DISPATCHES

Robinson

Davis

	click for photos

This morning Steph and I got up at 5am. Our current camp is a big, gravelly ledge, which makes for mellow mornings. We wandered around, enjoying the morning and making all our preparations.

Jugging nearly 1000 feet of line at 12,000 feet isn't the best start of the day I can think of, but it beats moving our camp again. We ascended past the midpoint of the huge, sweeping dihedral that dominates Tahir Brakk.

Since Steph hadn't climbed for nearly two weeks due to her illness, she got the first pitch. She laybacked the thin, steepening crack, passing Jimmy's highpoint from several days before and continuing beyond. She looked calm, but later admitted that she felt off, more tired than she would have expected. She stopped just under a spot in the corner where the crack opened up to squeeze chimney size.

Meanwhile, Dave and Jimmy started ferrying loads up our rope, preparing for our eventual move. Jimmy swung around on a rope, trying to get a good angle to take pictures.

My turn. I got in the chimney and was soon fighting for inches, squirming up a slot just a little bigger across than my chest. I had to take my helmet off, since it didn't fit in the chimney. My T-shirt ripped. My thrashings sent loose rocks onto Steph and Dave below. I swung out the exit roof and finally got to a rest stance above the chimney. I stayed there for a while before attempting the wide hand/fist crack above. I climbed about 30 feet, letting out inadvertent whimpers and yelps as I passed a difficult wide section.

I barely got a cam in before my energy was totally sapped. I hung. Bummer, as we're trying to free climb this wall. After talking to Steph for a while, we decided I would lower down to the ledge stance, pull the rope, and try again, which I did.

After 120 feet of steep, wide, crack battle, the pitch was free. It had the best rock we'd found so far, but I found it pretty challenging. I almost couldn't clip my last piece, since my hands were so tired. My mouth filled with bile as I hung and set an anchor. But in spite of that, it was a great pitch! Finally we're climbing good rock! Looking across, below, and above the anchor, nothing but acres of clean, vertical granite.

Steph came up, and after 20 minutes of gear swapping, promptly fired off the beginning of the next pitch, an overhanging finger crack bulge/corner. I'll let her tell you about it. She was extremely happy with the pitch. Challenging, steep, good rock— that's why we came here, right?

At this point, my stomach was twisting in knots. I was feeling pretty sick, so Jimmy took over the belay duty for me and I headed down. Just as I was going down, Steph called down and said she'd do another pitch above with the rope she had left. I went down to camp and ate dinner with Dave as Steph dealt with the last pitch.

Steph Davis
Yeahh!!! We're finally big walling it! It seems like it's been a ton of work and unexpected sickness to get to this point. Today, climbing up the biggest dihedral known to climbers (at least to this climber), I couldn't believe our position. The rock just kept getting better, the light gray granite opened up all around and below us, ravens soared around us, and I wasn't hot all day!

After yesterday's final haul day and an early a.m. jug session, I felt sapped by the time I started climbing. The pitch was really great, except for feeling like I was going to either pass out or vomit every two moves. But I felt better as the day wore on, and after Brady led another pitch of perfect rock, I got the unique opportunity of climbing both the best pitch of the route and then the worst pitch of the route, to date.

The best pitch was incredible — pulling out a small roof into a bulge on good, steep granite, doing all sorts of crazy heel hooks and Rifle-esque pinches with the right side of my body, and working up a thin finger crack with the left side of my body. (Something for everyone!)

Unfortunately for me, Brady felt sick and had to leave after I finished the pitch. I looked up and thought I should quickly finish the dihedral, as it would take us up to the base of the giant roof. Ten minutes later, I found myself cursing and groveling up a steep loose off-width. You know things are going to be bad when your rack is triples of number-three to number-five Camalots.

I showered Jimmy with a barrage of rotten flaking plates and some pretty rude language as I groveled up for what seemed like 19,000 years. If I hadn't been so scared, I definitely would have fallen—it was that kind of pitch. YUCKY!!! It was my payback for the unbelievably good pitch below. But that brought us, finally, to the end of this massive dihedral. The roof will take us back into it. This really must be the biggest dihedral in the world.

At this moment, I'm sitting on our giant ledge at Camp I feeling tired and happy. The clouds that kept us so cool and happy today are giving us a peach and orange sunset. There's rock and snowcaps as far as I can see, and the river noise is quietly rushing from far down below. The four of us have done so much work to be here right now, and at this moment, it all feels worth it.

— Brady Robinson and Steph Davis, MountainZone.com Correspondents

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