Petzl Roc Trip China

I'm not back yet and already planning my next trip. No cracks, off-widths or chimneys this time, but good old sportclimbing during the Petzl Roc Trip on the perfectly shaped limestone formations in the karst landscape of Getu village, in Guizhou province. I'm leaving within a few weeks and also plan to visit Yangshuo and its famous Moon Hill. Here are some pictures Petzl took of the new crags they drilled.

Photos Astroman

Superslide - Nomen est omen

 Astroman pictures

Tim just before the Harding Slot

No easy way to get into the slot

Steady as he goes, Tim disappears into the slot

No worries Sam, you're not at the narrowest point yet

Tim in Changing Corners

Half Dome

Luckily we didn't have to use this belay

Some of my Paparazzi pictures

Tom Waes the day before the ascent on The Nose

with Sean, Nico and tons of new, shiny gear

Higher Yosemite Falls

 Other Astroman Pictures

Squeeze it

Last day climbing - East Buttress on El Cap

Yes, we know, we're too tough

Astroboys, -men and -grandpa's all together in the same route: ASTROMAN

With pain in the heart, but also looking forward to be back home, I'm writing the final report about our 3 month trip through both Canada and the United States. From San Francisco, where we met Nelson, a friend of Tim and a one of the Mount Coachers, by mere coincidence, we drove back to Yosemite, Nelson occupying one of the Walter's back seats, something that had not been the case for quite a long time. San Francisco was actually our first big city and one could even see glimpses of cultural activity, a rare, almost non-existent thing in America indeed, except if you consider Mac Donalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC and the others as haute cuisine and representatives of US lifestyle and culture. Our stay was accompanied by a chill sea breeze, that even made us grab for our jackets, giving the impression fall had suddenly come about without announcing it. For people who know GTA San Andreas, it's just the same. Big bridges, steep streets, the big piramid  and so on. We visited Chinatown, one of the biggest and most famous ones in the world. I was a bit disappointed at first, when we entered the tourist main street, with stupid meaningless kitschy gift shops all along the way. The we entered a side street where real chinese people lived and went to the market. And people who have been to China before know what I'm talking about. Dirty shops with living animals to buy. And since these are Cantonese people that means fish – tons of fish, and turtles and toats and other shelly and slimy things you never seen or heard of before. And exotic plants and fruits, to many to name them all. Adjacent to this street, was the Italian côté, with the typical nice and cozy restaurants. Unfortunately we couldn't see much of the city, like the island of Alcatraz. I'll keep it for next time.

