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davidji
Oct 31, 2003, 6:33 PM
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This post got me thinking, and I realized that some of the most fun, scariest, and most physical climbing I've done was in chimneys.
Do you have any chimney stories? What's your favorite? Most burly? Scariest?
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findingit
Oct 31, 2003, 6:59 PM
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hehe, my first chimney was a mini adventure.....it included my first leader fall on gear and I misread the description in the guide book and got stuck in a hole.........it was about 60 ft high, the chimney ended at a roof, the roof had an opening that went through to the forest floor above. Are you forming the picture? Oh yeah, there was a chockstone wedged in the hole as well....a nice big one. Anyways, I thought I had read that you were to top out by squeezing through the hole at the top.......so I went for it (thinking how cool is this?). I was able to get my upper body through the squeeze but was unable to fit my harness through due to my rack. So I decide to squeeze back down to unload some gear and toss it up so I could fit. At this point I realized that I was stuck.....I couldn't go up or down. Here I am, half a body poking up through the floor of the forest.....such a moron....can you imagine if someone came walking by? Anyways, I was starting to worry a bit, I was having thoughts of sending my girlfriend who was belaying me to get help....but although I was quite stuck I didn't like the idea of being takin off belay just yet. So I decide to get back down no matter what it required. I wanted so bad to be able to pull that Mel Gibson move and dislocate my shoulder on demand. So after some serious mental resolve not to freak out and some painful wiggling, I was able to get down. After getting down I was able to chain a couple slings with a big hex and toss it around the chockstone and lower off. Later I collected my slings from the top, and looking at the hole I lowered my head and walked off with my stinging wounds laughing at me all the way. The name of the route is 'The oyster and the Pearl'. The guide book reads "...climb to the opening in the roof, find the pearl." I saw "...climb through the opening...."
That was a good one.....oh and the fall was clean, on a good size hex.
That's my first chimney....
later
clint
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mreardon
Oct 31, 2003, 7:05 PM
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In reply to: This post got me thinking, and I realized that some of the most fun, scariest, and most physical climbing I've done was in chimneys.
Wait until you try off-widths....
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iamthewallress
Oct 31, 2003, 7:13 PM
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Here's a link to my DNB TR...I think you've seen it.
http://www.camp4.com/morebigwallart.php?newsid=376
I climbed the Left Side of the Worst Error on Elephant Rock last weekend (read...I was blissfully terrified following/hang-dogging it) and wrote this post about it in the Warrior's Way Forum
http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43130&sid=72a187f7204371792bbdcaabc6917aad
It was the most sustained chimney that either I (not saying much) or my boyfriend (saying something) had ever seen. The second pitch (third in the book) was probably 170 to 180 feet of sustained foot-knee chimneying from about 30 feet behind the pinacle. Barely any pro. The summit reminded me of the spires as it was comparable in size and fully detached from the main wall. It was one of the coolest climbs I've been on.
I've only led a couple of chimneys and those have been on flares w/ pro in the back on big cajones days. I'd love to get feeling secure enough in my climbing to run it out up the real deal though.
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holmeslovesguinness
Oct 31, 2003, 7:13 PM
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Just started climbing chimney's and offwidths at Vedauwoo this summer. It's definitely a beating when you don't have the technique dialed in. The Vedauwoo guidebook I have sums it up pretty well - there is a cartoon on one page showing a climbers bleedding, shredded, taped up hand writing "Only 5.6" in blood on the rock :lol:
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takeme
Oct 31, 2003, 7:17 PM
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In reply to: This post got me thinking, and I realized that some of the most fun, scariest, and most physical climbing I've done was in chimneys. Do you have any chimney stories? What's your favorite? Most burly? Scariest?
About a year and a half ago, in March my good friend Dave and I decided to spend a week in Indian Creek. We had both been there before, but the problem was that neither of us had climbed all winter--about 4 months. After a couple of days flailing on on single-pitch cracks, I somehow managed to talk both myself and Dave into attempting the Lightning Bolt Cracks route on nearby North Sixshooter Peak, which rather than being a mountainn in the normal sense, is a stunning desert tower in the northwestern part of the greater Indian Creek area.
Dave in particular was not having a great time with the climbing thus far into our trip, and it was somewhat remarkable that I was able to talk him into the climb, even on the condition that I would lead all the pitches. The technical crux of the entire climb is a finger crack 15 feet off the deck. I nearly nailed it, but took a short leader fall. Great, I thought--that was the crux, I'm out of shape but I almost sent--rest of the climb should be pretty doable.
