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Crag & Route Beta

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The Nose - Beta

Olbert

21-Mar-2012
10:31:23 PM

To anyone who has done the Nose - especially those who did it without much aid experience.

General beta like what gear did you take, how much gear, food, water and spare underwear did you take? How quick it was? How easy is it to french free? How much of it has to be done with proper aid technique? How easy was it to pass people? Any other general tips and advice would be appreciated.

Of course stories, off topic rants and general ramblings are always appreciated as well.


Miguel75

21-Mar-2012
10:57:51 PM

Rad Ollie, good luck and don't forget the TR.


Ben_E

21-Mar-2012
11:13:17 PM

Oooh, fun!

The aiding is very straight-forward (other than a few sections on the first 4 pitches), but the logistics and length of the climb make it a lot harder. Brush up on leading and following pendulums before you get on it.

I did it over 5 days (including the first day fixing to sickle ledge, we were aiming for 4). That was with a bit of aid experience and a fairly experienced partner who had done the climb before. Sounds like you're hoping to do it faster than that and with more of it free?

I don't know what sort of grades you usually free climb at, but I found particularly as the days wore on I was doing very little free climbing or even french freeing - I was just too buggered and spent most of my time in the etts (not that I free climb very hard anyway).

Am happy to give as good a list of food, water and gear as I can remember; definitely try to keep it light.

What time of the year are you thinking of going up?

Edit: And for maximum enjoyment try to avoid a bivy on camp 4 or camp 6!

crazyjohn

22-Mar-2012
7:31:42 AM

Get the Hans Florine Speed Climbing book. Its in alot of libraries. It has the best beta spray you can get for the nose. Its not just for speed climbing in a day, it just tells you easy things to do, so you dont epic. If you look hard on the internet, somewhere you can get an MP3 of him explaining each pitch move by move, no sh1t!

Last year there was an accident on the Nose where some retard was climbing with the aiders hooked around his thumbs, supposedly so he could quickly go from free climbing to aid. He eventually took a big fall and one of the aiders caught on something and severed his thumb... Which landed on a ledge directly in front of his belayer! They called YOSAR and since it was not life or death, the rescue guys would usually have said, "figure it out yourself." But since the climbers had the severed thumb, YOSAR flew a helicopter up in order to get the guy quickly to the hospital to have it reattached. Which is what happened! Killer way to hitch hike off el cap... :)

Olbert

22-Mar-2012
12:13:58 PM

I should note that we freed/french freed up until the Stoveleg Crack on the last visit. We were wandering underneath it on our way to some of the single pitch stuff in the morning when we realised there was nobody on it - we spent the day getting as far as we could before we rapped down sometime before sunset. If that was the hardest bit of aid climbing on it then...

Also the Stoveleg Crack was the best pitch of climbing in a 9 month climbing trip. It was f---ing amazing!

gfdonc

22-Mar-2012
12:44:20 PM

I have a sh1tload of beta, including the Hans Florine mp3's.

In deference to Hans, I'm not going to share them. You can buy from his site www.speedclimb.com (which links to http://hansflorine.com/shop/) and get a downloaded copy for just $16.95. IMHO this is money well spent, but then I'd buy this sort of climbing audio-porn for the entertainment value alone.

If you got all the way to the Stovelegs in a day, you're well on the way. The logistics of hauling and camping on a rock face are the main issue. Have you done Ozy? Got the systems dialled?

Check my profile for the trip report of 2 years ago.

You'll find detailed notes on the descent here:
From http://www.terragalleria.com/mountain/info/yosemite/pig-east-ledges.html


Ben_E

22-Mar-2012
12:52:41 PM

Pretty nice, huh? There's some other amazing cracks further up I'm sure you'll love just as much (the pitch above changing corners in particular, from memory).

Sounds like you know more or less what you're getting yourself in for. If you got into the stovelegs in a one-day effort and if you pack light (one pair spare undies at most ;-) ) I think you should be in fine shape to do it in just a few days. Have yourselves a blast!

bones

22-Mar-2012
1:06:10 PM

On 22/03/2012 gfdonc wrote:>
>Check my profile for the trip report of 2 years ago.

