The answer to "now what?" is obviously the same climb, but without any ropes at all.
Maybe start at the top and go down.
Or with only one hand.
Said the actress to the bishop.
Perhaps the Dusk Wall is next? Or does the Midday Wall need to be conquered first?
What next? Sit in bars getting free drinks for the rest of your life. On the ground.
Well, you don't see that everyday.
using only their hands and feet to pull themselves up
I don't know anything about this sport, so I have a question. If you're not using only your hands and feet to pull yourself up, aren't you not climbing? In other words, what parts did the reporter get wrong?
8: what they mean is that they weren't using any ladders or anything mounted in the rock. Apparently they actually spent some time removing aids other climbers had put in.
8: See "aid climbing" and devices like ascenders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_climbing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascender_%28climbing%29
The real hardcore guys are the free soloists like Dean Potter and John Bachar (Bachar finally fell and died doing that shit in '09, he was in his early fifties). Free soloists don't use rope or any protective gear, they just go up with a bag of chalk and their climbing shoes.
Thanks for the info. The way the article put it made it sound like "they used their hands, not like the rest of those winch-and-basket-riding punks."
Yeah, no banging in whatever those metal things are called.
And yes, every time I heard it on the radio I was hoping there would be a film of it to watch. They had to wait for a few days at one point for one of them's fingertips to heal! Amazing, although also very high in my "no, I would never be at all fucking interested in trying that" list.
Yeah, no banging in whatever those metal things are called
Pins, I believe LB called them. To be honest, I think fixing a mixer during a climb would be as much of a hindrance as a help.
I was a very young beginning climber when Harding and (another) Caldwell did the first aid ascent of this climb, using bolts and pins, in 1970. That was thought to be a "media circus" because it got some press coverage, but it took months for the details of the route to trickle from Yosemite to far-off Pittsburgh (admittedly not a climbing mecca).
We now have an indoor climbing wall. It's in the same building at the fencing classes and the co-op.
Chicago seems to be the most not-a-Mecca of all not-climbing Meccas. I think the only climbing walls in the area have come in just in the last five years. Should I acquire a backyard, I'd like to put a climbing wall in it. This is awesome, but probably not allowed around here.
We just bolted the handholds into the brick of our garage.
We went to a Maker Faire with our son and they took a picture of him for the newspaper. He was holding a violin and looking like he knew how to play it.
We have a climbing centre in town. Think two of my kids have been there. I wouldn't mind doing that.
A friend's partner had some sort of climbing set-up in their stairwell. Not sure what, but I've seen a photo of him dangling in a harness. She said it wasn't a sex thing.
14 - I'm slow today. I was sure LB hadn't commented on this thread! Fixing a mixer would give you something to do when you were just hanging there waiting for your climbing buddy's ruined fingertips to heal. Do you think they took any books to read with them? Probably a kindle, rather than an actual book.
Talking of reading, every year my son's school have an "extreme reading" competition, which is basically a "show us how you are spending the money you're saving on school fees after your son managed to get in here" competition - http://www.reading-school.co.uk/31/latest-news/article/338/extreme-reading-winners-announced - up the Dawn Wall would be a worthy contender.
I recently watched this movie about the 2008 K2 disaster. It mostly confirmed my impression that I totally fail to see the appeal of mountain climbing.
Speaking of kindles, mine got stolen. Well, sort of. I left it on a bench in Slough station by mistake, and when I went back a few minutes later it was gone. But, some kind bloke found it on a London-Oxford train, later that evening; got my email address off it, and emailed me. Then he went out of his way to meet me a couple of days later and hand it over.
People. Not all bastards.
Pittsburgh used to have a great outdoor shop. It was in a building with a double-height lobby, and they installed a climbing wall there, surely the first in town (20 years ago?). Then REI opened, drove them to the suburbs and then out of business. Hurray.
Weird. Not that the guy returned it, but that it disappeared other than forever. Maybe this is the futuristic version of leaving your newspaper on the seat for the next person.
