Moonlight on Moonlight Buttress
Saturday, 9. December 2006, 07:11:25
Plug in a cam... Clip in etrier... Weight carefully... Step up... Hook fifi... Reach... Slide in a nut... Clip in etrier... These were my first aid moves on my first Wall leading to my first bivy on a portaledge. I had once said that I wasn't interested in climbing a "bigwall." The idea of creeping up a few pitches per day, as opposed to linking-up ten or more pitches per day for free climbing, didn't appeal to me. However, when Wes emailed with an invite on a trip to Zion in a few weeks, I didn't delay.
We chose Moonlight Buttress (V, 5.9, A0, C1) for our first Wall attempt. OK, so it's not even that BIG of a bigwall. After all, I've climbed taller routes in a day (Epinephrine & Snake Dike for instance) and the route is aided and free climbed (12d) in a single push regularly. But, this was our first tall aid route (my first aid experience), we were expecting to climb & haul slowly, the route is listed on bigwall.com, and we did plan to spend a night on the route. We wanted to avoid crowds and this is a megaclassic, but luck was on our side: It was the weekend after Thanksgiving holiday, when the majority of people already took their vacation, and the first REAL cold front of the season just moved in. Did I say "luck"? I should've added a little "brute" mentality.
To match our brute mentality, the brute approach was the most miserable part of the entire trip. We crossed the Virgin River to get to the base of the climb (to the NE or Angel's Landing) at 7:30am with the water temperature at 35F. Brrr.
After this, creeping up the wall is exaclty what we did. I took the first lead (5.9 free climb) at 8:30am and we swapped leads from there and reached the top of the third pitch around 4:30pm, where Wes solo-aided half-way up the fourth pitch while I set up the borrowed portaledge. Setting that thing up on the ground a couple times really helped doing it for real on the wall. Wes finished the pitch in the dark & rappelled to a welcoming bowl of hot Indian cuisine (Tasty Bites highly recommended!).
Sleeping on the wall wasn't as bad as either of us thought it'd be. We had to coordinate movements to make sure the ledge, attached from a single point, didn't pivot us off, but otherwise it was like a stiff airbed. After shaking off the fairly frigid night (just below freezing) and just as the sun hit our bivy, Wes began jugging his fixed line at 9am to finish the 4th pitch. Similar to the first day, we swapped leads firing for the top, but sunset caught us half-way up the 6th pitch. I tend to climb calmer after sunset. After all, once the sun sets, there's no more deadline to meet. Aid climbing was no different and we took about 3.5 hours per pitch on the final two pitches, topping out at 2am and crashing for our second, unplanned, bivy on the West Rim descent trail.
This trip presented lots of firsts for me, which is what definitely drew me into climbing a wall against my initial hesitations. I guess you could say I like, or perhaps need, to spice things up occasinally. I placed my first Leeper hook after seeing one for the first time the day before. The hauling system (for the 60-pound Pig) was new to me, but was an easy carry-over from crevasse rescue. Aid climbing did turn out to be excruciatingly slow, especially in comparison to my 1,200'-in-a-day climb a few weeks before (see "A Tale of Two Epics" for details). However, I can see aiding, especially at the C1 level (Clean aid 1 = EASY!), going much faster the next time around. It was incredibly fun breaking into a new type of climbing and by focusing on gear, I can see clean aid experience improving my trad climbing placements.
"6-minute video:"
Links:
Topo at Bigwall.com
Another topo at Supertopo
Climbing Stats:
Climb dates: Dec 2-3, 2006
Permit cost: $10 for 2
Sunrise 7:30, Sunset 5:15
Approx. Temperatures:
High 53F, Low 27F.
Hours of climbing 1st day: 10
Hours of climbing 2nd day: 17
Time per pitch: A little over 3 hours
Approx vertical gain 1st day: 350' (3.5 pitches)
Approx vertical gain 2nd day: 650' (4.5 pitches)
Rack:
1 set DMM Peenuts (small offsets; large offsets would've been nice)
3 sets Nuts
1 set Ballnuts
2 ea Cams sized 0.33"-1.6" (8mm-41mm, i.e. Camalots 0.1-0.75; a 3rd set would be nice)
1 ea Cams sized 1.2"-4.5" (30mm-115mm, i.e. Camalots 1-4)
1 set Small, med, large Leeper cam hooks (used large once)
2 ea BD Cliffhangers & Talons (not used)
2 Cordellete
20 Slings (didn't need this many)
1 Double-length sling
50 Carabiners (2 on each sling & a handfull of non-slung)
Thanks to Isaac "Crakadikt" for lending us his old A5 ledge. Cheers, mate!
