DISPATCHES

Davis

Yesterday was an auspicious day as we got through the notorious overhanging choss band and into the second massive dihedral that leads to the summit. Jimmy and Dave had been thwarted the previous day, trying a combination of aid and free techniques to pick a path through the steep, fractured, quartz-like rock. They came down a little frustrated, and yesterday it was Jimmy's turn to give it a shot. As there was no hauling work to do (for once), Dave and Brady decided to rappel down and top rope on the aid pitch below the ledge camp for fun. Nothing like a little big wall cragging!

Meanwhile, Jimmy and I went up to try to get through the choss band. The choss is not only extremely overhanging, but has no continuous crack systems. There are sporadic, wafer-thin, incipient cracks that are mostly formed by completely detached blobs of quartz that appear to be merely pasted onto the whole mess. Jimmy left the anchor, feeling uncertain of the best way to go through the choss band. We both agreed that it looked like you could either go straight up, up and left, or down and right. Having narrowed it down, he took a small rack of thin aid gear— peckers, toucans, knifeblades, lost arrows, steel nuts— and set off.

I hunkered down on the wooden swing seat we'd brought and enjoyed my position, hanging off the wall with nothing but air below me and granite all around me. I looked a little longingly at the more comfortable ledge 20 feet below me where I'd finished the last pitch, but it was better to be close to Jimmy for this lead so I could watch him carefully and offer route-finding suggestions from below.

Jimmy set off in great spirits, singing Santana songs and excited for the challenge. This choss band had been worrying both of us since we left the ground. You know you can find a way up the continuous dihedrals that form most of this route, but overhanging, unfeatured rock is a whole different ballpark. This would really be the key to making this route go at all.

I'd gotten up early in the morning and jumared to the base of the choss band, then rappelled down 200 feet to the right, attempting to get a running start and do a huge pendulum to the right. I was still hoping to circumvent the quartz mess, especially after the rather grim report they had returned with the day before. Although I tried with all my might, I couldn't swing far enough to the right to reach the second dihedral from below that would have allowed us to avoid the choss band. So climbing up through it was definitely the only option.

Jimmy was excited to tackle this long-awaited problem. I supplied more Santana lyrics and helpful suggestions, "Don't forget you have Screamers!" I yelled from the belay, while Jimmy carefully built his way up the pitch.

Hard aid is an art. Freeclimbing tends to attract the glamour in the climbing world, but if you don't know how to do hard, tricky aid, you may not be able to get up a new route at all. Tahir Tower is an excellent example of that—the choss band could be a major roadblock to a successful ascent.

Jimmy took his time, selecting thin pieces of metal and gently tapping them in so as not to dislodge the blocks he was wedging them behind. A rule of aid climbing is that you must bounce test each piece before you commit to standing up on it; if you bounce test vehemently enough, you can be more assured that the pieces below might catch a fall if something pulls out higher. It's kind of like building a house of cards.

Jimmy bounced, tentatively at first, then full bore. Occasionally the gear would break out of the thin crack he'd pounded it into, and with a laugh, he would go back up and pound a slightly thicker piece into the new, broken crevice. After a couple of hours (aid climbing is not fast), he let out a whoop of excitement. He'd made it through the worst 40 feet into better rock, and actually got in a tiny steel nut, his first really good piece of gear.

He continued up higher, around a blunt arete, and made a pendulum point as high as he could. I then lowered him out about 40 feet, and with small metal hooks, he pulled himself across the left side of the open book, and finally into the long awaited lap of the upper dihedral. We were there! The choss band had been solved, and with no drilling at all, thanks to Jimmy's patience and skill on the tricky aid.

We looked up to see another huge dihedral, along the order of the bottom dihedral. We couldn't even see the end of it due to the undulations of the formation. Once again, this route is bigger than we think.

Today is a pleasant day of rest for us, while Brady and Dave go up to start climbing "Massive Dihedral Number Two."

— Steph Davis, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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