DEVILS LAKE "QUESTS"!!

A recent dialogue with Jay and EB got me thinking about this subject.
What are some QUESTS that one could put together at DL?

Some that come to mind.
-Climb Birthday crack naked on your birthday.
-Climb ten 5.10's in a Day.
-Climb 100 Pts in a Day. (add up the routes ratings)

I have a buddy who's lifetime quest is to climb an established route on EVERY "Named" Buttress in the Park based on Swartling's guide book.
He is pretty damn close. Actually I think this is the Crown Jewel.

EB suggested climbing a route on every Tower on the West Bluff in a day. He sez 15 Total!

Eric Z. cicumnavigated the Lake on his 40th Birthday and climbed 40 Boulder Problems. He started on the East Bluff and ended up at the Reserve on the South Bluff. I was there along with EB and Terry K..
You can imagine the hard problems he was doing. It was EPIC.

A couple years ago I was up a Sandstone and a young climber from Madison did the following on his Birthday:
-Canoed across Lake Mendota.
-Biked from Madison to Devils Lake
-Did 25 Laps of the 5.9 variation of Gargantua

I've heard of a number of DLFA'ers climbing Congratulations (5.10) blindfolded.

What might be some others? Either what you have heard or what you might be toying with?

I've always wanted to do what I have coined the Devil's Lake Triathlon...

Start at the South Shore Beach.
Swim across the lake to th base of Turk's Head Ridge.
Climb Turk's Head Ridge.
Run Back to the South Shore.

Jeff Giese and I did the "Astro-boy" day at the East Bluff. This consisted of ten 5.10 leads in a day. I think it went like this:

Congratulations
Big Deal
Sometime Crack
Flake Route
Callipigeanous
Thoroughfare
Mouse's Misery
Cheetah
Alpha Centauri
Mongo Fury

I've always wanted to do a pitch on every named formation on the West Bluff in a day. Coach says that's 33 pitches.

James M Schroeder wrote:I've always wanted to do what I have coined the Devil's Lake Triathlon... Start at the South Shore Beach. Swim across the lake to th base of Turk's Head Ridge. Climb Turk's Head Ridge. Run Back to the South Shore.

Talk about a logistical challenge.

The swim from South Shore Beach to (straight line) to Turks Head Ridge would maybe be just short of 3/4 of a mile.

At half way mark if you got tired you could just swim back.

Peter Arndt wrote:The swim from South Shore Beach to (straight line) to Turks Head Ridge would maybe be just short of 3/4 of a mile. At half way mark if you got tired you could just swim back.

As a Tri-Geek, if you really wanna' chicken out halfway. Maybe hanging onto those big freaky balloons that they have at the midway part would be better.

Fall of 1985: I had just moved to Madison to go to school at UW. I was living on the north shore of Lake Mendota, and we didn't have a car, so I biked to Devil's Lake with my sister (with gear in a backpack), we did 5 or 6 pitches, and then we biked home. Maybe 80 miles of biking?

A couple years later (still in college) I borrowed my buddy's mountain bike and rode from the south side of campus to the Merrimac ferry. Upon arriving at the ferry, I was told by the guys working on it that it was shut down for a few hours of maintenance work, and I would have to ride down the Wisconsin River to the bridge at Sauk City. I was assured the ferry would be open and running by early afternoon. So I did the extra distance, got to Devil's Lake, and free soloed 8 easy pitches (all I had was my shoes and harness on this trip, plus a few snack bars and water). Near the end of the day, I ran into a couple guys from Boulder, and top roped The Stretcher and Hourglass with them. Then I got back on my bike and rode to the ferry. It was around dinner time, and they STILL had not fixed the ferry. I was getting pretty dang tired by this point, and was not at all looking forward to riding the extra miles down to Sauk City. Just as I was about to mount my bike and steel myself for many more miles than originally planned, one of the workers told me there was a train bridge just up river from the ferry (you may even be able to see it from the ferry). So I crossed the river on the train bridge, with my buddy's $1000 bike on my shoulders, and dreading the prospect of meeting a train (the bridge was not built for pedestrians, and I would have had to either climb down the trestles of the bridge somehow hanging onto the bike, or just throw the bike into the river and dive in after it). It was a slow few hundred yards of walking the bridge -- no planks to walk on, just one railroad tie to the next with gaps between them and the river below. I'm making it sound like some death march, which it wasn't, but it was pretty freaky for a college kid (for this college kid, in any case). Finally I made it to the far shore and biked home. 102 miles on knobby tires (those things were singing all day long, and I was cursing them by the end of the day), ten pitches, and my first century day ever. I never did another century day in my life (though I suppose there's still plenty of opportunity for me to do one in the future... on second thought, I'm pretty fond of my car, and the last time I jumped on my bike -- to ride up to Estes Park, after nearly 20 years of pretty much no bike riding, to retrieve my sister's car -- I thought I was going to die).

Another time at Devil's lake, I asked a guy who had his rope hanging on Sometime Crack whether I could do a few laps on it with my brother. He said, "Sure, go for it." So my brother sat down and belayed me on 21 laps in a row. I could've kept going all day long on that route (we had the thing so wired it wasn't even funny), but after 21 laps, the guy wanted his rope back.

