Table Of Content

H o w t o C L i m b™ S e r i e S The Trad Climber’s Bible John Long & Peter Croft FFAALLCCOONNGGUUIIDDEESS® Copyright © 2014 John Long and Peter Croft ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford CT 06437. FalconGuides is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. Falcon, FalconGuides, and Outfit Your Mind are registered trademarks of Morris Book Publishing, LLC. Project editor: Julie Marsh Text and layout design: Casey Shain Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. ISBN 978-0-7627-8372-4 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 WARNING: Climbing is a sport where you may be seriously injured or die. Read this before you use this book. This guidebook is a compilation of unverified information gathered from many different climbers. The authors cannot assure the accuracy of any of the information in this book, including the topos and route descriptions, the difficulty ratings, and the protection ratings. These may be incorrect or misleading, as ratings of climbing difficulty and danger are always subjective and depend on the physical characteristics (for example, height), experience, technical ability, confidence, and physical fitness of the climber who supplied the rating. Additionally, climbers who achieve first ascents sometimes underrate the difficulty or danger of the climbing route. Therefore, be warned that you must exercise your own judgment on where a climbing route goes, its difficulty, and your ability to safely protect yourself from the risks of rock climbing. Examples of some of these risks are: falling due to technical difficulty or due to natural hazards such as holds breaking, falling rock, climbing equipment dropped by other climbers, hazards of weather and lightning, your own equipment failure, and failure or absence of fixed protection. You should not depend on any information gleaned from this book for your personal safety; your safety depends on your own good judgment, based on experience and a realistic assessment of your climbing ability. If you have any doubt as to your ability to safely climb a route described in this book, do not attempt it. The following are some ways to make your use of this book safer: 1. Consultation: You should consult with other climbers about the difficulty and danger of a particular climb prior to attempting it. Most local climbers are glad to give advice on routes in their area; we suggest that you contact locals to confirm ratings and safety of particular routes and to obtain first-hand information about a route chosen from this book. 2. Instruction: Most climbing areas have local climbing instructors and guides available. We recommend that you engage an instructor or guide to learn safety techniques and to become familiar with the routes and hazards of the areas described in this book. Even after you are profi- cient in climbing safely, occasional use of a guide is a safe way to raise your climbing standard and learn advanced techniques. 3. Fixed Protection: Some of the routes in this book may use bolts and pitons that are permanently placed in the rock. Because of variances in the manner of placement, weathering, metal fatigue, the quality of the metal used, and many other factors, these fixed protection pieces should always be considered suspect and should always be backed up by equipment that you place yourself. Never depend on a single piece of fixed protection for your safety, because you never can tell whether it will hold weight. In some cases, fixed protection may have been removed or is now missing. However, climbers should not always add new pieces of protection unless existing protection is faulty. Existing protection can be tested by an experienced climber and its strength determined. Climbers are strongly encouraged not to add bolts and drilled pitons to a route. They need to climb the route in the style of the first ascent party (or better) or choose a route within their ability—a route to which they do not have to add additional fixed anchors. Your use of this book indicates your assumption of the risk that it may contain errors and is an acknowledgment of your own sole responsibility for your climbing safety. Contents Foreword: The Long Silences, John Long vii ................................................................................................................................................ Introduction: Fair Means xv ........................................................................................................................................................................................ How To xvi ............................................................................................................................................................................................. Learning xix ........................................................................................................................................................................................... Orientation xix ...................................................................................................................................................................................... Chapter 1. First Day: Joshua Tree, John Long....................................................................................................1 Chapter 2. First Day: Newcastle Island, Peter Croft...................................................................................................9 Chapter 3. Tahquitz: First Lead on the Big Stone, John Long .............................................................................14 Chapter 4. Mount Rubidoux, John Long .........................................................................................................................22 Chapter 5. The Circuit, John Long ....................................................................................................................................28 Chapter 6. Giant Step, Peter Croft .....................................................................................................................................31 