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drunkenmonkey
Nov 7, 2005, 11:29 AM
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Hi all,
quick question about Salathe Wall.
I understand the usual way to do Salathe would be to do the Free Blast, fix ropes, come down, haul up pigs the next day or so then start the meat of the route.
For some reason this doesn't sit well with my own strange ethical mix. I would rather start from the ground and do it in one continuous push. Is there any obvious problem with hauling up the Free Blast (other than getting in the way of faster parties) or any other issue I'm missing.
Take it easy
P
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cultureshock
Nov 7, 2005, 11:59 AM
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From what i understand the free blast is pretty slabby. This makes for strenuous if not tedious hauling. If you fire the free blast and then rap down you also get another night on the ground, ie better sleep. Also i believe hauling the free blast and climbing it all in a day is a good amount more effort time wise.
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asandh
Nov 7, 2005, 2:32 PM
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:)
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lambone
Nov 7, 2005, 7:15 PM
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The problem with hauling on the Free Blast is not that it is "slabby"...the heart ledges hauling is slabby also.
The problem with hauling Free Blast is all the places the bags can get stuck. There are many corners, small roofs, and chimneys...plus some ledge systems with loose rock that you need to haul through. All this can obviously make it tediuos and unpleasnt.
There is another way, although perhaps dangerous. You could climb up the fixed ropes first hauling your bag to heart ledge, cache your ger then rap back down and start the actuall climbing from the ground up. This is how we did the Tripple Direct. The main disadvantage is that you can't inspect the fixed ropes before climbing up them, which is scary at the least and deadly at the worst.
Have fun!
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olderic
Nov 7, 2005, 7:31 PM
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It's been almost 30 years (since 1978) but when I did the Salathe we did it in the style you prefer - one push - haul the bags bottom to top - up the Free Blast, down to Mammoth, up the rest of the way - it's just the way that things were done back in the day. At the time I didn't have much to compare it to - The Nose the year before and Washingon Column - but I don't remember the hauling being that much harder or different on the Free Blast. It will definitely be more work/take longer and with a lot more people on that section of rock now you have to consider your impact on others - but it is definitely doable.
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karlbaba
Nov 8, 2005, 1:36 AM
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I've hauled Freeblast a few times and it wasn't the end of the world. On one hand, I did fix to pitch 3 the day before, but on the other hand, I'm not that strong and lead and hauled all the pitches.
I'm a pretty good hauler though and probably weighed about 180 back then.
The crux is the Half Dollar. You have to look for the opportunity to flip the haul rope to the outside of the chimney sometime near the upper section of the chimney. then your partner helps it over the roof when you start the haul.
Do everything you can not to hold up other parties.
Yeah it's a lot of work but going all the way back down and jugging back up is work too! If you're fast enough you'll be sitting on heart ledges while other parties are jugging and hauling below.
Peace
Karl
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bsmoot
Nov 8, 2005, 1:49 AM
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We also hauled up the free blast. ( back in the 70's) The only difficult pitch to haul was the Half Dollar. We didn't flip the rope out of the chimney, so it was a pain...make sure the leader remembers to do this. We went light...1.5 quarts per day per man with no hammocks etc. Because the bag was light, the hauling wasn't bad at all.
I like your idea. For us, it was nice to start up and keep going...take some good pictures!
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jbc
Nov 8, 2005, 6:39 AM
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How feasable would it be to haul the first part of the Muir? One option might be to climb to Heart Ledges via the Muir and then on up the Salathe.
Jim
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brutusofwyde
Nov 8, 2005, 7:26 AM
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In reply to: How feasable would it be to haul the first part of the Muir? One option might be to climb to Heart Ledges via the Muir and then on up the Salathe. Jim
Hauling the Muir is the worst of the options that has been mentioned.
One pitch is entirely horizontal.
When we climbed the Muir, we hauled up Dorn Direct on the lower pitches to avoid the horizontal haul.
Besides, if you climb the Muir to Heart, you haven't done the Salathe' in its entirety.
Brutus
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kalcario
Nov 8, 2005, 7:31 AM
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we led and hauled free blast, did last 2 pitches to Mammoth in the rain, left bag at heart, fixed our own lines and still made it to work on time by 4:30 that afternoon...came back 2 days later and found our empty water bottles lying on the ground, party on the 3D pillaged our bags...we had the pleasure of watching them bail across the wall from us while we yelled "who stole our water?" and they didn't answer heh
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drunkenmonkey
Nov 8, 2005, 1:22 PM
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Guys/Gals
thanks for the input, doesn't look like there's many options really. I'm thinking we could do the FB then haul the bags up to HL as we will have a third in our party although as you said this could be a little contrived. I am keen to haul the FB although the slabby nature and the traffic on the route could be too much. I'm very keen on climbers being as considerate as possible to eaach other and would have to give it careful consideration.
take it easy
P
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mikeehartley
Nov 9, 2005, 12:58 AM
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If you have 3 going back up the fixed lines to Heart you can do what we did years ago. We simply split the gear between the haul bag and 2 packs and jugged up with them on. It wasn't bad to do and we're talking big time saver. Of course the hombre in our party (one rapped back down from Heart, just two kept going up) who jugged with the pig on was a former NCAA high bar champ. I vividly remember looking up at him thinking, "damn, sure looks like Stu could flip up-side-down". But the stud kept motoring up.
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