Photos by passthepitonspete

For years, I've been looking down on this teetering heap of boulders which is the Pinnacle of Hammerdom on the Southwest Face of El Cap. Little did I realize that when I finally reached it on our ascent of Never Never Land, that there would be a beauty bivi here, eh?

Pete at centre, Wee-Wee the Big Wall Crab hanging down and left below the Crab-O-Ledge.

Pete's looking a bit crabby before drinking his first cup of coffee in the morning. Taken beneath the Pinnacle of Hammerdom on our ascent of Never Never Land on the Southwest Face of El Cap.

Taken from the pullout, the sun sits low in the sky during late October.

Sometimes one of the best selection criteria for a wall partner is how well he can haul, and this is often in direct proportion to his lard-assly-ness. Here Shawn [pirate] shows us the Better Way to operate a 2:1 Hauling Ratchet while hauling up to Timbuktu Towers during our ascent of Never Never Land on El Cap's Southwest Face.

Never for a moment would Dr. Piton imply, suggest or otherwise [HINT] that Shawn is a lard-ass, and the Doc sincerly apologizes if he has accidentally conveyed this message in any way whatsoever.

Incidentally, the 2:1 Hauling Ratchet will be the next Aid Climbing Tech Tip in Climbing Magazine. You can click here to read my most recent Tech Tip - Froggy Goes A'Juggin'.

In the 2:1 Hauling Ratchet post and the 2:1 Aid Climbing [PTPP] post, there seems to be some, uh, "confusion" among the Big Wall Theorists about whether this thing really is 2:1.

Dr. Piton wishes to assure you that the preposterous myth is true.

Illustration by Mike! Clelland

The shagadelic valygrl demonstrates the Better Way to clean an aid pitch using a jug and a Grigri.

You can see she has passed the free end of the lead rope through a crab on the jug to create a 2:1 Body Hoist.

Please read her comments below.

After the slide show given by Alex and Thomas Huber in Yosemite's Mountain Shop, I got a chance to speak with John Yates of Yates Gear.

Here we were discussing the product improvements to his adjustable daisies.

Funnily enough, John never mentioned that he had put a photo of me on the front cover of his catalogue - I only learned of it when I got back home. Sheesh.

Thomas is known to use some "earthy" language, and during his slide show in the Mountain Shop I was passed this note to give to him.

"Vhat does zis vord 'cussing' mean, Pete?" whispered Thomas, just loud enough to be heard through the microphone by the 300 people in attendance.

"Like, you're not supposed to use the F-word, eh?"

"Vell, zen," announces Thomas, "if you do not like ze language, you can take your beer, and drink it outside on ze deck!" Thunderous applause erupted.

You can click here to read about Thomas Huber's superb slide show!

On Sunday June 15, 2003 during my solo ascent of Lost In America, I was sitting at the base of the sixth pitch. I was enjoying an extra pot of coffee after having sent the scary "obligatory 5.10" bit the day before.

Suddenly Alex and Thomas came flying up Zodiac! I've never seen people climb a wall so fast - those boys climbed two pitches in the time it took me to drink one cup! Here you see Thomas short-fixing at the top of the Black Tower while his brother Alex [not shown] hurriedly cleans the pitch.

The ascent you see here has become the El Cap Speed Record at 2:31:30, but Yuji and Hans came close in September on The Nose at 2:48:30. The Nose is perhaps twice as long as Zodiac!

No, "draught frog" isn't a new kind of beer.....

I was delighted when Mike! added Wee-Wee to Froggy's harness!

Man, we should write a book....

This is photo #32 in a series of 32. You can click here to return to Photo #1.

No way!

How often could you find two teams - both of whom consist of Tom and Pete - topping out on El Cap on the same day?!

From left to right is, well, Tom and Pete and Tom and Pete. Like, what did you expect, eh?

Sheesh.

Tom Randall [mrhardgrit] and Tom Davies have just finished their ascent of Mescalito, while Tom Kasper [apollodorus] and I - Dr. Piton [passthepitonspete] - have just wobbled up Scorched Earth.

If you somehow missed Tom Randall's EPIC, you had best click here to find out how he got rescued off of El Cap while attempting a solo ascent.

And if you haven't heard how I - Dr. Piton - got demoted to Big Wall Wanker, then you had best click here to return to the first photo in this series.

THE END

It's our tenth morning on Excalibur, but we're in no rush - time for another cup of coffee. That's Lower Cathedral Rock beneath.