Chapter 7. Projects, Cracks, and Faces, John Long ......................................................................................................39 Chapter 8. The Very Next One, Peter Croft .................................................................................................................43 Chapter 9. Tahquitz Redux, John Long ...........................................................................................................................48 Chapter 10. Down South in Leavenworth, Peter Croft ...............................................................................................56 Chapter 11. Crossing the Threshold, Peter Croft ...........................................................................................................61 Chapter 12. Big Rock, John Long ..........................................................................................................................................67 Chapter 13. For Real, John Long ...........................................................................................................................................71 Chapter 14. Woes of the Wide Cracks, Peter Croft ......................................................................................................79 Chapter 15. Valhalla and the Birth of “The Stonemasters,” John Long ...........................................................87 Chapter 16. The Bird and Reed’s Left, John Long .......................................................................................................95 Chapter 17. Arrowhead Arête, John Long .......................................................................................................................105 Chapter 18. Yosemite Pilgrimage (Sad Saga of the Sodden Screamer), Peter Croft ..................................112 Chapter 19. 1096, John Long ..............................................................................................................................................119 Chapter 20. Royal Pains, Peter Croft ................................................................................................................................125 Chapter 21. Steck-Salathe, John Long ..............................................................................................................................132 Chapter 22. Josh: Full Trad Value, Peter Croft .............................................................................................................141 Chapter 23. DNB, John Long ...............................................................................................................................................151 Chapter 24. Northeast Buttress of Mount Slesse, Peter Croft ..............................................................................160 Chapter 25. The Vampire, John Long ................................................................................................................................167 Chapter 26. The Weight of the Rope, Peter Croft ......................................................................................................173 Chapter 27. One Hundred Pitches in a Day: The Century Club, John Long .............................................179 Chapter 28. East Buttress, El Capitan, John Long ....................................................................................................188 Chapter 29. First Ascent of Stoner’s Highway, John Long ......................................................................................196 Chapter 30. Thrust to the Edge on The Crucifix, Peter Croft .............................................................................205 Chapter 31. Central Pillar of Frenzy (CPF), John Long.......................................................................................211 Chapter 32. El Capitan: Pop Tarts, Sardines, and “Chew,” Peter Croft .........................................................218 Chapter 33. El Cap Part 2: High and Dry, Peter Croft .........................................................................................222 Chapter 34. Avoiding the Red Zone, Peter Croft .......................................................................................................227 Chapter 35: Green Arch, John Long ..................................................................................................................................233 Chapter 36. Learning to Climb Smart, Peter Croft ...................................................................................................243 Chapter 37. El Cap in a Day, John Long ......................................................................................................................249 Chapter 38. Astroman, John Long ......................................................................................................................................257 Chapter 39. Anything I Could Imagine . . . Usually Came into Play, Peter Croft ..................................267 Chapter 40. Cooking on the West Face, El Capitan, John Long .........................................................................275 Chapter 41. Link-Ups (aka Enchainments), Peter Croft ........................................................................................285 Chapter 42. Bouldering Junket, John Long .....................................................................................................................293 Chapter 43. Charakusa, Peter Croft ..................................................................................................................................305 Chapter 44. High Sierra Link-Ups, Peter Croft ..........................................................................................................313 Chapter 45. Flint Hard and Flawless, John Long ......................................................................................................319 Chapter 46. Bridalveil Falls on Our Heads, Peter Croft ........................................................................................329 Chapter 47. The Edge and