THE BIG WALL PORN POST!

How's it goin', eh?  

I thought we could use a photo thread here, to keep us all motivated during the off season and to share some of our best big wall "climbing porn" photos that we ourselves have taken.

But it's not just about the picture - it's the story behind the photo too. What made this photo - and this ascent - so special for you? Post up one of your favourite big wall photos, and please write a detailed caption to tell us the story about why it means so much to you.

Cheers, eh?
PtPP aka Dr. Piton

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This is Steve "Shipoopoi" Schneider and his wife Heather high on El Cap. We were working on climbing an obscure route, and replacing all the anchor bolts as we went. For most of the ascent, we fixed ropes and returned to camp, thus climbing capsule style.  This was our final camp high on the headwall. Name the route, and you'll get a free* beer when you see me in the spring.

A few ropelengths below this photo, I led one of the hardest pitches of my life. It required hooking up a crumbling face for a hundred feet with no real pro, save a single rusty 80s-vintage quarter-inch bolt forty or so feet above a rather large ledge system. I placed a few heads for psychological pro, but I was too afraid to weight them! I also duct taped down some hooks for pro, because there was nothing else. It was a strange feeling ... the deeper I got into the DFU zone, the more focused and the calmer I felt. Even though I was scared shitless, as a hundred-footer onto the ledge would have been unsurvivable, I somehow moved into this space "beyond fear". It's difficult to describe, but I'll tell you what - I don't want to return there anytime soon!

What makes the photo above so special is the incredible feeling of relief I felt. I had been nailing these splitter pecker cracks, and with the scary stuff behind me, I could relax and let Steve take over the hard free climbing above to take us to the summit. I love the location, and we enjoyed a superb big wall bivy and celebrated with a fine bottle of Sierra foothills Barbera.

The next day we tagged the summit, and returned to this our highest capsule camp. The following day, the team really came together for the descent. We replaced the old bolts with new stainless steel 3/8-inchers equipped with rap rings, which allowed us to descend. Steve and Heather went first, fixing their 600-foot static line between the anchors. I came down next, riding about 300 lbs of piggage amassed into a gigantic load. And Cristobal our Chilean mountaineering expert came last, doing the double rope pulldowns. We and our Junk Show descended the entire height of El Cap without incident, reaching the base around 530pm.

* Free" meaning I get round 1, but you get round 2.   ;) 

The real nose

mediterraneo

Peter Zabrokwrote:

How's it goin', eh?  

I thought we could use a photo thread here, to keep us all motivated during the off season and to share some of our best big wall "climbing porn" photos that we ourselves have taken.

But it's not just about the picture - it's the story behind the photo too. What made this photo - and this ascent - so special for you? Post up one of your favourite big wall photos, and please write a detailed caption to tell us the story about why it means so much to you.

Cheers, eh?
PtPP aka Dr. Piton

^^ You have to click the photo to see it in full resolution.  

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.

.

This is Steve "Shipoopoi" Schneider and his wife Heather high on El Cap. We were working on climbing an obscure route, and replacing all the anchor bolts as we went. For most of the ascent, we fixed ropes and returned to camp, thus climbing capsule style.  This was our final camp high on the headwall. Name the route, and you'll get a free* beer when you see me in the spring.

A few ropelengths below this photo, I led one of the hardest pitches of my life. It required hooking up a crumbling face for a hundred feet with no real pro, save a single rusty 80s-vintage quarter-inch bolt forty or so feet above a rather large ledge system. I placed a few heads for psychological pro, but I was too afraid to weight them! I also duct taped down some hooks for pro, because there was nothing else. It was a strange feeling ... the deeper I got into the DFU zone, the more focused and the calmer I felt. Even though I was scared shitless, as a hundred-footer onto the ledge would have been unsurvivable, I somehow moved into this space "beyond fear". It's difficult to describe, but I'll tell you what - I don't want to return there anytime soon!

