Gnubbs Blog

So, in my efforts to educate my readers about climbing, here is a brief post on the gear used in climbing. Well, brief might not be the right word, but it is certainly a post. This post should quickly introduce you to the high cost of adminssion to climbing.Personal GearShoes Climbing shoes are an experience. I normally wear size 9.5 sneakers. My climbing shoes are size 8, and I would say they are a bit on the large size. The shoes are highly asymetrical, have a very stiff sole, and sticky rubber. They allow you to comfortably stand on ledges 1/4″ wide.Harness This is one of your many links between life and death. At it’s simplest, a harness is a piece of nylon webbing (like thin seatbelts) that is wrapped around your legs and waist and clipped/tied in to the rope. If you fall, you are caught by the rope and your harness. Modern harnesses are a little more advanced, with coutoured padding and loops for gear.Chalk Chalk is used just like in gymnastics. You rub it on your hands to keep them dry. Chalk is carried in a chalk bag, usually dangling from the back of your harness.Helmet Everybody should have a helmet for every sport they do. If you don’t were a helmet, you are stupid. There are climbing accidents (usually rock fall) every year that would not have been fatal if the person were wearing a helmet.Carabiners As a climber, I don’t think you can ever have too many biners (or krabs for you brits). It is simply a loop of alluminum, with a gate in it, that you use to clip things together. Most biners have closed strengths of ~22kn, and open strengths of ~9kn. That is bloody strong.Belay Device The belay device is what makes is possible to stop a falling climber. Belay devices generally use passing the rope through tight bends, creating huge amounts of friction, to allow you to stop a person falling 100′ feet with one hand. There are fancy ones out there that lock automatically in falls, and do other fancy stuff. I don’t like those. I keep my shit simple. Belay devices are also used to rapel. I will frequently refer to them as ATCs. (The one I use is a Black Diamond Air Traffic Controller.)Nut Tool A nut tool is used to extract gear after it has been placed. It has a pointy end, with a little beek for grabbing stuff (like cam triggers). This allows you to get access to gear that has been placed too far into a crack for your big grubby fingers to get at. It is also good for hittin stuff with. And, mine, even has a bottle opener built into the body.Everything ElseRope Climbing ropes are miracles of the modern textile industry. They are spectactular. The are constructed of a large number of small nylon fibers in the core, with a braided nylon sheath. (Kernmantle construction is the fancy term for it.) They are designed to stretch in a fall by as much as 6-7%, and reduce the impact force of a fall to just several kn.Slings/Webbing These are used everywhere when climbing. They are made from a piece of flat nylon either tied or sewn into a loop. With nylon, the strand is actually a tube, flattened and sewn flat (why they are called tubular webbing). There are also slings made out of all sorts of fancy new fibers. When they have a biner on either end, they are referred to as draws (quickdraws). They are clipped into a piece of protection with one biner, and the rope with another. This allows the rope to run straighter, and isolates the protection from movement in the rope. They are also used by climbers to clip thier harneses into anchors, attach thier camera to thier harness, just about everything.Nuts A nut is a little wedge of metal with sling or cable attached to it. They come in sizes from about a grain of corn to about two fingers wide. You take one that is just the right size, and slip it into a constriction in a crack in the rock. Then clip the rope to the sling or wire (usually you actually clip a draw to the nut, and then the rope to the draw). Then, when you fall, this magic little widget will stop your fall. It is considered static pro, becuase it’s grip on the rock does not depend on the amount of force applied.Hex A hex is similar to a nut, exept it has a diffrent shape, and are generally used in large cracks. The small hexes are about the same size as large nuts, and the large hexes go up to about the size of a fist or two. Some hexes have the sling or cable that they are attached to off center, so when force is applied, the have a camming action that wedges them harder into the rock.Cams Cams are the do alls of climbing pro. Where as a hex or nut needs to be carefully sized to the crack, and must be placed where the pull will be against a constriction, a cam can go anywhere. They are spring loaded, so when their trigger is pulled, the lobes rotate inward and the size of the cam decreases. Then, when released, they spring back to whatever size of crack they have been put in to. Then, when a force is applied, the harder they are pulled on, the harder the cams rotate outward and lock against the rock. This means that they can be placed in parrell cracks, without a constriction for them to get lodged behind. Each size cam has a range of openings it can be placed in (a number 2 BD Camelot fits openings from 32-68mm). The downside to cams are that they are expensive and heavy (from $50-250). They come in sizes from about 1/4″ all they way up to Valley Giants at about 2feet.Random ass other pro Since there are so many different types of climbing, the types of pro are equally diverse. Ranging from lowballs for super thin seems, to big bros for huge 2′ wide cracks.So, this covers most of the gear that you will see me talk about. There is still a more or less infinate amout of gear that I have not covered, but this gives you an idea. As I write, hopefully, I can convey how all of these individual parts are put together to form a safe, redundant, climbing system that I am willing to commit my life to.