We chose Moonlight Buttress (V, 5.9, A0, C1) for our first Wall attempt. OK, so it's not even that BIG of a bigwall. After all, I've climbed taller routes in a day (Epinephrine & Snake Dike for instance) and the route is aided and free climbed (12d) in a single push regularly. But, this was our first tall aid route (my first aid experience), we were expecting to climb & haul slowly, the route is listed on bigwall.com, and we did plan to spend a night on the route. We wanted to avoid crowds and this is a megaclassic, but luck was on our side: It was the weekend after Thanksgiving holiday, when the majority of people already took their vacation, and the first REAL cold front of the season just moved in. Did I say "luck"? I should've added a little "brute" mentality.
To match our brute mentality, the brute approach was the most miserable part of the entire trip. We crossed the Virgin River to get to the base of the climb (to the NE or Angel's Landing) at 7:30am with the water temperature at 35F. Brrr.
After this, creeping up the wall is exaclty what we did. I took the first lead (5.9 free climb) at 8:30am and we swapped leads from there and reached the top of the third pitch around 4:30pm, where Wes solo-aided half-way up the fourth pitch while I set up the borrowed portaledge. Setting that thing up on the ground a couple times really helped doing it for real on the wall. Wes finished the pitch in the dark & rappelled to a welcoming bowl of hot Indian cuisine (Tasty Bites highly recommended!).
Sleeping on the wall wasn't as bad as either of us thought it'd be. We had to coordinate movements to make sure the ledge, attached from a single point, didn't pivot us off, but otherwise it was like a stiff airbed. After shaking off the fairly frigid night (just below freezing) and just as the sun hit our bivy, Wes began jugging his fixed line at 9am to finish the 4th pitch. Similar to the first day, we swapped leads firing for the top, but sunset caught us half-way up the 6th pitch. I tend to climb calmer after sunset. After all, once the sun sets, there's no more deadline to meet. Aid climbing was no different and we took about 3.5 hours per pitch on the final two pitches, topping out at 2am and crashing for our second, unplanned, bivy on the West Rim descent trail.
This trip presented lots of firsts for me, which is what definitely drew me into climbing a wall against my initial hesitations. I guess you could say I like, or perhaps need, to spice things up occasinally. I placed my first Leeper hook after seeing one for the first time the day before. The hauling system (for the 60-pound Pig) was new to me, but was an easy carry-over from crevasse rescue. Aid climbing did turn out to be excruciatingly slow, especially in comparison to my 1,200'-in-a-day climb a few weeks before (see "A Tale of Two Epics" for details). However, I can see aiding, especially at the C1 level (Clean aid 1 = EASY!), going much faster the next time around. It was incredibly fun breaking into a new type of climbing and by focusing on gear, I can see clean aid experience improving my trad climbing placements.
"6-minute video:"
Links:
Topo at Bigwall.com
Another topo at Supertopo
Climbing Stats:
Climb dates: Dec 2-3, 2006
Permit cost: $10 for 2
Sunrise 7:30, Sunset 5:15
Approx. Temperatures:
High 53F, Low 27F.
Hours of climbing 1st day: 10
Hours of climbing 2nd day: 17
Time per pitch: A little over 3 hours
Approx vertical gain 1st day: 350' (3.5 pitches)
Approx vertical gain 2nd day: 650' (4.5 pitches)
Rack:
1 set DMM Peenuts (small offsets; large offsets would've been nice)
3 sets Nuts
1 set Ballnuts
2 ea Cams sized 0.33"-1.6" (8mm-41mm, i.e. Camalots 0.1-0.75; a 3rd set would be nice)
1 ea Cams sized 1.2"-4.5" (30mm-115mm, i.e. Camalots 1-4)
1 set Small, med, large Leeper cam hooks (used large once)
2 ea BD Cliffhangers & Talons (not used)
2 Cordellete
20 Slings (didn't need this many)
1 Double-length sling
50 Carabiners (2 on each sling & a handfull of non-slung)
Thanks to Isaac "Crakadikt" for lending us his old A5 ledge. Cheers, mate!
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