So off we went, back to Yosemite. Yes, for we couldn't think up another plan, and Tim got quite nervous when we entered the park again, untill we left it again two days ago. We met four other Mount Coachers – Jasper, Jonas, Bram and Marijke. Bram and Marijke are making a 9 month trip in the US, Patagonia and New Sealand and bought our car. Our last week in the valley was not what I would call a big succes. The valley received its daily portion of afternoon thunderstorms, making it impossible to get up to a big wall, unless you were in for an epic, which we were not. So we went to Cookie Cliff for some (two actually) single pitches; we twice tried to get onto Serenity Crack, the area's most classical 5.10, but had to retreat because sloooow people where in it, and the second time we moved to Superslide, left of Serenity Crack, starting with a 5.8. I would describe the pitch as a squeezer, for it was not an offwidth, nor a chimney, but to squeeze (lees frullen voor zot) you had. And Tim wanted to lead it so badly, but soon growling and grunting sounds came down, as if on or another wild beast was high up on the rock. It took Tim like 45 min or so to get past the crux – two meters long I guess, so letting the beast inside do its work was allowed. I went in with my short pants, no good idea when knees are more appropriate then feet to work yopurself up a way. Not really motivated to continue the route, we went down, and the next day we climbed The Central Pillar of Frenzy, again a classical and easy  5 pitch route, but nonetheless nice for the grade. Tim and I went pretty crazy, doing nothing  worthy these days. We wanted to do Astroman so badly and also West Face on El Cap, but the weather was not really cooperating, and the end of our stay neared. Finally conditions went better and off we went to Astroman on Washington Column. But as I told Tim countless times during our trip – there is always something (that goes wrong). And this time it was not much less the case. When we arrived at the base of the wall, we could see two climbers who were just about to start the first pitch. We still had to scramble up, climb a little bit and put our gear on, wich altogetther took us maybe 40 minutes. I linked the first two easy pitches and was surprised when I arrived at the belay and could just not touch the second climber of the party in front of us. I belayed Tim and when arrived, the two Finnish guys where still at the belay of the pitch above us, which was merely 10m long. They talked and talked about I don't know what, but they didin't move or started climbing. Tim led the third pitch and we waited till the one of them finished the fourth pitch, called Enduro Corner. It turned out it was the climbers first time in Yosemite and also their first route. A lot of self confidence, but not a lot of self-knowledge, as the second guy went up with a superheavy looking backpack, which slowed him down to zero speed and asking him to take every meter. After 1,5 hours waitingTim and I got crazy, or rather furious.This was supposed to be THE day, we were climbing at a good pace and then this shit. We didn't want to arrive at the top in the dark, for the descent is tricky, going over slopes and slabs and impossible to find back if you don't kno it. So we came back the next morning, early, and motivated as never before. We needed to climb. Although I didn't sleep that night for one or another reason, the approach only took us half an hour and ten minutes to put on our stuff. Apparently I was in some sort of modus you only have when you're super tired and in survival situations. I knew I would be slashed by the hammer during the climb. I started again as the day before and Tim and I stood at the start of Enduro corner after 30min. I was super motivated to lead this one, but soon I noticed it was an off-handscrack, meaning to wide for the fingers and to small for the hands, only possible to get your knuckles in there. Feeling uncomfy, I started liebacking. Wrong choice and I got pumped and scared, and feeled tired, dugh if you were awake all night before. Tim did this route without any hesitation, nice job there. The 6^th pitch started off with a flared chimney, meaning squeezing  and with all the gear this wasn't really easy, but I continued and could do the pitch, although at some points I received a lot of mental slabs in the face. And then I saw the Harding Slot and was so thankful I didn't had to go in first. I met a guy from Tasmania, Jerry, at the belay and chatted a bit. It turned out these guys had had the same trouble as us, and therefore made a bivy at pitch four, wanting to avoid crowds and being the first in the route. Jerry joked that they were to be called Astrograndpa's, because it would take them two days to climb the route. We would become Astromans, only taking one day. People who bail before the slot are Astroboys. Tim arrived and by the time he could start we had been waiting for 1 hours. It took the other climber 2 full hours to get through the slot. Luckily for him we could lent him our #6. And after the Jerry jumared himself through the slot, it was Tim's turn. I think this was the hardest and most horrible cimb in his climbing career so far, as I could deduct from the monstrous grunts and growls higher up. First you have to get into the slot, which means getting into a chimney from a position underneath it. The guidebook says: “Chickenwing dyno into slot”, but no chickenwing could get him or me into that thing and after a lot of cursing Tim managed to find a way to get into the tunnel-like chimney, using everybody part imaginable. At a slow but steady pace Tim went up, centimeter by centimeter, untill he reached a point where the slot narrows and closes towards the outside, meaning you can't get out. If you want to know how narrow it was, imagine yourself standing between two walls and are first able to touch the other wall with your nose and then unable to turn your head. And when your breathing in, your getting stuck. And stuck Tim got at the upper part, only a few meters away from the chains, which seemed miles away for him at that pretty hopeless moment. Unable to move forward or backward, Tim begon to scream as a beast, and the next moment he was utterly calm again. I got nervous myself too, for I also had to go through that thing. Finally Tim pulled himself trough the slot with  the aid of our number 6. Know it was my turn. After taking off everythig unnecessary and obstructive, like my helmet, it started climbing, but was also unable to get into the slot and soon started cursing and pulling on gear, but everytime I let go I was lowered and had to pull myself up again. Unike me, Tim had not had the luxury of letting go, the only way for him was to up, there was no way back, and when I arrived at the narrowing, pulling more on the rope then squeezing, I realized my climbing partner of the last three months had quite big balls between his legs, a lot bigger for I ga up and came out of the chimney before  the narrowest point, and just pulling myself up. I was getting frustrated and it took to much time, at least one hour for Tim and 30 or so minutes for me, so in total A fine 3 hours for one pitch. Mister Harding must have been a total lunatic at his time, to get into this hole, not knowing where to go or what would follow. The newt pitches were sustained, there wasn't really an easy pitch and both of us were becoming quite tired. There must also have been something wrong witht the food of the day before, as both Tim and I had to shit pretty badly. So urgent it was I took a big creamer on a ledge under Changing Corners, whileTim was still climbing. It would have been pretty funny indeed, when Tim would have fallen, me with my pants on my ankles and taking a shit, but as on Half Dome it was so urgent I couldn't wait any longer. After Changing Corners, I had to climb a pretty wide crack, for which I needed two number threes, which our rack is missing. Luckely the Australians lowered their number 3's, saying that climbers are there to help other climbers, and some mathematics learns that one number 6 is equal to two number 3's. I moved forward and despite not so difficult, I had to move the pieces with me as I got higher and higher. But what I've have learned on this trip, is that sometimes you face a situation you don't want to engage with. You would rather like to be at home, watching tv with a hot chocolate milk and the hearth burning, but instead you are dead tired hanging into a cupped hand crack, mentally dying and with sore feet. That's the moment you have to stop thinking and commit yourself to the situation. There's no way back. And so I found myself at the top and with only one short pitch left, we found ourselves at the top of Astroman, together with the two other climbers, who I still want to thank for their borrrowing me their number 3's, because without them it would still be there. The knew the way down and after two scrambling down and bushwacking Tim and I could release the pressure that had grown worse during the last hours. There was really something strange going on inside, god knows what.