NOT!!!! 50 feet later I'm struggling from an overhanging offwidth into a leaning, tight chimney (this whole upper section is rated 5.9), with my largest cam tipped out below my feet. At my wit's end, I spy a hairline crack left of the chimney, and manage to wiggle a #2 BD stopper into it. Out of options I decide to yard on the stopper, which slowly but promptly begins sliding down, and, I'm assuming, soon enough out of the crack. I instinctively tighten my flailing right-side knee-and-arm bars, while still keeping about 50% of my weight on the stopper. Somehow, by distributing my weight in such a manner, I manage to avoid falling (undoubtably, all my weight either on the stopper or in the crack would have resulted in the big ride), and thrutch into the more secure regions of chimney. Brutal.
The second pitch is a flared 5.9 chimney into an overhanging fist crack, about which the less said the better. Suffice it to say I hadn't done enough of those types of cracks in the previous days' warm-up at the Creek.
The third pitch ascends a monstrous 20-foot bombay flare, which looks impossible from the ground but is actually the easiest part of the entire route. Above this the rock gets progressively sandier, and soon I find myself at the base of an impossibly narrow looking chimey. No protection at all if climbed on the outside, off-width style, but it looks as though if I squeeze inside, I'll never get out!
Dave is one of the funniest people I've ever met. He's also afraid of heights, and his witty streak is running high as he turns the giant roof below me. I start giggling uncontrollably, both at his off-the-wall comments, and at the fact that I'm about to die, either by taking a huge fall while offwidthing, or of starvation while stuck deep in the chimney.
"Uh, Dave, great job man! That should pretty much wrap things up--about 30 more feet to the top. This chimney doesn't look so bad."
"Yeah, maybe I'll give it a shot."
Amazement, relief, and joy course through me. Dave is about half my size, and he might actually be able to get deep in there and still come out again. He rises to the occassion, and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I cannot stop giggling and heaving with laughter at the comments coming from deep in the chimney. I'm not sure if Dave will ever climb with me again. Following, I get stuck trying to get inside, then give up and offwidth up the outside. I can't imagine leading the thing. On top, Dave is all smiles. We take in the best view of our lives....
Postscript: oddly, this heroic lead did not convert Dave into a chimneyophile. Last week we climbed Honeymoon Chimney on the Priest, and apparently I neglected to tell him about the chimneys and offwidths on the first pitch. Following the pitch, Dave, who hadn't touched a chimney in the year and a half since Lightning Bolt Cracks, wasn't happy, but he sure was hilarious. My poor mother....
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davidji
Oct 31, 2003, 7:18 PM
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In reply to: Wait until you try off-widths.... |
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iamthewallress
Oct 31, 2003, 7:22 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: Wait until you try off-widths.... That's part of the reason that "most physical" was qualified with "some of". The right squeeze chimney can give a similar "fighting for upward progress" feeling, but with more upward progress, and more fun (and if it's a rattley squeeze), more fear.
Transitioning from one to the other is often the crux for me. (Generator Crack...ugh! Give me the stacks down below over the coversion to the squeeze any day!)
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braon
Oct 31, 2003, 7:37 PM
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Long chimneys have always scared me. Maybe it's the no-pro thing. At least with an offwidth I have the gear to protect it. Working on this though. Someday I'll be able to do a full-body stem across a 7 foot chimney. :shock: The Terror!!!!!!!
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davidji
Oct 31, 2003, 7:47 PM
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In reply to: Transitioning from one to the other is often the crux for me. (Generator Crack...ugh! Give me the stacks down below over the coversion to the squeeze any day!)
I failed on Doggie Do in the transition out of the short chimney section towards the top in the photo. A later image in this sequence shows that this guy did better than me. I have excuses (my left elbow was still swollen from a fall in a different chimney). But it didn't matter: it never ocurred to me to be left-side-in at the crux anyway.
http://www.takatori-yama.org/...yose2001/yosem21.jpg
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iamthewallress
Oct 31, 2003, 7:49 PM
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I seem to remember beta that you can do a walk-up TR on Doggy Do. True?
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davidji
Oct 31, 2003, 7:52 PM
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In reply to: Long chimneys have always scared me. Maybe it's the no-pro thing. At least with an offwidth I have the gear to protect it. Working on this though. Someday I'll be able to do a full-body stem across a 7 foot chimney. :shock: The Terror!!!!!!!
