Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Zodiac

BD Camalot: 2x #.4-3, 1x #4, 2x #5
*2x #5 makes OW off peanut safe and easy
Metolius Offset Master Cam: Two sets 00/0-3/4
*essential for doing the route clean
*Only used 00/0 offset once
*0/1 is the MONEY cam
Alien: black-green
BD C3: 00-1
1 set BD stoppers
*Placed only 1 stopper
1 set HB offset brassies (5 total)
BD sawed off angle pitons #3-4 (hand placed)
BD beak one medium one large (hand placed)

15 OZ quickdraws (10 normal, 5 alpine)
*too many, maybe bring 10 or 12
1 yates screamer
8 BD Nitron screwgates
*too many, maybe bring 5 or 6
5 wire rivet hangars
*the minimum you would want to bring
OZ carabiners on entire rack
6 free OZ carabiners
*not needed 
Metolius Easy Daisy Chains
*mine were fuzzy as hell, replace them!
Yates 6 step ladders
Gri-gri 2 (unmodified)
Petzl ascension ascenders
Metolius Monster 9.8
Metolius big wall stuff sack for rope bag

2 medium & 1 wide cam hook
*wide hook is MONEY! 
sky hook
talon hook
*only used once, top stepped and reached past all the chicken batt holes
grappling hook



5.10 Guide Tennies 
BD Xenos harness
*good, but left me with bruises. I don't like climbing fast with a wall harness. 
Petzl Meteor 3+ helmet (with lightning bolt modification)
Prana cotton pants
Synthetic t-shirt from discount clothing store
Arc'teryx Alpha LT shell

16L BD Shot pack 
Ray-Ban Wayfarer glasses (first time climbing with my glasses)

The fuel: 
4 liters water 
2 gu packets 
3 packs shot blocks 
1 candy bar 
*Good amount of food, 4 liters is the minimum amount of water you would want to bring. Unless you think you can solo it in 12 hours, with no chance of an epic. 
->drank 1/2 gallon of gatorade on peanut ledge. Neil left it on his Shortest Straw solo. 
->had 2 clif bars, 2 gu packets, and 1/2 gallon of water stashed on summit  

Notes:
Climbed in a t-shirt on ENTIRE route, pretty awesome.
Climbed route the day after bringing Mark Hudon's 60lb haul bag off summit
Start: 4:09 am
End: 11:16 pm
Jaw muscles sore from clenching teeth when scared
Entire body destroyed!
Rocked The Zodiac playlist on iPod entire time

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Lurking Fear

camalots - 2 sets #.4-3, 1 set #4-5
1 red BD C3
metolius - 1 set offset mastercams (THE SHIT!) 1 #1 mastercam
OZ biners on all cams 
1 set DMM offset brass nuts
1 set BD stoppers (only the good sizes #5-9)
15 BD OZ quickdraws (10 normal, 5 alpine)
1 cam hook
metolius  gear sling
6 BD nitron screw gates
metolius monster 9.8 rope
petzl ascension ascenders
1 set wild things etriers for leader
1 BD etrier & 1 metolius quick step for jugger

I would recommend this rack to teams trying to climb fast. Take all free variations on topo.
Time on route 10:32

I led pitches 1-9
Colin led 10-sumit. Short fixed on every pitch.

Personal gear:
La Sportiva Clif rock shoes (sized comfy)
5.10 guide tennies (for jugging)
BD Xenos harness
Petzl Meteor 3+ helmet (with lightning bolt modification)
Prana pants
Prana cotton/synthetic blend t-shirt
Patagonia R1 hoody
Arc'teryx Alpha LT shell

Monday, April 25, 2011

MB
Need:
15 draws
1 #2
2 #1
2 #.75
2 #.5
2 #.4
1 set (1-4) Mastercams
1 set med. BD stoppers (medium size only)
blue/yellow-orange/red offset mastercams
1 sed med. offset nuts
-> johnny cat + fingers in light socket (forever)

TS - DO NOT HAUL
start: 10:30am end 7pm
9 pitches, short fix on all but 3 pitches
2 #.4
2 #.5
3 #.75
3 #1
3 #2
2 #3
2 #4
1 set med. BD stoppers
#7-big offset stoppers
1 set mastercams (1-4)
blue/yellow-orange/red offset mastercams

