Gunks Routes: Splashtic (5.10a) & Nice 5.9 Climb

(Photo: Gail about to make the crux move on pitch one of Splashtic (5.10a).)



What happened to my Spring season?



When I got out to climb with Maryana in late April I was feeling pretty good. After warming up with Gaston, I followed her up Obstacle Delusion (5.9), thenwe both cleanly toproped Teeny Face (5.10a).After thatI led Directissima (5.9) from the ground to the GT Ledge in one pitch and we both one-hanged Ridiculissima (5.10d) on toprope. Finally, Maryana redpointed Retribution (5.10b). I wanted to try leading it too but we were out of time, so I just followed it. It was a good day.



And then I got so busy I couldn't find time to climb. Trials at work, plus a home renovation that required us to pack up all our belongings and move, meant I couldn't find a day on which to play. I couldn't even find time to write a blog post about Directissimaand Ridiculissima.



The weeks flew by.



Memorial Day was fast approaching.I was headed to Utah with my wife and kids for a destination wedding in Park City. I had plans to stay in Salt Lake City afterwards for four--FOUR!!-- days of climbing with Adrian. I was excited to climb with Adrian again, and to see him for the first time since he moved back to Vancouver in February. The trip promised to be a climbing dream come true, but I didn't want to arrive feeling out of shape on real rock.



I was desperate to go to the Gunks. I needed a tune-up!



As is my wont, I hatcheda plan: I would tack an extraday onto my Memorial Day vacation and go to the Gunks right before we left town.



In many ways this wasn't a great idea. The forecast was not good. It had been raining for several days. And I needed to be back early. Plus I had no partner.



No matter. I decided to go for it. Iharassed Gail until she agreed to climb with me for half a day. At first she begged off, saying some nonsenseabout deadlines and proposals. When I told her this was important, that I really needed to climb to be prepared for my trip, she said that some different explanations for my behavior came to her mind. And then she used some ugly words. Words Ihesitate to repeat,like "obsession" and "compulsion..."



Luckily she is just asfixated on climbingas I am.She eventually agreed tomeet me. (She had work to do but brought her laptop computer to the cliff. Talk about obsessed. I think that woman has a problem: she works too hard.)



In addition to the climbing, I decided to cash in a gift certificate Adrian had given me for a free weekday rental from the Classic Car Club in Manhattan. At no cost, I got to drive to the Gunks in a 2007 Porsche Cayman S. So even if our day turned out to be a bust, I could at least enjoymy timedriving aroundin a realprecision speed machine.







(Photo: My ride for the day. Can you believe it?)



It had been a long time since I'd driven a stick shift. I was afraid that the Classic Car Club people would immediately discover my incompetence with a manual transmission, rip up the gift certificate,and send me packing. But even though I stalled out three times on the test drive, they nevertheless(unaccountably) let me leave the lot with this gleaming whitepriceless sports missile.



"Suckers!!" I thought as I drove away, trying my best to appear as ifI belonged in this car.



Imade believeI was an investment banker with a pocket full of Viagra.



I took corners in third gear.



Ipassed people on the right.



I think I got away with it. That's what happens when you drive this kind of car. People expect you to be an aggressive asshole and they get out of your way. I could get used to this kind of driving. It felt really good.



Isped up to the Gunks in a wet mist but by the time I picked up Gail in Gardiner the rain had stopped and the sun was beating down. It was a bit hot and humid, but hey, I wasn't about to complain. We were going to do some climbing!



I pulled my Porsche into the nearly empty West Trapps parking lot and we set off to look for something dry.



We didn't find anything dry.



There was wetness everywhere but the cliff seemed tobeless soakedas it got higher.We decided to do something with an easy start. Strictly From Nowhere was open, so we did Strictly's to Shockley's. We were using Gail's 70 Meter rope; I knew I could get from the bolts atop pitch one on Strictly's all the way to the top of the cliff in one pitch. I felt greatleading both pitches. I was so comfortable,I was unfazed by the copperhead I found nestled in a crack halfway up Strictly's. I wasparticularly happy with how Shockley's went; I managed the roof with much less awkwardness than in the past and got to the finish without any significant drag.



I wasn't so out of shape after all. Maybe it was time to try a 5.10?



We were close to Splashtic, a climb I'd glanced at a month earlier with Maryana. It looked dry now. Gail encouraged me to try it, saying she thought there was pro for the crux and that if I decided to bailI could escape around the corner to the right. And the 5.10 bit appeared like it would be short. It seemed the steep wall which began the climb was only about 30 feet high. After one or two hard face moves between horizontals itlooked likethe whole thing eased off to a low-angle romp.



