Off topic: How to appreciate mountain biking

Do something else. Something that most people would consider a form of punishment. Do that for a week. I just did, and I've never had such profound appreciation of bikes hundreds of miles away from me.

My steadfast young friend, Kris, and I climbed an old and difficult route up Washington Column in Yosemite. We slept on the cliff three nights in our single portaledges. It took three hikes up to the base to get everything there, and two carries off the summit to get it all down.

Suffice to say that I feel like I went to a gang fight where my gang didn't show up. My knees will never speak to me again. Oh, and if you want to maximize your appreciation, be sure to undergo said torture with zero training. Three years on the couch is a good time span to shoot for.

You are gonna love your bike : )

 

That is hard core, Mike. My hat's off to you and Kris.

 

Thanks for the good words, Jim.

My hat is certainly off to Kris... I won't say he dragged me up it, but he has a razor-sharp edge right now. We hiked these huge bags (10,000 c.i.) down from the summit...I decide I have to split my portion in two for another carry. He grabs the lead rope and shoulders up. This was a "rest day" for him. At 2am that night he jumped on El Cap for a push ascent of Zenyatta Mondatta with two other guys. Unholy! ZM took me and another guy over a week!

 

What route did you climb?

 

Awesome Mike, glad you survived I often have those kinds of thoughts after a long day of trail work with @kioti )), and sure that's nothing near what you just did.

 

Good Lord!

Well done

 

Jim, it was Great Slab Route, put up by Colorado's finest, "the great one" Layton Kor (RIP) and crew is '67 when Layton was on fire and ripping up everything in North America. Apparently he got ahold of the newly-minted RURP pitons and put them to pretty good use on GSR.


From
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004652.html

We used a lot of Peckers – way more secure, not as easy carry:


Like most older routes, it wandered all over the place looking for natural features. At one point the route climbs down, even. Combine that with the normal shorter pitches of the day, and you can see how they got 16 (!) pitches on the Column, where most routes have around 10.

Really fun to travel time on these old routes that see almost no traffic. Some of the resident gear, eh, a little scary : 0 Not many fixed pitons on the route, but one I did use I was able to remove by hand. I put it back for the next climber

 

Makes me nervous just thinking about it! Did you do the original line with all those pitches? Are there skinny cracks for placing the Peckers, long run-outs, etc......

I've never climbed anything that big, nor have I done any aid climbing. Some easy, fun stuff at Tahquitz and Suicide, and Rock Creek when I lived in Mammoth. Did you live in the Valley at some point?

 

Kudos to you Mike. I wish I would have been introduced to climbing when I was young. I do some gym work and am going to get out to the real stuff in the future. It is a challenge at every level.

 

Kudos, Mike. I used to climb in the early nineties. i miss it.

 

We were on route almost the whole way. The ending does this dumb 5.7 jog to the left when the summit is 80' above you, which would have been a hauling bummer, so we did the usual 4th class summit scramble.

There is miles of thin, run out nailing on the aid pitches. Those guys using RURPs and knifeblades...now that sounds creepy, but for those guys, their ability to place gear and free climb was their pro.

Tahquitz/Suicide, a slice of heaven at any rating. I can't stop going, but used to be there regularly. I never lived in Yo, but should have kept a log of the gas I burned getting there. Mammoth is a total epicenter...no doubt you got some good mileage there.


Slomo: Stoked for ya! So true, the challenge thing. And you can get as serious as it moves you. It's a great lifelong activity. I loved pulling plastic but my shoulders got pretty worked from it, so now I just climb outside or not at all. Don't let any age thing affect what you do, just follow best practices and have fun : )

Sheesh, Gary, where's your harness and shoes? The routes are still there... Maybe an Ortega Falls day is in order?

 

Ha, i have no gear currently.

 

Yowzaa!!

I'll stick to two wheels, a long board on a small day or my legs putting in the miles of road to appreciate things.

 

That sounds fun, following the old routes. A sense of tradition, along with the fact that they're uncrowded.

My first winter in Mammoth, I shared a room at the Main Lodge with Werner Braun and Dale Bard. I'd like to say some of their mojo rubbed off on me, but the truth is they were so far out of my league it was like Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich having to share a room with PeeWee Herman.

 

Ho, man, you roomed with the serious old guard! Love to be a fly on the wall there.

Dale was pretty much done making his mark in Yo by the mid 80s when I showed up; I never met him. Werner and Merry I try to visit when I get up there. Werner is still on SAR and doing NPS LE car electronics. Werner is just a freaking riot with his ravings about the ineptness of the general population. He's as much a fixture in Yo climbing as anyone I can think of (along with John Dill). Small world as usual. I really kick myself now for not taking the time to rattle his cage on Sunday.

