TR: a small epic
taimi metzler
Amanda and i got together on 16 November (1996) to do some climbing
up at Button Rock Resevoir above Lyons, CO. The weather looked kind
of grim, but nothing could deter us from our climb so we gathered our
draws out of the back and prepared to do the long, heinous, 500 yard
approach.
"Man, the weather looks like it's coming in," said Amanda, "you think
we'll be able to finish the climb."
I wasn't sure. The route we wanted to do was a full 10 bolts long--plus
anchors. That meant a pretty long day and it was already noon. But we
both had been looking forward to this for so many weeks that we couldn't
bail now. "Dude," i said, "we can't bail at the car." Amanda agreed.
At the base of the climb, we rested, drank some water, and looked up.
The route towered a full 100 feet above us--good thing we had a 200 foot
rope. I took the first lead. The moves to the first bolt were technical,
but had great position. I fixed the line and had Amanda lower me down.
She jugged to the first bolt and took up the lead. Getting to the
second bolt was the crux of the climb and Amanda went slowly. "Manky
jams, dude!" she called out, and i was glad i'd be jugging the route.
She clipped safely, lowered, and i took the draw for the third bolt.
Amanda was on lead to the fourth bolt when the wind picked up and the
clouds moved in faster. We could see we would be in for trouble if we
didn't hurry, so Amanda just kept the lead. We were worried about gear,
but luckily i was able to toss a few extra draws up. "Amanda," i called,
"man, the weather looks seriously gnarly. You sure about this?" "Dude."
she called back, and one word said it all--she had the determination,
the guts, to lead the final full 6 bolts to the anchor. I was impressed.
By the sixth bolt, the weather had arrived and a light rain was falling.
Amanda clipped the bolt and held out her water bottle to catch the
rain. We had been climbing for hours and dehydration was becoming a
problem--in that sense, the rain did us a real favor. Her thirst partially
quenched, she doggedly went on. Back on the ground, i searched for
something to cover the doughnuts with and opted for the rope bag. The
beers, luckily, would stay nice and cold in the rain--this rain was a good
thing after all! But i was worried about Amanda. She was nearing the
seventh bolt and with the exhaustion i knew she must be feeling, she
couldn't be having fun. I heard a groan from above, but it was only
the wind. All i could do was wait.
The climbing was supposed to ease about the eighth bolt--good thing, too,
since the rain turned to snow. We were clearly in the middle of an
epic now, and i was less worried about getting up than getting home
alive. The eighth bolt...the ninth bolt...the tenth bolt--i couldn't
hear her over the great distance. Then she was there! She was at the
anchors! I heard a distant shout of victory: her first spoken words
since the sixth bolt.
Now it was my turn.
I put away the beer and doughnuts, feeling the rope slack being pulled
slowly upward. My lycra was soaked through and i was getting cold, so
i slapped my hands together. My feet, as usual, were quickly losing
feeling in their slippers--i must be about ready to go.
"Dude!" shouted Amanda. "Dude!" i replied. I was on belay and started
to climb.
The first bolt--i'd climbed this before, so it was no problem, even the
position. Getting over the crux with the snow in my eyes was hell,
but the security of the rope at my waist let me take chances with
moves and i styled it. The third bolt...the fourth...dehydration
was now setting in for me. Probably shouldn't have drunk all that beer
while i was belaying Amanda. Five, six, seven....would this climb
never end? My arms were shaking with exhaustion and my legs were imitating
an Elvis never seen on stage. Eight, nine, ten...Amanda's face loomed
out of the mist--i was close! A few more moves, i was there! Victory
was ours!
But now we had to descend. There was a walkoff around back, but time
was clearly critical as night was about to set in, so we decided to
rap. Amanda set up an anchor, giving me a chance to rest and drink some
of the rain water she had caught. Threading the rope through the rap
anchors took only a minute and then we tossed both ends--carefully
tied together, who knew what was down there--into the swirling mist.
The snow had gotten worse and we could barely see. Amanda took
first rap and it seemed an eternity before i heard the magic word "Dude!"
My turn. The wind was fierce and blew me all over the cliff, slamming
me so hard i tore a hole in my lycra. Amazing that Amanda had made
it at all. But then i was on the ground and Amanda was holding a
doughnut out to me--we might yet survive.
Pulling the rope led to more problems--the knot kept getting stuck on the
ice on the way up and we had to unsnag it many times. Finally, it stuck
to something so bad we couldn't get it loose, even with the two of
us pulling together on both sides on the ground. What could we do? It
was either save the rope or save our lives--we left it.
The last leg of this heinous epic: getting back to the car. We stepped
away from the cliff onto the road and were lost in the swirling snow.
