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rideandclimbkid
Mar 10, 2003, 4:18 AM
Post #26 of 30
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Registered: Dec 4, 2002
Posts: 139
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got a little BWT goin here....
if you were to make a wedge out of douglas fir...pound it in the crack...you could PROBOBLY get even MORE bite by pounding a lost arrow into the middle of the wood. this would force the wedge even farther out further wedging the wedge lol....get it? then you could prolly just clip the pin in the wood. basically...wedge the crack with wood, then split the wood with a pin..the pin wedges the crack in the wood, the wood wedges the crack in the rock. i think that makes for less of an angle...but then...im in fundamentals of geometry haha
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pbjosh
Mar 10, 2003, 4:56 AM
Post #27 of 30
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Registered: Mar 22, 2002
Posts: 1518
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rideandclimbkid-
$20 says if you try putting an arrow in a piece of lumber 6-12" wide in a crack you will split the wood.
A further $20 says when you weight it the whole thing will fall apart and you'll be airborn.
josh
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bigdan
Mar 10, 2003, 7:03 AM
Post #28 of 30
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Registered: Jul 12, 2002
Posts: 142
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if you tell me where it is, i'll tell you how to climb it.... (sinister laughing)
just kidding. good luck, sounds like a real desert adventure. let us know if you make any progress.
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base104
Mar 10, 2003, 3:26 PM
Post #29 of 30
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Registered: Jan 27, 2003
Posts: 34
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I doubt the LA in the wood trick will work, either. I bet you just end up with two pieces of wood and an LA.
A long time ago I spent a summer in Chamonix with three other Americans, one of whom was the infamous Walt Shipley. One day I got this Welsh kid who had been hanging around and took him up the Brown/Whillans on the Blatiere (I led all the pitches and he jugged). The route was put up in 1954 and has this offwidth pitch called, appropriately, the FISSURE BROWN. The frenchies had, over the years, sewn this baby up with fat wooden wedges. That's all the pro you got for a ways, and they seemed bomber, even though some were pretty old. Now this was a parallel sided crack. It was near impossible to free climb around the wedges without stepping on them, they crowded the crack so much. What I managed to do convinced me it was probably hard 5.10, and was probably put up with no pro at all. Joe Brown was a badass. Whillans too.
So, wood wedges do work and have a history in Europe, anyway. I have no idea if they will work in a flaring beasty like you are describing. If you can't even get a cam to stick, I'm afraid you are going to have to get with your partner, knock back many beers, and get REALLY inventive. You say you can't even grovel back deep in the crack to get something to work?
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dingus
Mar 10, 2003, 3:55 PM
Post #30 of 30
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Registered: Dec 16, 2002
Posts: 17398
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I admire the tenacity of the FA team really trying to figure a non-chipping solution to this problem. I have no suggestions to add. However, a 30' cheater stick just may be the preservationist way... no pin scars, no chipping placement rails, no ledge falls, etc.
OK, let's say you find some horribly unconventional way around this impasse. You complete the line. As you rap into the sunset, will you be saying, "this route is unbelievable. Man are other climbers gonna drool over this one! It's gonna be a desert classic I just know it!" or will you be saying, "Ho hum, just another scary assed death climb in the desert no one else will ever bother with..."
If it's the latter, then your ethical decisions apply mostly to you and your partner. You'll perhaps get a metntion in a guide and bragging rights over, "See that route? That's MY route. Uh, no, don't bother. It's not that great."
But if it's the former, if you believe this has the potential for seeing a lot of traffic, then it may make sense to place a couple of bolts in that flair. Not for you, but for those who will follow. I don't know and maybe it's just me, but if I have to cut and customize my pro out of a pile of lumber in order to repeat a route, it is likely, very likely, that I will seek out another route.
I'm just suggesting that there may be a community service angle worth considering...
Course you could do whatever you wish and just not tell anyone where the route is.
DMT
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