Next objective – West Face, the route far left on El Cap. We planned to fix the first two or three pitches so we could jumar the next day and start with the fourth pitch. There is a lot of face climbing in this route and while leading the first pitch, I noticed I was mentally dead and Tim physically, bruised all over his ankles arms and back. We were pretty sure this route would be too hard in our present condition and decided to go for East Butress, a super easy classical route. Better something easy and succesful to end the trip, than bailing and fucking everything up. But again some parties in front of us slowed us down and instead of 3 hours it took us 7 or 8, more waiting than climbing actually. But we talked a lot with one of the Serbian climbers in front of us, to me he seemd like an old war veteran, and he went quite philosophical at times, as I like it, talking about how fucked up the western mentality is. We arrived at the top and when we went down to the rappels, we met Sean and Nico again. They are here in Yosemite for a special occasion. Tom Waes wanted to climb the Nose on El Cap, as another crazy stunt for his superb tv show Tomtesterom. And Sean and Nico had to caoch him. With only two weeks of climbing experience Tom succeeded in AIDclimbing The Nose, doing three à four pitches per day. I'm pretty impressed by his performances, for this is pretty crazy. I think some people will be jealous at home because we talked with the one and only Tom Waes and also with Pascal, the soundguy and the other members of the of the crew. I'm really looking forward to the show, which is planned for Febuary next year.

And so there comes an end to everything, and a good end it was, because I could enter the all-you-can-eat a last time, walking in free. Bram and Marijke, who had climbed Half Dome, and Jasper and Jonas, who had bailed in the Nose, because Jonas took a pretty nasty whipper, falling onto a ledge, and causing into a big cut into his leg which required 15 stiches, also showed up there. Only poor Nelson was missing. We left the next day, arranging the car sell at the airport and said goodbye to Bram and Marijke, who would now take care of our precious car. But trouble was not over yet. For some reason Tim and I were thinking we had to check in at 8 o'clock, while the flight took of at that time, so we were hopelessly l ate and to be booked on the next flight, meaning we would have to stay overnight in Toronto. So we did and while waiting that evening we looked for food left behind by other people. I still don't understand why people buy food and then throw away more then the half of it. What a fucking waste. Eat what you buy, or buy something smaller or nothing at all if you're not hungry. Fuckers. We slept for 13 hours and got onto the plain, which had a delay of 3 hours. Why, because first one of the computers was dead and then because the airco was broken or something, turning the entire aircraft from an oven with no air into a refigerator, using to much fuel, So they had to refuel. It would recommend to just put the thing off, but clearly that hadn't come to their minds. The refueling took an hour, again I don't know why. We  arrived three hours later as planned, so I was at home at noon, just in time for lunch, which means Hespenrolletjes met kaas en spaghetti. Aaah good Belgian culture.

