THE BIG WALL PORN POST!

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

This I assume 

Wait-

They avoided the “A2 Awk” ??

The main reason we did the P7 variation was the "awk" designation on the topo, which I had trouble deciphering. I figured it was due to the flair restricting movement, in addition to speech, where typically you'd be able to yell the "f" and "awk" in combination

The fall wall climbing season arrives soon, and I hope to see some of yous around the El Cap Bridge starting September 7th. Come by and say hi. I will be climbing with Steve "Shipoopi" Schneider and Luke Antonia from Atlantis, hoping to get up my 66th different El Cap route.

I've made it as far as the letter B in my photo albums, so thus begins the Bad Trilogy, which consists of Bad Seed, Bad to the Bone and Born Under a Bad Sign . BUBS is the hardest, but Bad Seed is the best. This rarely-climbed route is an overlooked classic. It begins just right of Zodiac, and climbs scrappy low-angle stuff until you reach the brilliant section of rock under the Devil's Brow. There is a series of distinctive left-leaning ramps, and the route climbs through these incredible features. If you are on the bridge at just the right time of the morning, you can see the ramps highlighted by the low-angle sunshine.

I climbed this route in June of 2009 with Kate "Batgirl" Robertson. It was my 38th different El Cap route.  If you click on the topo, you can see my detailed notes and beta.  You might want to come back and refer to this topo as you are looking at the photos.  

We set up our first portaledge camp about halfway up the third pitch where we had a decent campsite. 

Good ol Kate and her King Cobra.  It's important to stay hydrated while on the wall.  

Sonya had given me a roll of her signature-blue-coloured duct tape, which I put to good use on P5 - Skid Row - duct taping down hooks for "pro". Depending on the size of the hook, I will add either a Yates Screamer or Yates Scream-Aid when I leave hooks for pro.  Sometimes you have to sling them pretty long, because you don't want the rope to exert any upward pull on a hook you've left behind.  Remember to click on the photo to see the hooks in full resolution. 

Photo taken from the El Cap Bridge by Tom Evans of P5 - Skid Row.  You can sure see the blue duct tape holding down the hooks! My notes for P5 read, "Beaks then new head to really fun hook traverse - don't miss rivet at end - Donny'd."   Donny'd means I used a Donny Goetz extendo rivet hanger to reach it. 

Kate cleaning P5, with our portaledge camp having moved up to the base of the steep headwall.  

Kate leading Pearl Harbour which is P6.  Click on the photo see the quality of the rock, or rather the lack of quality of the rock!  My notes read, "NTB start then scary hooking over WAY LOOSE flakes, fragile flake below bomber yellow link cam then nice finish. She used ball nuts, but I would've used long LAs." 

Bill Russell leading P7 - the Time Bomb - on the first ascent in October, 1988. Note the padded ghetto blaster. Photo supplied by Bill Russell.  

Kate leading the Time Bomb. I guess it's too loose for her to leave any pro, eh? My notes say, "Hard at top - C1 or A4?"  In 2009, Bill Russell's original 5/16" buttonhead split-shaft bolts were still in good shape. Hard to say what they'd be like these days, however.  These were the go-to big wall bolt anchors in the 80s, but unfortunately Rawl stopped making them.

Kate leading the Time Bomb - P7.  Yours truly attending the Junk Show.  Photo by Tom Evans. 

Kate nearing the top of P7 and the distinctive ramps which make Bad Seed such a fabulous line!  The P7 anchors are at the base of ramp, but the edges of the rock are way sharp. Since we always climb with extra-long haul lines, we were able to skip hauling to this point, and instead haul directly from 6 to 8.  

Me cleaning P7 and approaching the top of the ramp. 

Here's Troy Johnson in the same place, cleaning the top of P7 during the first ascent in October, 1988.  Photo by Bill Russell.  

Kate leading P9, approaching the Devil's Brow roof.  As always, click each photo to see it in full resolution!

Bill Russell leading P9 on the first ascent. Photo by Bill Russell.  

Bill Russell at the top of 9 belaying and listening to tunes from his "submarine" navy cot portaledge on the first ascent in 1988.  Photo by Bill Russell. 

Kate belaying me from the top of 9 while I lead the traverse up and right under the big Devil's Brow roof. After I led the pitch, I fixed one of the haul lines and rappelled back to camp here.  

The next day, Kate jugged directly to the top of P10, then I lowered out my Junk Show with my Crab-O-Ledge flagged on top for her to haul. If you click on the photo, just behind Wee-Wee the Big Wall Crab you can see the "finish line" - the El Cap picnic area parking lot, where the East Ledges descent ends and where you park to climb at Manure Pile Buttress aka Ranger Rock. "It ain't over til you reach the parking lot." 

