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General Climbing Discussion

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Totem Pole On Sight 9-Jan-2005 At 6:12:29 PM Onsight

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Ha! Nice one indeed Mark! Congratulations - that's awesome!

Funny because when I was writing my earlier post the thought did cross my mind that you might have being querying after the fact.

Which first pitch did you do? By the way you describe the hassles with the Tyrolean rope it sounds like you did it via the original first pitch. As it says on my web gallery, Monique climbed it via the newer "variant" (aka "Deep Play") pitch that goes to the left (it's therefore possible yours it the first onsight of the entire original Free Route!). Steve graded the variant first pitch 24, which is why I gave it that grade. From my own experiences the variant is much more sustained than the original, with the original being more cruxy/bouldery.

As for the second pitch, well, it's actually 25 which might somewhat explain how it felt! That's the grade Simon Mentz originally gave it and it the (clear) consensus grade. The 23 comes from Roger Parkyn who wrote the guidebook, and all I can say is he must have been climbing well the day he did it! That and perhaps the height thing in one spot...

The trick with Tyrolean rope is when the leader gets to the half-way belay ledge, you lower a rope down the north side, back down to your belayer, they attach the rap/Tyrolean rope and you pull it up to the ledge (on the north side) that way. The leader can just use their lead-rope for this OK (by untying their end and using that). The Tyrolean rope is always a right-pain for someone on pitch 2 - but it's usually the follower.

So what'd you think of it all? Did you have fun?

Hope the rest of your trip has been going well.