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Castle Rock, Boulder Canyon

gill crack: 
use tiny face holds!
green alien (reach super high off ground)
red camalot
red c3 (upper piton pod)
grey camalot
yellow camalot
long sling
ANCHOR

(new edit)
red c3 probably wouldn't hold a fall
.4 below pods instead, then .5 above

athlete's feet:
pitch 1:
left foot on little black invisible nub, right foot up incredibly high on sharp crystal
palm down on mini crimp
pitch 2:
.4 in back of crack (ledge fall potential, scary)
maybe #4 instead so you can blindly place?
pitch 3:
in layback:
yellow camalot
blue camalot
pitch 4&5 straight forward.

country club crack:
make impossible slab move, get left foot up!
rack:
green-red aliens
1 .4
1 .5
2 .75
2 #1
2 #2
1 #3 (optional?)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Zenyatta Mondatta Gear

In no way, shape, or form am I endorsed given any gear from any companies. I only want to show what  I used, and how I got up the wall.
Being a broke college kid, I have been able to scrounge up money and find gear while climbing, get gear loaned to me, take advantage of craig's list, and shop at used clothing stores.

The following is what we took up the wall. It is a pretty accurate approximation, but not exact. 

Personal clothing: 
Smartwool socks
La Sportiva Exum Ridge approach shoes
Patagonia Mixmaster pants *R1 fleece lining is the shit
Prana synthetic/cotton mixture shirt
The North Face flight series half zip base layer 
Mountain Hardware Typhoon rain shell
Mountain Hardware Zonal synthetic insulated jacket
-All clothing perfect except I made the mistake of wearing cotton underwear

Cams & Nuts: 
2 sets BD C4's #.4-#4
1 set Aliens (black-red)
2 sets Alien hybrids (blue-red)
1 set offset Mastercams 
1 set DMM offset 
1 set DMM brass offset 
1 set BD stoppers or equivalent 
-Too many nuts, I personally placed only 2 on the whole route

'Hard' gear:
10 quick draws
10 alpine extendable draws
30 assorted carabiners
15 locking carabiners *not nearly enough
BD swivel *necessary
Petzl Protraxion 
Metolius Half Dome haul bag
BD Zion haul bag
Fish single portaledge (old)
The North Face A5 double portaledge (old) *flagged ledge entire route until last pitch
-More extendable draws needed
-Would have been great to only have wire gate carabiners, half were not

'Nailing' gear:
4 baby angles 
5 sawed off angles (three #3, two #4)
7 assorted beaks 
8 assorted lost arrows 
8 knife blades
15 assorted copper heads (all sizes, including circle heads) *placed only 2 on route
4 rivet hangers
3 wire rivet hangers *more of both types of hangers needed
3 Black diamond yosemite wall hamers *only needed 2
1 funkness device
2 talon hooks
2 grappling hooks (my favorite!)
1 cliffhanger hook
2 cam hooks (1 medium & 1 large)
1 huge sharp meat cleaver hook (I refused to lead with this hook)


'Soft' gear:
Yates Shield harness
Metolius adjustable daisy chains 
60m 10.1mm Sterline lead rope
70m 10mm haul line
100m haul line
Yates ladders 
Wild Things etriers 
Metolius easy aider 
4 15ft.+ cordalettes
6 double length slings 

Food:
Breakfast: peanut butter and nutella bagels, pop tarts
Lunch: assorted bars, fig newtons
Dinner: chef boyardee ravioli
Jet boil used to make tea at night
12 2.2 liter bottles filled with water *we didn't realize we were getting a 'bonus' .2 liters in each bottle
-planned 2 liters per person for 4 days 


Photos and Video:
Cheap Canon SD1400 point and shoot (photos and video)
Flip Mino HD (video only)
Created and edited with iPhoto and iMovie
 *none of the photos and videos seen are raw files.. I get away with using cheaper equipment and programs by editing everything.
 *I'm still pretty new to this whole thing, so anyone with experience with photography and making videos I would greatly appreciate any tips or pointers.