What: Climbing Monkey Face in 4 pictches
Where: Smith Rock
When: (I think) July 19th, 2009
[awaiting pictures from Emily!]
On Saturday when Emily came back from her climbs with another student she asked me “Did Oscar tell you the plan?” Unaware of any plan, my curiosity was instantly peaked. “No…” I hesitated, a little excited, trying to hide my enthusiasm; any day worthy of a “plan” sounded enticing to me, especially if it was with (my new idol) Emily.
“Follow me” Emily beckoned and without hesitation I was a step behind headed to the car to unmask the elements required for the “plan” the following day.
When we got to the car Emily pulled out a pair of aiders (also called etrier’s) as she unveiled the plan of climbing Monkey Face the next day. This climb has one pitch (a section of rock that only requires one rope length) that required aiders, which I had never used. Aiders kind of look like ladders made of webbing (they ‘aid’ you up the rock face). This section of the climb is bolted, so you would hook the aider to a caribeaner and then hook that to the bolt, giving you an instant ladder. You’d have two ladders so while standing on one, you could reach the next bolt, clip in with the next ladder, shift weight onto the new ladder, and then unclip the old ladder from the lower bolt.
Emily scanned the area for a tree worthy of demonstration. The only reasonable tree happened to be in front of the crowed of classmates (this is while we were still waiting for some classmates to get back to the parking lot). Emily made two makeshift “bolts” in the tree (just caribeaners on varying lengths of cord). She showed me how to adjust the personal anchor that’s attached to the aider to assist in reaching the next bolt.
Then it was my turn to try. It was a little awkward climbing the tree, a rock face would be much wider, but I could at least get the idea of what was going on. Climb as high as you can on one ladder until you can reach the next bolt. Bolt your second ladder in, climb it until you can reach the next bolt, rinse and repeat.
Emily also mentioned the possibility of leading this pitch. The class specifically said that it did not cover leading, so I was surprised to hear of the lead potential. I told her it sounded awesome, but I’d give her a final answer the next day. At this time I’m not sure if the head instructor was aware of this part of the plan or not—it was surely his call first if it was going to be OK.
Sleeping at night was hard. I’m not sure if it was because of my excitement of the next days climb, or if it was just because it was super hot out (I’m assuming mainly the latter, but the former didn’t help). The night before had been rather cold, but this night I had my 30 degree bag unzipped and was still sweating.
While trying to sleep I went over how to use the aiders in my head and went through the calculated risk of leading this pitch. It seemed like there was basically no risk of falling. Not only would I be secured by the rope, but each aider had its own anchor to hold me on, the most that could happen is I loose my balance and swing into the wall, this is no worse than any other fall (in fact, it is probably better than falling anywhere else, because it is a completely vertical pitch so I wouldn’t be falling onto strange poking rocks). I decided if Emily/Oscar (the head instructor) said I could lead, I would love to take the opportunity to do so. Maybe they’d even let me lead a real pitch at Squamish (rock wall in BC) in a few weeks! (Don't worry Mom, leading for this part was basically the same as following).
When we got to the parking lot in the morning, after another French toast breakfast, Emily and I headed out for our destination before the other student/teacher partners were called out. We were on a mission. We talked excitedly about the climb during the 45 minute hike to the base. I went over different techniques/skills that I wanted to confirm the correct order of implementation.
Once we got to the base of the climb and were flaking out the rope (making sure there were no knots or tangles) another group of 2 came along. These boys were from Oklahoma and had just spent a month climbing all over the west. We quickly made friends and decided to climb together.
To get down there is a 60m rappel off the face, so you need two ropes. If we went by ourselves, we would have had to either carry one rope in our backpack, or lead with two ropes. Neither are fun options. We decided that we’d tie our rope with the guys’ rope to rappel down, allowing both parties to carry one rope a piece. Emily would still lead and I would follow cleaning her gear. Then one of the boys would lead the same pitch, and the second one would clean his gear.
One of the climbers had a lot of experience and led all the pitches. The other guy was a pretty good climber but he was definitely new to aiding as well.
The first pitch rated 5.8 had a tricky spot with little hands and virtually no feet. It was hard for Emily to protect the route well and a challenge for me to clean the route too. After that beginning section the rest of the pitch was pretty straightforward, going up and over flakes.
The second pitch had a nasty 5.8 chimney finger crack, by far the hardest part of the day. When I finisehd the pitch and met Emily at the belay station she told me “yea, but it had great feet” and my reply was “I couldn’t find one good foot, it was terrible.” Apparently I need a bit more practice. I was also carrying a backpack up the route (another first for me) and I think the backpack took on another added challenge level, especially in the chimney. I found some pretty good spots for my hands/fingers but with all my weight on them, I couldn’t hold the position very long.
While climbing that crack I wore out my arms quickly I asked to “take” (this means the belayer should take in all the slack on the rope) so I could rest for a moment. I was saddened as I was let down a few feet (ruining the progress on my last few moves). Emily’s new rope had a high elongation ratio and Emily moved to get in a better position to hold me, and while doing so, some more slack was necessary.
A bit disheveled, knowing the boys were watching me from below, I tried to get back to my old position a few steps higher, staring at the vertical face with no obvious feet and the small crack expected to help me progress. In retrospect, this silly finger chimney crack was actually overhanging a bit, no wonder it was hard!