Nothin' but a profile shot, eh?

They tell me I have to have sixty characters in the description, hence this redundancy - sheesh.

Tom and I look pretty darn knackered after our fourteen-day ascent of Bermuda Dunes.

"It ain't over til it's over," but when we've made it to the parking lot and have beers in hand, it's over, mate!

Hillary's superb photo catches the moment perfectly.

It was one of those days you might take for granted - perfect weather, perfect climbing, perfect partners.

Andria cruised this five-pitch route so easily, even though she had fewer than a half-dozen trad leads under her belt, a week later she went back and led the whole thing.

It's funny - how you'll never forget a special day you spent with a beloved friend who has died.

And this was one of those days. {sigh}

What a great day this was! Andria had just made her first trad lead of Hai Karate.

Never content to leave it at just that, Andria jumped onto the sharp end and led another pitch on the backside of the North Fin.

I captured this image just before sunset - gorgeous colours, eh?

It was a special day for us, but it's only now - after Andria is gone - that I realize just how special it really was. {sigh}

Just a pretty profile photo of my pretty friend Andria, the day she made her first trad lead on the North Fin of Mount Lemmon.

I love this photo because she is wearing her beloved Andria Suit, as we called it.

{sigh} I miss her.....

You know, hard at work? Pete, Andria and Hillary at the Chocolate Iguana in Tucson, Arizona

I can't remember the name of this route - it started out with a 5.8 crack, and got progressively easier as we climbed higher.

I led the first pitch, and after an interlude at the first belay, she led the second pitch. The route was about four or five pitches high, and we simulclimbed the last few.

The rock was magnificently bumpy!

Andria and I enjoyed a beautiful day at Rappel Rock, high on the Summit Crags of Mt. Lemmon.

I can't remember if we made it down in time to hit the pie shop.....

I love this photo! The colours are superb. This was the day Andria made her first trad leads.

Ya just gotta treat your sherpas right!

Spike pours our morning coffee while Wee-Wee oversees from the rock underneath. The food bags are hung in the air to discourage pilfering by a certain blonde-haired bear.

[Note: While Dr. Piton is known to be fond of blondes, this bear does not happen to be one of them!]

I really like the idea of a butterfly knot in the Catch Line to help you lift your stuff more easily.

You can sometimes clip your Catch Lines beneath your pig as shown to reduce clusterf*ckage while hauling on slabs.

Looking from the top down, the main anchor is the red cordalette, which goes to the Power Point Locker just left of the corner of the ledge. The ledge has been firmly fastened to the wall so it does not blow around and tangle stuff. The pigs are attached to the Power Point with two Docking Tethers, red at left and brownish-yellow at right.

From the Power Point, the turquoise lead rope goes straight up to the blue screamer, which is the first piece of pro I have placed. You can see how I've used a short red prusik loop of a unique size and colour to hold the lead rope in the correct orientation.

The lead rope goes from the blue screamer to my Grigri, and thence to the backup knot on my harness, neither of which are shown since like I'm taking the picture, eh?

From me, the turquoise lead rope returns in front of the left beige pig, and enters the Green Lead Rope Bag which is attached to the Solo Tag Rack.

The almost-end of the turquoise rope comes out the top of the green lead rope bag, and through the slippery overhand knot chain which is directly overtop of the knot protector I use to protect the fifi hook locker on the Solo Tag Rack. You can click here to see a better shot of the slippery overhand chain knot.

The Solo Tag Rack is all that stuff left of the green bag. You can see a thin rope coming out of the bag to the fifi, then back into the bag. That is my 10m-long Solo Tag Extension Rope. The things directly in front of the green bag are cordalettes on the Solo Tag Rack.

Not shown is the top of the Haul Line attached to the bottom of the Solo Tag Rack, which goes to the Blue Haul Line Bag which you can see beneath the green lead rope bag.

The bottom end of the haul line white rope that returns to the Power Point immediately left of the red Docking Tether, thus completing the Continuous Loop.

You can click here for an excellent photo of the Tag Rack at mid-pitch.

Here is a better look at the Slippery Overhand Knot Chain that you use to back up your Solo Tag Rack as explained in the Continuous Loop with Solo Tagging post.

You can click here to see a full explanation of this photo. The black thing upper right is my Cleaner's Rack which like the ledge has been "windproofed".

Click here for a better shot of the slippery overhand knot at mid-pitch.