Big wall Glory pics, post em up!

Since we seem to have hijacked the bailing thread with tales of epic glory lets start a thread to relive our best days soon the big stone. heres a few pics to get it going.

Flying buttress, Zodiac

Nipple pitch, Zodiac

One pitch from the summit, Zodiac

pitch 21, Mescalito

Molar traverse, Mecalito

Shield roof

triple cracks, Shield

A few from the "big walls" of the southeast!

Scott Fischer Memorial Route on Looking Glass Rock

Synapse Ramp

Bart Bledsoe leading the Movie Screen into the Navel

Great thread, enjoy!

This first one is from a trip up lurking fear which was my and two of my friend's first big wall. We took four days (planned on three), ran out of food and water and had a horrible time lost, postholing through a couple feet of snow on top of El Cap trying to find the falls trail (in a rain/snow storm) because we were scared of trying to onsight the east ledges with all the snow and precip. Eventually we hit the stream that feeds the falls and made our way down safe.

first wall psych on lurking fear

These two are from a trip to Zion in Feburary where we would wake up around 5:30 in the van with all of the windows completely iced up from the inside, head into the park and be climbing in a t-shirt by noon.
jugging on spaceshot

When we did Desert Shield we linked up with a friend of a friend who I met on a bus to Boston. I was headed to Zion and he to Red Rocks. He managed to find a ride up to Zion and tagged along with my partner and I for his first wall!
desert shield headwall

These next two are from a trip to the valley where my partner and his girlfriend at the time and I all climbed Zodiac for her first trip up El Cap! We bivied at the base of the nipple pitch. We were three deep on the portaledge and they insisted on putting up the divider, so I had plenty of room!
air time on zodiac!

haulin' freight

This one is from a recent day trip up the lowe route on angel's landing. My buddy took a looooong time figuring out how to get past this particular spot, and I got a great nap in on the belay ledge.
awk on the lowe route

Morning after my most recent birthday party night one on the triple direct. I snuck a sixer of cobra and another of OE into the haul bags, which one of my partners threatened to dump out once discovered, but I was able to save by repeatedly protesting "but it's my birthday....."
morning on grey ledges

These last two are from a month long trip to Newfoundland. We put up a handful of new routes and repeated one. We also spent a lot of time coming up with fun things to do in the rain. I think all told we got one week of climbing and three of rain, don't let the pictures fool you.
oceanside walling in newfoundland

new routing in Newfoundland

Keep them coming guys! I don't think I aspire to do walls, but the photos are so damn cool.

Me leading the roof on the Salathe Wall in 1974. I was 18 years old and had been climbing just two years. I didn't consider myself a competent 5.9 leader but I was the "free climber" on the team. I ended up doing a pretty good job leading all of the required 5.9 on the route.

We could count on one fixed piece per pitch and one fixed piece per anchor. We fixed four pitches with 3 ropes (as was the custom of the day) and climbed the route in 3 nights after that.

Under the Salathe Wall roof.

btw, those two pins are still there.

I think there should be some story or description along with the photo. I mean, you know, porn is fine but a little context helps!

Mark Hudon wrote:I think there should be some story or description along with the photo. I mean, you know, porn is fine but a little context helps!

Totally agree, and a great idea for a topic too! I've done the Diamond a bunch but no real big walls. Keep 'em coming folks!

My second El Cap bivy (it snowed on the first one too) on Gray Ledges. We were heading up the Triple Direct.
We had all the modern technical clothing of the day, down jackets and cotton painter's pants!
We sat there for 24 hours, shivering and trying to stay warm. We rapped the next day.

I've been there quite a few times since and always retell the story!

Der Nose:

Alcove

Nose

Some light hearted reading aloud really breaks up the tense belays. From the Muir Wall, mid 80s, after a nasty spring storm. The lady in the pic is my wife Karen. We hope to get up a few more walks now that the kids are grown.

This is going to be an awesome thread!!!!

Ya know on the 5th pitch of the Salathe/Freeblast, where the crack ends and you do those first slab moves to the left? This is what protected those moves back in the 70s. There is a bolt there now.

The bolt is just down and left of where the swage is.

This one from New Dawn, late 80s. We bivied here, one pitch above Wino Tower, on this splitter right leaning crack. Such a great spot, we stopped early. I think that crack goes free now at something like only 5.10+. I loved that old hand rigged submarine cot as a portaledge. It doesn't collapse, so you get the most luxurious belay seat (assuming you have some room!).

New Dawn.

Awesome shots all. Time to scan my slides.

Last Pitch of Zodiac. So Fun!!!

Another from the Scott Fischer Memorial Route with Bart. This is in the Slot of Delight, to gain this feature you have some fun nailing along the ramp

Slot of Delight

Climbing up the thin head seam on the Zombie Zoo at Looking Glass
zombiezoo

Rowin's Route (aka Remember Appomattox)
Rowins Route (Remember Appomattox)

the classic Glass Menagerie
Glass Menagerie

Ryan Little on Brain dead
Ryan on brain dead

Hanging out on Creatures of Waste
Creatures

Bomber Gear on the Brain Dead corner!
bomb gear

Genesis baby, Genesis!

Skot Richards on the last pitch, climbing into where the route meets the Dawn Wall.

Awesome climbing up in the Taft Granite on El Cap.

A photo of Skot a few feet below where he is in the previous photo.

Skot Richards on Genesis.

Chris McNamara on Native Son '98

One of the most memorable moments for any wall climber is the last pitch of their first El Cap route. Here's Karen jugging the last pitch of the Nose, our first El Cap route, on a perfect day in May, way back when. She was psyched!

Last pitch of the Nose.

OK, I'll play.

Here's Ardian on the pitch off El Cap Tower on the FreeRider. Party of 3 and none of us had done a wall before. Took 5 days in early May through multiple rain/snow/hail storms. We didn't bring stoves, ledges, or flys. We also didn't really have our hauling figured out. Somehow we got it together and managed to drag ourselves over the top.

Off El Cap Tower

More from that trip.
Sous Le Toit

Our next wall was casual 2 day trip of Lunar Ecstacy. First trip we brought stove, now it goes up every time. Here's Ryan cleaning the Leapfrog Alien pitch.
Lunar Ecstacy

Next we attepted Cosmic Trauma. Here's Ryan about to climb into the "5.8" chimney. The ancient hardware at the top of this pitch, inspired a bail over to Spaceshot.
Cosmic Trauma

Spaceshot was excellent climbing. We topped out right at dusk and one of our headlamps died. We figured out the rappels in the dark, ran out to the road, and caught the last bus out of the park right as it passed.
Spaceshot

This October, we did South Seas to Pacific Ocean Wall. After 3 days of fixing and hiking loads in, we blasted off. Here's Ryan jugging the line out of the Alcove.
First pitch South Seas to Pacific Ocean Wall

Here's Ryan fixing the Rubber Band Man pitch late in the day.
Rubber Band Man

Here I am on the Bearing Straights
Bearing Straights

Next to last pitch.
Top of PO Wall

Barrett, I'll see your east coast as well with a shot from Whiteside. It's not a true "big wall" but we gotta practice somewhere. On this trip, we went up Volunteer Wall right before a rainstorm. We wanted to practice setting up the portaledge, camp, and generally figure out our systems. We got soaked, and bailed the next morning.
Whiteside

Todd Offenbacher Native Son '98