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The Brotherhood Of the Traveling Stopper...

Mikey Seaman · · Boise, ID · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 5
Tony B wrote: Regardless, I think you should FOR SURE post your TR from the Hulk Epic here. That's the sort of thing that people are actually logged in to read about.
The sun literally looked like a cigarette cherry, dark, dark orange. And it was snuffed out into an ashtray as soon as we reached the true summit of the Hulk. I was surprised my partner didn’t have a headlamp, but nothing could be done, at that point. We signed the register and began the sketchy, blocky downclimb to the one rappel station we would need to hit, before walking down the scree. We just kept the rope lopped around us, in a big mess, too exhausted to take the time to stow the rope properly, also thinking it would be a short romp to the chains.

We thought we’d scamper down to the rap station, but we boulder hopped down and ever further down, eventually sopping to stow the rope and actually down climbing. There came a time when we were no longer comfortable downclimbing, and set up a rap of sorts, for me to go take a look with the headlamp. We spent a lot of time looking off to skiers left. My basic LED headlamp showed us nothing but black. It was ominous and unlikely, but I kept finding really promising areas. I’d rap down 20 feet or so, come to a huge ledge, and think, “This must be where the rap station is”. Nope. I floundered for probably close to an hour. When it was time to climb back up, my partner couldn’t get me on belay, so I self belayed on the fixed rap line. Wasting more time. We both thought the descent was skiers left, off the back of the hulk. Wrong again, we later found out. So we gave up skiers left and headed down another area. We soon committed to leaving some gear, so I left a cordelette around huge boulder, and we rapped dwon a gully, of sorts. This was probably the downclimb of the descent.

We got to the end of the rope and used my partner’s cordelette and continued down another bit. We thought we could make out a large cairn, and we probably ended up just missing the rap station. In daylight, we could have downclimbed this, though it was certainly sketchy. It jived with thwat we both understood to be the route’s descent, and we agreed we were on the right track. We found ourselves on a ridge, a few hundred feet below the summit. We were probably very close to the rap anchors, down the ridge to the left. We chose to bail off to the right and, and swing to rappers right, thinking we’d swing around under the actual rap station soon enough. It was only one rap to a scree field, so we had read, so we thought it would just take a rap or two at most to pick up the scree. I slung a horn on the ridge and headed down into the darkness. Tomas stayed at the top, huddled down as best he could. The weather was fair, but it was early October, probably around 10pm or so by now. There were some comforting ledge type features on the face, so I rapped down and veered right. I found a place to set up another rap and called Tomas down. No big deal so far. The rock resembled sliced bread, with many horns to sling and set up raps, but also to catch the rope and snag our progress. We did a few more rappels on similar rock. Some times Tomas would wait, then peer down, only to see me 30 feet below him, untangling the rope. Progress was slow, but each station was ok. I planned on having every station be a potential miserable bivvy, so they weren’t full rope lengths everytime, probably 20m or so regularly. We had one 60m rope with us.

Some rap stations were pretty terrible, steep perches. Others were decent places to sit down and hunker down. I eventually spied some tat – psyched! Someone else had been this way! My headlamp didn’t reach too far, scattering into the dark abyss, but the tat was white and I headed for it. The white was actually some terribly faded blue webbing. I pulled away some crud and was actually able to use the webbing as a back up. In our exhausted condition, and given the back country nature of the climb, I chose to use two slings and 2 biners at almost every station I made. I was hemorrhaging gear and need to make sure I had enough to get all the way down. So I used the webbing with a sling of mine and we headed down with renewed confidence. Another rap or two and we found some more tat! Sick! This white and red cord was in equally crappy shape, but I used it along with a sling of my own. This was on a large ledge, that would make a great lunch stop on the way up. We could have done a decent bivvy there, but we had some confidence from finding the tat and figured we must be getting close to the ground by now. We were continuing to head down to climber’s right. Eventually we hit the scree! I was psyched to see the cliff turn to slab and the slab hit the scree. It was the very top of the scree field, and I couldn’t imagine how the regular descent route would have gotten here with just one rap. We clearly missed the downclimbing way up above. At any rate, I saved the surprise for Tomas and he met me on the lower part of the slab. In my exhausted condition, I opted to stay on rappel as I check out the scree.