There and Back Again

Written by Yosemite Sam

Hails

Most expensive vegan sandwich transformed itself into the Incredible Hulk and kicked our asses out of Yosemite

You read it right, we've been kicked out of Yosemite NP. So this is what happened. After Half Dome we took some rest days and went to the bigger supermarket in Yosemite village. This one has cameras too and unfortunately the master himself was caught by the police while trying to steal a sandwich. They took Tim into the combi to jail and made him wear a Guantanamo-like prisonsuit. Meanwhile I got super worried as I couldn't find Tim. One of the managers saw me running up and down trough the store and told me what had happened. I went to the police office and waited for several hours until they finally released Tim. He would have to appear before the judge next day, and probably he would have to pay a big fine of 250dollars for the sandwich and hundreds of dollars for the court. When we got back to camp for we wanted to move our asses out of the valley to El Portal. We were also camping illegally at camp 4, putting up our tent in the evening and breaking it up in the morning. But when we got to the car the same rangers who took Tim to jail where just checking the parking lots across the street and one of the rangers was about to tow away our car, something he already wanted to do several days before. Apparently you can't camp overnight in your vehicle and you always need a paper or ticket that shows where you are staying, whether a hotel or a camping. So the ranger, feeling himself though now that he could exercise his authority, started to ask questions, like where we were staying. I already told him we stayed at camp 4. We were already busted once for sleeping in the car but I couldn't tell him we were staying there illegally. Then he asked why our car wasn't parked at the camp 4 parking lot and finally it was checkmate and we had to tell we stayed at camp 4 without paying and he gave us a fine, both of us had to pay 175 dollar. An extra pain in the ass for Tim. Funny thing is that the other ranger was a climber too and felt somewhat compassionate. We talked about Half Dome and other climbs in the valley , while the other guy was enjoying his power in his combi while writing our fines. Next day we went to the court, but the judge, a lady and probably a climber too, proposed us a deal, or we would appear before court, risking a high fine for Tim and maybe some extra time in jail, or Tim could leave Yosemite park and stay away for one year. Easy choice, we left. The camping fines were also withdrawn. Nice deal actually. We heard from other people that the were also caught for stealing like a Cliffbar or something and were forced to leave the valley. To much work to handle all these cases so they just kick these people out. Bad thing is that we have to abandon our free live in Yosemite, no more free showers and free all-you-can-eat buffet. Really shitty, because they just served vegan lasagne after the day Tim was busted.

Our next option was to go to the Incredible Hulk, just outside Yosemite NP. The Hulk became famous from the video of Peter Croft and the Venturi Effect 5.12+. The approach was hard tout court. The topo was again incomplete, we couldn't find the approach trail and lost more than an hour to find the right trail across the river with some beaver dams and trough swampy grassland. I can guarantee you that with a backpack of at least 15-20kg, you kind of feel like arriving in hell. And that was the flat part. Next we had to hike up for another 2,5miles, just arriving before dark. We needed 5 hours at least. The Incredible Hulk is hard to miss once you're there. A big nice granite wall of more than 1000feet high. We did some good climbing here for 4 days in a row, without major epics. We did Sunspot Dihedral 5.11b and Positive Vibrations 5.11a on the first and second day. These are really nice lines and we could free climb everything. The 3th pitch of Sunspot was kind of spooky and I had to lead it. In the last couple of feet you had to climb a groove (a corner without a real crack in it) without being able to place decent pro, except for a shitty nut. I did it, just mind on zero and go for it. Positive Vibes felt harder to me in the upper sections, but here to I just went without thinking, leading some handcracks and pretty technical parts and would never have been able to do 2 months ago. To see your own progress is really cool. On the 3th day we wanted to try Airstream 5.13b and so the hardest route on the wall. The 2 5.12c and 5.13b pitches were bolted but were superhard. It was superwindy and we were freezing so after trying the first 5.12c, a pitch with some crazy "mysterious" stemming, we came down. I was nonetheless happy, because I led a 5.11 roof pitch 2 pitches lower. Yesterday we wanted to do Venturi Effect 5.12+. But I was so tired, as was Tim, that we opted for something easier to the right, namely Tradewinds 5.11. The first pitch didn't go smooth, again a groove and being totally unfresh - I didn't sleep well at all during the last nights - had to pull on some gear. The other pitches were awesome. Tim scared himself shitless on the fourth pitch. Unable to place pro and the prospect to take a big whipper, he hesitated to go on for like 45min, while I was freezing due to the strong winds. Finally he got his balls back and did the moves to the rusty bolt. Really nice job. The 8th and last pitch was for me, containing an undercling traverse with a blank wall for your feet, followed by a hard powerfull lieback section again sone finger locks and ending with a 5.10 crack. I was mentally and physically dead, my heels were burning as hell and being supertired I lost selfconfidence and wanted to put pro everywhere. I made it, this is something you never encounter on lazy cozy sportclimbs, that's for sure. 