It is saturdsay. For the love of god why am I up this early? I pull into the parking lot outside of Eldorado, and meet up with my climbing partner. We spend a couple of minutes trying to come up with the $6 to get into the park, and after finding some change in Scotts car we head for the canyon. It is 7:35 by now, kind of a late start for Eldo.

We park inside the gate and start hiking up the road. A full 300 feet down the road we come to the north face of the Bastille. Damn. The Bastille Crack is already being climbed by the first party of the morning. So, we look around for our options. We talk about the Green Spur, but don’t want to spend 45 minutes hiking to the climb to discover that it already has a party on it.

So, we look at the next crack left of the Bastille Crack, called Werk Supp. Scott says the first pitch is one of the nicest in all of Eldo. Since we are already at the base, and it is open, we drop our packs and rack up. The route heads up a small ledge system to a very nice finger crack, open to hand crack, and that is as much as I can see from the ground. We tie in, and Scott heads up the route. Placing the second piece of pro looks sketchy, so he liesurely leans back to yell down “This part is slick” before heading up to the finger crack. He breezes through this section, and is out of sight quickly.

At this point, a mother with child decides to stop and gawk in thier SUV. It is only a one lane road, so she just parks in the middle of it and gets out to chat. WIthin a matter of minutes, Scott is pulling the rest of the rope through, and I am on belay. The first 15′ of the climb are trivial, and I take a nice resting stance below the finger crack. This looks like it came out of a climbing text book. Perfet finger lock followed by perfect finger lock. The climbing is difficult, but the crack is so perfect even my mediocre technique gets me through it. The crux move is pulling out of the finger crack on a nice bomber hand jam. I feel great as I pull gasping for breath through the crux.

The climbing above the crux is easier (sustained 5.7) and the rock is clean. I make it to the belay ledge Scott has set up without any additional problems. Looking up from here, the hard offwidth second pitch of Werk Supp looms above us, most likely out of my ability range. So, we decide to link up with the top pitches of Bastille Crack. The party on that route is still one pitch below where we are heading, so Scott decides to link up with the 4th pitch. He heads out across what looks like a grass gully from the belay ledge, and stops to chat with the party on Bastille Crack. They give him the go ahead to climb past them up the route. As he continues up a steep broken section of the face, the pile of rope dwindles at my feet. By the time he calls down that he is off belay, there is a scant 10 feet of rope to spare (The rope is 70 meters long, about 210 feet).

I quickly break the anchor and head up the grass gully. Immediately upon leaving the belay ledge, I realize this is much more technical than it looked from where I was standing. I make it through the section without much problem, although there is one steep face that makes me think a bit. I stop to chat with the party waiting for us at the top of the 3rd pitch of the Bastille Crack, and then head up thier 4th pitch. The climbing is right at my ability level, not easy but not desperate. I meet up with Scott at the top of our second pitch, and he quickly starts heading up the next pitch to the top.

Just as he is reaching the top, the leader for the party below pops into view on the belay ledge I am on. She pops in a piece of gear at my feet, and we chat for a minute while I am waiting for scott to set up an anchor at the top. He yells down that I am on belay, with a funny smirk on his face. I say goodbye to the leader now builder her anchor, and head up the pitch. Right out of the belay, the pitch heads up a chimny. I burrow my way deep into the bowels of the rock, and being skimmying up the chimny. Scott yells down that there holds on the face outside the chimny, but I ignore him and enjoy the cold rock enveloping me. I get to the top without a problem, beeming and gasping after finishing my first chimney.

We break down our anchor, come off the rope, and hang out on the top of the Bastille. Scott spends a while pointing out some very famous climbes we can see. We spend a while trying to trace the route of the Naked Edge from our vantage. Scott points out lines we should climb, and i realize that I have a long way to go. We are just getting ready to descend when the climbers from the Bastille Crack get to the top. They are from Texas (where Scott learned to climb) so we chat for quite a while.