I remember reading about a sketchy move, while down climbing in the scree – some sort of overhang maneuvering. I got to the end of the sree field and was incredibly disappointed. It was like one of the games where there’s a bunch of quarters hanging on a ledge and you drop yours in and try to knock some more quarters off to win. My headlamp was dimming and I couldn’t see anything below the precipe. I could make out other hanging scree fields above us, and wondered how far off route we were, and if this scree field could be above a massive cliff. So I started to look for a place to build an anchor amidst the huge boulders at the end of the scree field. I pulled a loose one almost onto myself, and jumped on it, setting off a huge rock slide. I ran on tops of boulders, nearly on the brink of the precipice, like cartoon running on the tops of rolling boulders, not actually progressing up hill, just staying alive. It was extremely loud and the slide was big. I eventually got up onto some slabby ground to climber’s left as the rock slide escalated. It ended up being the biggest slide I’d ever heard. Massive thundering. Friggin amazing. Scary as hell. So after that, I decided to bail on the scree all together. I scrambled back up to Tomas and we set up to try again. We rapped down and ended up finding a little slot that paralleled the scree field. It turned into quite a slot. There was a dirty chockstone and I set up a rappel there, leaving a single cam. The slot was steep, and it was a combination of raping and scrambling backwards, some of the sketchiest down climbing and miserable anchors of the descent. It soon got very steep and we came to a huge ledge. The rock changed dramatically and there were sharp angles and large ledges. Kinda reminded me of the tunneling part of Frogland in Black Velvet Canyon. We dropped another rap and found…some tat! We were on someone else’s heels again! It was a relief to seem that someone had been this way, especially since as the rock changed, there were fewer options for raps – no more horns and much fewer cracks. We got down to another large ledge and I built an anchor with 2 or 3 nuts, and rapped into yet another slot. And solid ground. Sweet Jesus we were down!

Still had looooots of scree to walk through. The rocks were loose as we stumbled home to our tent. And by to our tent, I mean away from our tent. We wrapped around, close to the base of the climb and walked past our tent. The camping is in a valley, basically, and we got downstream of our tent. We looked all over the place. We had our rope and cams on us and were exhausted. We kept scrmabling lower and lower, trying to get vantage on various boulders. The Hulk was too big to use as a reference. It looked like we were in the right spot, based on what we had seen from camp in the morning, but it looked like we were on track, every chance we stopped to look. We scouted boulders to get better vantage and traipsed around for probably close to 2 hours before giving up and heading back upstream to start over again. We eventually found our tent, tucked down in a little hollow. It seemed like an obvious place to camp; I don’t know how we missed it.

We saw no one on the Hulk at all, on Saturday, but when we were up, we spied some people walking around. They got injured on the hike in and bailed on the climb, spending the day hiking around casually. We saw them in the morning and they had heard the rock slide I sent down and kept an eye on us during the decent. They saw us walk by our tent and almost shouted, but figured we knew what we were doing. Nope. When we climbed into our tent, I checked my watch. It was 5 am.
Jason Antin · · Golden, CO · Joined May 2009 · Points: 1,375

A year without the traveling stopper??? I am happy to start a new one if that is needed!

RyanO · · sunshine · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 145
Maurice Chaunders wrote: We found ourselves on a ridge, a few hundred feet below the summit. We were probably very close to the rap anchors, down the ridge to the left. We chose to bail off to the right and, and swing to rappers right, thinking we’d swing around under the actual rap station soon enough. It was only one rap to a scree field, so we had read, so we thought it would just take a rap or two at most to pick up the scree.
Did you guys ever figure out where you actually made your decent? Ever go back to reclaim your gear? If I understand this correctly you were coming down pretty far to the climbers left of the standard rappel route. The cliff drops off quickly there, so I can see how it ended up being such an epic multiple rappel. I'm glad you guys made it down alright, and well done on being safe and methodical in a tricky situation.

FWIW, normally you would go off the back of the summit and then skiers right a bit, downclimb a short easy chimney/dihedral and then follow 3rd class ledges just to the left of the ridge until you get to 2 old rusty 1/4" bolts for a single 28 meter rap to the notch.
Lukus · · St. Louis · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 100
J Antin wrote:A year without the traveling stopper??? I am happy to start a new one if that is needed!
I'm thinking that's a great idea, if it happens throw me in rotation for it. Unknown Midwest Trad climbs.
Jason Antin · · Golden, CO · Joined May 2009 · Points: 1,375
Lukus wrote: I'm thinking that's a great idea, if it happens throw me in rotation for it. Unknown Midwest Trad climbs.
I'll get it rocking as soon as I can confirm that the last one is lost forever!