Turbo Flange, John Long ...............................................................................................335 Chapter 48. Mount Wilson, and the Epic in My Mind, John Long ..................................................................341 Chapter 49. El Cap and Half Dome in a Day, Peter Croft .................................................................................349 Chapter 50. Levitation 29, John Long ..............................................................................................................................357 Chapter 51. Coatimundi Whiteout, John Long .............................................................................................................367 Chapter 52. Valkyrie, Peter Croft ........................................................................................................................................373 Chapter 53. Someday, John Long .........................................................................................................................................376 Epilogue: The Big Wide-Open Face 379 ........................................................................................................................................... Index 380 .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... About the Authors 386 ................................................................................................................................................................................ vi Contents Foreword: The Long Silences I was 15 years old—long before the terms “trad” realized I was holding my breath. The solitary fig- and “sport climbing” were ever heard—when I ure dangling in that void looked lonelier and more cracked open the American Alpine Journal (American fantastic than anything I had ever seen. I’d been Alpine Club) at The Backpacker Shop in Clare- reading Conrad and London by the truckload, so I mont, California. There was a picture of a man wanted adventure but I didn’t want to die. standing in slings on a vertical wall that soared I couldn’t imagine what the climber was experi- above him like a giant granite wave. I couldn’t encing but for a dozen reasons I needed to find out. stop staring at that photo. Minutes passed before I How could he handle being so high, so exposed, so vii RobeRt MiRaMontes small? These questions terrified me. I had a hunch Strangely, while most were awake most of the time, that the cliffside was a kind of philosopher’s stone conversation usually died with the sunlight. The and that if you could negotiate those heights the climbers would stare at the moon as they fell into universe would all make sense. You would no longer the far reaches of themselves. I figured it was dur- be afraid so you would know. ing these long silences that the universe gave up its I wasn’t worried about how the climber made secrets. his way up the rock, or how I might eventually do They took enchanting pictures, as if by accident, the same. That was a physical business and I could when they finally gained the top. The camera was do physical things. The mental part I would learn often put on timer and set on a rock. Wobbly, but on the job. I rifled the bookshelves of the library on level ground at last, the hollow-eyed men looked and The Backpacker Shop, trying to discover what emptied out by the adventure, sheepishly glancing the job required. at each other or nothing at all, a mile beyond the According to the journals and magazine articles, camera. These shots were always more telling than to scale a mountain of rock required a second the action sequences. They were the truth, and felt mountain of gear, much of it steel and aluminum. timeless. And the big routes took a week or more to climb. I’d take the magazines to school and study them That meant a week of rations you had to drag up during class. Other students would sometimes skim the cliffside by means of spikes, pulleys, and elbow an article and glance at the pictures. When they grease. At more than eight pounds per gallon, learned you could usually hike around the back and nobody could ever lug enough water. One report get to the top that way, they wondered why the described hanging 1,500 feet up a rock wall and climbers hadn’t done so and avoided all the trouble. gazing down at a surreal land of ant people and They didn’t know about the long silences. Neither miniature cars, where a river meandered through a did I, though 3 years later I was scaling big walls lush meadow. The climbers were paralyzed by thirst myself. as they watched tourists drifting in yellow rafts, At first I stuck with the easy walls and climbed splashing and occasionally falling into the river, one with highly skilled partners so we could fly up the world and 2 days away. routes. There was a time when I had the peculiar All agreed that big wall climbing was sometimes record of having climbed El Capitan three times terrifying and always exciting. Only one person and bivouacking only once. My rendezvous with climbed at a time, leaving the others marooned, the long silences came a year later. often for hours, belaying in frightening locations Most every climber felt honor bound to tough with no getaway. Even veterans got stir crazy as it out on a few big nail-ups, the kind of climbs that the leader, out on the business end of the rope, was take 5 to 10 days to complete and where prog- sweating the big drop. ress on a 1,000-meter wall is measured in inches Often there were no ledges and at night you and increments of fear. When I started putting up had to squeeze into nylon hammocks lashed to the new wall climbs in Yosemite, in the High Sierras, wall. Some spoke of being too tired to sleep, though Mexico, and South America, I started experiencing anxiety was also poor medicine for insomnia. those long, silent nights. Of course even the mightiest wall was no philosopher’s stone, and none of them resolved the Thin as a flagpole, cool as Debby’s Waltz. great mysteries. But they all made me forcibly Nik Berry on Sysphus, Zeus, Canyonlands. present by the absence of distractions. Trapped on andRew buRR Foreword ix