Yep, those old routes and the guys who did them...pretty badass with rudimentary gear, no communications, etc. I have immense respect for them, and am encouraged that the vast majority new and old climbers hold their achievements in high regard, and treat the routes with respect as the challenges they are.

Thanks for the fun facts, Jim : )

 

Thanks for the info on Dale and Werner.

Dale showed me some of his practice walls inside the Main Lodge. He'd climb up and down 12 foot brick walls over and over, and I heard he ran a hose out a window to make a mini-waterfall for ice climbing practice. He also told me of how Werner knew the Valley so well he could rappel off the top of routes in white out conditions and descend right to stuck climbers. Legend or fact? Hard to tell with those guys. But Werner loved skiing fast and would straight-line runs off the top of the mountain in a casual fashion, standing up like Gerry Lopez at Pipeline. It was all very cool.

I like your comment about following good practices and having fun. One thing I learned back then was to avoid letting ego get in your way. Do what you love at whatever level you're capable of, strive for improvement but be comfortable in your own skin.

Dale's brother Allan, sadly gone now, was a true inspiration for my best friend Eddie and me. Allan, Tom Carter and Chris Cox pioneered the Redline tour, a ski tour along the very crest of the Sierras. Eddie and I were obsessed with it and eventually did our own tour that paralleled their route but kept us on skis, rather than summiting peaks. It meandered along the crest between the Redline and the Muir Trail, sometimes being on top of one or the other (and may have been close to Orland Bartholomew's route from 1929). We did it in one trip, with stashed food caches, from Mt. Whitney to Mammoth.

Our respect for the giants of those times led us to push OUR limits and achieve things we'd never have considered on our own. The lessons we took from them taught us to follow our own passions and commit to our dreams. They brought out the best in us, and I'm glad you've reminded me of that in your retracing some of the classic routes of the true pioneers of big wall climbing.

 

Wow, some great mountain lore there, Jim, replete with the giants of the time. The tail end of the golden age, for sure. A moment in time you were lucky to relish.

Nice route you guys put in. Must've been the stuff of dreams...depending on the snow year! That's a fitting homage to Bardini (RIP). Has your route been documented and/or repeated to your knowledge?

Yes, an ego will kill without hesitation. Or simply make a climber a drag to partner with. We all have one, I don't know how you could throw yourself to the wolves like we do and not. Keeping it reigned in has been something climbers have grappled with forever. Ya gotta channel at least a little TM Herbert!

The giants fired up and brought out the best in everyone, regardless of ability or accomplishments. And most all of the best guys are really approachable and good-hearted people, as you know personally. I've gotten to meet or speak with a number of my old (and not old) heros, and I really regret not taking Warren H. up on his invite to tie one on. It's not quite like biking; it's a far more close-knit brother- and sister-hood of freaks like you, Eddie and the rest of the outdoor dream seekers. I appreciate both crowds for their strengths and idiosyncrasies, as I'm sure you do.

Jim, we should have a day at Tahquitz on five-easy. I'm around all summer and can slip away for a day without issue. I gotta put an end to these three-year couch stints : )

 

I think we waited 20 years for the conditions and our schedules to line up. Of course we were learning skills during those times which kept us alive and helped us enjoy the descents to the fullest, big packs or not.

The year was 98 if I remember correctly. We were ready to go May 1st, but had to wait until June for winter to stop. Even then we had to sit out a blizzard at Bullfrog Lake below Kearsarge Pass after the first 3 days on skis. And we didn't have true corn snow until we got past Palisade Lakes basin.

As for the route, I hope it's been repeated but even we had to make changes as we went. We were planning to descend Gunsight Pass until the blizzard hit. I argued, having skied it solo before, that it was very committing based on the avalanches and sloughs we saw all around us. So we detoured to the west. Glen Pass had avalanched all the way across and we descended through snow chunks and rubble.

We made other changes as high run-off or avalanche danger eliminated the possibility of sticking to our line on the map. Each one led to unexpected rewards such as crossing a pass neither one of us had been over before, or solving a route-finding problem we hadn't anticipated. All our skills and a fair amount of luck brought us home unscathed.

Back to climbing.. I sold all my gear a few years ago to a local climbing gym. They said, "Of course we can't use any of this stuff, but we'll use it for an historical display." lol!

Thanks for your Tahquitz invite. I may take you up on it, even though Eddie quit climbing the day we were near the top on one of the Larks and he saw a woman die from a huge chockstone her fiancé accidentally dislodged. In fact, Eddie was between them (and I was belaying from below) and he almost died as well when the boulder went right over him. (We'd climbed over that same rock in the past, when it was wedged into the chimney.) Coincidentally, another climbing partner I hadn't met yet was out that day, and took part in recovering her body. We helped the man get off the climb and back to the parking lot.

