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Photo #2 of 3
When you are hauling with a come-along, it is important that you apply the appropriate amount of mechanical advantage.
Here Dr. Piton contemplates the benefits of a motorized winch. This is particularly important when you are stupid enough to drive Rick Old Skool's truck down Karl Baba's driveway, a driveway so steep that there was no hope whatsoever of driving back up.
Emphatically this is NOT the Better Way.
Please click here to return to the post and continue the presentation. |
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This is photo #3 of 3.
In typical Dr. Piton style [rather like Tom Sawyer] Dr. Piton manages to get the others to do his work for him.
This is particularly important when Dr. Piton is stupid enough to drive Rick's truck down Karl's driveway when there was no hope whatsoever of it being driven out under its own power.
By getting others to do his work, Dr. Piton attempts to salvage his tarnished credibility.
Perhaps this hauling technology can be applied to big wall climbing. By winching your vehicle up El Cap behind you, it would then be possible to drive to Tamarack Flat, rather than face the rigours of descending the East Ledges. It remains to be seen if the benefit of driving from the summit would compensate for the extra work expended hauling.
[Note: Make sure any vehicle you winch up has 4-wheel drive. And if you're going to all that bother, you might as well throw a refrigerator in the back in order to keep your beer cold.]
Please click here to return to the post and the conclusion of the presentation. |
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Here we see Hollieclimber demonstrating the Russian Aider System while topstepping in an apple tree in the Curry Village parking lot not far from Camp 5.
There are a couple of things I want you to notice.
First of all, you can see that the hook on her left knee is into the locker that attaches the blue Ring-O-Lette strap to the blue Metolius Adjustable Daisy. Ultimately, she will move up and put the hook directly into the green sling on the tree.
Next, note how long the blue adjustable daisy has been extended, and also how long the adjustable fifi has been extended. The fifi is turned edge-on to the camera and is hooked into the purple gate Petzl Spirit lead carabiner, and is difficult to see. It is on the orange cord with the green stripes.
Because these points of attachment are extended, Holly is by definition topstepping. You can see she's a good foot above where you would normally stand in the third step of your traditional aiders, which is where she would be were the adjustable fifi cord cinched up tightly.
Finally, notice Hollie's smile! [No, that twig is not sticking out of her mouth. Sheesh.] This is not the smile of a disturbed topstepper - it is the smile of a climber very much in balance, and very comfortable despite being so high above her piece.
Topstepping is easy, and if you are not using Russian Aiders, then you are doing things the Hard Way, and doing things the hard way is the sport of fools.
I predict that Russian Aiders are the way of the future, and that one day they will be more popular than traditional aiders.
Russian Aiders are the Better Way, and are ETS! [Emphatically The Shit.]
From left to right, Dr. Piton, Hollieclimber, Stuart Little, and Wee-Wee the Big Wall Crab. |
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Canada Post brought out these stamps in October, 2002.
It's the Seven Summits plus Mount Logan.
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[Click here to return to page
1]
This is page 14 of my presentation.
It's the morning after the night before, and we find two ugly dudes, Pete [in back] and Chris Geisler in front awakening on Wino Tower, ready for another merry day of new wave A4 death pitches.
Fortunately, it was Sean's turn to lead.
Please click here to continue to the next photo.
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[Click here to return to page
1]
This is page 13 of my presentation.
For days the three of us had been working our way up this very difficult wall. Beneath Sean's pig hung a yellow olive barrel on a catch line. I never really wondered what was inside of it.
When we arrived that evening on Wino Tower, the first decent bivi since Lay Lady Ledge, I soon found out. Sean produced a dozen cans of Olde English, the wall rats' brew of choice!
Man, nothin' like a nice warm O.E. after a long day on the rock. At 7.5%, it only takes a half a can til we're feeling no pain.
Check out the goofy grins, eh? We're feeling like kings on top of the world! From left to right, Sean Easton, Chris Geisler, and Pete Zabrok.