Once I got to my old position I jammed my hips into the sloping chimney and held there for a moment--flailing with my feet. I felt like a newb, but eventually I got a good enough foot hold that I could move my body up. Hopefully I didn’t look too much like a wiggling worm.
Normally I’d try to squeeze my back into the chimney, but with the backpack on this wasn’t an option. I wasn’t really sure how to navigate.
Once I topped the chimney the holds for hands and feet increased exponentially and I was back to feeling good about myself. I thought ‘the next time I climb that, I’m going to do much better.’
Yes, there will be a next time.
Once I reached Emily at the belay station it was time to unpack the backpack. We pulled out the aiders and Emily once again suggested I lead. I was excited and nervous, even though leading this section was basically the same thing as following it.
I ran through the basic scheme of things, Emily approved, and encouraged me on. I started up the wall in what felt like the slowest pace ever. About 3 bolts in, I had made a small tangle with the rope and the ladders and my personal anchors. I had to ask for slack and unhook a few things to re-arrange.
I wasn’t about to let this mishap happen again. By this time it felt like the guys were already at the belay station (either they did really fast getting up that chimney, or I was really slow, or I just didn’t notice when they got there, but anybody watching makes you self-conscious).
I worked up the rest of the route as Emily shouted encouraging words and commented on my fast pace. I didn’t really believe her about the fast pace because I felt slow as a snail, but I had my routine that enabled my aiders to be clutter free and slowly made my way up the rock.
I kept hearing about how you had to “whale” yourself into the mouth of the monkey. I wasn’t really excited for this part, but soon was able to experience it. I didn’t think I had to “whale” too much, and although there were no handholds I felt like I was able to kick myself up with the aiders instead of beaching myself into the mouth.
I belayed Emily up and she was a speed daemon, I couldn’t believe it. When she got up I commented on her rocket speed and said there was no way I was fast at all. She claimed that she’s had a lot of practice and went on to tell a story of the first time a VERY experienced climber led this pitch and he was at least 2-3x slower than I was leading it. I felt like this would be a silly story to make up, so I went with it, and took the compliment, feeling a little better about myself, and less like I was holding the other dudes up. Emily said that the dude’s even commented on my speed up the wall. My conclusion: aid climbing is slow no matter what.
Soon we were ready for Emily to lead the last pitch up out of the mouth. This is the “most exposed 5.7 move in the world.” It looks like a “1500ft drop but is only 150ft.” I think I was more scared when Emily was leading then when I followed (though I’m not sure why, I was more than completely confident in her skills, maybe it was just because it was an awkward belay stance and if she did happen to fall it was going to be another adventure getting back up).
When it was my turn to get out of the mouth I stuck my head out to try and find the next hold. I wasn’t confident in where it was, and I hesitated for a what seemed like a few minutes, trying to gain confidence in just “going for it.” I went over the facts in my head: worst thing that could happen is I fall a few feet and have to prussic up the rope (due to rope stretch) to get back to the mouth. No biggie.
I felt lame for hesitating, especially when there were so many spectators watching (I swore somebody called out my name too). I felt like I wasn’t putting on a good show. For the spectators, if I fell, that’d be epic, or if I climbed it, that would be just as awesome (for them). When Emily climbed and got to the top, many of the tourists cheered and many took pictures with thier telescoping cameras.
It was really odd knowing that you were going to be in all these climbers photographs. We decided we were in at least 50 peoples shots (not to mention the guys with the super crazy telephoto lenses that you could hear constantly shooting). We should have shouted out our emails or held up a sign so they could email us the pictures!
Once we got to the top (wohoo!) we waited on the flat head (that strangely has no anchors/bolts) for over an hour while the two guys climbed the aid section and joined us at the top. When I left the mouth, the lead guy was in the mouth, but the second guy must have taken FOREVER to do the aid section. He apologized about the wait and said it was his first time using aiders (hey, it was mine too!).
Either way, it was super sunny weather and there was a slight breeze so it was rather enjoyable (the delay was just was going to make us get back a bit later). We took the boys photo’s (after asking them to take one of us) and then we all started the rappel. There is a very short rappel to the double rope rappel station where we tied our ropes together so we’d have enough rope for the 50/60m rappel.
This was my first real free rappel (free as in you’re not going down the wall/touching any rock, you’re just hanging in midair!). At one point Emily yelled up to tell me to do a leg wrap and then let go of the rope so I’d be freely suspended in the air. I’m pretty sure she got a picture of this too.
By the time we walked back to our bags (less than 20 minutes from the rappel station) it was time to race back to the meeting spot. We hadn’t brought any lunch to the summit (opps in retrospect, but it would have made the bag heavier!), so we grabbed a quick bite and then skedaddled back. We were surprised to see almost nobody on the wall (especially nobody from our group—yesterday there were many groups over 2 hours late to the meeting spot). Perhaps since today was round two and it had been so hot out everybody decided to call it quits early (and to make up for their tardiness the day before!).
We were the last to arrive and everybody wanted to know how Monkey Face was. I claimed it was “totally friggin rad.”
Before making it back onto the highway we stopped at this tiny climbers shack where our carpool enjoyed a scoop each of mtn huckleberry and blackberry ice cream. Delicious!
great pictures ...
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