Vedauwoo
Our First Ever Multi-Pitch Climbs, May 1999
After a year and a half of toproping and climbing at the gym, it was time to learn the skills necessary for some longer climbs. The University of Nebraska at Omaha's Outdoor Venture Center (OVC), where we learned to climb in the first place, was planning a long weekend in Vedauwoo, Wyoming, so we signed up.
The leaders for the trip were Mark and Will--two guys that were there when we were first starting out and two guys that we definitely looked up to. We knew we would learn a lot if we hung around them enough.
The trip got of to a bit of a rocky start when the billfold with the trip
money went missing. This complicated matters when we realized, cruising
down the interstate, that we hadn't packed enough ropes for the number of
participants on the trip.
Luckily the money turned up later under a
seat in the van and we were able to get a new rope in Laramie.
As a five day trip, we had three full days to spend
climbing. What we climbed was left somewhat up to the group. It
seemed that Angela and I were about the only ones in the group, besides the
leaders, who had much of an idea of what we wanted to get out of the trip.
We came to do some multipitch climbing, and damn-it, that's what we were
going to do. The discussion around the campfires was like some scene
from a modern day reality TV Show. It was eventually decided that we
would spend the first day toproping to get used to the granite, and the other
two days on some of the more moderate multipitch climbs of Vedauwoo.
So, on our first day of climbing, we went to an area called Fall Wall.
There are several short bolted climbs here and a trad line or two as well.
The leaders led the climbs first to set up topropes for the rest of us to
practice on. Several
of the routes were what would be considered "friction slab climbs"--less than
vertical but not very featured either. Getting up these routes requires
seeking out very subtle features in the rock and then just trusting that your
sticky rubber is sticky enough. There is usually very little for your
hands to do--it's all in the feet. Having done most of our climbing up
to this point on Minnesota
Quartzite and in the gym, I was much more comfortable climbing stuff that
actually had holds. I found out right away that friction climbing was
not my thing! While, I did make it up the climbs, it just made me uneasy to not have anything to hang on
to. Angela, on the other hand, with her great balance, climbed these
slabs with ease. A point which she has often reminded me of over the
years!!
Edward's Crack
On day two, we got teamed up with Will and one other participant to climb Edward's Crack 5.7 on Walt's Wall. This would be our first multipitch climb, and Edward's was supposed to be one of the classics of the area. Indeed, we had a good time on this climb and learned a great deal. We got to see all that stuff we'd been reading about actually put to use!
We also learned a few new swear words as the third person on our team struggled up the climb. While she made slow but steady progress upward, she constantly swore and berated herself. I don't think she was having a very good time. While belaying her was quite a chore (she fell repeatedly and took forever), I was really digging the extra time to sit and hang out on the belay ledge halfway up the climb and take in the views. It's such a cool experience and I've loved that about multipitch climbing ever since.
Shortly after we got to the top of the climb the weather turned ugly. We've discovered over the years that this is typical Vedauwoo weather. Thunderstorms seem to be par for the course.
Two other teams from our group were still on the climb when it started raining. One bailed from the first pitch and then proceeded to get their rope stuck in a crack. They left it to recover when things dried up. The other team was just about finished with the climb, but the last girl, Diane, was still below the crux when the rain really started coming down. She seemed to revel in the adverse weather and screamed at us when we offered her a hand up over the last little steep bit of climbing, "Don't help me!"
After sitting out the rain storm under a large boulder, we carefully made our way down to the parking lot. The rock was quite slippery, and we even had to descend a bit of snow that still lingered in the shadows.
On the last day of climbing for this trip, Angela and I got to climb Stinkzig
(5.6) with Mark. This
climb,
which we did in four short pitches, has a little bit of everything:
squeeze chimney, hand crack, off-width, face climbing, unprotected slab
climbing, and a long free-hanging rappel at the end. Definitely a fun
outing! This was
the
first time we had really climbed much with Mark, and he was a great teacher.
We learned a great deal about building anchors and multipitch climbing in
general. Stinkzig ends at the top of a huge slab called the Parabolic
Slab. When viewed from the side it kinda resembles a
Pringle's potato
chip. The climb to the top of this slab is easy, but there are no bolts
or other protection along the way. I recall being a bit nervous as I
belayed
Mark up this last pitch. The consequences of a fall here would indeed
not be good. Not surprisingly, though, Mark made it to the top safely,
and soon Angela and I joined him. The views from the top were awesome.
We
were definitely hooked on multipitch climbing. It wasn't just climbing
for climbing's sake--it was climbing to get somewhere you couldn't get to
otherwise. Descent from the Parabolic Slab is
a
long free-hanging rappel off the very lip of the potato chip. This was
our first time on such a long
rappel--definitely got the blood going as we backed over the edge and headed
down. (read more
about Stinkzig here)
After getting back to the ground safely, and retrieving our ropes, we headed
back to the base
of
the climb and took our turns toproping a crack called Lower Progressive
(5.9). Our crack climbing technique wasn't that great at the time and
it proceeded to spit us out quite easily. Everybody got worked over
pretty well on this one.
All in all, Angela and I really lucked out with the weather on this trip. Not everybody got in as much climbing as we did. We managed to get everything we wanted out of the trip--good times, good climbing, and an introduction to multipitch climbing. And, like any great climbing trip, it left us hungry for more!
