Continue with onX Maps
Continue with Facebook
The Brotherhood Of the Traveling Stopper...
|
I just moved to Salt Lake City to teach science, I don't have the time or funds for a trip anywhere, but motivated to get out climbing. If a stopper is in need of a temporary home, pm me. I'll try to show the stopper a good time in the mountains. |
Tony B wrote: Damn, you too? Also a rotator cuff? Here's hoping for a speedy recovery... |
thechuffingisreal wrote: thechuffingisreal and Bryan, per the rules, I'd say you've each officially claimed a Stopper. I'd recommend you send a PM with your address to one of the current holders. Please make sure you're serious about climbing with them, though. This will be the first time those Stoppers change hands since being released into the wild; we can keep these things moving, but only if everyone who gets one is diligent about climbing, posting a TR, and sending it along! |
|
Since I've had this stopper, a wet spell befell the four corners region for months, a climbing partner of mine died in a climbing accident, and my trip to the Pacific Northwest ended up happening during the mega fires. I haven't placed any gear since this beast entered my home. Zip. Zilch. Nada. On the other hand, I sent my first V8 boulder problem and don't have any finger injuries for the first time in years. I'm not sure the actual name of the stopper I possess, but whoever wants this curse can have it. Send me your details, and I'll have it off lickety split. |
|
I would also like to apologize for being "that guy." |
|
climbing friend, the shtoppah it gives to you terrible curse of the rock-ropin' roped climbin'!!! But also incredible talon strengths, like chicken with very large talons, for bouldering rocks power!!! myahhhhhhh yesszzzssszzz myah myah myahhhggghhhhhhhhh my precioussszzzzzzz. one shtoppah to flash them all, one shtoppah to climb them, one shtoppah to school them all and banish their fatness or fine them!! all your flash are belong to me |
|
Justin, I have sent you a PM requesting the "hopefully-not-cursed-yet" stopper. |
 |
|
Bryan, I'll have the nut headed your way tomorrow. |
|
I have received the stopper! What is the name of this stopper (omega pacific, red number 6)? so when I write the trip report I may call it by its correct name. |
|
As far as I can tell, this is the state of the Brotherhood: Active Stoppers: Resurrection (Stopper #1) is in the care of AndrewArroz, and Bryan B has the Stopper from Justin. (From Bryan's description, it sounds like this might be #3; Tony B, can you confirm which Stopper it is?) So, first question: Andrew and Bryan, how are your trips going? Have you been on the rock yet, and when are the trip reports coming? Available Stoppers: As for the other Stoppers, Muscrat has Stopper (I believe it's #2), but he is out of commission, and has put it up for grabs. delly84 also has an aid-only Stopper that's available (#6). If you want a Stopper, claim it on this thread, and send a PM directly to muscrat or delly84. (Only claim it if you actually intend to climb with it.) Claimed Stoppers?: kat (formerly known as "thechuffingisreal") offered to take one on an upcoming trip, but as far as I can tell, hasn't claimed a specific Stopper. (kat, I'd recommend sending a PM to muscrat with your mailing address, so he can send his to you.) Overdue Trip Reports: Hector still owes us a trip report from Resurrection (chapter 4), and delly84 has a partially-written trip report as well. (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) Stopper Names: As far as I know, only #1 has a name thus far (Resurrection). Tony B, do you have other names in mind for the rest of the Stoppers? Edit: I looked back through the thread, and the aid-only stopper is #6. I updated the above post to reflect this. Also, I suppose we should add a section: MIA Stoppers:
|
Andrew Krajnik wrote: Stopper received. Not used yet. Will post up a report as soon as I get some fall trad in. |
|
Kat has claimed the #2, and as i never got to place it, i guess i have no naming rites (pun [?] intended). Kat, send on! |
Andrew Krajnik wrote: Correct on #3. FIrst guy to climb on a T.S. aught to name it. Or if unnamed, it can be named in the trip report. Have to get the 'FA' to name it... |
Tony B wrote: I like this, but somehow it needs to have a history tag physically attached, even just a link to this thread. In other words, don't let it just disappear, part of the fun of the thread is the trip reports. A stamped metal tag, as we sometimes do on anchors? WOuldn't weigh much, wouldn't get in the way etc. Just thinking, as i too am NOT CLIMBING! |