The descent from the summit is a little iffy, with a couple of DFU spots (Don’t Fuck Up). In a matter of minutes, we are back at the car. A memorable climb behind me, and the rest of my saturday in front of me.

Living in Cleveland, the last thing in the world I woud ever want to do is start work early. LIving in Boulder, on the other hand, one of my favorite things about my job are the early shifts.

We have a 5-11am shift, and a 6am-2pm shift. The 5-11 is great because you are off early enough to do anything from climbing to snowboarding at Eldora. The 6-2 is not as great because it is not early enough to go snowboarding, but it is perfect for me to go climbing. My partner works 6-3, so we are able to be on the cliffs between 3:30-4pm. This is early enough to beat the after work crowd, and to do longer routes.

This day it was hot out. In the range of 100 degrees and that harsh high altitude sun was beating down. Scott and I met up out by Eldorado canyon, and cruised the 45 minutes south to Golden Cliffs. These are not exactly what you would describe as scenic, but there are a lot of moderate sport climbs on basalt rock. And, to be honest there is something a little beutiful about looking down on the Coors brewery, knowing that so many happy nights of forgetting problems started there.

The first route we do (i have not learned the terraine well enough at Golden Cliffs to know the names of any of the climbs) is tough. The routes are very steep and balancy. My forearms are pumped, and I am barely off the ground. I take a number of falls, but eventually struggle my way gracelessly to the top. The next route feels just as bad.

By the third route I am starting to feel a little more comfortable on this rock. I start paying a lot more attention to my footwork, and loosen my grip on the holds. I am feeling better and my climbing is starting to feel a lot less desperate. The forth and fifth routes I get through without falling or hanging on the rope at all. I do not feel I am climbing at 100%, but am a lot closer. For the last route, we choose one that is a little more difficult than all of the previous routes. I breeze up the first part of the climb, and take a stance on a nice ledge to scope out the crux. Things don’t look good.

The crux moves requires some odd liebacking on very crimpy holds. (Liebacking is grabbing a hold with one hand and leaning your body out in the opposite direction. Crimpers are holds that are very small and narrow, allowing you only enough room for a couple of fingertips. ) Things do not go well. I can barely get started into the crux without falling. Finally, after getting some rope tension from scott for a hand, I get through to the top.

This ended up being a couple of nice hours of climbing. We found routes in the shade the whole time we were there, so the temps were not unbearable. I was really hoping to be able to lead a sport pitch or two, but definately did not feel up for it on these routes. Soon though.

gnubbs

Eldorado Canyon is a famous place to climb. People come from all over the world for it’s towering sandstone walls. Until my first climb there, I did not fully appreciate that fact. Thank god I only live 5 miles from it, because now that i have climbed there I would gladly drive 500 miles. Spectacular views, the most classic of classic climbing routes, and wonderful hard climbing.

We got a late start for a summer saturday morning — I think about 8:30am. We didn’t have any specific routes in mind, so we thought that we could get away with it. By the time we got there, there was already a line for the Bastille Crack, so that was out of the question. Looking north, the Wind Tower dominated the skyline with a number of moderate routes.

A short approach later and we are standing at the base the Wind Ridge. This is a two pitch climb with a pretty difficult start. The first pitch is beautiful. The climbing (after the start) is relatively easy, but very enjoyable. The second pitch went through a wide band of pocketed sandstone that was, well, interesting. This was my first time climbing on something other than the granite of boulder canyon so there was a bit of a learning curve. Every type of rock, and even every climbing area has it’s own feel that takes some time to get used to.

Heading up the second pitch, our rope became a bit intertwined with another parties rope, and things were a bit of a cluster for a couple of minutes. Luckily, I had good holds and was able to just hang out and wait for that party to complete thier climb. On the way up, thier follower was not able to clean a nut (little metal wedge that you slip into a constriction in a crack) and I managed to free it for them and return it to them at the top of the climb. The downclimb from the top was not bad, a little exposed initially, but then just an easy hike.

Back at the base of Wind Tower, we looked across to see that the Bastille Crack was still occupied, so we opted to do another route on Wind Tower. I am not sure the name of the first pitch, but it started under the large block just right of Calypso. Scott was no more than 30 feet off of the ground when he came across a cam that another party had left on the route. (I will post an explanation of climbing gear soon) A little bit of finesse, and the $60 cam was out of the crack and on his rack. Gear karma.