What makes the photo above so special is the incredible feeling of relief I felt. I had been nailing these splitter pecker cracks, and with the scary stuff behind me, I could relax and let Steve take over the hard free climbing above to take us to the summit. I love the location, and we enjoyed a superb big wall bivy and celebrated with a fine bottle of Sierra foothills Barbera.

The next day we tagged the summit, and returned to this our highest capsule camp. The following day, the team really came together for the descent. We replaced the old bolts with new stainless steel 3/8-inchers equipped with rap rings, which allowed us to descend. Steve and Heather went first, fixing their 600-foot static line between the anchors. I came down next, riding about 300 lbs of piggage amassed into a gigantic load. And Cristobal our Chilean mountaineering expert came last, doing the double rope pulldowns. We and our Junk Show descended the entire height of El Cap without incident, reaching the base around 530pm.

* Free" meaning I get round 1, but you get round 2.   ;) 

This isn't big wall porn. This big wall erotica.

 And I like it.

This isn't big wall porn. This big wall erotica.

 And I like it.

There's plenty more where this came from. Over 800 nights' worth. 

Just don't jizz on my portaledge, eh?  

Hahaha!  Matt, I had almost the same experience on Half Dome. Got up 8 pitches and my partner wanted to bail. I was heartbroken because it had taken me five years to negotiate this trip with my wife, who didn't let me go climbing much. 

I spent an hour or two in tears, then put up a sign at Camp 4. It was answered that night by a complete stranger - Kurt Haire. We started up the Nose the next day, and five and a half days later - completely out of food and water - we topped out through sheer determination.   

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Hahaha!  Matt, I had almost the same experience on Half Dome. Got up 8 pitches and my partner wanted to bail. I was heartbroken because it had taken me five years to negotiate this trip with my wife, who didn't let me go climbing much. 

I spent an hour or two in tears, then put up a sign at Camp 4. It was answered that night by a complete stranger - Kurt Haire. We started up the Nose the next day, and five and a half days later - completely out of food and water - we topped out through sheer determination.   

Ha ha that's how I climbed the Nose. After being jilted at the Column, I posted in Camp 4 and a german named Wolfram convinced me to do the Nose. Both of our first walls.

^^ Bwah ha ha ha !!!  Justice served. 

This is me starting up the triple cracks on the shield when we climbed it in '16.  I had dreamed about doing the shield ever since I read about the route as a teenager and always fantasized about what it would feel like to be up there.  We had done the groove the night before and bivied at the anchor before the triple cracks. It ws one of the hardest pitches I had ever lead on the captain and lying there in my portal edge that night staring up at the next mornings lead was intimidating.  It took a minute to figure out the first move and then I was on my way.  The beaks and offset cams felt solid and it was one of my favorite aid leads on the route.  I know I'm kind of light duty but this route felt like a true adventure for me and I'll always remember that route as one of my finest outings with a harness on.  

^^ That's actually a really great photo of the Triple Cracks as it captures that blank "out there" feel of the Shield headwall. Yeah, I'd read the stories too, of Charlie Porter making 35 RURP moves in a row.  I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the actual climbing, as the beat-out pinscars are pretty ugly. Still, the situation is spectacularly empty and vertiginous!  

For me, big wall camping is about living on the wall. At 805 nights and counting, I love being comfortable in a hostile environment, and sharing the camaraderie with my friends. Here on our third ascent of Heartland - an obscure route through the centre of the diorite on the North America Wall area of El Cap - we make a pause for the cause. Click the photos for better resolution.

John Rigg prepares our Big Wall Margaritas.  Note the fresh lime slices, and the Kosher salt - oy vey! - on the rims of the glasses.  

Look at the BSEG* on Chris Trull's face.  It looks like he may have already gotten into the "goon" of Franzia wine. If you are from down-undah, you will be familiar with the drinking game, "spank the goon".  