Muscrat wrote: Yep. That's the plan. |
|
Ok, I'm on my way home from the Red, and my wife is the one driving at the moment, so I'm catching up on MP. How are those trips and reports coming, everyone? |
|
this is sick about to go horse pack out to some first ascents on the Navajo rez sign me up! |
|
Trip Report:  After the injury had cooled off a bit, with the help of some PT and some cortisone injection, I tried climbing again a few weeks ago. Kat was patient enough to reserve 1/2 day of 'maybe' time where I could try it. As usual, I picked a few lines I'd never done and gave her the option. We elected to go try 'Fat Elvis' on the back of Der Freischuz. I'd climbed pretty much everything within my ability in the flatirons while helping Jason H. with the latest book(* new edition pending again, but I'm talking 2009 here), but some new route development means that there are routes there that I have not done, and this one one of them. Fat Elvis is a 5.9 sport route on a slightly off-vertical face. I warmed up on lead on that climb so that if I could not climb, Lat could do it and clean it and didn't have to do it twice if I got stuck. I grabbed the quiver of draws and started up. I found it tough to lock off far to my right or to quickly shuffle hands or reach high over my head with the right arm. Locking off statically or even straight up in a full extension was fine, so long as I did not move or twist the right arm while it was weighted. I got to the ledge at 55' having figured out what things basically worked and what things did not. I moved up through the crux, clipped the 5th bolt and looked up to the top another 40' or so. No more bolts? Oh, there they were, to the left out to an arete. I wondered why the line had not been taken directly upward, so I probed a few moves ahead, then a few more, then a few more. I felt OK. So I kept going. I eventually topped out over a 35' runout on a new variation directly above the 5th bolt, skipping the last 3 bolts to the left. My variation was actually a bit easier than the smooth cobble climbing to the left. I called this 'Porcelain God' for a few reasons. As a variation of Fat Elvis, which mentions the circumstances of his death, it seemed fitting. The second was the thoughts on the lead, runout quite a way, and in fragile health (torn rotator cuff, torn labrum, waiting to determine if surgery was required and not using the right arm). It came to mind that while things can look clean and tough, sometimes they are actually fragile, and shatter if dropped. In a way, this had already happened to me. (Image below borrowed from MP.com an overlayed to show my variation line):  I felt more like myself after this, and did the line proper next. Kat followed, doing both lines eventually as well. Having felt good, and having minimal time remaining, and having felt like I was asking Kat to give up her hours for pedestrian stuff, I decided to bump it up a notch. I asked if she was interested in trying something harder (she climbs a lot harder than 5.9) and if I decided to bail, if she would lead it to clean it. There was another route over on the Red Devil that had gone in since my last visit to the area. "Hell In a Bucket" was rated 11a, but described as a short and low crux. Pictures implied it rose up and left, allowing me in theory to use the left hand for most of the "work" on the route and hopefully be able to do it. We walked over and got started. I looked up and was a bit nervous to see that the first few moves actually went up and right, but decided to give it a try. See picture from MP.com,by Lisa Montgomery of someone else on it below:  Although this was a bit of uncharted territory for me, no gear was placed on it and it was not really very 'adventurous' in any objective way. So the Traveling Stopper To Be (TSTB) stayed in my pack. We hiked back to the car and headed back to our respective homes to attend to other business. I was looking forward to some more climbing, but had family stuff and a few more doctor appointments to discuss if this was a good idea yet or not before going any further with it. The following week my physician said to go ahead and use the shoulder a little more beyond the theraband PT I'd been doing, so long as I didn't do anything that hurt. (TB Continued...) A few weeks later, I talked with several climbing friends who all re-enforced that I'd need to get this fixed and that they were glad they did, or to those who never did and whose shoulders have bugged them for their remaining lives to date. I saw an additional physician