Some scary moments on Calculus Crack with a happy ending

[squamish climber]

Came across this blog post by Nate Tack. Not much bio detail but I gather he is living, working and climbing in Squamish.

Nate was soloing up Calculus Crack one evening after work (his first lap was bit of heart-stopper) on his second lap he writes:

Climbed the first few pitches slowly with a bit of hesitation, I still felt nervous. At the base of pitch three a woman was belaying, her partner leading above her. I ask her, "Can I join you at the belay?"

Her "No! Don't come over here, it isn't safe and if I let go I'll fall."
She's holding the rope with one hand and a small hold with the other..

Me concerned. "Really? Is your anchor bad?"

Her "Yes, I'm so scared, I don't want to die, if I slip I'll die."
I look over, 4x bomber cams equalized and tied to her.

You need to read the rest of the story to hear how it turned out.

Anybody have any similar stories to share. Let's hear them.

[jipstyle]

That was a really good read .. thanks for the share.

[NateDoggOG]

Word. Nice job.

[BSP]

I was in the bluff two saturday ago i notice someone on Yorkshire gripper that started a Elvis leg about 15 feet from the top, is gear is maybe 4 to 5 feet below him so i look to see the outcome what shout had been a 15 foot fall turned in a 15 meter fall!!!! The belayer probably panic and let go of the brake to bring both hands on the rope above the belay device she manage to stop him 2 feet from the ground. The leader seems to got out of it without a scratch, but the belayer ended up with really bad burns to the hands. It not totally a happy ending as those burn will take a long time to heal but at least nobody died.

[relic]

Gee whiz. Why is that guy soloing when he says he can't even climb much harder. Climbing all on top of people. What a complete douche. Glad he didn't die at least.

[gearheart]

Read further down his blog - plenty of 12's at the Creek get sent. I bet he's OK soloing 5.8.

[NateDoggOG]

Not going to happen.

[AaronRN]

i sometimes wonder what would happen if a soloer fell above a party/parties on a popular multi route ...

Another scenario to consider is what would happen if a soloer tried to pass another party, the seconder got scared/slipped/pumped out, fell, weighted their rope only to -bump- the soloer climbing up behind them. In this scenario the soloer is dead as a result of their stupidity and the other climber gets to live with the guilt of knowing that they've contributed to that persons death.

As ridiculous as this scenario is, I saw the likely hood of it playing to its full and natural conclusion once before. Deidre, soloer climbing up, stuck behind parties above, thinks he'll pass at the belay, finds him self about a foot below the climber above him, climber above him struggles to top of the pitch, all the while the soloer is on his a$% like a tailgate driver in traffic. I wonder if he was aware of the danger he put him self in? Point is, I don't care if you can climb 5.12 in your flip-flops, you're a jack a$% if you're not taking into consideration the uncontrollable variable which is your fellow climbers. You, the rock and weather may be solid but people panic, they drop sh*t, they bail, they throw their rope without warning, they fall, they take forever at belays, they don't understand, accomidate, appreciate or give two sh*t about you..... and nor should they

[relic]

Waiting for a key witness of this clown soloing to chime in....

[AaronRN]

if you solo its yr choice ... just dont put others at risk ...

Some times I wonder if soloing would be half as popular if there were no "others" to put at risk because it is those same "others" that are going to come save you when you f**k up. You say the kid had the foresight to bring a sling to hang from a bolt. What was his plan had no one arrived to help him? Could we expect to find his skeletal remains hanging from that bolt? Or was the plan from the start to expect that others would and could come to his rescue? If so, is that soloing?
I wouldn't call it the Honnold effect, It's a story as old as time, it's just good ol' fashion narcissism. Case in point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tb475M2IFo
Now you could argue that he's in over his head based on his climbing ability, but the bigger question is what's his motivation? Why climb this thing with an audience, while the camcorder roles, with a cigarette in your mouth ( I mean seriously, a cigarette?) if your motivation is NOTHING but your narcissistic desire to prove that you're a badass.

[Lurch]

just wrote a huge post and it timed out on me. gone. so frustrating

Ya good old Al. He does that all the time. Surprised his dog isn't there.

[Lurch]

Point is, I don't care if you can climb 5.12 in your flip-flops, you're a jack a$% if you're not taking into consideration the uncontrollable variable which is your fellow climbers. You, the rock and weather may be solid but people panic, they drop sh*t, they bail, they throw their rope without warning, they fall, they take forever at belays, they don't understand, accomidate, appreciate or give two sh*t about you..... and nor should they

+1!

Thanks for the video guys. The decking one is crazy.

I think I can shed a little light on this subject, as I was there at the bolted belay watching him struggle on the crux.

My girlfriend Sandra and I were out for a quick romp up Calculus, but unfortunately I underestimated the popularity of the North Apron on a sunny Saturday. When we arrived Scubber’s new start was still soaked so we headed down to the tree and rock pitch and ran into a party of three. We waited quite awhile for them but were assured by the fact that they were going to do South Aret and would be out of our way soon.

They advised us there was another party on Calculus but I figured that by the time we waited for these guys to get up to baseline they would be long gone.

When we finally got going I was hot on the heels of the third by the end of the pitch and I brought Sandra up to the belay. We were waiting for the wet 5.9 pitch to baseline when Nate passed us and went left to the mid point on the new second pitch of Calculus. I had never really thought of going that way so I Immediately followed him and remembered why I enjoyed this new pitch so much as I was jamming my way to the anchor. It’s a much better pitch than the 5.9.

