Nice article about Pete Cleveland's unrepeated Superpin

sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-cul…

Ran into Pete on my way to the CCC parking lot yesterday and got to talking with him about his bold exploits back in the day (";another day at the office,"; as he calls it). Found this article, which was quite appropo, so I thought I'd share it. Also mentions John Gill and the forum's own Rich Goldstone. Nice piece of climbing history!

Good old Pete. He came feet away from breaking my back letting me down a little ice flow WAY too fast last year. Fun times. I've mad respect for him as a climber and very little as a belayer.

Hahaha. He's definitely belayed me off a tree before...and just to be clear, that's in place of a harness, not as an anchor (although, coincidentally, his anchor was also a single tree).

Good article, thanks for sharing it.

great read!

Seth, the belayer's body is not in the system. You basically hitch a tree and connect a locker, then hang the Belay device from it instead of your belay loop. It otherwise works just like a normal slingshot toprope belay, it's just more than a little ridiculous.

The issue winds up being that they may setup a redundant anchor, but then negate the redundancy by using just one tied sling to belay from - at times not off a solid tree but a cruddy loop of a tree root sticking out of the ground!!

Thanks for posting that article Ted. Great read. It's neat how a guy who did some wildly bold stuff was also just as happy to do some of his most ground breaking stuff on TR. He clearly is a guy who just loves to climb.

Rochester MN local Jeremy Schaar (owns Roca Climbing Gym) also climbed Pete's route. There's some comments about it under the route here on MP. So it has been repeated, at least once, as opposed to what this article says. Great article otherwise.

Dave would be a better judge of whether Jeremy repeated Pete's route than any of us.

Doug Hemken wrote:Dave would be a better judge of whether Jeremy repeated Pete's route than any of us.

By Jeremy Schaar
Jun 23, 2016

I had a long talk with Dave Groth about the route. He has also tried to repeat the route. He did confirm with me that the route I red pointed is the Pete Cleveland Route. In my book I believe that counts as a Second Ascent.

mountainproject.com/v/pete-…

Seth Jones wrote:Oh no, not a single sling!!! That's so much worse than trusting a single belay device, single belay biner, single belay loop, single rope, ect!!!

And a single tree root about as big around as your wrist.

But yeah- if a tied sling is at 22kn- but then take 40% or more off for the water knot... I'd say that IS quite a bit worse than a single belay loop (typically well over 22kn) a rope (far more than that) or a biner (unless its cross loaded). never heard of an atc shattering- so I'm fine with one of those too. An old ratty sling tied around a root when you could just hook in to your harness? Call me a chicken I guess... I know it's worked fine for many. Maybe I'm missing the value of the added comfort. But it's even more WORK to tie the sling around the root than it would be to clip the harness!!

Well I can't speak for others but in my experience he just tied the end of his rope around his waist which is the reason for the direct tree-belay: no harness to belay from.

Ha! Quite true.
But really such a great guy. Wonderful outlook on life. Super encouraging. And his stories -ranging from climbing to quantum physics to civil rights and on- are fantastic. Thank goodness the stories are great, cause you often can't get too many words in edgewise :)

Seth Jones wrote:Oh no, not a single sling!!! That's so much worse than trusting a single belay device, single belay biner, single belay loop, single rope, ect!!!

Or trusting a single climber too! I want a bunch of them, multiple belayers like multiple anchor points. Oh, also by single, not meaning I need 'married' climbers for a trusty belay,,just to clarify.

Jack C. wrote:Well I can't speak for others but in my experience he just tied the end of his rope around his waist which is the reason for the direct tree-belay: no harness to belay from.

Standard operational procedure for Pete. Remember just gold line tie ins, or at best a two inch wide swami belt wrapped around waist for our climbs at DL. Standard hip belay on top rope for most of the classics along East Ramparts we climbed back in late 70s'. Only a couple harness companies out back then, and we dirt bags' could not afford to buy one anyway. Dont' even get me started about shoes..!!

Ted Pinson wrote:http://www.sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-culture/the-down-to-earth-rock-god/ Ran into Pete on my way to the CCC parking lot yesterday and got to talking with him about his bold exploits back in the day (";another day at the office,"; as he calls it). Found this article, which was quite appropo, so I thought I'd share it. Also mentions John Gill and the forum's own Rich Goldstone. Nice piece of climbing history!

I know after first meeting Pete at DL in early 70's, and in midst of making my mid 70's road trip plans to go out west, I got my copy of the Needles climbers guidebook. Spent weeks reading, planning my stops at the Ten Pins, Thimble, areas just to be in awe of climbs I was not near ready to try. Did 'easier' routes over by Sylvan Lake instead.
Great to see that article again..

I hear you- and I agree. But I definitely am an over cautious type in my own choices. And yes, I've often kindly asked him or others to belay me off the harness instead - (he'll certainly get out the old rainbow harness and oblige - seeing that thing is worth asking alone!). In some ways, I think he gets a bit of a kick out of it when you laugh and tell him he's crazy as he ties in with a bowline around the waist and no harness. He'll then proceed to teach you how to do it in detail- then explain that the biggest danger would be if you were to get stuck mid air hanging from it, as you would have only 17 and a half minutes before it asphyxiates you. :) In person, the "talking shit" between some of the old guard and some of us more cautious and less experienced youngsters can be a quite playful and kind.

When Pete is belaying me, I'm much more worried that someone will start a conversation with him than that the tree is going to give way!

His method was fairly common in the early and mid 70s, when I learned to climb. See Robbins' "Basic Rockcraft", I think.

Doug Hemken wrote:When Pete is belaying me, I'm much more worried that someone will start a conversation with him than that the tree is going to give way! His method was fairly common in the early and mid 70s, when I learned to climb. See Robbins' "Basic Rockcraft", I think.

Yes, and Yes.! I had no peers to start, so bought and read Basic and Advanced Rockcraft along with Freedom of the Hills early edition to learn. Pete gets into a conversation, and it is soo hard to break in, or get away from him if you have to leave! Agree that I'd also hope he is paying attention to the belay when he gets off on one of his scientific, medical or political chats with someone. Best of luck then! But when at DL these days, if I drive by the Blue House and see him out in the yard, and have an hour, I'll stop by to say hi' and listen to him. You never know what new bit of wisdom you will get.

Doug Hemken wrote:When Pete is belaying me, I'm much more worried that someone will start a conversation with him

Not much sense in being worried about an absolute given! :)

I love how people decide what's safe...sling around a tree, direct ? Ya it works fine.

i first did some PC climbs around Boston real world 10+ done in the 60's..later some DL stuf and even after that Todd Skinner showed me some stuff he fell off..

awesome