After she hauled the first load, and left the second to dangle in space, I cleaned the pitch I had led the day before. Photo by Tom Evans.

At this point we were "leading in blocks" to save time. So as I was cleaning my lead from the previous day, here you see Kate solo leading, self-belaying as she climbs the "A1 Beauty" pitch where Bad Seed joins Eagle's Way. This pitch was free climbed at 5.13+ by Leo Houlding and Jason Pickles on their ten-year project The Prophet. 

Kate on top wrasslin' my big Grade VII A5/TNF pig named Oprah. 

A rare luxury - water in the Horsetail Falls creek.  Kate celebrating our summit with a King Cobra!  Click the photo to see ideal post-wall bathing conditions! 

Here Kate is showing Ammon McNeely and Ivo NInov her Better Way of adjustable daisies.  Kate uses three hunks of different-coloured skinny full-strength mountaineering half-rope with an Ushba titanium hauling device on top of each. Even back then, each of these things cost about $150 US, so it was not an insubstantial investment to own three. Besides having a full strength daisy attachment, you get a full-on 2:1 mechanical lifting advantage as you pull yourself up using a real pulley. The Ushba has kind of a rocker thing instead of a toothed cam, so if you do make a mistake and take a daisy chain fall, you are going to get a dynamic catch without breaking your daisy - or your back.  Always remember - a daisy chain fall is 100% pilot error, generates incredible force on your gear and your body, and must be avoided!

So, like, cheers from the summit eh?  Hope you enjoyed my big wall porn!

Submarine navy cot!!

interesting as the cot has rounded corners…which is a recent addition to ledge design

more history on the ”submarine“ would be interesting…?

John "Deucey" Middendorf can supply info on these cots, I think? 

There's something special about old school 80s porn, isn't there. 

^^^^ Im sure he can…. I have seen another photo of a similar ledge / cot…

never heard  the term ”submarine“ before though 

paging Deucey ?..

wow!

alpinist 47wrote:

^^^^ Im sure he can…. I have seen another photo of a similar ledge / cot…

never heard  the term ”submarine“ before though 

paging Deucey ?..

They were called Sub-Ledges since they were supposedly out of submarines.  I would buy them at the Army Navy Surplus store for something like $10 or $15 bucks a pop.  Aluminum frame, pretty darn light at around 12 pounds.  I’d rig them with new sewn beds and suspensions and had a fleet of them from around 1981 to 1989.  They were super rigid and beyond bomber.  We used to rent them out for like $15 bucks a wall, and an extra $5 for insurance if you wanted to toss it off the top of the wall when you were done.  Some were tossed better than 10 times off the top, with minimal damage.  They would just paddlewheel on down and eventually crash into the forest.  The Curry Cot, like the one Westbay is sitting on in the famous Zodiac pic, weighed about 30 pounds and was made of steel.  Those were stolen out of Curry Village.

Here is a pic of Yabo relaxing on the N.A. Wall, and some dude getting ready to chuck one off of Horse Chute

Dude that's blower

Awesome history… TFPU!!

getting ready to run a  big section of hooks on the Hole world El Cap 2015

climbing high on Genesis..

Kevin DeWeese is the “C1 Beauty” -Eagles Way 

Erik Erikssonwrote:

climbing high on Genesis..

Which pitch is this??  I have a terrible memory….

It's up pretty high up before Genesis joins the dawn wall... it starts out with 5:11 face and finishes with A4 nailing crossing left.

^^ That pitch is not pipe. ^^

Jonny Fox and I each climbed half, switching leads halfway through the pitch. You'll never guess who led which half.    

That 511 was really kind of tension traverse wiith free shoes

Australopithecus (Conti, McNeely) Keeler Needle.
Outstanding route, be prepared to penji off of hooks.
B. Adams employing such tactics. 

Kristoffer Wickstromwrote:

Australopithecus (Conti, McNeely) Keeler Needle.
Outstanding route, be prepared to penji off of hooks.
B. Adams employing such tactics. 

Would love to see more photos of this route! How many days were you on it?

August 2016 

Upon reaching the base of the wall it became apparent that bottom 300ft of the route had fallen off, we re-established the route by climbing slightly to the right of where the original route once was and still yet left of the crimson wall and blood of the monkey. we both found the new connecting line to be quite obvious and technically very manageable, the re establishment further reduced the routes total bolt count from 27 to 23 bolts.

 The rock was of solid quality and a pleasure to climb. Equipment wise we opted to used an alpinized piton rack composed exclusively of beaks/peckers. Due to proper conditioning neither of us experienced any negative effects of altitude during this ascent. We climbed the route in a fully contained alpine style with a car to car time of 70 hours.