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Ozymandias Direct – Trip Report – May 2011 21-May-2011 At 1:12:56 PM Organ Pipe

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The 5th pitch went a bit slower which I put down to being presented with such good and frequent gear options I didn’t push to the top of my ett’s before placing the next piece. Because of this I didn’t make it to the end of pitch 5 until 2:30pm.

*Phil belaying Karl on Pitch 5.

The fellas had discussed the progress and estimated how long it would take to complete the 6th pitch. The decision was made to set up the ledges below the roof before sundown and if time permits, I would start the roof and aim for Gledhill Bivvy then rap down. This decision to stop here for the night put me in another challenging position. I had to set up a pulley system and hauled up both ledges from my hanging belay.

Using the gear available on my harness I managed to rig up a pulley system by threading the rope attached to the first ledge up through a biner clipped into a bolt above me, then down through my Gri-gri and back up through another biner. I would pull up on the rope from the ledge with my ascender and with the other hand feed the slack through the gri-gri. This system let me haul both ledges safely to the top in no time.

Phil then arrived and handed over the pulleys so I could rig up a proper 3:1 pulley system so we could haul up the haul bag.

Soon Ben arrived to inspect the camp site and lend a hand. We decided on setting the ledges up in a line, one under the other as there was not enough room to go side by side. After some re-building of anchors and shuffling of ledges we had a great site setup where every ledge had an uninterrupted view. The best thing was we had everything ready by 5pm which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the portaledge lifestyle. An element of Big Wall climbing that can often be neglected or lost in the passion to climb and top out.

*Our camp below the roof.

Another warm meal, some Whiskey and a chat about the trip so far was exactly what we needed. We eventually checked out at a respectable 9:30pm and got plenty of rest. And rest was exactly what we needed due to our current position. By ending the day one pitch short of where we wanted to be meant that we had to work extra hard the next day to finish this great climb.