Our ascent of Heartland had a few memorable bits: 

• Down low on the New Jersey Turnpike section, Jon built our hauling anchor out of a double-length sling that he had bootied somewhere in his travels, and which had accidentally got mixed up with his big wall rack. As he loaded up the haul line to begin the haul, the sling began to rip and fail! I was down below about to release the pigs, and he shouted, "Don't release the pigs yet Pete! The anchor is failing!"  Sheesh. 
• The belay anchor bolts at the beginning of the Made in the Shade pitch - a big leftward traverse under a black roof - are drilled in a rather hollow tooth of diorite, and it is a super spooky place to sit and belay. I led the pitch, and I think Jon had to sit there. I remember being scared with the two of us up there, along with the weight of Kirstie Alley our gear pig, which was quite the heavy porker on a big wall nailup like this one.  We did not haul the main loads to this anchor, but used our 80m haul lines to bypass it. Even Tom Evans mixed up the Made in the Shade traverse with the Leftward Ho traverse.  Made in the Shade is in the diorite, but Westward Ho is up in the beautiful clean granite above.  
• No one has hauled more Junk Show up more big wall pitches than me, and I can tell you unequivocally that the WORST haul on all of El Cap is the diagonal up-and-left haul to the belay anchors on the bottom-left of the Cyclops Eye. The rock is bumpy and sharp, and the entire haul is over a convexity in the rock, thus ensuring that your haul lines continually get hung up and need to be released by a climber who is jugging above.  An epic nightmare haul.  
• We made what would have been the second or third ascent of the Psycho Killer roof pitch, straight through the gigantic roof at the top of the Cyclops' Eye. These pitches were put up by John "Deucey" Middendorf and Xaver Bongard when they made an early ascent of Wyoming Sheep Ranch - see photo below

Not the greatest photo of the Psycho Killer pitch that climbs directly through the roof of the Cyclops' Eye, but if you click on it you can see Jon Rigg.  It's actually a really spectacular pitch - and if I recall correctly, only A2! So if you ever end up here while climbing North America Wall or Wyoming Sheep Ranch, you should DEFINITELY exit this way. Psycho Killer provides a super-direct and straightforward route to the Igloo, and avoids the annoying traverse rightwards along the base of the Cyclops' Eye, and then then the long circuitous climbing up the Eye's right side.  

Here's a photo of Cybele leading out of the Black Cave on North America Wall, which Royal Robbins described as "the most spectacular pitch in North American mountaineering."  [or something like that]

The Black Cave on NA Wall has got to be one of the driest bivies on all El Cap. I really didn't like North America Wall that much - it wanders around a lot without seeming to get anywhere.  Some might consider it a classic, and it is, but to me it's just not that great of a route.  

Below is the roof pitch on Atlantic Ocean Wall, which goes out and left the Iron Hawk roof up and left of the late El Cap Tree [RIP].  A.O. is a fabulous route, with a lot of expando pitches which are pretty spooky when you first meet them. Once you get the hang of it, though, expando is quite climbable.  The roof pitch I recall being pretty straightforward and fun!

As always round 'ere, click on the photos for full resolution.

Cheers, eh? 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156133661427552&id=686652551

TURN UP THE VOLUME and click the link!  Good times on a Bad route. 

The Cyclops Eye roof is called just that, “Cyclops Eye Roof”.  Imaginative, eh? Probably the biggest roof on El Cap.

it is NOT the Psycho Killer pitch, that is the alternate name for the Welcome to Wyoming pitch on Sheep Ranch.  I have been telling that to Erik for years, who added it to his first topo of the route and it has persisted ever since.

There will be an article on hooking pitons in the next Alpinist that will clarify this, hopefully once and for all!

i graded it A2++ on the first ascent.  It took me all day, and into dusk.  I had an experimental harness, with hang gliding leg loops that were not sized well, so I was mostly suspended from just my waist harness the whole way, thought I was going to suffocate en route.  Then Xaver the next day cut loose on the fixed line, from deep inside the cave, wild wild swing into space, after we cleaned the pitch the night before, he got way tangled in the haul line.  We laughed a lot.