Wow, Mike, you've brought up a lot of memories.

 

Wow, some route and accomplishment that was! Kudos for pulling off a Sierra traverse during conditions like you had. A dream outing, to be sure.

Sorry to hear you and Eddie witnessed the fatality on Sahara T. Along with that incredible beauty and fine granite are the resident bombs. NW Recess-left is loaded with blocks that must be yarded on – as you know. We used to repeat those routes often, but I'm more leery now, and will never climb under another party.

Holler if you get the urge. I have a har you can use, and my rock shoe is ~43. Thanks again for the stories and OT banter : )

 

Thanks for posting about your climb. Apologies if I got it too off track.

I't's hard to believe you can do a climb like that after such a long lay-off. Especially with all that gear!?! You haven't given many details, like who led, did you swap leads, etc. Also, have you got any photos?

And most important of all.. have you recovered enough to show your bike the love it so richly deserves?

 

Call me Barney! When are we going!? I'll bring the frisbee!

 

kioti: No topic issue here...it's all OT : ) I wasn't planning to do anything like a report, in fact we decided to skip taking photos. A few quick facts...

Long layoff: try not to get out of shape, ride hard, ride a single speed, move efficiently on the wall.
All that gear: shuttle more lighter loads...despite your partner making you look weak. Use brain versus brawn – I have a custom pulley and other custom gear and techniques that help move cargo up the wall efficiently. But I still got a blister on both ring fingers (?), along with a nice collection of gobies, and I'm sure both my big toe nails are going to fall off in a few weeks (eh, the price of approach shoes).
Lead distribution: Kris led the hard aid in blocks so we could have time to chill out in the evening. As stated, he is well in the groove right now, and it didn't make sense to slow us down by demanding every other pitch or by doing a slow block myself. Blocks and shortfixing (rope soloing the next lead while your partner cleans/hauls the former) is the only way to go. I led the two free pitches (5.6/5.7 with hummocks) with one being half A3, plus another aid pitch at A2 with an expanding flake I nearly deposited on Kris and the rope. Some horizontal cleaning was very technical, with stunts like lower-outs off hooks and other tricks. Both of us are long-time solo climbers, which is key for shortfixing (and problem solving in general). I did some restoration work on the route while cleaning also, so despite the lopsided lead count, the distribution of labor was nicely even (danger is another story). There was not much sitting around belaying. Shortfixing keeps everything moving, and the leader still gets to rest when he runs out of rope or gear (until he gets re-supplied by the cleaner). There were a few A4 pitches on it, but none as tough as the downward/horizontal A3 leading to a crappy ledge – which was about as wiggy to clean.
Bikes: Haha – I'm just starting to walk right! The bikes all need a little wrench love before I saddle back up, but by this WE I'll be good to go.

LOL...Triple-D, you name it. The summer is long : )

 

Thanks for all this additional information. It explains a lot. That's really interesting about the blocks and short fixing, I'm not familiar with those techniques but it sounds super efficient if you've got your Sh!t together and your heads in the right place. I saw some You Tube stuff with two brothers speed climbing El Cap I think, and they were probably doing that. Looked pretty amazing.

Sounds like you had some dicey moments up there, and this other community of yours is glad you made it through. It's pretty impressive you're pushing the envelope like that.

 

Thanks Mike and Jim for sharing some of your great and challenging experiences. Really enjoyed reading it, though I don't know much climbing jargon or much about back country/cross country skiing. Still, much respect for you both, thanks again.

 

I appreciate the kind words, Jim and Knuckles.

With certainty, I'm only pushing my envelope, which is pretty darn far from any cutting edge. Guys like the Huber brothers are pro climbers with all the right DNA – physical prowess, bravado, mech aptitude, etc. If I didn't use every advantage technique- and gear-wise, I'd be toast up there. It's a young person's game. I'm just hanging on and doing it until I can't, and I'm grateful that I have a few great partners who will hang with me.

If you want to kill some time, check out the report from our honeymoon ascent in...2002? Oh my...

www.ousleycreative.com/honey.pdf

 

^^That's the stuff of dreams, right there.

 

Umm...I got nothing.

 

Got me a tingle in my under garments. As Jim said, stuff of dreams. Adventure isn't for everyone, but it is everything to me.

 

That's the most original honeymoon I've seen... I was tingling with the imagery from "portaledge" alone. The Honeymoon write-up got the heart rate going, and I haven't left the kitchen table. My insane fear of falling may have something to do with that, though...

 

Did you have to use and e-climber with electric assist since you are not a young pup anymore in a young pups sport?


Sounds like fun....not my kinda fun, but pushing your limits kinda fun.

Thanks for sharing.