who went through everything again and reiterated that the demands that I put on my shoulder, in light of the injury, would eventually make it worse and that fixign it when it was worse and I was older (less able to heal) would be tougher, and that living with the injury was not getting any better anyway. So I committed to fixing it. But I wanted to do a little more climbing first while the weather was nice, then loose my winter to the surgery and PT. I managed to do a slow-paced 'time trial' up Stairway the Heaven in the flatirons that I had intended to do for speed, but the arm does not move fast and soloing with it at high speed seemed foolish. In fact, trail-running is tough, as it had a sting every time I threw and arm out for balance. Pic from MP.com:  I had previously done this solo in about 40 minutes, but settled for a casual 58m47s car-to-car on Friday Morning before leaving on a family climbing trip. On the way down the trail, jogging somewhat blindly into the sun in what is normally a flat spot, I tripped on a frozen clod of mud and went headlong for a fall. I reflexively reached out my arms, but that hurt like crazy. My second reflex, while still airborne, I clasped the entire right arm at my side with the left and held onto it, hitting the ground with my other side and rolling and flipping off of the trail. OWCH! I sat up, dusted myself off, took and inventory of injury, and decided I was OK, but not going to jog, much less run anymore. I'd previously done this much faster, but I didn't care. That was not important right now.  The Traveling stopper still sat in my car. To Be Continued... |
|
The Final Traveling Stopper - Continued.  That went quickly and Ben wondered what to do next. He mentioned 2 other routes I had highlighted over on the slab as options. I mentioned the closer routes of 'Dwarfs are People Too' (a 5.10 FA I did a decade ago) and 'Happy Ending' a 5.10c/d just above us on the upper tier of Der Zerkle. Ben seemed less enthused about those routes and knew that my general goal was to do things I had not previously done. I will admit that I was almost wishing he'd have said he just wanted to do the route above, 'Happy Ending' as it was trad and a little harder, and I wanted to push a bit more. Pic from MP.com:  Likewise, Dwarfs Are People Too would have been a repeat, but at least relived an old 'adventure' that being an O.S. F.A. form 2004. (No pic) But I was game for whatever. Ben and I went over to The Hand to do what may have been the second ascent or so of the obscure and runout 'Back In Yaks' (5.9, R) and then the recently developed bolted line, 'The Handy Warm-up' which was actually our warm down. It was noon and I was done for the day, as I had to get my kid from the sitter and get myself to a consulting gig by 2PM, then dinner and drinks at my place with a friend once EMi was off to bed. That night I checked Email. I had a message from Joseffa that said, to my pleasant surprise, that on Sunday PM she wanted to climb a route she'd never done before: 'Happy Endings' at Der Zerkle. That was a bit serendipitous, really. I thought we could do that and then go get something like North Face Flake on the Back Porch, which was on my to-do-list. I chuckled a bit and told Joseffa that I had, by coincidence, just been there and suggested that route the day before, but had not done it. I was pleased with her selection. We went up there in direct order, and might have warmed up on a few routes down on the lower west face, but we arrived to find a group of 6 climbers with an I-phone laying on a rock tinning out 'music' at a surprising volume for such a little speaker. I looked down at it and Joseffa obviously felt the same way: "Where do you want to go?" 'Anywhere but here.' The group chatted on. We went around the corner and up onto the upper ledge. Happy Endings is not on the main West Face, it is on a second tier well above that is not visible from below. Jo is generally pretty solid on 5.10 and didn't mind the concept of warming up on the target route, so we enjoyed the relative solitude there. I offered to lead it since there was no 'warm-up' and I kind of hoped for that chance quietly. But Jo had never done it and I'd already on-sighted. She elected to take the rack and I agreed that it was more than fair. I'd belay that one. It's a terrible size for people with small fingers at the crux and leans you back just far enough that the flaring 'locks' pop out. Absent a warm-up, it is a tough route. Hidden face-holds to the right make it go, but they are long reaches and transitioning into them