Devil's Tower - why I'm not a climbing guide

Multipitch climbing requires a little planning. Things like “how long is the route”, “where are the belay stations”, “how do we bail” are all things that should be reviwed and planned before hand. When the people you are climbing with are not experienced with multiplitch climbing, lead climbing, or even climbing outside, the planning should probably be a little more careful. Zach and I didn’t really do much planning on this trip. Certainly not enough looking back on it. We knew I would lead everything and he would be the last up. We knew Chenney would lead belay me, so she would always be second. We didn’t have a good plan for Gus, Rachel, and John. They would be in the middle. We had 3 ropes and we assumed we could tie one climber into the middle of each rope since the pitches were all short (expect for the approach pitch). I figured an efficient method of movement would work itself out during the day. And if it didn’t, it was no big deal because we had plenty of daylight to get the route done. I didn’t review the guidebook (I’ve done the Durrance route twice before). Gus, Rachel, and John had never multipitched before. Zach and I hadn’t rehearsed anything to get our system worked out. None of us had multipitched with more than 3 people. It was a learning experience for all us.

Chenney, John, and I rolled into the campsite about 2 a.m. Work had dictated a late 4 p.m. departure from Minneapolis, so this was expected. Our group had already decided that sleep was more important than the standard extra-early start for the route. So with out 9a.m. Texas-alpine start we were already in the sun on the approach. I led the approach pitch to Durrance with the gear and a 3L camelbak. I decided that being the strongest climber on a somewhat familiar route that was below my ability, I could handle the extra weight. At the top I bumped into a party on the broken column pitch. Once we got John set for top belay duty so that Chenney and I were free for the next pitch, that group was moving off the column onto the 3rd pitch. We didn’t see them again. I started up the broken column with our 4th climber (Rachel) already up the approach pitch. By plan we were already behind. Everyone was up the approach pitch by the time Chenney started up the column. Definitely behind plan. I thought since now we were climbing we’d get it together and get the flow moving. I’m definitely an optimist.

The broken column pitch went well. I took off on the Durrance crack as soon as John was up (just like the plan). Everyone climbed well on the column pitch. I was impressed. Squeezing, arm-barring, jamming, chimneying, everyone just figured it out. There were some hangs involved to figure things out and rest now and then. We had probably already done close to as many feet of climbing as our group usually does at the gym in a night. And it was only the second pitch of the day. And it was hot, close to 90 probably. And sunny.

The Durrance crack is supposed to be the crux pitch. It’s sustatined, vertical, an in the sun in our case. As I climbed and slowly moved through the 5.8 moves I wondered if everyone would make it through. The pitch is sustained and definitely not 5.8 gym climbing. I finished it (albeit with a tug on a cam due to a wrong turn) and set the belay. Chenney blazed up it in good style with a hang near the top. Next came John. I got John set to belay and Rachel started her way up. Chenney suffered through a mild bout of heat exhaustion (and probably mild dehydration by now) including naseau and “the world is spinning”. Good thing we’re always anchored in. She rallied and I set off on the next pitch. Our 4th pitch was linkable with the 3rd. It’s a wide squeeze crack about 20ft long. I pulled onto the next ledge and decided it was worth making it another belay spot. It was larger and more comfortable than the smaller ledge below. And the next pitch was obviously easier so I thought it would be good for everyone to struggle one more time and then cruise the rest. I thought the next (our 5th) pitch was the last one before the jump traverse. I was wrong. I quickly sent the 5th pitch only to find myself on another belay ledge looking at another 40ft of squeeze chimney. I had assured everything that after the Durrance crack the hard part was over. I apologized to everyone as they all saw the chimney and said something less than affectionate (directed at the crack) under their breath. I linked the easier 5th pitch with this final squeeze chimney. I was out of water (3 liters worth) and everyone was running low. It was about 5pm and we had been longer than anticipated already. We couldn’t afford the time of another belay stop. I got John, Chenney, and Rachel up the final squeeze chimney and proceeded to rig the jump traverse with an tensioned assist line, something for everyone to grab onto during the traverse. The jump traverse is a bit misleading because I’m not sure where you’d jump from. It’s easily bouldered around 5.9+, and well protected by an old piton. The tension line helped immensely and everyone was into the Meadows in short order.

I ripped the tension line down and joined the group on the far end of the Meadows and immediately reorganized for the final pitch (which ended up being 2 pitches because of our rope situation). We were all tired, thirsty, and hungry. The Meadows was a bail point but it seemed we were close and everyone was in good spirits to finish what we had started. By now we had our rope work figured out and everyone tied in and was ready to go quickly. I was dehydrated to the point of losing focus on the task at hand easily. But I was conscious of the problem and tried hard to stay in the moment and keep things moving, and keep the group safe. We topped near 8pm and spent a few minutes looking around, taking pictures, signing the registry and generally taking a breath. It wasn’t time to completely relax yet as we still had several rappels to the ground, and it was starting to get dark.

The rappels went smoothly. Zach and I had planned how to rappel. Zach and Chenney went ahead and single-rope rappelled. When they were both down, I’d untie their rope and throw it down. Then I’d string the standard 2 rope rappel through the anchors. We made it down in good time, all things considered. Gus and Rachel had learned to rappel only the weekend prior. John hadn’t rappelled in years. Everyone did really well. The final person touched down and the headlamps came on. It was dark. We were at our packs, and ropes were down. We had a 15 minute hike back to the car. We were nearly done.