Our next plan is rest and going to San Francisco to meet Tim's friends from Belgium.

"Yeah, Yosemite Sam - the roughest, toughest he-man stuffest hombré that's ever crossed the Rio Grande. An' I ain't no namby-pamby"

I'm delazied for the moment so time to write about our adventures. After Trout Creek we intended to visit Smith Rocks, only an hour or so further down the road. This is the place where American sportclimbing came into existence and was developed by JB Tribout amongst others. Unfortunately the canyon was burning hot like hell and most off the walls where south facing, only coming into shade after 5pm, and even then remaining a place like you would  expect a hot air oven would feel like. We did one multipich and a few climbs. No cracks but pure spaced face climbing on magnificent basalt and tuff crimpers and pockets. Motivation was big, much less were the conditions, so we left, heading towards the High Sierras in California.

Smith Rock

Can you see the Monkey Face ?

Our intention was to go to the High Sierras to go and try the Incredible Hulk, but on a certain moment a light on the dashbaord indicating "Check Engine" started flickering. We checked everything from oil to air filter, all to little avail. We decided to turn off to Yosemite instead. The Hulk was a few hou'rs down to south and wanted to avoid the risk of ending up in the middle of nowhere, that is the arid mountainous desert of the Sierras. And so it happened that we're in Yosemite, the dirtbaggers paradise.

Despite the hot weather we could do some cool multipitches, among them the first one was the Rostrum, an amzing 8 pitches long route. We couldn't free climb everything, like the offwidth part, again - we're working on our technique - but that couldn't spoil the fun, aspecially for me, since after Trout Creek, my technique has become so much better. We also did the first ten pitches of Salathé Wall, called Freeblast. We did it in full sun, a bit stupid, especially when we ran short of water. The wall in the first pitches was a bit greasy due to the warmth, so I didn't feel really comfortable, but I nonetheless did something crazy according to my standards. A technical pitch with a small fingercrack and  a lot of smearing, footwork in other words. Trouble came when I ran out of gear that would fit the widenings in the crack (pin scars) made by the pioneers in the good old days, resulting in some scary and mentally superhard climbing above two pieces of shitty gear before reaching a bolt indicaing the part of a crazy slab sectionAccording to Tim, he could  pull out th pieces without effort. One even came out by itself. Almost dehydrated we could reach the ground by rapping down some fixed lines. I found my rugsack still in a good condition, after we saw two bears gathering at the base of the route when we were climbing the third pitch. Luckeily no food was in my sack, otherwise it would have completely been torn to shreds. Now there are some samll scars from bear claws and/or teeth., cool. Meanwhile we also have been trying Seperate Reality, an ultra classic 5.12a roof  consisting of hand jamming. Tim came close to sending it, but slipped off just before the end. Again conditions make the route a lot harder. I just slipped out of the crack. But if it gets cooler, I'm sure were going to send it.