is awkward and sequential. Minus a right shoulder, it is probably best that Joseffa lead that one, though it took her a few tries. I tried to follow it without using the right much and came off. I resigned to trying with full use of the right on the face holds and without terrible trouble, was pleasantly surprised at how well things went and felt. I cruised up it on my second try and cleaned the anchors. Rapping off I saw the crack/seam through the same bulge to the right, which was undocumented. It looked doable. In fact... the crack was thin at the crux. JUST ABOUT PERFECT FOR A 3.5 STOPPER. Which I happened to have with me. I told Joseffa that I wanted to give it a go and did. It seemed doable, so we pulled the rope and I racked up. The SW face down low is a vertical face with shallow huecos and a few rails or pockets. I started up this on lead with the caution of knowing it was seldom or not at all traveled rock. About 30' up I was on pockets and side-pulls with fractured edges and some lichen at a bulge. Snapping off a handhold here would mean a backwards swan dive onto a rocky ledge with no protection and the moves were probably 5.9-. I'd passed 2x placements that would have taken #4 BD C4 camalots, but did not have them with me. I considered backing off, but was able to traverse out left, place a #2 camalot on a 4' sling, then traverse back right onto my line. I pulled through the iffy spot without breaking the holds, glad I didn't take a lead-fall with my shoulder the way it was, which would have been terrible. The adventure was ON. I hit the arete and plugged in another piece of gear, a bomber #4 BD stopper, then got up to the spot in the bulge where the cracks split. I looked left into the 'Happy Endings' crack, then right into the unknown. The travese move over was delicate but not hard. I got a blue alien into a wide spot in the seam, just below what would be the honest-to-goodness top gear, the CRUX GEAR, the 3&1/2 Choinard stopper. The traveling stopper to be (TSTB) had found an honest application. I placed that thing and pulled up into the sequence I had figured. I had to commit. The outcome was uncertain. Would my Shoulder hold out? Would I hold on? How far above gear would I be when the last hard move was over? What grade was this climb going to be? It was an adventure, with the TSTB was the crux gear, as if it was destiny. I made it to the next ledge, put a few aliens in a crappy horizontal, then topped out. I asked Joseffa NOT to clean the TSTB and to leave it in instead. The game was on! Here is Joseffa about 25-35' up the lower runout face of the route, on the way to the first piece of gear at 40' or so. This is 5' below the mental crux, which might be a lot less problematic with 2x #4 C4 camalots and one old-school #4 camalot (ore new #5?) in some pockets and slots.    The upper section is actually longer than it looks from this angle,and also overhanging at the crux, with an offset, but smaller-than-tips seam for a crack. Upper section photos here:    Joseffa cleaned the route, minus the TSTB, which was left with a tag on it. It is at the crux, waiting for someone who is willing to put some effort into it and take up the challenge I present below:   Go climb the new route, go get the stopper, go post your story, and then go take it elsewhere and get this one moving. To keep things adventurous, I have deliberately NOT posted the grade or description of the crux of the route it is now on, called 'New Beginnings.' What you need to know is: 1) That it will be 'adventurous' at the bottom. I think a few #4 camalots might protect it well enough, but maybe not. I soloed through that area for lack thereof. YOu might have to reconsider that runout at maybe 5.9- or wander off route to set a peice and come back. 2) The upper crux is NOT a gimmie. It is not too hard. I did it with a profound injury, so it is not that bad. 3) But it is sequential. Right sequence and you can dance up it. Wrong sequence might leave you hanging from your rope. 4) It is not unreasonable up high. The true crux is well-protected and even has fixed gear. I don't figure you will clean it without a nut tool though, we set the crap out of it since we were concerned that others would clip it for crux protection. 5) Since we are not in control of it, it may see action before you get there. Please back up the placement. 6) AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: This is a game/challenge. If you don't want to play and pass the piece later, please don't take it. So go climb it then post-up ASAP and pass on that stopper!  |
