8/31/99 New Photos from Theo
****Currently not in service**** My apologies. Yell at Theo, damnit.
There are a bunch of nice new photos of Los Alamosians climbing at Shelf Road, Eldorado Canyon, Flagstaff Mountain, and White Rock now available at Theo's columbia site. - Go see them!
8/5/99 New Anchor Chains at the Overlook
Some kind soul has replaced anchor chains on at least 4 of the climbs on the south side of the Overlook. Good work, whoever you are!
Half Dome, June 1999
The Story
Half Dome PDF file
This story is long, so I've converted it to an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. If
you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can get it free from Adobe very easily.
The address is listed below. If you are using Acrobat Reader 3.0 and are on
a Mac, you could experience font problems (quotes and apostrophes appear as
boxes) and might want to consider upgrading to 4.0.
I wrote it primarily for family and friends, most of whom are familiar with climbing vocabulary. For those
not so familiar, my apologies for the jargon. If you have any comments about the story, I'd love
to hear them. I am a writer (at least that's what it says on my business card), and so am
constantly in search of an audience, so thank you for your interest!
The story belongs to both Rick Bradshaw and I, and he was the main driver behind the trip, however, he is in no way
responsible for any of the opinions, observations, etc., etc., in the story. He has read, it, though,
so any quotes attributed to him are probably pretty accurate.
-Josh Smith
joshs@lanl.gov
From the nice folks at Adobe Systems
The Reader Adobe Homepage
4/26.99 "Sun Devil"
From Rick Bradshaw:
Josh Smith and I finished the route yesterday despite the cliff's
desperate attempts at thwarting our ascent. Drill exorcism failed after
the demons within diablo's depths inhabited the Bosch and fried it,
twice. The howling wind and rain drops threatened our final assault,
but perseverance and possible stupidity focussed our efforts toward the
successful bid on "Sun Devil". Three pitches, fully bolted, 11b/c. One
50M rope is adequate for the rappel decent.
The climb is on the South facing wall above the main wash in Diablo
Canyon. The route begins in the tallus ~20 feet right of where the
overhanging section ends, just where the base of the cliff takes a
dramatic turn down the hill. It ascends the arete of the prominent
column that ends in a detached pillar 300 feet above the sandy wash. If
you value your brain, and/or your life, WEAR A HELMET!!! The climb has
been heavily and painstakingly cleaned. However, there is still and
will always be plenty of loose rock.
Traverse right on questionable rock ~20 feet to the first bolt. Climb
more or less directly up heavily cleaned but still questionable rock
past 9 bolts on 5.9 for 80 feet to a small but comfortable belay on a
ledge. The ledge is just left of the base of a wide crack which
separates the column and the main wall. The rap station to the right of
the ledge serves as the belay while a single bolt at the ledge keeps the
belayer secure. The second pitch ascends better rock surmounting the
obvious bulge on it's right and continuing up the face of the column
just left of the arete to the second belay/rap station (11a, 80 feet, 8
bolts). The third pitch (8 bolts) intersects the knife edge arete after
about 40 feet and continues up superb rock with incredible position
until the final bolt and the crux (11b/c), which are about 15 feet below
the top of the climb. Balance and a bit of luck help overcome the
friable rock to the final belay/rap station, which is on a small ledge
about 20 feet below the summit of the detached pillar. The quality of
rock degrades rapidly from here, but it is possible to reach the true
summit using sparse and questionable gear for protection. One 50M rope
will suffice for the 3 rappels back to the base of the climb. The second
and third pitches can be combined into one, but it is not recommended
due to rope drag. WEAR A HELMET, there is still, and probably always
will be, plenty of loose rock on this climb.
3/17/99 "Tweezer"
Rick Smith has now redpointed and named "Tweezer" 5.13a. Good work Rick!
2/23/99 Rick Smith vs. "The Beast" - No Contest!
Taking a casual lunchbreak on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, local hardman Rick Smith established Los Alamos' newest 5.13 - the longstanding open project formerly known as "Je sui la bete" (I am the beast) in Los Alamos canyon. On only his second try of the day, Smith overcame the less-than vertical route's 15 crux feet of tiny edges and pockets on toprope, saying it was "certainly not harder than 13a." He plans to redpoint the climb at his earliest convenience (whenever he can drag Walt there to belay him) and rename it.
In other news, someone stripped the hangers off of two of the routes at the Los Alamos canyon crag - the second time this has happened. Lame!
1/27/99 Well, folks, I don't have any good updates right now. Somebody do something cool, so I can put it in!