Then there was the weekend we went up to climb after Harvest Fest (or "Harvest Day"? -- something like that) in Madison. I was so naive I didn't really even know what Harvest Fest was at the time... Long story short, I ended up driving up to the Lake (as a completely sober passenger) with my buddies who had just attended the festivities on State Street and the capitol grounds. Why they didn't offer the keys to me so that I could drive I will never know; I learned of their earlier-in-the-day activities only after we arrived at the Lake in one piece. We set up camp, and headed up to D'Arcy's Wall for a night time climbing game, with no headlamps. Without divulging too much, I'll just note that we had a good time, and I won. Just after we wrapped things up and were ready to hike back down, a band of DLFA-ers came up the trail for their own night time climbing party. So we joined in, and ended up doing Sometime Right and Sometime Crack with them. I remember the headlamp I borrowed from one of them sliding down over my eyes and then migrating down to my neck as I was hitting the crux on Sometime Right, and I had to finish the rest of it from memory (I think I recall that D'Arcy's Wall had a little bit of ambient light, but Sometime wall was pitch black). I tried to right the light, but to no avail. It was more memorable without it, I suppose. Good times; I miss Devil's Lake (OK, maybe not too much as I live in Colorado now, but I have many fond memories of various Devil's Lake quests from my college days).

Outstanding!!

I remember fondly one early spring day afternoon (a warm sunny one) meeting up by chance with a smiling (he is all ways smiling) Dave Timberlake at East Bluff Sometime crack buttress for some TR laps on all the 5.10s and .11s within a 100ft direction either side of the current rope position (I think it was The Stretcher). He was psyched because he had ice climbed at Lone Rock in the mid morning hours, X- country skied quite a few miles of the upland trails within the park, and was now climbing sunny warm rock...... all in one day... He wasn't done yet at that point either as he was heading down to get some ice skating in on the still frozen (and that year like glass) lake surface...

I have done the same link up of several activities all in one day in the Devil's Lake area based on this one experience with Dave T.. It is not an overly impressive feat but sure is a lot of fun. The most recent time I did this it'll was super fun as usual but the skiing part sucked and was a mere formality.

I "quested" at DL on my 40th birthday.... or tried. It was really more of a "Birthday Challenge" thing to try and "really wreck myself doing" (response by my wife after I told her what I was planning on doing).

I rode my bike (MT bike with soft knobbies-- mistake) up to DL from my house in Madison (somewhere around 40 miles roughly if you catch a ride on the Merrimac Ferry as mentioned earlier on this post stream) has that great hill climb at the very end up to the East Bluff parking area and then attempted to TR 40 separate climbs at East Bluff. I failed on the 40 climbs part of the challenge having picked to many "too hard" lines and also I was poaching laps on what ever TR lines happened to be set up and had friendly understanding and helpful owners (not too many that day)and logistically I didn't make it.... I only made it to 15 or so mostly due to the wearing out of the arms thing... ha ha. I also ran out of time (excuse excuse) as I had to be ready to catch my ride home from my helpful wife who by the way laughed pretty hard when I told her I only made 15 climbs--- she said it was closer to the age I act.....

Hey pete, last summer rich anthony and I climbed 15 towers on the west bluff in a day but there are more, especially if one included the east bluff. Total there are over 20 summits which could be topped out in a day!! Anyone up for it? it would be a great day, the west bluff tour was one of the funnest days of climbing I've had in a while. Another fun day is to start at the west end of the east rampart and lead as many routes in a day as possible from 5.6 and up. we did 21 a few years back. Also, EZ and I are doing the DL version of his b-day this week here in Pocatello as a going away party! All of the classic problems in a day, I told him he owed me from his b day. Cheers & Git on it!

Hey Jay?

Where and what is "Mongo Fury" from your list of 5.10 leads stated above?

Burt Lindquist wrote:Hey Jay? Where and what is "Mongo Fury" from your list of 5.10 leads stated above?

Burt, Mongo Fury is a neglected 10c up and right from The Bird and No Sweat Overhang. It might have a bunch of vines growing on it these days, but it's pretty cool and relatively steep. It's pretty short though.

How about Eric Zschiesche, Quest to climb all the 12's and 13's barefoot, it was too easy for him with shoes, I watched him climb Cheap Thrills and Peyote Blues barefoot, herd he did one 13, one day he was working on Rubber Man barefoot, when I first met Eric, when he started climbing at DL he would hike up the trail barefoot with a 1 gallon glass jug,(his water bottle) I've climbed Peyote Blues and Acid Rock, in my hiking shoes, but barefoot, amazing.

I'd like to do something special on my 60th birthday this summer.

Any suggestions??

Some years ago Dave Groth and I set out to climb as many routes as we could in a day all at least 5.10. I think I did 19 and Dave matched me 2 for one with 38. We talked several times later about going for it again. He was pretty sure he could do 100 routes with careful planning and enough friendly top ropes available. And Eric Zschiesche did do 100 laps on Sometimes Direct one Saturday some years ago.

Dave Groth soloed 24 routes at DL on his 24th B-Day.

Corey Morris wrote:Dave Groth soloed 24 routes at DL on his 24th B-Day.

That was a couple years after I had a 100 point day- all solo- on my 25th birthday.

Great debauchery followed that night. I seem to remember Dave standing atop a burning picnic table assuring everyone, in his considered opinion as a volunteer fireman (true), that things were under control.

Dave would have had a much higher point count than me as he was soloing hard routes!

Another "QUEST" I've been wanting to do is the south bluff link-up of all the bouldering areas. It would go something like this: Amazing pillar(arete & center face), reserve(the ten best; all the lake boulder classics), boomtown(all the shadow wall problems, roof problem and B1 crack), chode boulders, then the ejaculator! It would be a big day of crankin'. Anyone up for it?

Count me in Eric, get on it! Would Burma Rd. be included?

Totally. Either as the finish or warm up. The big roof and arete at the chode is one of the big un-dones at the lake.