Weekend climbing in Yosemite

I can't let William have all the climbing fun, although he did beat me by taking climbing pictures with actual climbers in it. Anyway, centered here against the skyline is the big, old-time climb we did last weekend in Yosemite, called Arrowhead Arete. It begins in the shadows above the green band of trees and more or less rises on what looks like near-white rock from this distance, going all the way up to where the white rock disappears into a shady pinnacle. Six rope-length pitches no harder than 5.8, according to one guide book, but what the old-timers thought was only 5.8 and what I consider 5.8 are very different things.

I don't know how the heck they did it in 1956 with hemp ropes and thick hiking boots that wouldn't fit into the thin cracks that ran the route. OTOH, the guys that first did it were incredibly strong and incredibly good, and there we diverge.

My partner is a much better climber and led the hardest parts, but I did lead two 5.6 pitches on the route, including the seventh pitch of 5.6 traversing that our book neglected to mention. It was easy stuff, but on a knife edge ridge less than two feet wide in a few places. We also exceeded expectations by taking longer to hike there and to climb than the book anticipated, which meant descending mostly in the dark, including four rappels in darkness and two of them under a waterfall from a small stream (not as nice as it sounds).

Great climb though! Other climbers I don't know took good pics. Here's one of the knife edge, and another of the downward looking view (including Arrowhead Spire that we didn't climb).

We did some other, easier climbs as well. Nutcracker, which I climbed once before and took my only significant lead fall three years ago. No lead fall this time, although I did have to rest on my protection gear and also had to whine about a few parts that were wet. (Pics by various peoples here.) And another called Doggie Deviations that was very nice.

Nicest of all - no climbing crowds! That's a weird thing for Yosemite.

Hello, Telegraph? Ice climbs return each year unless there's climate change

Stoat does the main work here:  the Telegraph says the IPCC claimed that mountain ice has reduced over time but cited dodgy sources:  a climbing magazine article and a dissertation about ice-climbing.  Stoat notes that the claim (not claims) is a single line in a table that lists multiple observed effects to the cryosphere, and expressly focusses on the loss of ice climbs.  Those two sources are actually pretty good sources for understanding ice climbs.

I'll add two other pieces of info that indicate the Telegraph doesn't know much about ice-climbing and apparently didn't seek out much information:  first, it says that modern climbers wouldn't know if ice climbs from 100 years ago had disappeared.  In fact, climbers are pretty good at tracking the history of climbing routes, especially first ascents.  If a route used to exist 100 years ago and now is gone, there's an excellent chance that local climbers would know about it.

Second, the Telegraph says unnamed "experts" say "loss of ice climbs are a poor indicator of a reduction in mountain ice as climbers can knock ice down and damage ice falls with their axes and crampons."  One would like to know who these experts are and exactly what they said.  Yes it's true that climbers can damage and make unclimbable certain routes for a time period, but the ice will return each year unless global warming keeps that from happening.

Ice climbs typically follow waterfalls or cliff seeps that freeze up in the wintertime.  There's no way that climber damage to ice in one winter will keep the climb from returning in the next winter.  Actually a lot of ice should return multiple times in the same winter as the seeps and waterfalls continue to flow.  Increased usage by ice climbers might increase the amount of time that a climb is unclimbable during a season, but it won't eliminate the route.  Warming temps, on the other hand, can eliminate the ice permanently.

I'm not an ice-climber, by the way, I do snow and rock instead.  But I know something of the sport and equipment and have seen it done.  I think the Telegraph has got a few ice screws loose here in its effort to push a political viewpoint.

Camelbak cleaning tip and climbing safety tip

Not that anyone reads this blog for random outdoor activity-related info, but I feel like writing about it anyway.

The Camelbak is a great way to take a lot of water with you, and a lousy pain in the neck to keep clean. I could never figure out a way to dry the bladder out completely, and the tiny film of water in the crevices eventually creates a film of slime.

The solution? Wash the bladder out, empty it, and then store it in the freezer. The only slime-growth time is when you're using it, so the frequency that you have to put the poison bleach pill in the bladder should get cut down tremendously. I've been doing this for two months without having to do a major clean or any sign that I'm harming the bladder.

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My other, virtually unrelated tip is for multi-pitch rock climbing. There's a safety problem for every pitch after the first one - if the lead climber starts a new pitch and is going directly above the belayer at any point until the leader puts in the first piece of protection, then a fall at the wrong moment means the leader falls onto the belayer. The belayer should be anchored in so there shouldn't be a danger of knocking the belayer off the cliff, but the belayer's also supposed to control the rope that limits the fall length for the leader. If the leader's fall has knocked out the belayer or just tore the belayer's hand off the rope and belay device, then the leader could be in for a dangerous, long fall.

Several years ago as part of a party of three, I watched from below as the leader fell off and whacked his belayer in the face while the leader fell past him. The belayer got a bloody nose but held on to the rope, and the leader only took a 20-foot fall. A year later I was the leader, fifteen feet directly above my belayer, not feeling confident at all about my climb and worried about this scenario. Didn't fall, fortunately.

So, solutions. One is to use a Grigri or similar belay device that will hold even if the belayer lets go. This solution has its own problems - Grigris are heavy and don't work for double-rope climbing, which is safer than single-rope climbing.

Then there's my little solution. Before the leader starts the new pitch, the belayer ties a loose overhand knot in a bight of rope maybe twenty feet down the rope from the leader, whatever distance down the rope that is certain to be further than the distance the leader will climb before placing the first protection. If the leader falls and the disabled belayer fails to stop the fall, the knot hits the belay device and stops the fall at that point. If the leader doesn't fall and places that first protection, then the belayer undoes the knot with one hand only, while the other hand controls the belay device and rope.

The secret and problem with this solution is that the knot has to be loose but not too loose. If it's too tight, then the belayer will need two hands to undo it and won't be ready to catch the leader's fall during the time that the belayer's working the knot. If it's too loose, the knot may undo itself when an uncontrolled fall slams the knot into the belay device.

This solution can't be made foolproof and requires judgment, so it's unlikely to make it into the climbing books, but I still think it can help.

Glad to get that all off of my chest.