13 October 2008
Brian Kimball
What is a memorable moment/story/epic in your climbing life?
(From the 8a member questions)
My first trip to Yosemite Valley California! I remember groveling my way up the smooth, slightly overhanging, flared off-width just a few pitches from the summit of El Capitan. Our goal was a free ascent up the main face of the granite monolith so naturally we chose the path of least resistance. A route with over 3,000 feet of 'up climbing, down climbing, traversing, 80 foot run outs in chimneys'...you name it, the Free Rider 5.12d has it all.
This was to be my first Grade VI free climb, seeing as how I had already blown my ground up on-site/hauling attempt on some 5.11 slab move (at about 1am in the pitch dark) one week prior: I figured what the hell...why not try to free climb the route in just one day, eliminating all that cumbersome hauling. This decision would later become one of my VERY MANY, BAD IDEAS!
May 20th 2007: Standing at the base of El Cap. it's 6:30pm, 400 feet up the greasy slab pitches had just escaped the scorching sun. My partner for the wall (a young Alex Honnald) begins to rack up for the first pitch-a wonderful 200' 5.10c finger crack to a wide and run out 5.8 layback. Our plan was to swap leads, Alex to bring the rack and me to bring the rope.
As Alex starts to pull "the rack" out of his small day pack I realize that he only has a single set of Black Diamonds Cam's .3 through #3. I look at him laughing with concern saying "what is that". With a big grin and a snicker he says; "DUDE it's our Salathe in a day rack-pretty cool huh". I am like..."UMMMM NO...LIKE HELLO DINGALLING, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUICK DRAWS? AND WHERE ARE THE 20 NUTS-SLINGS AND 2 OTHER SETS OF CAMS I THOUGHT WE WOULD BE BRINGING???". Alex fumbles around his pack for a bit; suddenly his eyes are wide with excitement! He finds four ultra-light BD quick draws, pulls them out, chucks them on the dirt and says "See now we are covered-NO BIG DEAL".
These are the now infamous words of Alex HonBOLD the Great and one day they could very well be his last. This guy could free solo Trango Tower naked in the winter and if you asked him about it he would be like..."REALLY GUYS ITS NO BIG DEAL...I mean people should just sack up and do it...WTF". I 'not so calmly' explain to Alex that I can not think of one single pitch on the Salathe Wall that I would feel comfortable leading with that miniscule of a rack and of course his reply was "its cool, I will lead it all, its NO BIG DEAL". Because after all climbing El Cap. free in a day 'TIED TO A ROPE' is what HonBOLD calls "WEAK SAUCE".
Over the next 20 hours Alex would lead every pitch, hand over hand/hauling BOTH of our heavy day packs on some thin piece of 6mm accessory cord. I remember having just barley squeaked though the difficult 5.11 slab sections of the 5th and 6th pitches, (two sections that I was unable to free climb on my in the dark epic on-site attempt days before). I arrived at the belay with a glimmer of hope in my eyes as the last light faded into the night sky. Before I could even say hi Alex had ever so swiftly removed my belay device off of my harness. Attaching it to his end of the rope he blasts off into the vertical abyss like an Olympic sprinter going for gold in the 100 yard dash.
About 30 seconds later I am pumped stupid from feeding slack out of the Gri-Gri faster then I ever had thought possible. Meanwhile Alex, 80 feet up the 5.9 corner of pitch 7, has still not placed a single piece of protection. As he clips a quick draw to a old rusty 1/4" button head he shouts down "Get ready for a little simo-climbing"-I had NO IDEA that I would not see him again until 500' later.
Having removed a cam about once every 80' or so I began to realize there may only be one or two piece of protection between me, Alex and the talus some 900' below. Zooming across the top of the Mammoth bivi ledge I run into the legendary Mickey Schafer, I stop only long enough to say hi and hand him and his client some hard candies I had in my pocket. Finally I see Alex; he says laughing as I run to the belay "Good job Brian-you might actually have some Big Wall free climbing potential".
He explains how he thought he would stop here since he was out of gear and we were now starring at a 200' 5.10+ down climb". There are many pitches-with many stories to be told but for now I will spare the rest of the details. After climbing by headlamp through the night (150' Monster Off-width and all) we arrived at the top of the wall at 3pm with a team free in a day ascent under our belts-(20hrs 30min) I will never forget the immense feeling of accomplishment and achievement that filled my soul as I topped out the final pitch and reached the belay. I was so excited I could have done a triple back flip! I screamed and hooted with joy "keeeyyyyaahhhhhh...yiiiipppppeeeeyyyy". Of course Alex, laughing at me like I am crazy or something says "DUDE I donยt see what your so psyched about, its just El Cap...its really NO BIG DEAL". Big deal or not, to this very moment, this is the most memorable day in my climbing life!
| By Brian Kimball - 8a member since 2000 |
| Pink Flamingo 5.13b in Indian Creek |
| Alex Honnald |
My first trip to Yosemite Valley California! I remember groveling my way up the smooth, slightly overhanging, flared off-width just a few pitches from the summit of El Capitan. Our goal was a free ascent up the main face of the granite monolith so naturally we chose the path of least resistance. A route with over 3,000 feet of 'up climbing, down climbing, traversing, 80 foot run outs in chimneys'...you name it, the Free Rider 5.12d has it all.