I had no intention of doing the R-rated 5.9 pitch two. I didn't know how we'd get down without doing another pitch but Gail said she thought there was some kind of fixed anchor up there to the left.



I racked up and did it. My analysis: I think this is a pretty good easy 5.10. It isn't a great pitch by any stretch of the imagination. But if you are trying to get your feet wet in 5.10, as I am, Splashtic provides a short steep face with just a couple of hard moves on it.



You can come into the middle of the face from the right or the left. The right may be a little easier but there is no pro for the move that gets you established on the wall. I came in this way at first but couldn't work a C3 into the only little crack that is available. So I stepped down andtried itfrom the left, where there is a good slot for a cam and a hard, steep move to get up on the wall.



Then it's just a few moves of nice climbing to the jug below the crux. I got a nice piece in the obvious slot just below the jug. Don't block this whole slot because you might want some space available there. I don't want to give the move away so that's all I'm saying about that.



Also, because I'm a chicken (and a safe chicken at that),I placed two more small Aliens in another horizontal a few feet over to the right and a foot or so higher. These cams took a little more work, because thehorizontalis sort of flaring. But I thought they were good.



With three solid pieces in, I felt ready for the crux, which is a long reach to the next horizontal.



I stepped up and gave it a whirl. And I almost made the reach but didn't quite have it.



So I stepped back down, not weighting the rope.



Trying again, I made it! Whoa, my second 5.10 onsight, just like that.



Once up above the steep face, I moved left to the Gorilla My Dreams corner instead of right to the former Gaston belay, since I knew from my previous trip to the Gunks that the Gaston station was gone.



As Gail had remembered, there was arather small tree with some good-looking slings and rings in this vegetated corner to the left. I put in a piece to back up the tree while Gail climbed the route but then she went ahead andremoved the piece after she finished climbing, usingthe fixedstation alone for lowering.The stationseemed good enough for body weight, certainly.



With not much time left in our half day I suggested we do Nice 5.9 Climb, another 5.9 tick on my list that I hadn't led yet. I had done this one on toprope a few years ago with Nani and I had struggled at that time with the crux move, falling several times before finally getting it. Earlier this year I had done it in wet conditions, again on toprope, and it seemed much less mysterious. I figured now I would lead it quickly-- it is short--and we'd go on home. It was on the way out right at the beginning of the cliff.



Inone sense Nice 5.9 Climb resembles Splashtic as a good introduction to its grade. The crux is just one move, an escape out of a corner with an overhang,and it is well-protected. (There is an upper crux but it is just a little bit of 5.8 steepness, much easier than the lower crux, in my opinion.)



In another sense, however,I don't think Nice 5.9 is a great introductory 5.9, because that one crux move is really pretty tricky. It is a stand-up move in which you have to get your weight over your high foot just right. If my memory were erased and I had to onsight it right now I'm not sure I'd get it clean the first time.



But last Wednesday with Gailit went fine, although as with Splashtic I had to step up, step down, think it over, and try it again. At which time I got it, without ever weighting the rope.



And so I went home happy with my climbing, and ready (I thought) for Utah. Little did I realize that the granite slabs and cracks of Little Cottonwood Canyon would humble me, making this day in the Gunks seem like a distant memory.



Stay tuned. I'll tell you all about it next time.

Central California

Okay, now that I'm “caught up” with posts from before the Jamboree we'll get to the more recent stuff though now I'm even further behind because of the lack of internet access. (Rant: it's extremely frustrating when a place – any place – says they have wifi available but it doesn't work! Yeah, they have it, you just can't use it! Sigh.) Due to where I've been, I don't think that I would have had internet access even if I had an “air card” or some other techno thingy.

Anyway, back on June 15th I left the coast near Ventura and made my way north and east to central California. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it was cool on the coast but it was hot once you got a few miles inland. A short stop in Maricopa left me drenched in sweat and the van was hotter than an oven after just 10 minutes of it sitting with the windows closed. Dry heat or not, it was still HOT.

That night I stopped at Kern River State Park just west of Bakersfield. In addition to the river, there was a lake in the park also, whose name I don't recall and didn't write down. The campground was huge. But it was empty except for one site, which had several adults and a bunch of kids of all ages. I selected a site along the river about in the middle of the campground a little ways from the occupied site. There were several cars that drove through the campground later in the evening but none of them stopped for the night.

I thought it was a little strange that with the heat there weren't more people at the campground taking advantage of the river and the lake. However, there were several groups of “tubers” that floated by. The river was high and the current was fast. The other strange thing was that no one ever came around to collect the camping fee and there was no self-serve pay station.

It was a pretty park, well maintained and clean and I didn't have any “bad vibes” about the place. Large trees provided plenty of shade from the hot sun and there was a nice breeze. All in all it was very pleasant.

