Featured Articles
Articles pertaining to the wide and other cool stuff. Say, why don't one of
you guys write a feature article for us???
Left
Side of the Hourglass, by Peter Haan
When I began that day, I swarmed up the initial
offwidth and executed the weird rotations by the bolt, aggressively went to
the rest edge in the middle of the undercling, hung out for a brief moment,
but then suffered a violently urgent desire to get the hell out of there!
I was not ready for it. The climbing up to this point was of a completely
different type and the contrast posed a challenge in itself. Although I knew
that the problems would begin very abruptly, so stoutly, alarms nonetheless
screamed in my head.
Basketcase
2nd free ascent: A day with Ed Ward, By Peter
Haan
I don’t like what is going on and
am having a hard time accepting that there is not some really subtle trick
to make all this stop being progressively more hideous. And I am in a hurry,
getting a little exhausted but still too cavalier in the face of a world-class
problem. I make the first set of moves to gain the bottom of the flare but
am in error. I come flying out of there, sweeping the wall for a 25-35 foot
well-belayed fall that is more like an amusement park ride than a life-threatening
development, one of the five or so leader falls I have ever taken in 43 years.
Royal used to say in his oracular riddling manner that you never actually
fall you let go. But in this case I am pretty sure RR is quite wrong.
Lucille,
by Jay Anderson
I finally made it most of the way out the roof, with the psychological
protection
provided by tipped out tubes. That got me out to the hard part. Where you
have to
move up, after going sideways, is where the puzzle starts. Your toes are on
a
sloping edge that you can't see. Your shoulders are in a bomb bay
chimney that
starts at mid chest height and is offset from the the foot-rail by almost
two
feet. You lean back over the abyss.
JCA's
Wide World of Sports, by Jay Anderson
I was in trouble. No matter how much I waved the seven inch big
dude around in the crack it was still just too small. My back hurt. My right
leg was locked in, but my left foot snaked around to a lame smear on the
face wasn't much help. I gripped the edge of the crack with my left hand
for support...
Normally I wouldn’t bother to report such a short route, but the uniqueness of this climb makes it significant. Balch Camp Flake is a 240-foot free-standing flake above the road to Black Rock Reservoir. It was first climbed in the 1950s via a bolt ladder on the southeast arete. It is split on its south-east side by a clean. striking, overhanging off-width splitter crack, easily visible from the road. The first pitch is 5.12b and passes 10 bolts to a bolted stance on the left. The second pitch (5.11) continues past six more bolts to the top. Despite the 16 protection bolts, a number of wide pieces (up to 10 inches) were also used. Jay Anderson led the route in March 1995 (no falls) with Brad Jarrett following. Approach via several rappels (60 meter) behind the flake from the abandoned dirt road/trail above. This is a classic must-do for wide crack enthusiasts (I, 5.12b).
RICHARD LEVERSEE, unaffiliated
Alpinist
20 - Profile on Bob Scarpelli, by Pete Takeda
The latest issue of Alpinist has hit the stands. Click Here to see
my article on Bob
Scarpelli.
The flesh is weak, and obliges, if only barely and I’m glad to start
the two raps to the base. By now, other climbers have filtered into the area
and at the second rap station—a flat shelf 30 feet off the ground—stands
a stocky guy with pale blue eyes, veiny ham-hock forearms and fists taped
with the tidy professionalism of a pre-fight heavyweight. The man presides
over a milling and worshipful throng below, including a petite young thing
with a dirty–blond ponytail. Her fawning over Mr. Tape Job borders on
nauseating. Apparently his name is Bob, because she repetitively refers to
him in the third person...
Link to Alpinist: http://www.alpinist.com/issues/
Pete Takeda has some ass kicking pics and articles on his site,
PeteTakeda.com
It is required reading and viewing for any would be wide aficionado. Try some
of the links below:
http://www.petetakeda.com/journal/vedauwoo-bouldering
http://www.petetakeda.com/journal/vedauwoo-crack-climbing-vol-1
http://www.petetakeda.com/journal/vedauwoo-crack-climbing-vol-2
http://www.petetakeda.com/journal/vedauwoo-crack-climbing-vol-3
http://www.petetakeda.com/journal/hardest-offwidth-in-the-world
For some mind blowing images by Greg Epperson of the wide, see his site GregEpperson.com,
and go to gallery - stories - Vedauwoo
info@WideFetish.com