@Tony B - any further info on the last stopper in rotation?
Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,665

Ryan K has had it right here in town since May 2014. Just ask him for it.

Jason Antin · · Golden, CO · Joined May 2009 · Points: 1,375

Copy that Tony B...

Ill go knock on Ry's door!

Mike · · Phoenix · Joined May 2006 · Points: 2,615
Tony B wrote:Ryan K has had it right here in town since May 2014. Just ask him for it.
Shameful!
Kevin Piarulli · · Redmond, OR · Joined Nov 2013 · Points: 1,678

Bring it back! Just saw this thread and love it!

dylan grabowski · · Denver · Joined Mar 2015 · Points: 95

Oh, oh. Put me down too! There's plenty of obscurity in Northern California to keep the TS well happy.

Lukus · · St. Louis · Joined Mar 2013 · Points: 100
J Antin wrote:Copy that Tony B... Ill go knock on Ry's door!
Yo J let me know when you get it. Can't wait to see the TR.
Old lady H · · Boise, ID · Joined Aug 2015 · Points: 1,374

I am reviving this ancient thread, because:

^^This, and,

^^This, and, micronuts, brassies, and my FIRST rope (!), are all due to the recent kindness of fellow MPers.

SO, if ya wanna, someone pick a nut from the above, I will endeavor to place it creatively, get back on here, and send it off to you, if you would enjoy this thread. MY rule? Have fun! Keep one, send one of your own on, but keep fun, friendships and kindness from others in mind if/as it goes forward!

Best, Helen 

Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,665

Good, let's see a piece make the rounds.  

I am sneaking one in on someone else who is unsuspecting who just bought gear from me.  
I'm throwing him under the bus!  He's getting a surprise in the package.
(Who knows when he might read this?)

https://www.mountainproject.com/u/stephen-d//111755066

  No confusing this nut with anything else you might have on your rack, and no way to fake it in a photo... just got to place it and take that pic and post.


eli poss · · Durango, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 525

finally, a thread that is actually worth necromancing. I got one more week of school before summer and then you can sign me up for some adventures with the traveling stopper. Or better yet, come down to Durango to deliver her in person and we'll show that stopper some good chossaneering on junction creek sandstone.  

Lou Cerutti · · Carlsbad, California · Joined Jan 2014 · Points: 209

This is exactly the sort of thread that keeps me refreshing this damn app day and day again. Really cool stuff here. Thanks to the OP and H for reviving it. 

Old lady H · · Boise, ID · Joined Aug 2015 · Points: 1,374
eli poss wrote:

finally, a thread that is actually worth necromancing. I got one more week of school before summer and then you can sign me up for some adventures with the traveling stopper. Or better yet, come down to Durango to deliver her in person and we'll show that stopper some good chossaneering on junction creek sandstone.  

Eli, you make me wanna take up hitchin rides again! 

I'll take a shot at something tomorrow. Hmm...Maybe some Idaho sandstone??? Since we're making history, here... :-)

But will I get arrested...???

Best, H.

Stephen D · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2016 · Points: 20
Tony B wrote:

Good, let's see a piece make the rounds.  

I am sneaking one in on someone else who is unsuspecting who just bought gear from me.  
I'm throwing him under the bus!  He's getting a surprise in the package.
(Who knows when he might read this?)

I feel like I just got recruited into a cult!

I'll find a good place for it ;) 

Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,665
Stephen D wrote:

I feel like I just got recruited into a cult!

I'll find a good place for it ;) 

Whatever causes you to have what is for you, an 'adventure.'
Take a few pics, post a report!

Cortney L · · Englehood, CO · Joined May 2015 · Points: 42

This is awesome. 

I definitely want to be in on this. Ill take it once it becomes available next and will show it a good time. 

i live for adventure climbs.

Old lady H · · Boise, ID · Joined Aug 2015 · Points: 1,374
Old lady H wrote:

I am reviving this ancient thread, because:

^^This, and,

^^This, and, micronuts, brassies, and my FIRST rope (!), are all due to the recent kindness of fellow MPers.

SO, if ya wanna, someone pick a nut from the above, I will endeavor to place it creatively, get back on here, and send it off to you, if you would enjoy this thread. MY rule? Have fun! Keep one, send one of your own on, but keep fun, friendships and kindness from others in mind if/as it goes forward!

Best, Helen 

Mission accomplished! TR in tomorrow!

Didn't get arrested! Yay!

Best, Old Lady H, aka Helen

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

General Climbing
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