The rather idyllic view across the river from my campsite.

The next morning I was up early and on my way by eight o'clock, going northeast on California 178. And what a beautiful drive it is! Following the Kern River to Lake Isabella the highway twists and turns, winding its way through the narrow Kern Valley with the river on the left and the mountain walls hugging the highway on the right.

Beyond Lake Isabella, Mountain Road 99 takes you up into Giant Sequoia National Monument. Now, why the government did this, I don't know, but it probably has something to do with how the land is used by the different agencies. We have Giant Sequoia National Monument and Sequoia National Forest. Then you have to drive 100 miles or more west, then north, then back east to get to Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest (again), Kings Canyon National Park, Giant Sequoia National Monument (again), Sequoia National Forest (a third time), and finally, to Kings Canyon National Park (again). The latter “string” of Parks, Monuments and Forests are all connected, starting and stopping seemingly at a whim. It's very confusing! But it is an amazing and beautiful area of the country.

All of the rivers and streams in that area are full to brimming, flowing swiftly. There were quite a few waterfalls as well, many with several cascades, such as this one at South Creek Falls on Mountain Road 99 in the Sequoia National Forest.

A little further down the road, in Giant Sequoia National Monument, was the Trail of 100 Giants, which was a paved trail about a mile long that wound its way up, down, and through a forest of (what else?) very large Sequoia trees. It has been 30+ years since my last encounter with these magnificent things and I was impressed all over again.

There is no way that you can capture their immensity in a photograph. Of course, that didn't stop me from taking pictures!

At one time, these were three individual trees. I found it interesting that Sequoias gain their full height in the first 300 years at which time they aren't all that big around. As the years pass, they (like most of us humans) get bigger around. And, if they are growing close to others, they could, as these have done, join together. The boy standing between the two trees on the left is about four feet tall.

One of the things that surprised me regarding these trees is that the bark (or outer layer) is spongy. It gives when pressed upon. This tree has a portion of the outer bark layer missing, but it was still alive and growing.

Whoa... A cabin had to be built

As I understand it, the mountain has often been shrouded in clouds, rain and snow over the past few weeks. But how would you know unless you came here for yourself? Certainly I've done little to keep you informed through this blog... But what can I say? This ranger/blogger needed a vacation and along the way, I caught a batch of writer's block.

Thankfully an ultra-reliable IBM oriented PC is at my finger tips with MSFT software gliding me happily towards another post. I know - Mac's are cool and all, but I needed some sort of flimsy excuse to avoid another post while building a cabin in Alaska for Ted (the Camp Muir guru). BTW, I really appreciated all of the nice Mac folks who took the time to defend their product and offer help. I hope you'll still read this blog knowing that's it's driven from a virus prone, often crashing, operating system. ;)

So what's shaking on the mountain? Well, a few roads have re-opened, and a few ranger stations have closed. September turned out to be a very quiet month for independent climbers. Many (I suspect) gave up on the super-dooper extra long DC climbing route. Thankfully the guide services successfully kept it afloat when most of us would have gone home empty handed. But the past 2 weeks of inclement weather really shut things down on the upper mountain. As the snow settled in, the DC and other "kicked in" routes finally disappeared for 2007.

If you're a downhill oriented person, this sort of news has you jumping for joy as ski season is descending upon us rapidily. And after reviewing the current weather forecast for this upcoming week, Mount Rainier is going to see a lot of snowfall! Sharpen your edges, wax those boards, pack your backcountry avalanche gear and check out the Paradise and Camp Muir telemetry sites for updates on how much snow you could be playing in this weekend.

The first post back might be the hardest, but now that I've broken the bubble I intend to publish more information this fall. There has certainly been a number of neat events that should be shared... And hey, I mostly want to follow up on Maria Cantwell's visit! That's largely because we climbing rangers were star struck by the Senator, as she turned out to be quite hip and very down to earth. Who would have imagined such coolness in DC? Maria Cantwell with Jeremy Shank and me, photo by Mike Heavey

In the meantime, send me your thoughts and comments, and I'll try my best to kick this blog back into action. Photo above: Jeremy Shank cabin building on Bald Mountain near Talkeetna AK, image by Mike Gauthier.

OCTOBER - OUR NEW HOME

We found our new home! A 2002 Safari Trek 28' Motorhome. We fly down to Orlando Florida and drive it back to Cape Cod.

Nomic mods?

A number of climbers have asked about modifying the original Nomic to change the umbilical attachment point like the new generation. The following is from a post I made on a climbing forum last winter after the OR show in SLC.





One of the new features Petzl has incorporated into the newest Nomic and other tools coming out the fall of is a way to add an umbilical attachment leash without it being under your hand while climbing.