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=19779
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davidji
Oct 31, 2003, 7:57 PM
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In reply to: I seem to remember beta that you can do a walk-up TR on Doggy Do. True?
After seeing how the guy in the photo sequence did it, I may go back and try again. Doggie Deviations, a little east of it was a blast and well worth the approach. And while I'm up there...
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ep
Oct 31, 2003, 7:57 PM
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In reply to: I seem to remember beta that you can do a walk-up TR on Doggy Do. True?
True. It's not that much harder to lead though. A good OW practice pitch. And there's a fun 5.7 squeeze right next to it.
Chingando is another good one that can be toproped. It's not a walk up, but the approach to the chains is a very interesting 5.4 journey in its own right.
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brutusofwyde
Oct 31, 2003, 8:05 PM
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Here's one...
My nomination for tightest chimney I've ever climbed.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=8ekl8b%24paa%241%40nnrp1.deja.com&rnum=1
First Chimney... Underpass on Intersection Rock, J.T.
Favorite Chimney... Steck Salathe' on the Sentinel, Yosemite
Wildest Chimney... Honeymoon Chimney on the Priest, Castleton Tower area
Scariest chimney... Texas Flake, Nose of El Cap
Coldest Chimney... SE Chimney, Mt. Waddington
Dirtiest Chimney... Mobile Chimneys route, Thor Peak, Mt. Whitney Area
Shortest, Hardest chimney... Ipecac, Joshua Tree
Honorable mentions:
Stonehouse Chimney, Tuttle Creek area
Milktoast Chimney, Tuttle Creek area
Zigzag, Intersection Rock, JT
Waterchute, Intersection Rock, JT
Beckey Route, Finger Rock, California
El Cap Spire and The Ear, Salathe' Wall, El Cap
Still on my list:
Liquid Sky, Sixshooter Peak, Indian Creek
Mr. and Mrs. Bridges, rumored to be somewhere in Utah
Welcome to Chimney Rock, Sequoia NP
Between a Rock and a Hard Place, JT
Brutus, armed with a #5 BigBro
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atg200
Oct 31, 2003, 8:07 PM
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honeymoon chimney is a burly one, eh? 5.9 my ass on that first pitch. my favorite part of that climb was reading the register on top - there was an entry from a girl complaining about getting sodomized by her belay device on the first pitch squeeze chimney. later that night at indian creek we are spraying about the climb, and sure enough some chick pipes up "man, my belay device was sodomizing me on that pitch". classic.
another time i was climbing with uncle big green in the south platte on a 10a offwidth and squeeze chimney. ubg is a runt, and tunneled for the back of a narrow squeeze chimney to place a big cam halfway up the pitch. i climbed pretty well up to that point while following, but i was much too big to get into that chimney. i couldn't reach the cam, or even reach the biner to unclip the rope. i tried hanging on the rope and tunneling in hands and shoulders first, but still no dice. i ended up having to lower off, ubg had to downclimb 30 feet or so to place a rap anchor he could get off with a single lien, and he had to tunnel in on the way down. beware following squeeze chimneys if you are much bigger than the leader.
my least favorite chimney experience ever happened with addiroids on the three gossips. i didn't read the topo too well and the 30' long squeeze chimney at the top of my pitch came as a complete surprise. i couldn't protect it, and to make matters worse one of my wall shoes got stuck in the damn chimney halfway up. i ended up having to leave it and finished the pitch in one shoe and a sock. totally desperate, but listening to addiroids bitch about the stench when he cleaned it made it almost worthwhile.
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takeme
Oct 31, 2003, 8:28 PM
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In reply to: Still on my list: Liquid Sky, Sixshooter Peak, Indian Creek Brutus, armed with a #5 BigBro
I think there needs to be a law against climbing that route. I got a real good look at it while climbing Lightning Bolt Cracks. That crack extends most of the way up and all of the way through the tower (some other OW horror--not the Pratt crack--climbs the analog on the opposite side), and it seems that all it would take is a little pressure (and much would be exerted in climbing that route!) to split the tower in two!
Regardless of that, the route is about the worst looking horror-show I've seen, especially for big folks like me. People, we're talking about a 5.12 offwidth squeeze 20 foot roof, fer chrissakes!!!!
