Joel was pulling on the belay rope). Another slight problem
may have been the metal buckle on the shoulder sling, which grated/caught
a bit as I tried to alternatively inch my shoulders up. My knee
pads are also too crushed from years of use, and my knees were
feeling some pain from the rock. I tried all kinds of techniques
to make progress, like chicken winging with my right arm and
regular palm pressing with my left arm, rotating my hips to rest,
bringing my thigh up horizontal, etc. Eventually I got to where
I could heel-toe jam with both feet above the squeeze constriction.
But I still struggled in the knees to back section here. After
a fair amount of cursing, I rose high enough to where I could
get a partial hand jam and started making progress at normal
speed again. The section gaining the chockstone was friendly
on toprope, and I sat at the edge of the crow's nest with Joel.
p5 5.9, Joel led. This was another steep chimney with jams,
to a belay at big flake/block with a 3' space behind it.
Joel actually climbed higher than this, but ran out of gear
on hard climbing, so he lowered to here and brought me up.
p6 5.10c, Joel led. This starts with a 5.10a face right off
the flake, on the right wall. Here there was a slight moment
of pain for me, as I got kicked in the mouth as Joel was
struggling to quickly get his left foot onto the wall.
Fortunately I didn't lose any teeth and it was not too bad.
I figured it was a small price to pay, relative to those
desperate leads. The chimney had widened to two facing corners,
but the right corner was vegetated above the initial face,
so Joel traversed to the left corner and went up a
steep 5.10c thin crack section, using some aid.
Above this, the angle eased a bit, and he face climbed up
good edges on the middle wall (5.6 but R with no pro).
It steepened below the final headwall, where there was a sharp
white flake (bird poop). Joel struggled to place a #4 Friend
here, while not pulling too hard on the white flake (as it
seemed fragile). Here he was over at the right corner,
as the left corner had become a doubly overhanging seam.
The right corner was overgrown with vegetation, so he aided
up on Friends and cleaned it (15'). At the top of the
corner, he stood in slings on a #1 wired Rock in a small crack
on the right wall to reach a big bush. After clearing some
holds on the arete and testing them, he was able to free climb
past the bush and up a few good, though questionably loose
holds to a belay ledge atop the difficulties. I was
able to free the pitch on toprope, by virtue of the cleaned
holds and of course the security of the upper belay.
The final 15' overhanging corner was 5.10c, quite overhanging
at the first moves, but fortunately there were a few freshly
cleaned footholds on the right wall and arete to make it
doable for me on toprope.
At the belay, I recognized exactly where we were, and led
an easy 40' traverse left to reach the chain anchors above
Blinded by the Light (our route on the right wall of
Braille Book). We made short work of the 4 rappels
back to the base. Then hiked down the Spires Gully
in familiar darkness. We joked about how the 5.10c
sections were misrated or completely unlisted on the
topo in the guidebook. And we chuckled about how I had
originally been asking "what will we do in the afternoon,
after we've done the Book of Job?"!
Gnarling
> isn't this where 'real women wear knee pads' got started?
That term was coined a few weeks later after Brutus, Allen Steck and I
climbed the Steck Salathe on it's 44th anniversary. (A worthy retro
trip report could be posted by Brutus.) The crucial flake on the
Wilson Overhang (5.8) was noted as g-o-n-e and thus the pitch became
10b. I was hit in the brow by a big dude I had placed in the gaping
slot above. It popped. In desperation, brow bleeding, and as expected,
I graciously turned the lead over to Brutus who saved the day.
Incidentally, Steck noted then that the route was in "terrible
condition" and pointed out where he felt anchors and bolts should be
replaced/added. We have Brutus, Greg Opland et al. to thank for a big
effort to clean up the route, which has become much more popular since
then, of course. It was my first kneepad endeavor and I felt like
such a studette.
Inez
"where the hell is the 5.8?"