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passthepitonspete
Oct 10, 2001, 7:36 AM
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Hey, this is pretty swell - a place where aid climbers can chill.
I would be interested in hearing about your most harrowing aid epic, you know, the real palm-sweating tooth-chattering kind, the sort of ripping yarn that would make me reach for my chalkbag as I read it (except that being an aid climber, I of course don't even OWN a chalk bag!)
Tell us about the time you nearly died! How 'bout the time you knocked that two ton rock off? The time you took the Fall Of A Lifetime, yet miraculously survived! The time you were absolutely positively convinced you were going to get The Chop, but didn't (and made all those promises to God that you later broke....)
Let's hear the kind of story that makes the bollocks of gym climbers retract into their lycra in fear. The kind of story that only we *Aid Climbers* can tell, the kind of story that pussy-wimp-woosy-ass-
sport-climber-girlie-men can only imagine in the worst nightmare.
I've got a bunch, believe me. I'll post in a bit (right now I'm, like, falling asleep, eh?)
Looking forward to enjoying your epics.
And BORROW a chalkbag if you don't have one. You'll NEED it for a few of MY stories *grin*
Cheers, "Pass the Pitons" Pete
What?! Me free climb?!
P.S. You can blame ME for the way this page got kind of "wide" - use your "right arrow" to centre it. Sorry, I pasted this big bloody long link down lower.
[ This Message was edited by: passthepitonspete on 2001-10-10 00:37 ]
[ This Message was edited by: passthepitonspete on 2001-10-16 22:52 ]
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rck_climber
Oct 10, 2001, 3:25 PM
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Well since I don't technically aid climb (my partner might disagree ), my stories are limited to: "...So then I just grabbed the draw...." and "...Then I saw the most amazing little metal foot chip...." .
Sure some others will pipe up here soon though.
Mick
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tf
Oct 15, 2001, 4:51 AM
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This strange canadian guy placed a #0 rivit hanger on a rivit on the golden nipple pitch NS. There I am swinging over to the big flake when "SNAP" it breaks, good thing I backed it up. I think the guy was trying to kill me so booty my gear.
Guy was a pretty good photographer though, and them big choclate cookies sure tasted good.
Thanks again for them photos pete
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benjo
Oct 16, 2001, 7:39 PM
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Well, I'm not a very good story teller, but I've had a few epics and some moments when I knew there was a good chance of getting hurt or killed. A couple years ago, I was attempting to solo Road Kill (A4) on Cottontail Tower in the Fisher Towers. The climbing was heinous, with difficult nailing up flaring cracks in overhanging bulges, only to have to leave your aiders and mantle onto a sloping shelf of dirt. After a bunch of those kinds of moves and some scary traverses on sloping ledges, I came to a nice ledge at the beginning of pitch three. The pitch looked good, a thin, dirty crack in a corner. I started up and realized that none of the pins were good and I started getting a little strung out. Finally after a few moves of tied off angle tips in the seam, I came to a bolt. It looked like it was in fairly good shape except it was drilled at an upward angle. I stood on the bolt and finally felt relieved, and was trying to figure out what my next peice would be when I shifted down. I thought it was just biner shift and then I looked at the bolt and it had pulled most of the way out and just the tip of it was cammed in the hole. After some cussing, I moved down in my aiders and was just getting ready to clip back into my previous piece when the bolt blew. I zippered six or seven pieces and landed about 10 feet above the ledge at the belay with my heart pounding. After getting everything untangled, I bailed off the route and went back to my car and drank beer for the rest of the weekend.
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passthepitonspete
Oct 17, 2001, 5:48 AM
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Geez, Thad,
don't blame ME for the #0 rivet hanger that failed on Native Son - Wee-Wee the Big Wall Crab led that pitch, and it held HIS weight just fine!
Wee-Wee says YOU need to lose some weight and get down to his normal wall weight of about four ounces.
Cookies, yes - but what about our amber-coloured friend from Kentucky, Julius Kessler?
I will get around to writing my most harrowing experience on aid, but if you want to read something that will REALLY make your hands sweat, read about where I nearly died caving.
Cheers, P
Hey, if you want to read one of my more harrowing epics, check out my solo ascent of Native Son on the Southeast Face of El Cap.
[ This Message was edited by: passthepitonspete on 2001-12-29 09:26 ]
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elcapbuzz
Dec 11, 2001, 2:25 AM
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Epics. Do you know anyone who actually likes to epic? I do. That's the whole reason I like to speedclimb. Imagine going up a route that's never been done under four or five days. You never know if you're going to epic or not, because nobody's ever climbed the route in that style. Oh, it's very exciting. Anyway, most of my speedclimbs have been successful, except fot one. Eagle's Way. You can read about it on speedclimb.com/yosemite/details.htm
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justsendingits
Dec 29, 2001, 5:19 PM
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One time I was on Zodiac,2 pitches from the top,and there was this crazy Canadian soloing Z.M. next to me.It was 9/11/01 and the news came over the radio about N.Y.C.----freaked me out real good,had to shut the radio off for awhile so I could tie into the sharp end and deal!!!!Ok,so it was not an epic,still,any other day would have been just fine for my first top out on the Captain!!!!------Pete,what was the deal on eagles way?Hate to think I hauled 45 liters of auqa,with a bad wheel for nothing!!!!----RICH
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passthepitonspete
Dec 29, 2001, 6:16 PM
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Registered: Oct 10, 2001
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Well, well, well...
Lookee here what the cat dragged in!
It's another Yosemite Big Wall Theorist!
I'm just kidding of course - Rich is no longer quite so much of a Big Wall Theorist because he actually made it to the top! Rich is also my sherpa and one of Dr. Pee'd On's "patients". However, rumour has it he may have a recent big wall epic to share with us - if only his partners had asked Dr. Pee'd On about how to jug!
You may recall our summit celebration - (like you'd forget that, eh?) - because September 11, 2001 just happened to be my forty-second birthday! Definitely a day I will never forget! Thanks for the "heads up" about the World Trade Centre - I totally thought you guys were sh*tting me when you shouted over! What a day, eh?
Oh, and I, uh, er, I like have some 'splainin' to do about my OWN big wall epic, eh?
Uh, yeah. Right. [Excuse me, I'm sweating a bit here as I am about to publicly confess my failure....)
So after you humped that ENORMOUS PIG up to the base of the Southeast Face of El Cap for me only days before your scheduled knee surgery, what happened was my partner ended up bailing on me because he didn't "have enough left in him" to send the route as quickly as we would have needed to in order for me to make my airplane home. So rather than kill ourselves trying, we bailed.
Sigh.
Had we only a couple-three rest days available to us, I'm sure we could have recharged our batteries enough to send it.
If the truth be known, I was not too disappointed at not having to jump back on the Big Stone right away!
My partner Nate and I remain friends despite the failure, and this is a desirable thing which is not always easy to attain!
The good news is, I didn't have to walk very far to reach my post office box in order to pick up my air express package that had been mailed there recently.
So consequently my pig
was much smaller than your pig
Cheers,
Pete
P.S. I hope you managed to find a little beaver when you left the valley and headed south!
P.P.S. Oh, and Rich? You didn't shlepp all my water for nothin', dude........
...........you shlepped it for my Solar-Powered Shower.
Sheesh.
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