Please click here to see the morning after the night before.
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[Click here to return to page 1]
This is page 8 of my presentation, and shows the soloists view up the bleak and intimidating South Face of Dhaulagiri.
Dry tooling at 7700m?!
That IS sick.
But even sicker in the link above, is a photo of Tomaz pulling out his OWN abscessed tooth!
Yep. No doubt about it. Tomaz Humar is as bitchin' as they come!
Unfortunately, if you are bitchin', then you are going to have detractors, and you are about to see that even the World's Greatest Climber is not exempt.
Please click here for the next photo in the series, and to return to Reticent Wall in Yosemite.
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Well, at least he makes coffee calls!
Here we find the Tucson Hotties along with Dr. Piton, and his shagadelic big wall coffee press making a 1 a.m. "coffee run" over to the lab to bring Andria [cragchica] a hot brew.
[Yeah, she's really working hard, eh? Note that RC.com is on the computer screen behind her...]
Being the gentleman that he is, the hotties' wall doctor also brought along a couple pints of ice cream which Hillary [climbsomething] is demoing using Andria's nut tool. [Like, I forgot the spoons, eh?]
Trying to choose between the Tucson Hotties is like trying to choose your favourite kind of Ben & Jerry's - just when you think you can't eat another bite, you're tempted by the other flavour......
Ah, what a precious dilemma...
How do I do it?
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This is photo #28 in a series of 32. You can click here
to
return
to Photo #1.
See that long look on Tom's face? Don't blame him, blame me.
Check out that big wide crack leering sinisterly behind him. That is the
famous Leavittator Pitch on Scorched Earth, a notorious
offwidth starting out as knifeblade size and finishing up at
24", with every horrific dimension in between.
In lieu of a Offwidth Free Climbing Rope Gun, I brought along Tom
and his BFC's -
Big
F*ckin' Cams.
Tom manufactures the 9" and 12" Valley Giants, and he was heartbroken
he didn't get to do battle with the Leavittator.
[That was the only real pitch on the climb. Everything else just provided
access to and from it. - Tom]
See, when I
dropped
his pig, I dropped all of his big cams, not to mention more
than half of our food and water! Suddenly our leisurely one pitch per
day holiday became a somewhat desperate race against our dwindling
supples.
So we tripled our pace and gunned to the summit following Aurora,
but had to skip the Leavittator, unfortunately for Tom.
[As we got closer and closer to the Leavittator, I became more and more consumed
with the idea of somehow leading it. It was my pitch, and I was going to
get it, one way or another. It was the main reason I was on the wall in the
first place. I'd wasted almost a week making that ridiculous #16 cam. I told
everbody I was going to do it. I had to do it.
[I kept saying to myself, over and over, "I think I oughta free it. I
think I oughta try to free it. I think I oughta try to free it, and hangdog
if I have to. I think I oughta hang on whatever I can get in, and free the
rest. I think I oughta aid up as high as I can with the two #4 Camalots,
and then just go for it."
[But, this sort of thinking soon degenerated into full-blown madness: "I
can shim a #4 Camalot with a loose flake. I can use tape and webbing to sling
it on the rack. I can tape two flakes to the other #4 Camalot, and that'll
give me a #8. I can take an empty water bottle, screw the cap on really tight,
shove it into the crack, and then mantel up onto it. I can duct-tape everything
together, and get a #13. I can have Pete zip me up a basketball-sized rock,
and use that for pro. I can leap-frog giant rocks, and then shim them up
with loose flakes that I break off with my bare hands as the crack gets wider
and wider and wider. . . ." - Tom]
You can click here to see the next photo in the series, which is Tom's
telephoto shot of
our
own Mr. Hard Grit flying his flagged Union Jack ledge.
Note: You can see the
Wall
Flower dangling right next to Tom. It's also a good photo of my
Catch
Lines.
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This is photo #31 in a series of 32. You can click here
to
return
to Photo #1.