We climbed this pitch to the start of Reggae. Reggae is great. The route follows a dihedral with a finger crack in the corner up through one steep bit of terrain. This is the crux and was difficult, but not desperate. After pulling past the last hard hold, you are greeted by a large alcove just wide enough to shove your body into. The rest of the climb is relaxed with great views of the Bastille and the plains past the mouth of the canyon.

The top of this route is scary. You end on a very nice wide ledge. Step around the corner for the downclimb, and you are in serious terrain. It is not at all difficult, nothing more than a walk really. But a fall would be fatal. So, Scott and I simulclimbed this portion. Basically as he walks out, he places a couple of pieces of pro. We are both tied into the rope, with no belay. So, if one of us falls, the other will probably get pulled off as well. So, hopefully neither of us will die, but both of us will be pretty fscked up.

Altoghter, this was a great day of climbing. The routes were long, fun and scenic. This was my first exposure to climbing in one of the most popular climbing areas in the world. I can see why.

gnubbs

Cob Rock is an imposing feature in bolder canyon. It towers directly up out of the creek for several hundred feet. Best of all, it has several popular routes that run right up a very visible line while driving down the canyon. These are the types of routes that you always see people on, and always want to try for yourself.I met up with Scott right after work and we headed up for the parking area for Cob Rock. Out of the car and straight in to our harnesses, we head for the Tyrolean traverse. Since the crag is on the opposite side of the creek as the road, and the creek is running high this year, this is the only way across.A Tyrolean is what you will get when you assign a climber to build a bridge. It is simply a stand of static rope (very low elongation under load) strung between two solid objects on either side of the gap. In this case one side was a road guard rail and the other was a tree. So, I clip a carabiner into my harness and onto the rope and lean back praying I don’t go crashing into the raging torrent below. Because of the stretch and slack in the line, I shoot rapidly down towards the stream. I grab hold of the line tightly to slow down, and manage to get pretty bad rope burns. Once I get to the bottom of the slack, I have to start pulling myself up and towards the other side. Quite an adventure, but in the end I am on the other side of the creek with only a couple of rope burns as tolls.A five minute hike, and we are at the bottom of the North Face Center route. This is a pretty easy 5.7, 2 pitch climb. The line is clean and enjoyable. The last 50 feet or so of the route feature some big exposure. The route heads up an airy arete (think thin ridge of rock falling off steeply on either side) the next piece of pro is quite a ways off and far to the right of me. That means that a slip on this arete will send me on a 30 foot pendulum into the wall next to me. This is serious enough to make you concious of every move.I reach the top without any problems, and we sit soaking up the quickly fading sunlight for a minute. An easier descent, another tyrolean traverse, and we are back in our car gloating the fact that we live in Boulder county.

So, J$ has complained that my climbing posts make no sense to non-climbers. There is a lack of background information and terminology of climbing. So, here is a post to get you up to speed enough to make sense of my climbing posts.

I guess the first place to start is to define climbing as the act of ascending (and then descending) an object that is too steep to simply walk up. This is a very broad definition that should include everything from bouldering to mountaineering.

Bouldering? Mountaineering? That is probably a good place to start. There are a lot of different activities that fall into the broad climbing spectrum. I will describe them in order from easiest/safest to hardest/most dangerous. At the bottom of the totem poll is top roping. To top rope, you first get to the top of a cliff in a non-techincal way (usually a lot of steep, lung burning hiking) and you set up an anchor. You then thread the rope through the anchor, and throw both halves down to the bottom of the clif. Hike back to the base, one person ties into the rope and the other person hooks up thier belay device. The person tied in then climbs, while the person with the belay device stops thier falls. A fall could be a distance of anywhere from zero to 3-4 feet. This is a very safe type of climbing.

Sport climbing is next up the line of skill required/danger. To climb a sport climb, you walk up to the base of the clif, and look up to see a line of bolts placed strategically where you want to climb. You tie into the end of the rope, and the person belaying you connects thier belay device a couple of feet down the rope. As you climb, the belayer feeds out rope, and you clip into the bolts as you climb. This means that if you fall below the first bolt, you are going to hit the ground. This also means that when you fall, you fall twice the distance you are above the last bolt you clipped. This commonly makes for falls of 10 or more feet, but you are pretty confidant that the big steel bolts drilled into the wall will hold the fall.

Trad climbing stands at the top of the skill/danger scale. Trad climbing starts the same as sport climbing, except there are no bolts in place. So, as you climb you place little bits of metal, spring loaded cams, etc (pro). into features on the climb and clip into them. This means that the falls are the long just like in sport climbing, but there are chances that you gear will pull when you fall on it. This is where shit gets serious.