We could scarcely see each other let alone the road below our feet and
held onto each other's harnesses so we wouldn't get separated. We
stumbled forward, Amanda tugging on me to keep me going--i was nearly
finished. Suddenly, i heard her groan. "Dude?" i said nervously. "Oh
man," she said, and her normal English scared me worse than anything
else could have, "we've been going in a circle. These are our own
footprints." I was sure we were lost. This was my death place and
i knew it, but Amanda wouldn't let me quit. Cajoling and harassing me
by turns, she led me on and it couldn't have been 10 minutes afterward
that we saw what we most wanted to see: the car.
An epic. A true epic. Let others read and learn from this.
taimi
--
*****************************************************************
"Sure, there are differences between men and women, but the distances
aren't as far as Mars and Venus--probably more on the order of Scranton and
Altoona." --[if you know, let Me know]
Paul Tieslau
taimi metzler wrote: A Truly Epic Story
Great Epic. I hung on every word. I think you should have posted in:
rec.sportclimbing, though, where it would be more appreciated, where the
mere distance between bolts is described in awesome detail, paragraphs of
agony, inch by inch.
My first Big Wall was Welcome to the Gorge, in Owen's River Gorge. A 10
bolt 5.9, it represented 10 pitches of incredibly sustained, exposed
climbing. The haulbag kept getting stuck.
-Paul.
Gabriel J Kra
Just a guess, but it sounds like Woody Allen.
> *****************************************************************
> "Sure, there are differences between men and women, but the distances
> aren't as far as Mars and Venus--probably more on the order of Scranton and
> Altoona." --[if you know, let Me know]
>
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gabriel Kra
Marine Science Research Center
SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-5000
Phone: (516) 632-8817
Fax: (516) 632-8820
Email: gk...@ic.sunysb.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dingus Milktoast
Gabriel J Kra writes:
> Just a guess, but it sounds like Woody Allen.
>
Nope, THIS sounds like Woody Allen:
"Hey! Little Girl! Want some candy??? Here, just get in my van and I'll give
you a big treat."
DMT
Robert Ternes
In article <N.112296.124943.00@HARRISHOME>,
crha...@pacbell.net (Dingus Milktoast) wrote:
#
#"Hey! Little Girl! Want some candy??? Here, just get in my van and I'll give
#you a big treat."
#
#DMT
Beware of Dingus's 1979 Abuctor-series Econoline. You'll recognize it by the
diamond windows, airbrushed medieval warrior fantasy scene on sides and back,
severly tinted windows, oversized fuzzy dice, hupcaps featuring center
trefoils, a Xena-warrior princess action feature epoxied to the front,
shag-rug interior, and chain-steering wheel. Beware, I tell you.
Robert "And the thing has this SMELL" Ternes
rte...@u.arizona.edu
Mad Dog
Robert Ternes wrote:
> Beware of Dingus's 1979 Abuctor-series Econoline. You'll recognize
>it by the diamond windows, airbrushed medieval warrior fantasy scene >on sides and back, severly tinted windows, oversized fuzzy dice,
>hupcaps featuring center trefoils, a Xena-warrior princess action
>feature epoxied to the front, shag-rug interior, and chain-steering
>wheel. Beware, I tell you.
>
Geez Bobby - sounds like he got ahold of YOU!
Mad Dog
Patrick C Leger
rte...@u.arizona.edu (Robert Ternes) writes:
> Beware of Dingus's 1979 Abuctor-series Econoline. You'll recognize it by the
> diamond windows, airbrushed medieval warrior fantasy scene on sides and back,
> severly tinted windows, oversized fuzzy dice, hupcaps featuring center
> trefoils, a Xena-warrior princess action feature epoxied to the front,
> shag-rug interior, and chain-steering wheel. Beware, I tell you.
Jeez, don't you know anything? Child abductors always drive around in
a blue, windowless, van, and they keep a clown suit and a bag of
tootsie pops in the back!
Chris
(who drives a blue van, WITH windows, WITHOUT clown suit & tootsie
pops)
Charles Arthur
In article <56o4ek$h...@lace.colorado.edu>, metz...@stripe.Colorado.EDU
(taimi metzler) wrote:
> Amanda and i got together on 16 November (1996) to do some climbing
> up at Button Rock Resevoir above Lyons, CO. The weather looked kind
> of grim, but nothing could deter us from our climb so we gathered our
> draws out of the back and prepared to do the long, heinous, 500 yard
> approach.
>
> "Man, the weather looks like it's coming in," said Amanda, "you think
> we'll be able to finish the climb."
Woww, a tale of sound and fury, signifying.. er, wrong quotation. Well, it
started out well. And the middle was good. And the end too. Great read.
From start to.. oh, all right.
Thanks for translating the calls of "On belay" and "Climb when ready" too.
Clearly the US is way ahead of us in economising on these things. Why use
one word when you can sort of, you know, yawp?
(Just an aside: if the US is the land which invented downsizing, why isn't
it any smaller now than it used to be?)
Charles
--
UK climbing: http://www.eclimb.com/ukclimb/
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Neutrons for old!