One of the most effective strategies of speed climbing is to "short
fix" pitches.
What this means is that when the leader reaches the upper belay station,
he pulls up all of the extra lead rope and "short fixes"
it to the upper station. He leaves only enough rope beneath to allow his
partner [who cleans the pitch] to perform a
4:1
or 2:1 lower-out if necessary. [If the pitch is vertical, then you
would be able to leave almost no slack at all.]
At the same time as the lead rope is short fixed, the leader pulls
up the haul lines, and puts them through the hauling devices. [If
you have only one hauling device, then you fasten the other haul line
directly to the anchor. It can be lifted later with the
2:1
Hauling Ratchet.]
As soon as the haul lines are ready, the cleaner attaches the pigs to the
haul lines with an
alpine
butterfly knot, "flags" the ledges, and then lowers the pigs out,
using the excess haul line as lower-out line.
Note: Dr. Piton emphatically recommends you attach this knot to the
pig, and not to the anchor!
[Don't do as I do, do as I say.]
The pigs then hang in space as the cleaner cleans. Before blasting off, the
leader usually hauls one of the pigs up three or four metres to prevent
entanglement.
Now that the pigs are free, the leader can continue leading while using
a self belay.
In this photo, you can see the thicker turquoise lead rope going down and
left to the Power Point, and then directly down to Tom who is jugging
on it.
The thin blue rope is the
5
mm Zip Line that allows Tom to "zip" me up the gear that he
has cleaned, and to later zip me up the haul lines.
On the right side of the frame you can see the twisted coils of the
excess lead rope that I have pulled up, and will be leading with. They are
clipped to designated backup knot autolocker than hangs from the short
sewn sling girth hitched to my donut. Looks like the rope needs to be unkinked,
eh? I'm self belaying with a Grigri.
It's important the cleaner be speedy - he needs to reach the upper
anchor before the leader runs out of either lead rope or gear!
[Pete would continually remind me that he could lead all the pitches faster
than I could clean and haul them.
[If you look closely at the right side of the photo, you can see at least
two bolts that aren't clipped. Pete didn't run out of biners, he just didn't
want to use them. That belay is near the very top of the Tangerine Trip and
has about ten bolts and rivets. Only the three that Pete clipped are
worth a damn. - Tom]
And now the moment you've all been waiting for: the mandatory
Summit
Photo, with a surprise ending! |
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This is photo #7 in a series of 32. You can click here
to
return
to Photo #1.
This is the view looking in the opposite direction along our very bitchin'
digs at the top of the second pitch.
From bottom to top - fresh fruit, ghetto blaster wrapped in blue foam, the
Blue Whale, and Tom. To the left of Tom on the skyline is El Cap
Towers on The Nose.
It's all so very comfortable hanging out on this ledge, isn't it?
Unfortunately, I must now confront my fears. Please click here to
come along, and find out
why
I was feeling so scared!
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This is photo #27 in a series of 32. You can click here
to
return
to Photo #1.
So we had to bypass the Leavittator cuz I dropped all of Tom's big
cams. But as Bob and Doug McKenzie would say in The Beer Hunter
sketch, "like the punishment is not too bad, eh?"
[No, not when you get all the leads, and I have to wear your
dirty clothes so I don't freeze to death. - Tom]
This might be the all time head crack - old A4, it was a cakewalk
after the horrors of the seldom-travelled pitches of Scorched Earth.
Beneath Tom in his ledge, the majestic concave face of El Cap sweeps to the
east. You can see climbers on Zodiac. This is the money shot - because
this is what brings me back to El Cap again and again. There is no
place on earth I'd rather be than up here with the peregrine falcons.
You can click here to see
unrequited
love on El Cap.
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This is a self portrait taken during my solo of Lunar Eclipse [A4] on the Southeast Face of El Cap in September, 2002.
I am indeed proud to be a Merrican.
Here I contemplate my Wall Flower, so named for its fragrant blossoms which bloom anew each morning.
