QotD: Climbing
Posted July 17th, 2003 @ 10:28pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: What's the most difficult thing you've ever had to climb?
My Answer: I climbed Crested Butte Mountain (if that's the name of it?) in Crested Butte, Colorado. I was quite young, and the last 500 feet up were mostly rocks, and so that made for an interesting climb. According to my parents I "scampered right up" but I remember spending most of the 30 minutes waiting for them to catch up catching my breath as well.
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Posted 18 Jul 2003 at 10:55am #
Chevy Suburban 🙂
Posted 18 Jul 2003 at 11:02am #
I there is a climb Columbia, MO called "The Book" which is normally a 5.9, but once day I decided to do it in my rollerblades, which easily turned it into a 5.11.
But if that doesn't count, then technically it would be some 5.11a or b I redpointed, or maybe the Grand Teton- which was really only a 5.6, but it was so exhausting.
Posted 18 Jul 2003 at 12:21pm #
My hardest climb would have to be an awsome crack called Clean Crack (5.11b) by the railroad tracks in Squamish, BC. I used to "scamper" up a 5.11a called Yorkshire Gripper in the Bluffs area in Squamish (but only due to doing it a lot). Then I got a job, a gf, and now I'm barely clawing up 5.10 at the gym 🙁
One of my first lead climbs was up Deidre on the Apron (also in Squamish). It's only a 5.8 or so, but I was hauling two girls up with less experience than me, and I ended up not only leading every pitch (a scary prospect for someone who hasn't done a lot of multi-pitch stuff or a lot of leading), and belaying both girls up, because they were too tired and didn't like top belaying.
What made it even worse was more than once I was on the crux of a pitch, scared shitless, only partially confident in my manky gear below (and far too scared to fall on it and see if it would hold 🙂 and I'd look down and the girls would be gabbing to each other or cheering "go alan go! go alan go!". At that point a good belay would have been much more appreciated than a cheering section.
To my credit though, we made it all the way up, I redpointed the whole thing (actually I guess it'd be an onsite redpoint, as it was my first and only time up that climb), or at least most of it, any falls I took were small and inconsequencial. Oh, and the three of us made it back alive! Took a couple of weeks to get the dye from my shoe leather out of my toes though.
*sigh* Must climb soon.
Posted 20 Jul 2003 at 5:22pm #
I'd say probably Mt. Hood. I just climbed it Saturday so I haven't yet edited my climb journal nor put all the pictures on my website. It was a pretty badass climb though: rockfalls (shudder), ice, crevases, base camp at 5000', summit at 11300'... good times good times