20131002 'Submarine Dog', 5.7+ PG13 whatever

[Taco]

New cool guy solo route or whatever. I'm still working on lead soloing so when I go do something cool and 'gnar' with Monster Energy stickers all over the damn place, I'll know what I'm doing.


Basic rundown TR kinda thing:
Hiked up Sheep Canyon to the base of the headwall. Went left up to the old hangout ledge from when my peeps and I went here awhile ago. Set a super coolguy multidimensional timewarp solo anchor around a boulder pinch backed up by a clove hitched .75 C4 in the starting crack. Whew! Went up with the whole goddamn rack (up to C4 #5) because I saw a big crack the other day and figured I'd use it all. And you know what? I did. I used every damn piece.

I started up the initial crack, which was too short but still fun. Up and then onto loose easy ground below that cool blank-ish face, then very carefully left over loose bigass sharp blocks that might be able to destroy the rope/strands. Big flake on a ledge with webbing around the base of it. A very specific place to have to rapp from. Wonder what the story is on that. From there, up a cool #5 crack (solid and safe) for like 10ft. Overhangs a tiny bit and had some loose stuff, and I didn't feel safe doing this part alone so I went left. This was a memorable traverse. 5.7ish I guess, maybe harder, but solo leading means you have smaller balls than normal since you really can't afford to get too banged up. Protected it real well with larger cams. Ends at a nice 10" wide ledge or so, and it's super easy from there to the anchor (class 3 or so for a bit). Anchor is a big healthy Ponderosa.

Pitch 2 had some 5.9ish moves but overall easier than that. Lotta super shitty loose rock. Not a great pitch except for the more gymnastic parts on mostly solid rock. Ends at a small tree with a class 4 ridge above that to the top of the Sheep Canyon Headwall (first rapp for that is down and to the right of this final belay station). Hiked east over a couple gullies about 400ft I guess, and scree skied down to freedumz.

The name of the route is an inside joke.

YEEHAW

Anyway, pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tacodelrio ... 136923014/


Start of the fun


#5 C4 which has been used once before for the sake of using it so I could feel okay with having purchased it.


Looking back partway through the cool airy traverse pretty high up above the canyon.


Doing cool guy crap resting on my feet. The footholds aren't super rad so this break was nice.


Not the easiest to do. Long draws on them after cleaning. This is my 3rd time on the traverse, having rapped through it before after climbing it, then climbing back up and cleaning it. The long draws kept me from possibly eating shit bigtime if I peeled, and kept me from squeezing into the roof.


Mini hauling the ropebag. Rope is stuffed and then clove hitched to a locker on the bag to provide weight for toprope soloing/following the pitch. There is a cutoff top of a 2l bottle there to protect the knot/rope. Bigwall stuff scaled down a lot but honestly more of a pain in the ass on this kind of terrain than on a clean wall without so much crap for the bag/rope/strands to get hung up on. Gotta pay attention and do things right or you'll pay in minutes or hours.


Some sorta cool looking shot down one of the more gymnastic parts.


Most of the gear used to go do crap alone. Not shown are a couple things, mainly the bunjee cord prusiks used to grab and hold the lead strand to specific pieces so the Grigri and the whole system doesn't backfeed, which is where you basically get loads of slack and really aren't on belay anymore. That is a bad thing.

I brought loads of cams this time, and no nuts. However, I should have brought a nut tool as two cams got stuck and took 10 minutes each to remove. I'm normally gear retrieval Jesus but not today folks. Anywho... once again the new BD X4 mini cams do a great job. Real flexible so they go anywhere and hold well and don't walk.

Back to the photo. So, I have my Yates bigwall whatever rack, which is rated as a chest harness. I used this instead of a double length sling for use when toprope soloing (following) the pitches, and also for carrying the eleventy billion pieces I had today. Big improvement over the double length sling.

I did not use the chalk bag, nor did I feel like I needed it at any point. I wore thin goatskin Metolius Iron Hand gloves, which are great for more sensitive stuff. You can jam in them usually without feeling numb. Good for this kinda technical stuff. Also, I bought a buttload of slings. I had 10x Dyneema runners with Camp Nano 23's on them, which I use everywhere mostly for extending placements. I have half or so on my harness rigged as draws, and half over my shoulder for quick stuff. One red double length nylon sling clipped with a locker over the shoulder so you can grab it easy. Good for when Dyneema is at a disadvantage. Two Titan doubles on Camp big lightweight wiregates on my harness for whatever, and one 8ft or so thin 10mm Dyneema runner for whatever you need exactly that for. Two cool guy half-cut regular cordelettes for traditional anchors. Less cord on them so they're easier to store and tie. One figure eight knot on each end with about 5" of tail which is then secured with Mario Brothers duct tape. Easy to inspect, stays out of the way, and hasn't fallen apart yet.

Anywho, any questions or whatever and I'm all ears until I pass out.

[Steven_9407']

Awesome Taco. I saw a previous lead-solo post of yours. But only now in this post did I see the actual second half of the rope hanging down in DSC01174 pic.
So you are using a modified gri-gri somehow, strapped to a chest harness for belay?
By the way, did you take a leader fall in DSC01176?

Great route and pics. Thanks for sharing,

Regards,

Steve

[Steven_9407']

Whoops,
I went straight to the link at the top and read that site, before reading the rest of the post on this site.

Anyway, great post Taco!

[Taco]

8)