If you are unfamiliar with the use of this essential piece of big wall climbing equipment, then you should click here to learn all about the WALL FLOWER. |
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This is like just a profile photo, eh?
That's my Clay Wadman El Cap poster behind me.
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This is photo #8 in a series of 32. You can click here
to
return
to Photo #1.
Here you can see Tom [apollodorus] standing on our Advance Base Camp ledge
at the top of the second pitch of Scorched Earth, which is in fact
the top of the second pitch of El Cap Tree. The climbers behind Tom are on
the third pitch of Tangerine Trip, a popular Trade Route.
Scorched Earth is a seldom-repeated route that comes at you fast and hard,
starting with A3+ hooks right off this ledge, moves which offer
significant deck potential. So DFU!
Back in November 2000, I stood here alone, preparing to solo this next pitch
of Scorched Earth while waiting for my partner to escape from work. He didn't,
and I later got snowed off. But not before I chickened out of soloing
this pitch, and switched to the Trip!
Tom is looking pretty happy here [hell, yeah - he didn't have to lead this
one!] - but this pitch and the one above had me a bit worried.
You can click here to see a
cool
shot of Tom's ledge.
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This is photo #25 in a series of 32. You can click here
to
return
to Photo #1.
OK, folks, this one goes way beyond being a Big Wall Theorist!
This is what happens when the Wank Factor spirals way out of
control. Here you can see how I dropped Tom's pig from a thousand feet
up on Scorched Earth.
Notice how I correctly
flagged
the ledge onto the haul line. That bit is right.
In my left hand, I hold the cordalettes which equalize the anchors,
and in my right hand, I hold the Power Point locker. My mistake
was that I attached the haul line, not to the Suspension point locker
on top of the pig like I should have, but rather I attached it to the Power
Point of the anchor. So when I untied the
load
release knot on the docking tether, the pig flew into space unattached
to the haul line!
[I was working to get the #4 Friend out of the closed-up Poison
Pill crack, when all of a sudden came this noise like a gigantic falcon
flying down away from us: a tremendous flapping and the sound of the air
itself being ripped apart. I looked down just in time to see the bags disappear
into the trees, about a hundred feet from the base. And that's what saved
the Amazing Flying Whale.
[After we topped out, I hurried down to perform Salvage Duty. I could
see that the Cratered Pig had hit full-speed without being slowed
by the trees. The large rock it cratered onto still had the scars from the
violent encounter. The Pig was blown out at all the seams, and there was
exploded clam chowder and ants everywhere. Shattered water bottles littered
the scene for at least a hundred feet downhill from the Impact Zone.
[But the Amazing Flying Whale had managed to reach out and grab the
trees with its Catch Line and was still hanging a few feet off the
ground when I arrived. The Leavittator rack of Valley Giant
cams inside was only marginally damaged. AMAZING! Not only that, my sleeping
bag didn't even get a hole in the stuffsack. Pete's headlamp, which was in
the top of the Pig, still worked. And so did two other flashlights. Not one
thing was missing or stolen. About the only things destroyed, besides the
Cratered Pig itself, were water bottles and some of my food. Quite a bit
of that was salvaged, and offered up a fine feast at the base of the
Zodiac that night.
[The next day, I put the exploded mess into large garbage bags, tied them
up and fed them to the Pig. I was able to easily carry it out like that,
despite the blown-out seams. - Tom]
Please click here if you would like to understand exactly
How Dr. Piton pulled the ALL TIME BONEHEAD MOVE and dropped
Tom's pig.
Sheesh.
[You can carry on by clicking here to see my next photo, and find
out how
Dr.
Piton Saved the Day. - Tom.]
"Saved the day?" Dr. Piton pulls Superhero Poses in
front of mirror. He frowns. His biceps really are small, aren't they?
No matter. Dr. Piton is retired from free climbing.
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Take a look at the angle of the crack, and the way I am facing.
It's quite overhanging the way I am leaning.