Great TR. Rapping down defender of the faith a couple of weeks ago we had stuck ropes and had the same thought process.
"cr@p, what do we do now?"
"pull harder"
"it's not working, what else can we try"
"pull harder"
...

thankfully it eventually pulled free but it would have put a dampener on the weekend if we'd had to somehow aid up to free it

One Day Hero

22-Mar-2012
10:17:38 PM

You going back this year Oli? Got a partner?

Olbert

2-Jun-2014
6:12:34 PM

On 21/03/2012 Miguel75 wrote:
>Rad Ollie, good luck and don't forget the TR.

Check out this Winter's Vertical Life for the surely award winning trip report on that trip - my girlfriend tells me it's great!

http://www.verticallifemag.com.au/magazines/


gonzo

3-Jun-2014
9:41:58 PM

hey dood,
how hard can you climb trad? you should probably subtract about 4 grades from that. Much of the nose goes free at 5.10+ and it looks like rad climbing too, but when you have a monster rack, aiders, daises, haul lines, water bottles, cameras & easter bunnies tied to you it's a fair bit harder.

We did the triple direct, which joins the nose at just below the great roof. For prep we did some aiding at Mt keira, then Ozy, South Face Washington Column, Lost Arrow Spire direct (from the bottom) and some flailing on Golden Wall.

If anything, get your systems nailed. It's all about organisation. Keep your belays from being a cluster#@k, know how to haul when the bag is heavier than you, learn how to lower a bag out, learn how to rap with a haul bag - all those munter mule gizmo knots are actually quite useful especially when the bag weights 50kg and you don't have a ledge to put your feet on the manhandle it. Learn how to poo into a plastic bag.

We did it over 5 days with a party of 3, which initially i thought was going to be a bitch as we had two haulbags and had to do counter weight hauls (space hauling or whatever its called), but it was also ace for talking trash on belays and our mate had a penchant for wide awkward climbing which was handy.

Final hot tip: Green Coles reusable shopping bags are ace for organising gear like food, jackets and the like. They seem pretty secure when you clip them in plus its a good way to meet other Aussies.

patto

4-Jun-2014
8:28:36 AM

Isn't this simply the US equivalent of BBB just stepped up a few notches? ;-)

When I was there last I had some friends jump on it. There were back a couple days later after retreating. They reported that at their pace of aid it would have taken them far too long. So yeah, you probably want to have your aiding techniques dialed.


Miguel75

4-Jun-2014
10:20:01 AM

Well done Ollie. That was a very cool, easy reading, TR. I like how easy you made climbing the beast sound while barely touching on the trauma that I reckon aid climbing brings about...

jdb

4-Jun-2014
4:07:04 PM

GFDonc could have given you some beta, but he didn't make it to the top because his gout flared up

gfdonc

4-Jun-2014
4:47:15 PM

That's not a nice way of describing Jen, John!

Olbert

4-Jun-2014
4:55:28 PM

Thanks for the beta but...ah...I asked the question in 2012, I just revived the thread to post a link to Vertical Life which has the trip report.

gfdonc

5-Jun-2014
10:30:10 AM

Oh, spam!

beryllium10

5-Jun-2014
1:36:26 PM

So the original post is old, but anyone else thinking about it, have a go. Some photos: here, here, and here. In my case a very long time ago (1983), but no doubt still an outstanding climb.

martym

5-Jun-2014
2:17:25 PM

On 5/06/2014 beryllium10 wrote:
>So the original post is old, but anyone else thinking about it, have a
>go. Some photos: here, h
>re, and
>here. In my case a very long time ago (1983), but no doubt still an
>outstanding climb.

Not related but my oh my isn't this a dapper shot:

Darrren

5-Jun-2014
4:27:32 PM

http://www.elcapreport.com/sites/default/files/10%20CIMG_1629.JPG

NIAD, its easy to pass if your moving fast, this is team Tasmania on Friday, just after team Yorkshire hit the triangle ledge above the pancake flake and then felt sorry for breaking the rules.

There are 21 messages in this topic.