13 hours later we were off of the Tower. 7 hours longer than planned. We had planned for a lazy afternoon drive to the Needles and then climbing then next day near Mt. Rushmore. It was too late to drive to the Needles. The communal vote was stay at the Tower one more night, but find showers and food (perhaps in that order). Sundance was the closest town that might have what we needed. We drove the 25 miles there to check. Everything looked closed. We stopped at a final gas tation near the Interstate to ask if anything was open. It turns out this place was a truck stop. They offered to make some frozen pizzas for us and they had showers (very clean and nice showers actually). It was serendipity. We cleaned up, ate pizza, and watched TV. Once clean and fed, we headed back to camp for the night.

Congratulations to the team for a huge accomplishment and toughing through a truly grueling day on the rock.

Coming of age

I joined facebook tonight. You can find me there also. I still need to write up the Wallowa trip, the Jackson trip, and other random things. I'll get into the swing of blogging soon. I think it will help my writing skills. There, it can be a personal development task. I like things that make me better. Like today's bike ride for instance. First there was the 1 hour road ride. I think the movie theater is about 30 minutes at a normal pace, maybe 40. That will be enjoyment this summer. Biking to the movies. That makes it easier to ask for extra butter on the popcorn. Additionally today was the grocery shopping trip on the bike. Check out Trek and Bontrager's line of bike commuting accessories like the wire basket that snaps into the rack. They have numerous accessories like that, they are all part of the "interchange" system. I like the concept - if things are easy and work, people will adopt and use them. It's easy for me to use the basket. I carried it around the store, put my groceries in it, and had the checkout clerk load a canvas bag and put it all back in the basket. Snap it onto the rack and I rode home! All these years I've been using a backpack. This is MUCH easier! The big dilemma now is whether to have a road bike with the rack or keep the urban karate monkey as a city bike and have a road bike for longer rides. Honestly (and some readers will disagree) fewer bikes can be better.

For now, the Trek XO ala Pete Sandretto is for sale. 52cm, nice parts, ask if you read this and are interested.

The return of what never left

I guess I'm a little behind in the postings of fun times from far out places. January 20th was the last post. Since then I went on the annual WAH trip in Oregon, played more broomball than I thought I was capable of, caught some rays (but no powder) in Jackson Hole, bought a new car (same one - I know, real exciting Nick), and, currently in the works, bought a new mountain bike (to replaced the stolen Motolite).

So now it's time to really figure out the blog and get things up to date. I'll start at the beginning with the hut trip in the Wallowas. Catch it next post. First I'm going to finish tagging and uploading pictures.

Check back soon.

Why do I live somewhere with high temperatures below 0?

It's cold outside right now. Really cold. So cold your nose doesn't work. The hairs freeze, the smell receptors freeze yet somehow the snot flows freely. It doesn't actually get below zero all that often. This winter has been consistently cold though. We had snow in early December and it's still here. Therefore it hasn't gotten above freezing much in almost 2 months.

Broomball makes it bearable. It has to be cold for ice rinks to stay solid outside. And Minneapolis has a lot of outdoor public ice rinks in the winter. And even when it's -10, running on the rink makes you sweat. Of course when it's -10 and you stop for even 2 minutes, you get cold. You kind of have to keep running or wear to much clothing, and then you're hot and wet when you stop. Anyhow, broomball makes it bearable.

The results are in! I got passed my PE exam so I am now officially a Professional Engineer. Most people that know anything about it have told me it's a big deal and a great accomplishment. Honestly, my life hasn't changed yet, I don't know what I'm going to do with it. It's been a long term goal and now that it's done, I don't have a new goal so I'm somewhat lost. I'll regroup and get going on some new endeavor soon.

To followup with the last post, I did buy new skis. They are in the mail. I bought them from Mammoth Mountaineering - they had the best price and mounted the bindings for me (saving me the trouble). I'm psyched - next weekend I'll get to try them. Now if my knees only hold together. I have a troublesome partial MCL tear in my left knee (same knee as last years ACL tear). It's a broomball injury. The Doc says to manage the pain, it will heal on it's own - no surgery necessary. I haven't tried skiing with it yet...

This is a working weekend (again). Chenney's busy cleaning, the new drywall is in and that makes a huge mess of dust. I'm stuck on the computer working on a CAD model. The weekend work has to stop soon. It sucks the fun out of an already frustrating life in a place that is currently -4. It's a good weekend to be doing work I guess, I wouldn't be outside anyway.

Back from the Desert

New Year's Day - it barely made it above 0 in the great white north. I think the entire country past the Southern Colorado border was snow covered, judging from the flight home yesterday. We had 7 days in Sunny Southern California. Well, 2 1/2 days were in 'sunny' Mammoth Lakes at Mammoth Mountain. Funny how 10 degrees there feels OK and 10 degrees in Minnesota feels COLD. The ski trip was well worth it. I'm in the market for new skis this year and Mammoth Mountaineering rents AT and Tele equipment - boots, skis, skins - it's a great service they offer. So for $40 for 2 days, I figured out that I want to buy some new Atomic skis, not the Karhu's or Black Diamonds I was thinking. It turns out that though I'd like to think that I should ski a straight, stiffer ski, I just love carving. I've had carving skis for 10 years now, since the Elan SCX RP's I got in 1997. I don't know any other way to ski. Atomics have the most sidecut of the current breed of backcountry skis and the Tacora's I demoed were much more fun on hardpack than the BD Kilowatts. All the reviews and forums in the world won't tell you how YOU will feel on a particular ski. Try before you buy. Pictures are on my google photo site:

Today was the lazy post-vacation recover day that Chenney likes. We cleaned, we cooked breakfast. I used the computer (all day) looking deals on skis and calculating if I can afford skis (and ski trips to use them on). I listed items on Ebay (seller ID mturoamer). My new Scarpa Tornado Pro boots should take the place of both my old Garmont AT boots and my Nordica alpine boots. Scarpa has a real winner with that boot.

Back to work on Wednesday - and the start of Broomball! It's ice season here in Minnesota!