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bandidopeco
Jul 20, 2005, 8:34 AM
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The short: I was forced to bivy for the night on the descent from a 30 foot limestone sport crag!
The long: Yesterday I left with my friend Naonori, a 50 something math professor from Tokyo to climb some small limestone crag about an hour and a half from where I live. This insignificant (although dry this time of year) crag is near the Jukoku pass, fairly close to Futagoyama. The hike in took about 45 minutes and followed a barely discernible trail going up a hill then followed a ridge to the cliff. This was my first taste of limestone and I had fun, although the routes did seem a bit sandbagged (the guidebook is a piece of paper kept in a tin can at the cliff which has a ? mark after almost all the ratings).
Anyway after a good day of climbing we started heading back down at around 5:30. I was pretty tired and assumed that Naonori knew the trail well even though he said that this was his third time there (first mistake). After walking down the ridge for much longer then it took to walk up, he said that we probably passed the trail and should bushwhack down to where we thought the road was (second mistake). We scrambled down a little valley for about a half an hour when he said that maybe we should backtrack to the trail. I suggested that we keep going as my innate, GPS like sense of direction told me that the road couldn't be far away and we had to be headed in the right direction (third mistake). 30 more minutes and we still hadn't found the road. We then decided that we should head back for the trail because it was getting dark so we scrambled up a steep hillside to the ridge on our left.
We hiked up this ridge which has something that looked like a path but could have been a deer run until night came. Naonori was very tired now and I was getting a bit spent so we stopped and decided to bivy there for the night (no yakitori for me). I had a pair of lightweight pants, a mountain hardware base layer T, a light stuff-able shell and no socks (fourth mistake and umm laundry day). So I spent the night with my feet in my backpack cuddling a Japanese mathematician under a rope bag. In the morning we found that we had slept on the path and it took us about 30 minutes to get to the road and another 30 to find the car.
This would not have happened had I been at my home in Tahoe because landmarks are easily discernible and I know the area very well. But the mountains in Gunma are small with complex ridge systems and dense forests plus I didn't know what direction exactly the very curvey road was.
So, has anyone heard of a weaker epic? Critiques, questions or comments?
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bigjonnyc
Jul 20, 2005, 12:03 PM
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You guys cuddled, that's sweet. :lol:
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j_ung
Jul 20, 2005, 1:00 PM
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:lol:
Posting this took balls. Not huge balls, but balls. What did Naonori think of your balls? :P :P :P
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granite_grrl
Jul 20, 2005, 1:12 PM
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In reply to: So I spent the night with my feet in my backpack cuddling a Japanese mathematician under a rope bag.
Has to be my favorite line of the whole report.....
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rastafari
Jul 20, 2005, 2:18 PM
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Omg....why did u even went climbing with him???
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elvislegs
Jul 20, 2005, 2:26 PM
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In reply to: ...So I spent the night with my feet in my backpack cuddling a Japanese mathematician under a rope bag...
boy, if only i had a nickle for every time eh?
i also liked this:
In reply to: (the guidebook is a piece of paper kept in a tin can at the cliff which has a ? mark after almost all the ratings)
frikkin classic man. thanks for the laughs.
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snoangel
Jul 20, 2005, 3:18 PM
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Yipee I get to rate posts today. And you get a trophy for this one! LMAO :lol:
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elepita
Jul 20, 2005, 3:29 PM
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AAAA++++++ that was just hilarious man, that was great, you got more stories like that? I absolutely loved it!!! :lol:
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epoch
Moderator
Jul 20, 2005, 3:51 PM
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You have to ask... Yes, there are a lot of sand bagged routes out in Japan. Ogawayama rings a bell, as well as some of the climbs out at Jogasaki. Keep up, as there are plenty of other places to have epics, especially in Tokyo, where I was once forced to bivvy in a train station.
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cloudbreak
Jul 20, 2005, 4:27 PM
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Nothing like spooning with a 50 year old man. That's an epic in itself!
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chanceboarder
Jul 20, 2005, 4:28 PM
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:lol: that was great. what a way to start off my day.
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killclimbz
Jul 20, 2005, 5:04 PM
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In reply to: Nothing like spooning with a 50 year old man. That's an epic in itself!
And which spoon were you :?:
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benj
Jul 20, 2005, 5:44 PM
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Here's my weak epic. 17 hours car to car on Royal Arches last summer. Started in the dark, ran out of water, topped out at sunset and rappelled in the dark. WHOOOOOYEH.
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rastafari
Jul 20, 2005, 6:56 PM
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That's just poor organisation
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skateman
Jul 20, 2005, 7:26 PM
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Naonori asks: where's you hand?
Reply: between two pillows.
Naonori: Those aren't pillows!
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coldclimb
Jul 20, 2005, 8:35 PM
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Hehehehe, that's definitely a weak epic. :lol: Thanks for posting, and I'm glad it turned out alright. 8^)
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htotsu
Aug 12, 2005, 5:03 AM
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In reply to: In reply to: ...So I spent the night with my feet in my backpack cuddling a Japanese mathematician under a rope bag... boy, if only i had a nickle for every time eh?
HIGH-LARIOUS. Still laughing.
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overlord
Aug 12, 2005, 5:17 AM
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
that was a great story.
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booger
Aug 12, 2005, 10:12 AM
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
AWESOME!!!
... next time, go with your geography teacher! :wink:
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vertical_reality
Aug 12, 2005, 12:03 PM
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In reply to: ... next time, go with your geography teacher! :wink:
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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climb_in
Aug 12, 2005, 12:43 PM
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:lol:
wish i could rate posts today, 'cus this is definitely gold trophy material.
congratulations to you for your confidence in your own masculinity.
:lol:
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nostalgia
Aug 12, 2005, 1:08 PM
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In reply to: Naonori asks: where's you hand? Reply: between two pillows. Naonori: Those aren't pillows!
Great story :)
-Joe
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qwert
Aug 12, 2005, 1:18 PM
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
good story. Always good stuff when your worst epics happen when sport climbing. Everybody can get lost on some big alpine north face, but it takes some skills to do so on 30 feet of sporto limestone. :lol:
qwert
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bandidopeco
Aug 12, 2005, 1:30 PM
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Thanks for the comps,
Ishii-san is really a great climber. I guess he climbed many 13's back in the day and he's still in really good shape. damn, that doesn't sound right, but there was another thread on that topic right?
I've had two other near weak epics, one in the valley and the other at Tuolomne. In a party of three we climbed the Arrowhead Arete and topped out just as the sun was setting and just when it started to rain. I got off route at one point and that wasted time and a friggen #9 Metolius cam!! when we topped out I realized it wasn't in my rack and we had no time to look for it. We ran into some ranger danger that night and drove home depressed and pissed off.
Tuolomne wasn't nearly as bad. I climbed the regular route on fairview behind a slow party and my partner and I soloed the last few 4th class sections because the sun was about halfway below the horizon after that last traversing pitch. It got really dark just as we got to the forest and we didn't have a headlamp (maybe i should staple one to my ass whenever i go climbing).
So anymore good stories of mental malfunctions in the mountains?
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