All yours, Brutus :wink:
Charles
p.s. Brutus--you might look into Space Tower up in Kane Creek Canyon next time you're in the Moab area. Short approach, one very long, or two moderate length pitches, and very similar to the Priest, but possibly even wilder. Kind of like the second pitch of the Priest, but 5.9 instead of 5.7. The top in particular is extremely frightening, where the full-body chimney "narrows", i.e. you must chimney between 2 narrow ribs of rock, while the rest of the chimney becomes so wide as to be impossble. Then, one is required to pull onto one wall of the chimney. There is a bolt (the only one on the route--cracks in the chimney provide good pro most of the way) not terribly far below you on this section, but you don't want to fall! The actual name of the route is "Hallow Souls"--it is the only route I know of on the tower. I wrote a description for www.climbingmoab.com
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iamthewallress
Oct 31, 2003, 9:08 PM
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In reply to: ahab. right of moby dick. "5.10b" hah.
Ahab's poor cousin...
Left side of Moby Dick.
5.9. hah.
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davidji
Nov 1, 2003, 12:56 AM
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I've gotten the time to read more of the stories here. Entertaining stuff. Chimneys and OWs certainly make for interesting climbs.
The one I remember as most fun:
Right Side of the Cookie.
The scariest for me: Harding Chimney at Sugarloaf. It pales in seriousness to the ones discussed above, and it isn't especially hard at 5.7, but I had no pro large enough, and my only real protection was not falling.
Worst stuck experience: The same Harding Chimney. Got my foot stuck heel to ball of the foot. Couldn't twist it out. Couldn't wrench it out with my hands. Wasn't carring a knife (to cut off my shoe). Finally kicked it out with my other foot. I guess I could have used it as a belay anchor to bring my partner up...
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iamthewallress
Nov 1, 2003, 2:35 AM
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Lemme guess...You went climbing with Nathan Sweet?
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davidji
Nov 1, 2003, 3:20 AM
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In reply to: Lemme guess...You went climbing with Nathan Sweet?
On the Harding Chimney, he had climbed it years before, leading a beginner. He downplayed the boldness until after he followed me up the squeeze. He attributed it to repressed memory.
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coclimber26
Nov 1, 2003, 2:59 PM
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We are roadtrippin to red rocks next weekend to climb Epinephrine. Nice 300' chimney...I'll write back how it was..
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karlbaba
Nov 1, 2003, 3:27 PM
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I enjoy chimneys. Here's my Yosemite list
Worst Sandbag: Ahab (the Narrows on Steck Salathe is a close second)
Fun long chimney climb: NorthEast Buttress on Higher Cathedral
Punishing but rewarding Chimney climb: Steck-Salathe
http://member.newsguy.com/~climbing/Return_of_Gunks_Gumby.html
Scariest Epic Chimney climb: Wild Thing
http://member.newsguy.com/~climbing/WildThing!.html
Worst Reputation for what turned out to be "not too bad": Hollow Flake on the Salathe
Peace
Karl
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dingus
Nov 1, 2003, 3:31 PM
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My favorite chimney is the West Arrowhead Chimney, which is the 3 rap descent for the Arrowhead Arete. It's got all the classic features you want in a chimney, house size chockstones, overhanging raps, framed views of Sentinal Rock and the solitude of wilderness in a town of 30,000 people, but you don't have to climb it!
Come on, a legendary chimney that you don't have to climb...
Huh? HUH?
Speaking of Brutus of Wyde, take a peek at Wagon Train! Yee Hah!
Git em up, move em out!
http://www.sonorapassclimbing.com/...%20Wagon%20Train.jpg
Pro 6 - 12 inches. Take some smaller stuff for the belay.
Check out the zip line... it's hanging vertically.
Here's another view:
http://www.sonorapassclimbing.com/...0Wall/Tag%20Team.jpg
Gotta wait till next year to nab the 2nd ascent. Time to save up for the #9 and #12 Valley Giants.
Was a pleasure to hook my wagon to your train there Brutus. You're one hell of a trail boss.
DMT
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climbaholic
Nov 1, 2003, 8:36 PM
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I have to put up a disclaimer - I'm pretty poor at climbing chimneys and still curse and moan on many 5.7 chimneys.
But my favorite chimney is Sunshine Chimney - Centre in Squamish. It starts with 30 feet of crack climbing that takes you to a nice sidewalk that leads into the bowels of the cliff. You walk deep into here and start chimneying up the back. The chimney splits and then bears left. The chimney slowly gets narrower and more horizontal. By the end you are on your hands and knees and poking your head out on a face a good 50 feet to the left of the belayer - needless to say...there was lots of rope drag. But some crazy climbing that felt more like caving.
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