Basically what they did is drill a hole through the aluminum section the protrudes into the pommel and then mill some of the Delrin pommel away to fit sling material down both sides and out the pommel. What Petzl showed at the OR show was some pretty thin cord (2mm or something like it). Not enough for my liking, thanks. So I did the same with a thicker diameter cord that would take something more than body weight. I have been using 4mm cord that tests at 900#

Easy mod to do to the old Nomic with a hand drill and a file if need be. I used a hand drill and a mill. Much cleaner answer than what I have been using.

Original attachment




Cut Pommel



Additional 5mm hole drilled.



both sides are then counter sunk and a new cord added







New cord slotted in the pommel, "New" Nomic!








After looking at this more closely I find it hard to believe that the new Nomic pommels with the serrated "spike" won't retro fit the old tools.

While looking at the new tools (all prototypes) and taking them apart at the OR show my guess was the old Nomics will take both the new picks and the new Pommel. Although Petzl originally said no on both, my Nomic pick/hammer fit their newest Nomic (I actually fit it to their tool)...but like I said they were prototypes at the OR show. I'll have mine shortly and will up date this blog entry when that happens.

More on the use of 4 and 5mm cord.

From an earlier BD email exchange last winter when I asked about the issue of the small BD biner (worried about the sharp edged proto types that I was using. The new Production stuff has much better and rounded edges) on 4 and 5mm cord laced to Nomics with a BD Spinner umbilical.

Black Diamond said:
"Just tested this to 800lbs (single leg). No damage to the 4mm cord or our steel clip (production quality with more tumbling to the part); the bungee webbing breaks first. Then pull tested our steel biner clipped to 5mm cord, this went to 1600lbs before the cord broke."

I would also make sure to use a knot like a dbl Fisherman's in drop form instead of an Over Hand which is typical and much weaker (30% less or more?) in this application. And something like half of the original tensile strength of the rope! Easy bet the cord broke at the knot no matter what knot he was using. But worth hedging your bets here for several reasons. But 4mm seems a good compromise for size (getting it under the pommel or in your hand) and strength. Hanging on a tool is not a dynamic load. Fall far enough and require static cord and webbing to take the dynamic impact load and you'll blow through 5mm or the webbing easily.


Either way I think the newest leash attachment is a good improvement on the tools...and worth doing on the older ones if you are so inclined. It isn't much work and I don't see a down side.


For those that asked. New Nomic picks (if they are cut for the hammer) will fit the old Nomic heads with a spacer...a simple washer will work there for a spacer. If they are not cut for the hammer the pick will bolt right up as normal.

From the prototypes shown at OR this winter the Petzl hammer and adze will not work without cutting up your old head a tiny bit. They were prototypes but I suspect very close to what we will see as production.

The new Petzl in cut head is to further support the hammer and adze in use. I used a similar technique to support the CT Nomic hammer without cutting the aluminum tool head and got a lower profile and better balance as advantages.

More details and photos in the link below.



http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/947849/Searchpage/1/Main/73195/Words/new+nomic/Search/true/Re_New_Nomic#Post947849

Winter hits the Laurel Highlands

Welcome indeed!

Well it looks like the winter weather has hit the Laurel Highlands and should get the Pennsylvania ice climbing season underway. So far its been scratching at rock with little to no ice. The cold weather hit and within 24 hours I had the itch to go see what I could find. Here's a brief photo report for SWPA ice climbing conditions as of January 3rd. I plan to head out Thursday and check again to see how things will shape up for the weekend. Stay tuned...



Ohiopyle State Park

Lower Meadow Run has mixed options already. Both Caveman and Anger

Management are climbable.

The upper, right end of Lower Meadow

still has a long way to go.

Upper Meadow has little to no ice but is building. The

mixed lines should be climbable soon.

SCII

Son of Beast is building fast

Final Obligation and The Awakening

Hard to see, but a potential cool new line!

The Infinite and SICK-le

Irishtown

Dynamite about ready to go, this weekend if the weather holds.

Could currently be climbed, but would better with more ice

Dirty T with a thin ice ribbon the whole way down. Looks fun!

This one could be fun soon. Not a route yet!

Mouth of Madness and The Prow both need a lot more ice

I'll leave you again with another one of those very questionable eerie things you find in the backwoods of SWPA. This is somebody's yard art. Meaning unknown... Awesome!



Happy Climbing!

San Felipe de Neri Church

This is the huge, old Catholic church in Old Town Albuquerque. It is over 200 years old. I took this photo from across the street from the church, and you can see the steeple and gates leading to the area in front of the church. This church is still used and very popular for weddings and other celebrations. This church is known as the historic San Felipe de Neri Church.