Now, on a trad or sport climbs the routes are frequently longer than a single length of rope. (Most ropes are either 50 or 60 meters long) In this case, somewhere along the climb, the leader builds an anchor out of several pieces of protection. Once this is build, the second comes up and cleans out all of the pro that was placed by the leader. When the second reaches the belay anchors that the leader set up, he transfers gear back to the leader who starts up another rope length. This is called multi-pitch climbing and is where the money is at.

In addition to the type of climbing you are doing, you also need to be aware of how hard the climbs are. In general, climbers use the Yosemite Decimal System to rate climbs. Anything rates less than 5.0 is non-technical (this does not mean safe). These are the types of places that might make you nervous, but you don’t need to be roped up. Climbs from 5.0-5.5 are easy climbs. They are the type of thing that you rope up for, but that you are not going to fall on. 5.6 and above are when things get serious. I would currently describe myself as a 5.9 climber. The hardest climb that has ever been done was a 5.15 climbed last summer.

That should be enough of a background to make sense out of my climbing posts. I have left almost an infinate amount of information out, but this is a start. I will continue to post definitions as they come up, and always ask in the comments for explanations of anything I have left out.

gnubbs

It’s not my fault, J$ ruined it all. After he consolidated blogs, he removed the old default alpha-geek page. The old default page was great because it showed all blogs on the server, and gave thier most recent headlines. It was one nice place to see all of the goings on of the Alpha-geek community. Now, to see what Scott has been up to, I have to remember what his blog is called and access it directly… Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much about my malevolent web master.

but I climbed a route today that was a full two grades harder than almost any route I had climbed before (I had climbed a handful of 5.9s before, but never gracefully). I knew I was in trouble when my climbing partner asked if I felt like “pushing my limits” yesterday.

This afternoon under skies threatening rain or blistering sun, we set off up the approach to the Bihedral in Boulder Canyon. The approach was, well, uncomfortable. Much of it was covered in poison ivy, and there was an unroped face that had to be climbed with a full pack on shoulder. Only about 40 feet, and not at all difficult, but a mistake would have left you in a very bad situation.

We get to the base of the climb and I am looking up at 200ft of less than 90 degree granite, with an arete placing the rock neatly up against the sky. The whole approach my partner was stressing how important footwork was. This was not looking good. The route did not look terrible from the base, but it was awefully exposed.

My partner, Scott, leads up the first pitch in perfect form. From the ground there did not appear to be a stressful moment or an awkward move. Unfortunately, since he is a very strong climber this does not exactly bode well for me. He calls that I am on belay. I take one look back at the creek thundering by full of spring runoff 300 feet below, and I am off into the sky again.

The route is hard. He said that it was going to be challenging, but this is downright hard. I make it up the first section of arete with microedges under my feet (think a quarter stuck to the rock face and you will have an idea of how small these edges are), and my hands slipping off slopers and crimpers. Focus on footwork and I get through the first section of the climb.

Stepping left, I start a short traverse. The face drops off in a roof underneath my feet, so there is nothing between me and the ground. This is exposure. I am safely clipped into the first belay without much more trouble. The second pitch is just as hard as the first, and there are several points that leave me dangling by one arm — desperately trying to get my feet to stick to anything beneath me. A few minutes at 180 beats per minute and I am resting securely clipped into the anchors at the top of the climb. My first multipitch repel and I am back on the ground having climbed my first 5.10 route.

The sun is still shining down into the canyon, so we have enough light to climb one more route. There is a face climb under our last repel, so we leave the ropes up, and I am off again. This route is not very steep (~80 degrees), but there are no handholds. The footwork is questionable at best, and I hit a wall at the crux. The crux requires some pretty far reaches while supporting yourself on a smeared foot.

I try and fall several times. Damn partner won’t let me lower off. Finally, with a little bit of a pull on the rope, I get through the 5 feet that have been baring me from any further progress. The rest of the climb is hard but managable, and totally enjoyable. I top out, lower off, and Scott makes the pitch look like anyone should be able to climb it. My first attempt at a 5.10b, a noble attempt but still a bit short. A couple more trips to the gym, a little more endurance, and a lot more balance and I will nail it.

Back to the car, plans for more climbing next week are made, and I am one pitch further along the long route to becoming a gnarled old trad climber.