I was on the second ascent, too, a decade later, on a Ken Sauls film shoot. Nathan led it on the second ascent.

lots!  probably all posted on bigwalls.net.
This moment of topping out with good friends always keeps me reminded of the good times. Jeff Hollenbaugh in this one.

oh, did you mean Sheep Ranch with Cyclops Eye Roof finish?  Here are some

I don't have any of the roof, think we only had one roll of film. That is Xaver cooking up a brew below the roof, though, I think.

Hahaha!  John "Deucey" Middendorf - the "early innovator" on the [whatever that thing is called that we learned in marketing class 40 years ago] scale - and one of the first recorded uses of the Selfie Stick!  

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Hahaha!  John "Deucey" Middendorf - the "early innovator" on the [whatever that thing is called that we learned in marketing class 40 years ago] scale - and one of the first recorded uses of the Selfie Stick!  

No, no, that was all Xaver!  I had no idea of why he was bringing that pole until he started taking those pics!  we had a lot of fun on that route.

 He had already fixed a couple pitches solo, when I joined him for the ascent, and the pole was already there with his haulbags.

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Hahaha!  We do.   ;)  Didn't he solo Sea of Dreams AND Jolly Roger?  Was this before or after?  

Pete, we never even thought of using it as a cheater stick, clipping some fixed gear way up high was never on our radar, it was amusing to see debates about the technique on supertopo many years later.  

Sheep Ranch would have been his third El Cap solo (Jolly Rodger and the Sea before) would come to Yosemite each season, climb a lot and then solo some bad ass wall.  He got burned out and asked me to join him.  I was actually gearing up to solo what later became Native Son at the time (though Walt and Troys line was different up higher than the one I mapped out), but we chatted about the hell of soloing below El Cap Tree and decided to join forces.  I think it was one of the few walls he had done at the time with a partner!

I had no idea of why he was bringing that pole...

Hahaha!  We do.   ;)  

Didn't he solo Sea of Dreams AND Jolly Roger?  Was this before or after?  

Got some of the coolest shots I’ve ever seen on my first trip up the nose a few months ago

October 20 2021 approximately 12 hours before the week snow storm shut the valley down 

Hahaha!  Great photos and stories, Max.  I did a NIAD in 15 hours once too, and there was nobody left in the meadow by Canada Day to see it.  [All I wanted to do at Camp V was bust out a beer and go to sleep, instead we had to keep climbing]  

Congrats on your Zion solo.  I believe it is now time for you to join The Club.  

A few shots from our second ascent of Adrift on El Cap in May 2017.  It was put up in 1996 I think by Paul Pritchard and Steve Quinlan, just before Paul won his first Boardman-Tasker award, and used the money to fund his worldwide climbing trip.  This resulted in tragedy on the Totem Pole in New Zealand, when Paul was struck in the head by a falling rock, rendering him hemiplegic.

Below: Sean Warren lowers down, then climbs up and right to send the crux 5.11 free climbing of Adrift. He holds up some duct tape to secure a hook for pro. Good ol Sean....

As always, click on the picture to see it in full resolution.

Sean continued leading up the corner, then made a mantel onto the belay ledge high above.  He grabbed a loose block which rotated, and off came Sean in a spectacular 40-plus-foot fall!  Maybe it was even farther - look at the photo below in high res and see how high the piece that caught him is!  That was a helluva fall. He whacked his ankle pretty badly, and he inspects it while he dangles in space.

The next day, Sean's ankle was still feeling pretty sore, so I got to lead the spectacular Quinlan Corner.  I think the hardest bit is in all the loose flakes down low just above the belay.  It's great nailing, and Sean had really wanted to lead it.  I had already led it during an ascent of a route which was put up a month after Adrift, so it was Sean's turn, at least until he tweaked his ankle. The cognoscenti will know which route this pitch is shared with.  

The route continues up and right, and finishes on P.O. Wall.  Once we got on this trade route, we started leading in blocks, and knocked off five pitches the final day to reach the summit.  

Alex hiked up the next morning to congratulate us. ;)