I get to the top and as I’m pulling up over I see the second from the next party on Calculus Crack we were told about. Welcome to Squamish on a Saturday. I set up my belay and started to bring Sandra up. When I looked up I saw Nate the gear-soloer cruxing out above the leader of the next party who was trying to scrap together his gear belay.

Buddy got his belay together and Nate was trying to get a piece of gear in at the crux. He seemed to be having trouble and started asking the leader for something. Buddy replied by plucking a biner of nuts off his harness and handing it to Nate.

Apparently he didn’t bring the right gear on his light rack. Confused?....he had a harness and two daisies and was clipping gear when he needed it; Dean Potter style. Nate got something in and sent the crux and eventually when he was out of sight the leader of the next party was able to concentrate on his task of belaying, which obviously slowed us up even more.

Eventually they got going again and I gave the leader some time before I set out on the next pitch, but when I reached the belay the second was still there. I climbed up to a decent stance and popped a cam in since the second seemed to want to occupy the whole ledge. After about five minutes I said to him “Hey man my feet are killing me, do you think you could shift over and I could join you at the belay? He agreed, and I scrapped together a bomber 4-cam anchor below his.



I waited until he was just about ready to depart before I started to bring Sandra up. When she reached the belay she saw me hanging off a crack in the wall and said “Is that a gear belay?” I said yep. She says “I hate those things!” I said “I know baby but it’s bomber, look at me I’m 220 pounds and I’m hanging off of it.” She proceeded to make her way to the belay, hating every minute of it.

A little background on Sandra. When I first took her climbing she got half way up a sport climb and when she couldn’t proceed any further decided that she was just going to hang there for the rest of the day. I was trying to convince her to let go so I could lower her, and said “well you’re gonna come off at some point.” Eventually gravity took it’s toll. She has come a long way since then, and this was her second time at a gear belay, but her first at such an exposed one.

We gave them quite awhile before I cast off again. Halfway up the pitch I encountered the second, belaying at a horrible stance in the first scoop. I tried to convince him to let me pass and belay in the upper scoop but he wasn’t hearing any of it. So I popped in a cam and stood there on that shitty slab stance. Dancing around a bit trying to keep my feet from dying. Eventually he got going again and I was hot on his heels.


Nate Tack Photo

This must have been about the time that Nate was chatting up Sandra. Which according to her recollection was not quite as dramatic or romantic as his blog might lead one to believe. Thank god she delayed him a bit! I would hate to think what would happen if he climbed right into us both in that pocket with nowhere to go.

Nate also forgot to mention how he climbed over her. He actually went behind her and she had to become one with the wall, hugging it as he said “Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t be socially acceptable to be this close to a stranger”. She said she couldn’t watch as he soloed above her and she was worried that he would step on the gear anchor.

I made it to the bolts by strettttcccching the rope its full 70m. I joined the other party as they were rappelling to retrieve their bail cam. Apparently he had gone the wrong way on Calculus then placed a cam and bailed to the finger crack anchors. We saw Nate come up and I wondered how he had passed Sandra at the belay, but didn’t think to ask. We chatted briefly as I had met him a week before at the Smoke Bluffs then he took off and I belayed Sandra up.

I put her on the sharp end because I had done a messy job with the rope in my haste and didn’t want to flop it again + it was easy and a perfect place for her to get her first lead on. She rambled up the 5.1 crack with style after a little pause at the overlap and placed some half decent gear, certainly good enough to arrest a fall. I chased her up once she called safe and collected the rope on my way up.

Thus was another somewhat eventful moderate day on the Apron.

The next day we went to the Nursery at Funarama and she led some easy cracks.


If I saw Nate again, and we spoke of the subject, I would question him about his timing. Why would you not wait until later when there were no people to deal with?

[NateDoggOG]

Good job Sandra on her first lead!!

[Lurch]

I didn't let him pass. He scurried by us the first time and the second it was Sandra who let him pass. She shouldn't have I agree.

[NateDoggOG]

There's a difference between soloing for attention and posting up about something you did that you're proud of. I really don't see the difference between one person being stoked on leading say Klahanie crack for the first time and then writing a blog post about it, and another person climbing up and back down it ropeless, then posting about it. If someone is stoked on something, they have every right to share it no matter what it was.
Soloing for attention is a douche move, and yeah I may have talked about it a fair amount when I started because I was stoked, but I didn't think it was a big deal. It's just another style of climbing.
I was reading the Alpinist article earlier on John Bachar, and he had people take pictures of him fairly regularly while he soloed. Not for attention, but just because it was such an out there feat, especially back then. I think it's cool sh*t for someone else to be stoked enough on your climbing that they want to take pictures of you doing it.
Again, soloing for attention is not the coolest thing, but in this case I really don't think that was his goal. However, soloing an obviously crowded route when you feel sketchy on it is quite uncool as well. Particularly when you are soloing said crowded route for the purpose of borrowing gear off other parties when it feels a little spicy.
Peter Croft's golden rule was don't climb up what you can't climb down. I think those should be words every soloist should listen to. Especially don't climb up something if you don't feel solid going up it, let alone climb down.
/rant