As many of the walls here in the valley are mainly south facing, we tried to find something in the shade. And Tim let his eye fall on a route on Half Dome, called the Regular Northwest.  Consisting of 25 pitches, this would be my first real big wall route. We approached the evening before, and slept at the base off the wall to  start early the next morning. Without much sleep - we didn't bring sleeping bags, and only with a short pants, I had to put my legs into my backpack to keep a bit warm - we started the route and everything went really smooth up to the some scramble pitches where we kind of lost our way. No clear topo and scrambling is never straightforward. I ended up fucked up on some garbage rock between some bushes, the last piece of pro down low to my left, with what you can call an anchor - if you've enough imagination - just above me, when all of a sudden the shitty rock broke off and I barely held on, just able to reach for the slings on the anchor. Man, adrenaline of the wrong kind, I can tell you that! Time continued the next shittty pitch, more aiding than climbing untill we reached the chimneys. I was a bit dubious about these pitches. After all I never did a real chimney, but It was my turn and I did the first one, which was not hard at all, it was even fun as you had to crawl trough a hole outside of the chimney and had to continue with a finger crack. The next one was not a real chimney, but climbing a hand and finger crack in a chimney. The next one was a real chimney and I had to face it. Looking how to begin, I started off with some stemming, using a crack to the right, before the real chimney began. It went well, way beyond my expectations. The chimney was just the right size for me, so the need for placing gear was small as I squeezed up pretty comfortably. At a certain point I had to go a bit to the right and the feet became less good and the chimney became more narrow. Looking for a place to put in some pro, I found a little crack, but no gear, no cams, no nuts would ever fit in there. With cramps burning my legs, plus the last cam pretty far below me - and you don't want to fall in a chimney, you'd break some legs or arms for sure - stress was building up pretty fast. Turning back was no option, we already lost enough time with the stupid scramble pitches and with only an hour of two left before dark (at 8pm iit gets dark, meaning dark as in the middle of the night) I continued, taking the loose flake and moving my feet up and to the right.  When I reached the small ledge in the chimney, I screamed as never before in a route. I went wild, so much satisfaction of doing something I never thaught I would be able to do. We reached the Big Sandy Ledge before pith 20, where we tried to sleep on a 1m wide ledge, but with no sleeping bags and a wet backpack - one of our big bottles started leaking and the whole haulbag and its containments were wet, also including my jacket - you could hardly speak of sleeping. Staying awake all night, wrapping my thermarest around my legs for some isolation, I longed for dawn to come. Weary as I was, some aid climbers pressed us to continue before 7am - they wanted to start early to finish the 6 last pitches in time, these guys were already 4 days on the wall, no wonder they wanted to comence early. As an aid climber, you need tons of time. I would say: "LEARN TO FUCKING CLIMB AND GRAB HOLDS INSTEAD OF FUCKING LADDERS!!" -as  I expected it didn't work out well. The last 6 pitches turned out to be the hardest as well and tired as I was I pulled myself trough 5.12b. To hard for breakfest. Also the next ptches kept offering hard sustained climbing. Our only purpose was to reach the top, so sometimes we became aid climbers ourselves. I also had to shot so urgently I couldn't think about anything else then the top. And the hauling also took much time, making me even more nervous. We finished with the Thank God Ledge traverse (you can see Alex Honnold doing this  while he's soling the whole route) and some crazy technical slab climbing (how Alex did this is still a riddle to us, but to me it seems pure suicide despite the fact he survived it) before we could sat down before a load of tourist and open the sewers. WHAT A RELIEF! Tim shitted under the whole wall and my effort came close to it as well. After a grueling 3hours - 10miles march back in the sun to the bottom of the valley, we could shower and enjoy another free meal at the all -you-can-eat buffet and have a good nights rest in a warm sleeping bag. It seems that after all, dying and suffering pain, mentally as well as physically, is not so bad. You enjoy ordinary things as never before. 

Hails from Yosemte Sam - chimney master in spe

Rostrum

Bird shit looking like a melted icecream of some sorts - Hmmm

On top of the Rostrum

The valley - El cap in front and Half Dome behind

Exercising offwidth and chimney technique at generator station - no succes

First pitch of Salathe Wall

Tim in Rostrum

Tim about to start the final pitch of Rostrum

El Cap - BIG

He who almost destroyed my bag

Tiùm climbing the technical slab after the terrifying part where the cams came out

Next slab pitch

Let's kill that offwidth beast

Due to the fact that I destroyed my camera in a chimney flare in Freeblast and our urge to press on on Half Dome, we didn't make a lot of pictures during our climb of the Regular Nortwest.

Tough guys about to attack Half Dome

Chimneying as a madman

Dying at bif sandy ledge (this ledge is actually not that big)

Tim doing the cool Thank God Ledge traverse

On top of Half Dome

Tourist railing going up back of Half Dome