Now check out the position of the piece I'm on, which is actually a bit below me. I am doing a bit of a topstep here.
See that concern on my face?
No? Well that's because there isn't any. Topstepping on Russian Aiders is so easy it feels like cheating!
And what is aid climbing if not cheating? Truly the Better Way. |
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You must alvays have a vell-organicized bivi und a vell-organicized belay!" shouted Thomas at me again and again.
We were making our ascent of Salathe Wall, which was only my second-ever big wall, and my first in seven years.
Needless to say, I was something of a Big Wall Gumby, and not particularly "vell-organicized."
Here you see an example of my bivi setup on El Cap Spire - while it was possible to get away with this kind of clusterf*ck when bivi'd on a big ledge, you can click here to read about the wall I did next, which was without doubt my most clusterf*cked wall ever!
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Hooking is both scary and fun! This photo was taken on my solo ascent of Native Son.
When you use a hook while aid climbing, it's not like a pin or a head or a wire that you can leave behind for pro. Generally speaking, once you use a hook, you remove it.
Have a look at the lead rope running diagonally beneath me. Not much pro, eh? You can see the hook that I am standing on - it's visible just in front of my stomach.
The hook placement I'm making looks pretty bomber, though, at least for a hook placement! Note that the hook I'm placing is slung too long - the sling should probably be about an inch and a half shorter.
Directly behind my helmet you can see my pigs and my Wall Flower. And that's the ground two thousand feet below.
This photo was taken by Chris Falkenstein, who dragged six hundred feet of rope up to the summit so he could rap down and take these bitchin' shots!
You can click here to see more bitchin' shots by Chris.
Thanks, mate. Chris also shot some footage here that was used in the Don Reid Video Guide to Aid Climbing.
This photo was manipulated and brightened by Karlbaba.
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One of my all time favourites - perfect lighting, perfect body position, perfect composition.
This is the pitch just below The Alcove on Salathe Wall, a rather nasty wide crack as I recall.
I took this photo while on Jolly Roger. |
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There's no mistaking the view - that sweeping arc of granite beneath me tells you I'm high atop the concave Southeast Face of El Cap.
I've retired for the evening, and have the ghetto blaster set up and the tunes cranked while I enjoy my beer.
In case you're wondering how I got this picture on my solo ascent of The Shortest Straw, here's how - I handed my camera to the guys who passed me. After taking the photo, they zipped my camera back down the rope to me!
See those paper bags dangling beneath? That's my Wall Flower. |
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This is the actual 2:1 Hauling Ratchet I used on my solo of The Shortest Straw, set up and working at optimal efficiency.
The yellow cord is the 6mm cord tied through the top of the pulley.
The red cord is the 7mm Z-cord.
The blue and white rope is the haul line which goes directly into the blue haul line bag.
Notice how when the pulleys are snugged up tight, the teeth of the inverted [lifting] ascender hold the rope directly beneath the teeth of the Kong Block Roll [holding ratchet] in order to minimize stretch and maximize efficiency.
There is no need to lower the Kong Block Roll on a FROST Draw like you would a Wall Hauler or Protraxion.
Note:
If you are NOT using a Kong Block Roll for your 1:1 hauling, then you are doing things the Traditional Way. Also note that whenever Dr. Piton uses the word "traditional" he really means "stupid".
You can click here to read Dr. Piton's 1:1 Hauling Tips.
This slick little combo minimized the clusterf*ck as you can clearly see, and worked like magic!
Truly the Better Way of hauling!
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Can you see my knees shaking up there? This is a typical crack on Excalibur, meaning it's W-I-D-E.
No problem for a pair of #4 Camalots, that is if you happen to have a pair!
Tom decided to spice things up for me a bit by dropping one of ours a few days previously. This left me to somehow flail my way up trying to frig a #4 Friend and #5 Camalot.
Sheesh.
I was mighty darn glad to dispense with that little horror show. Clearly, this is the Better Way to turn a C1 crack jumar into an A3 monstrosity.
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