Quinn Brett NIAD - boot flake pro question

Tradiban wrote:

? What was wrong with the interview? There was some crying but that's warranted, she almost fucking died! I thought it was timely and thoughtful.  I respected that she admitted she made a "big mistake".

I don't think that there was anything wrong with the content itself or even discussing the accident in general as that is what the podcast is for and a ton can be learned from these interviews. I am just saying that it just seemed to me to be too soon after the accident and that all the trauma was still fresh and all the ways it was affecting her life to bring her out for a live interview (for example when she was talking about the difficulty of going to the bathroom). As I stated above, obviously she would have agreed to it I'm probably projecting, but it just seemed very awkward and uncomfortable for her at times. Wishing her all the best and as speedy a recovery as possible given the circumstances.

Thanks for sharing the info about the podcast.  I have now spent the last couple of days listening to the Sharp End podcast episodes!  Introduced it to a coworker who isn't even a climber, but she is digging it.

Not placing pro the whole way up was her choice to move fast. You can sew the whole thing up if you want its a perfect hand crack.

JFF wrote: Not placing pro the whole way up was her choice to move fast. You can sew the whole thing up if you want its a perfect hand crack.

Yes, I'm sure everyone already know that by now. What people didn't understand is the time penalty is much higher than just placing/cleaning the gear.

Leader runs out the boot so partner can do king swing without having to go to the top of boot to clean. Then partner runs out the next pitch so the person who climbed the boot can just swing over from the top of the boot. this is what jim and brad did and you can see it in their video. This is what Quinn was doing, I believe. 

A safer option that is still speedy involves the leader lowering from the top of the boot to clean the pitch (they therefore can place as much as they want), then both climbers do the king swing. In this scenario, as in the last, only one partner still has to go to the top of the boot.

Brian Prince wrote: Leader runs out the boot so partner can do king swing without having to go to the top of boot to clean. Then partner runs out the next pitch so the person who climbed the boot can just swing over from the top of the boot. this is what jim and brad did and you can see it in their video.

A safer option that is still speedy involves the leader lowering from the top of the boot to clean the pitch (they therefore can place as much as they want), then both climbers do the king swing. In this scenario, as in the last, only one partner still has to go to the top of the boot.

That ain't no way to get a speed record, slow poke.

Shepido wrote:

The whole accident discussion about what happened is more or less goes from 14:30 to 17:30 - so 3 minutes - the rest is stuff leading up to or aftermath. She doesn't explain things such as that she short fixed the anchor above the Texas Flake (I had to google short fixing btw) or how many of the bolts she did or didn't clip, etc. Her account likely makes sense to people familiar with the Nose route, speed climbing, or Yosemite big wall climbing in general. 

As for the fall itself I still have no idea what happened other than she was hand jammed and thoughts of Hayden Kennedy who had just died a few days prior flashed through her head, and had one of her cams that was on a daisy she either dropped or didn't before she was falling. I can't tell if a foot blew or what? I don't think she even knows exactly what happened. 

I listened to that 3 minute section probably 10 times. If you aren't very familiar with speed climbing or big wall climbing (I'm not) there isn't much information to pick up other than this is another case of 'I ran it out on something I thought was easy, took a huge fall, and hit a ledge.'  This does little to inform those of us not intimately familiar with these things as to the why... does that section not protect well, is this just because of speed climbing tactic, Could it protect well if bringing more gear, etc. 

I feel there is a lot left to be desired in terms of clarity and actual analysis of the accident. I felt the episode was never really clear on that and instead focused a lot on her personal and tragic situation since then, which is understandable, and serves it's own purpose. But I think if you got 20 climbers in a room - you would get varying levels of comprehension about what happened. I spent probably an hour looking at the topo, photos, even you tube videos of people climbing the texas flake to try and understand with certainty what happened. 

My thoughts exactly!

Evan Borders wrote:

My thoughts exactly!

Did you read the rest of the thread? All those questions are pretty much answered.

Marc801 C wrote:

Did you read the rest of the thread? All those questions are pretty much answered.

No kidding. 

You ever just want to show someone some positivity? That's what I did....in a plethora of negative comments.

Tradiban wrote:

That ain't no way to get a speed record, slow poke.

Anyone know how Tommy and Alex did it? I remember hearing that Tommy had devised a way to protect it, but still go pretty fast.

Evan Borders wrote:

No kidding. 

You ever just want to show someone some positivity?

That's exactly what I did. You said essentially that you had the same questions. I showed you where the answers were located.
You're welcome.

COCKFIGHT!

Tradiban wrote: COCKFIGHT!

Marginally better than dick swinging, but hardly worth the effort. I just get tired of the MP "if you disagree with me you suck and you're a negative person" attitude.

ScoJo wrote:

Anyone know how Tommy and Alex did it? I remember hearing that Tommy had devised a way to protect it, but still go pretty fast.

Caldwell leads to the top of the boot.  Honnold cleans the gear and meets him there.  Then Honnold tension traverses left at some point.  They never do the king swing but traverse higher on tension so they lose less elevation.

Alexander Blum wrote:

What she did was specifically a speed climbing tactic, she states that clearly in the interview. Not placing gear in the boot flake means that your partner doesn't have to climb the boot flake to clean gear, they can just go straight into the pendulum. 

The accident seems to have happened primarily bc she was crack jumaring with one cam instead of two, which was her normal practice.

I’m sorry, I’m also an aiding noob... what is crack jumaring? As opposed to regular jumaring?

Also an aiding noob, but I believe it's using two cams attached to slings to your harness to make your way up the crack. As opposed to using your hands. That way there would always at least be one piece in the rock. I could be wrong though.

James Huang wrote: Also an aiding noob, but I believe it's using two cams attached to slings to your harness to make your way up the crack. As opposed to using your hands. That way there would always at least be one piece in the rock. I could be wrong though.

But is she pulling on them? Or just using them to go indirect? She made it sound like she fell while trying to place one... or that she had placed one, and then fell while trying to place a second one, and the first one popped. I think.

Abby Schoenberg wrote:

But is she pulling on them? Or just using them to go indirect? She made it sound like she fell while trying to place one... or that she had placed one, and then fell while trying to place a second one, and the first one popped. I think.

She's pulling on them, "french free".

reboot wrote:

Yes, I'm sure everyone already know that by now. What people didn't understand is the time penalty is much higher than just placing/cleaning the gear.

haha good Im glad that it is settled. As a side note to the author of the thread who I think was talking about doing his first NIAD, don't be worried at all. The NIAD is super chill if you are in good shape and its fun as fuck. I've lead it multiple times sub 5 hours to Camp 4 and never run out the boot flake like that. My beta is to climb the boot flake and lower off a draw on the anchor. To lower your partner just starts simuling and basically lie backs the boot flake very easily with your body weight. I also almost always put myself on a grigri with like 20-30 ft of slack real quick when I am short fixed until my partner tosses me back on belay. You can make it safe(ish) and still have a relatively fast time (Ive done 12 hrs). Obviously not professional fast but pretty fast for an ascent of El Cap and its rad!

Abby Schoenberg wrote:

I’m sorry, I’m also an aiding noob... what is crack jumaring? As opposed to regular jumaring?

Correction: these are not examples of crack jumarring, but instead, cam pushing. Sorry about that.

Here's another (not great) example because she's not actually hanging on the gear (the jumar part), but you can see show she inch worms the gear above her (2:43):


I couldn't find an example of people hanging on the big cams but hopefully this gives you the basic sense of what a crack jumar might involve.