the higher you fly

Mini epic at Whitehorse – October 2009

Lessons learned:

• Always be nice to other climbers. Always.
• Start early
• Don't underestimate the power of rope drag
• Be nice.

The tale of my first multi-pitch. With my son. With gear I'd used once only.

The plan

With a long weekend ahead of us, we're looking to do the following:

• Saturday:  Standard Route at Whitehorse Ledge
• Sunday: Thin Air at Cathedral Ledge

I'm a 5.9 climber (cut me some slack, I started just 6 months ago) and my son is a 5.7 , so I figure this shouldn't be a problem to lead. Little do I know what 5.(x)R really means. A run-out over gear ... pfff. Anyway, I've placed gear on a couple other single pitch climbs and at the bottom of a few others, so that's all I need to know. Right?

Arrival

We leave Montreal at about 3PM on Friday. Unfortunately, not being used to traffic patterns, this bites us in the butt. Getting out of Montreal takes almost 2 hours, screwing up our plans to make an early arrival at a public camp site.

After a 5 hour or so drive, we get to North Conway and settle on the first camp ground we can find. That means we have to pay 80$ for 3 nights, one of which I know I won't need.

By the time the tent is setup it's around 10:30. Obviously, the excitement and giddiness of climbing our first multi-pitch the next day prevents easy and quick sleep.

Lesson 1: Leave early or book your camp sites in advance.

Saturday - Early morning

Since we're both eager to get started, at 6:30 we quickly get out of bed, eat breakfast and hurry to the base of Whitehorse. With some disappointment, it's pretty wet and out of the question that we start right away. Resigned, we decide to walk around waiting for the rock to dry up.

Cathedral Ledge, being a small walk away, we make our way over to scout out Thin Air for the next day.

I've only climbed in my small area north of Montreal, and these cliffs are daunting to say the least. Have I made a mistake and overestimated my will to overcome my fear of hights?!

Thankfully, the weather is menacing. Lot's of dark clouds coming in from the North! Dodged a bullet there; we may not be able to do this. Hey, at least we get to see the quaint little city that is North Conway.

Gear up dad! Others are heading out!

Well ... what am I to say to that. It's true; other climbers have started up Beginner's Route. Gear up and giddy up!

All set! Water, food, flashlights (or I thought), rap rings, and a head full of the literature of John Long, Craig Luebben and dozens of other books on anchors, knots and self rescue! WTF could go wrong!

Pitch 1 - The Toilet Bowl (5.3 80')

We set off at about 11:00 AM. There's no one above us on the climb and only a few people starting up on routes to the left and right.

I start up, trail line in tow, very excited about using some gear! Well ... I guess that won't happen quite yet. 80 feet higher, I'm at the anchors and have yet to meet a crack.

Pitch 2 - ???

Well, what do we have here! A climber is already at the second belay. Not to be outdone, I move up right (instead of left) to the second pitch of Slabs Direct.

Pitch 3 - ???

Well, now I've done it. I'm completely off route. Completely. I'm going to have to do a long traverse, with no pro to get to the 2nd belay of Standard. No problem, we've got tons of time ahead of us! So much for protecting your second .... and that second is pretty important to me, but it's not too steep, so it should be fine.

Here, we share the belay with a couple very nice guys from Magog. Throughout the next few pitches, I chat with one or the other and have insightful and interesting conversations (as much as you can have when you're belaying). These short lived cordial chats would turn out to be my best move all day.

Pitch 4 - (5.3 Quartz Pocket - 145')

Instead of following the arch to the left, we cut through top the Quartz Pocket pitch. Again, after leading the pitch, I hook up with the second of the preceding party.

No problems here. A couple pieces of gear go in, and all goes without a hitch.

Pitch 5 (5.3 100') and 6 (5.3 140') - Up the arch and up to lunch ledge

Finally! A LOT of pro. The crack that follows the arch gobbles up pro and the start of the steeper stuff also takes it in just fine.

I'm a bit nervous about starting the steep stuff given that I'm so high up (actually, roughly 400 feet higher than I've ever been). But it's easy climbing and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Lunch ledge is a thing of beauty after the couple hours spent going at it on the slabs.

Once again, I chat with the preceding parties second.

Pitch 7 - The crux! (5.7)

At this point, the pictures become sparse, and the mini epic starts.

I start up from lunch ledge, fully confident that I can pull off this 5.5 crux. The routes and topos (which I have 3 copies of) all tell me what to do ... but I just don't get it. I can see the second from the party above me struggling in a section of the pitch, so I figure that their leader must have decided to do the 5.7 variation.

So I choose to go to his left and zig-zag my way up, and with each piece of gear, making it much harder for me to keep going. I'd read about it, but didn't figure it was a big deal. Rope drag. At a certain point, just 20 feet from the belay, I couldn't move anymore. The only choice I had left was to downclimb to put in longer slings.

I chance it and yell up to the other party, asking if they can throw me a line to help me finish the pitch. Luckily, they hear me and are more than happy to help out. At this point, I'm gripped .... Not a great state to be in that far off the deck. But I manage to control it. At this point my son has been down at the belay for over an hour and he's cold. Problem is, I can't pull in slack.

Again, my benefactors give me a hand. They offer to lower me so I can take out some gear and top rope me back up. 15 minutes later, I'm back up, still some rope drag left, and my son is still freezing cold. He finally starts up, but can't get the #1 C4 out! "Leave it there! Just come up. I don't care!". But my benefactor can't believe what he's hearing! He won't have any of this and offers to rap down to get it for me. I try to talk him out of it (it's getting late now and darkness is not that far off), but insists. I tell him that if he goes to get it, it's his to keep. Obviously, he'll have nothing of that.

Something like 2 hours later, we've finally finished the crux pitch. With 3 more to go, and darkness moving in, this might get ugly.

Pitch 8, 9 and 10 (5.2R 470')

Again, some pretty easy climbing. I actually made these 3 pitches into 4, because I didn't want to loose sight of my son. We were running these pitches to beat the darkness, but there was just no way we were going to make it ...

Topout

We topped out pretty much in darkness, so whatever view there was ... Luckily, once again, the guys we'd been following all day had a head lamp and were waiting for us. The hike down was none too easy with a single lamp for 4, but we finally got back to the car safely, but completely exhausted. The hike took about 1 hour as we overshot the parking lot by quite a bit, ending up close to lake.

This was going to be a good night sleep.

Sunday

Yes, we were going to do Thin Air Face, but after yesterday, I was going to have to re-evaluate a few things, so we decide to head back home instead.

What I learned:

1) I now practice multi pitch with my son, even on single pitch climbs

2) Even though we had practiced some self rescue, we now take it much more seriously and practice it much more

3) I didn't have a flashlight in my pack after all .... Stupid. Both our packs now contain: thermal blanket, head lamp, first aid kit, lots of water, water proof jacket, cordelette, rap rings and spare slings.

I actually don't regret driving back Sunday morning instead of the evening because I got to see how beautiful the White Mountains area is