This was to be my first Grade VI free climb, seeing as how I had already blown my ground up on-site/hauling attempt on some 5.11 slab move (at about 1am in the pitch dark) one week prior: I figured what the hell...why not try to free climb the route in just one day, eliminating all that cumbersome hauling. This decision would later become one of my VERY MANY, BAD IDEAS!
May 20th 2007: Standing at the base of El Cap. it's 6:30pm, 400 feet up the greasy slab pitches had just escaped the scorching sun. My partner for the wall (a young Alex Honnald) begins to rack up for the first pitch-a wonderful 200' 5.10c finger crack to a wide and run out 5.8 layback. Our plan was to swap leads, Alex to bring the rack and me to bring the rope.
As Alex starts to pull "the rack" out of his small day pack I realize that he only has a single set of Black Diamonds Cam's .3 through #3. I look at him laughing with concern saying "what is that". With a big grin and a snicker he says; "DUDE it's our Salathe in a day rack-pretty cool huh". I am like..."UMMMM NO...LIKE HELLO DINGALLING, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUICK DRAWS? AND WHERE ARE THE 20 NUTS-SLINGS AND 2 OTHER SETS OF CAMS I THOUGHT WE WOULD BE BRINGING???". Alex fumbles around his pack for a bit; suddenly his eyes are wide with excitement! He finds four ultra-light BD quick draws, pulls them out, chucks them on the dirt and says "See now we are covered-NO BIG DEAL".
These are the now infamous words of Alex HonBOLD the Great and one day they could very well be his last. This guy could free solo Trango Tower naked in the winter and if you asked him about it he would be like..."REALLY GUYS ITS NO BIG DEAL...I mean people should just sack up and do it...WTF". I 'not so calmly' explain to Alex that I can not think of one single pitch on the Salathe Wall that I would feel comfortable leading with that miniscule of a rack and of course his reply was "its cool, I will lead it all, its NO BIG DEAL". Because after all climbing El Cap. free in a day 'TIED TO A ROPE' is what HonBOLD calls "WEAK SAUCE".
Over the next 20 hours Alex would lead every pitch, hand over hand/hauling BOTH of our heavy day packs on some thin piece of 6mm accessory cord. I remember having just barley squeaked though the difficult 5.11 slab sections of the 5th and 6th pitches, (two sections that I was unable to free climb on my in the dark epic on-site attempt days before). I arrived at the belay with a glimmer of hope in my eyes as the last light faded into the night sky. Before I could even say hi Alex had ever so swiftly removed my belay device off of my harness. Attaching it to his end of the rope he blasts off into the vertical abyss like an Olympic sprinter going for gold in the 100 yard dash.
About 30 seconds later I am pumped stupid from feeding slack out of the Gri-Gri faster then I ever had thought possible. Meanwhile Alex, 80 feet up the 5.9 corner of pitch 7, has still not placed a single piece of protection. As he clips a quick draw to a old rusty 1/4" button head he shouts down "Get ready for a little simo-climbing"-I had NO IDEA that I would not see him again until 500' later.
Having removed a cam about once every 80' or so I began to realize there may only be one or two piece of protection between me, Alex and the talus some 900' below. Zooming across the top of the Mammoth bivi ledge I run into the legendary Mickey Schafer, I stop only long enough to say hi and hand him and his client some hard candies I had in my pocket. Finally I see Alex; he says laughing as I run to the belay "Good job Brian-you might actually have some Big Wall free climbing potential".
He explains how he thought he would stop here since he was out of gear and we were now starring at a 200' 5.10+ down climb". There are many pitches-with many stories to be told but for now I will spare the rest of the details. After climbing by headlamp through the night (150' Monster Off-width and all) we arrived at the top of the wall at 3pm with a team free in a day ascent under our belts-(20hrs 30min) I will never forget the immense feeling of accomplishment and achievement that filled my soul as I topped out the final pitch and reached the belay. I was so excited I could have done a triple back flip! I screamed and hooted with joy "keeeyyyyaahhhhhh...yiiiipppppeeeeyyyy". Of course Alex, laughing at me like I am crazy or something says "DUDE I donยt see what your so psyched about, its just El Cap...its really NO BIG DEAL". Big deal or not, to this very moment, this is the most memorable day in my climbing life!
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