Walk off or rappel?
Obscure climbs leave us guessing.
FUN-KY and FUCK'r
Obscure climbs leave us guessing.
FUN-KY and FUCK'r
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DATE OF CLIMBS: February 1, 2020
WALLS HIT TODAY: 2 (Abutment & Stick Gully) NUMBER OF CLIMBS TODAY: 2 (1 in each area) NUMBER OF PITCHES TODAY: 2 VERTICAL 5.7 FEET CLIMBED TODAY: 210' (60' + 150') NUMBER OF FALLS TODAY: 0 TAKES TODAY: 1 (Stef got a foot cramp on lead on "Unknown Left Start to Datura" in Stick Gully) DIRTY UNDERWEAR ENCOUNTERED TODAY: 0 |
TOTAL CLIMBS SO FAR: 88
TOTAL PITCHES SO FAR: 112 TOTAL 5.7 VERTICAL FEET ON THE TOUR SO FAR: 8,865' NUMBER OF CLIMBS REMAINING: 149 (out of 237 - although we may redo Pre-Skool) VERTICAL FEET REMAINING: ~41,432 FALLS SO FAR: 0 TAKES ON LEAD SO FAR:
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AT PARKING LOT: 7:45 a.m.
AT BASE OF 1st CLIMB: 8:45 a.m. CLIMBING: 9-9:45 a.m. (Robin Trowel) ATTEMPTED TO FIND WALK-OFF: 45 minutes, then set up a rappel BACK AT BASE OF CLIMB: 11:00 a.m. HIKE TO BASE OF NEXT CLIMB: 11:15-1:00 (stopped for lunch too) BEGAN CLIMB #2 (~150 FT): 1:15 p.m. TOPPED OUT: ~3 p.m. (Lost time with bad rope drag and bringing Rick up to finish the climb without terrible rope drag) WASTED A BUNCH OF TIME TRYING TO GET OFF THE CLIMB... BACK AT BASE OF CLIMB: 4:30 p.m. BACK AT CAR: 6:00 p.m. |
Robin Trowel
Conclusion WTF? What the FUN-KY!
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Rap tree is located to climber's right, past the large dead tree you see when you first get off the climb.
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- A fun climb with a funky down-chimney/down climb ending.
- The crack goes from wide to narrower. Rick placed a small nut to protect the start, then a #6, #5, #4, and #3. Then a few midsized pieces for the anchor (which you have to build after the downclimb).
- There are a couple of spicy spots, but it all ends up being there, even though it seems like it might not.
- I'm shorter than Rick and couldn't start on the right side face like he did, so I went into the offwidth first then out onto the right face/formation.
- As noted in the video, we spent about 45 minutes trying to locate a walk off (both left and right of the climb). We went down several gullies which were dead ends with big drop-offs. We ended up rapping off a tree (see photo). When we were walking to Stick Gully, we did ultimately see a way to have probably walked off, but it's quite a bit farther from the climb and would likely result in more environmental damage (from erosion of soft soils) than rappeling near the start of the climb.
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Whether or not this climb name was meant to be a play on the name of legendary guitarist Robin Trower, let's pretend it is. If you are of a generation who is not familiar with his licks and 70s mellow-blues-rock style, take a moment, jus chill, and jam.
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Unknown Left Start to Datura (aka Elephant Penis)
Conclusion WTF? What the FUCK!
- We were going to rate this climb as WT FEISTY, but the last 20 feet of it turned it into a WTF'r...
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Exhausted, frustrated, thirsty, hungry, and frazzled... the end-of-day video - I look like I aged 10 years between this video and the first one of the day at Abutment! Haha!
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- This climb has an interesting combination of moves. It begins with slab (where I had to dig out sand in a crack to place pro), goes to featured face, has a slabby funky grunt-worthy offwidth section where you are part in the crack and part on the elevated left wall (part of my grunting was from bad rope drag where I didn't extend the slings long enough in a couple of spots).
- I used a couple of medium sized cams lower down, then the crack got big. I used the #5 (I only brought one) and both #4s (bumping my second #4 as high as I could until I had to leave it behind. I could have even used a 3rd #4 and ended up finagling some pro in a different crack, which, in part affected my rope drag because of poor alignment with the rest of the climb.)
- The climb is fun and a bit feisty until the last 20-30 feet, where protection, holds, "cleanliness" and fun disappear. After digging out sand in a shallow discontinuous crack, there were only two spots for pro - bad and worse -shallowly placed microcams (0 and 00 Metolious) in 30 feet. The rock becomes extremely slopey white sandstone with a sandy layer on top and lots of sandy, rocky (not necessarily small rocks either) debris that falls down on top of you as you desperately attempt to get past a forest of shrubs before a "sandslide" takes you down with it.
- Once you make it past the terrible ending, you have to awkardly downclimb about 10-15 feet (unprotected) scooting your feet blindly down a diaganol crack. It is exposed, but a tree branch might catch you. It helps to lean forward, splaying your body across the slab, to reduce any risk of falling backwards.
- Next you go into a shitty, loose, steep gully (this is actually the base of the climb Elephant Penis/Datura). The gully has medium to large boulders with empty space beneath them, making you wonder how well these rocks are lodged in place. There is also loose scree. We actually didn't initially realize that Datura and Elephant Penis are (probably) the same climb. Since the name of this climb refers to Datura, we were not able to find any information on "Datura," and went blindly into descent information. We scrambled down the gully to the last, partially live tree/bush and decided to build a rap anchor. We spent quite a bit of time making an anchor that utilized the largest, living parts of the tree.
- Rick began rappelling and then discovered a bolted anchor on the wall a bit further down! This was a cleaner, more direct line down, so he re-set the rappel. I scrambled down further to reach the rappel.
By the time we got down the sun was setting and we were exhausted. If you look at my face in the first video above (for Robin Trowel) and my face in this final video of the day, I look like I aged 10 years!
Honestly, it was a bit of a brutal day: Trying to find the walk-off for Robin Trowel; Walking all the way to the Abutment, then from Abutment to this climb in Stick Gully; Getting sideswiped by the WTFuck ending of "Unknown Left Start to Datura;" Being thirsty and hungry; And, dealing with a sketchy gully and wasting time on setting up the rappel then discovering the anchors. I was frazzled and done (which you can sense in this last video...) Anyway, there it is folks, another What the Fucker for you!
Honestly, it was a bit of a brutal day: Trying to find the walk-off for Robin Trowel; Walking all the way to the Abutment, then from Abutment to this climb in Stick Gully; Getting sideswiped by the WTFuck ending of "Unknown Left Start to Datura;" Being thirsty and hungry; And, dealing with a sketchy gully and wasting time on setting up the rappel then discovering the anchors. I was frazzled and done (which you can sense in this last video...) Anyway, there it is folks, another What the Fucker for you!