Oh, this reminds me: The Kletterwald we went to in Germany this summer was beyond awesome. I'd heard about zip line adventures in the US, but they never seemed all that intriguing. AB's cousins suggested this, but we really didn't know what it was until we got there. AB can't do heights, but the kids were totally into it, and Iris was a fucking champ, utterly fearless. There's one in one of the county parks that we're going to go to as soon as it opens, but I'm pretty sure it will be smaller/less awesome. But more convenient than the Rheinland.
I can't (or won't) do heights either. I get queasy look down from heights in Minecraft.
If I'm plausibly safe (railings, handholds, or in this case harness), heights don't bother me at all, but e.g. walking atop even a medium high wall (say 10'+) gives me weak knees. At the Kletterwald, there's a jump called the Grand Canyon, maybe 40' high. You're wearing a harness attached to a counterweight (spring? whatever), so it's utterly safe. Iris jumped right off and then got in line to do it again. I had to stand at the edge for 2-3 minutes psyching myself up. And this is after 2 hours of zip lines, rope walks, etc. that fazed me not at all. But this... too much.
Coolest thing I've ever done for work was to do the site visits for the reconstruction of the smokestack at the Cork Factory in the Strip - 225' high, walking up scaffolding to the top. Unbelievable views, cool job, and basically not nerve-wracking. But scaffolding gives lots of handholds.
Chicago seems to be the most not-a-Mecca of all not-climbing Meccas
This is true. I've lived most of my life in Illinois, and everything I know about climbing a sheer cliff face, I learned from watching The Princess Bride.
Even when I was a kid, I could barely make myself jump from the high board. I never enjoyed it, but if everybody else did it, I could make myself.
We now have an indoor climbing wall. It's in the same building at the fencing classes and the co-op.
Good Lord. Fencing classes? Co-op? Next thing you'll be telling me there's no steel industry anymore.
Even when I was a kid, I could barely make myself jump from the high board.
Related: after watching the aforementioned movie about K2, Netflix recommended this biopic about an "extreme" skier who died in 2009. I watched a bit of it, and it seems like the guy's life could be reasonably summarized; "He really really liked to jump off of things". He starts out jumping off the roof of his house into snowbanks as a kid, then off of cliffs into rivers, then bungee jumping off bridges then base jumping off buildings then "parachute ski jumping" off mountains. Then he gets killed.
Next thing you'll be telling me there's no steel industry anymore.
Well, the region's largest employer is still in the big Cor-Ten steel building downtown...
I did climb onto the roof of my house from a snowbank. It turns out that hearing clomping from the roof is a good way to get your dad out to play in the snow.
I did lots of rappelling in Ohio as a teenager; like football, it was something I got out of my system.
31: This is very familiar. I really like heights and climbing, but jumping off things is terrifying. When I was maybe 12, I did a weeklong Outward Bound trip, with a ropes course -- maybe 40 feet up? I don't remember. Loved the course, balance beams, zip line, cargo nets, all lots of fun and not frightening at all. But the last part of the course was a 40 foot swing -- stand on a platform 40 feet up, clip on to a cable attached to a tree branch 40 feet away, and jump off, so you end up swinging down and ultimately hanging just above ground level. I could not jump off, and ended up climbing all the way back through the ropes course down to the ground. Sort of a peak moment, embarrassment-wise.
To tie the subthreads together: I saw one of those ropes courses outside Dusseldorf a couple of years ago, and it looked like a lot of fun. The other thing we saw around there was an old factory, comprising several just gigantic buildings, that had been converted into something like an adventureland/hangout/concert hall. It was such a cool use of the buildings and space.
To tie all the subthreads together, one of the things you could do at the old factory was take the attached stairs to the top of one of the buildings. Uh, no way, man.
41.last: totally would have done that.
The Germans have been much more effective/inventive at reuse of their old industrial structures. There are myriad reasons, but it basically comes down to all the things that are wrong with America. So we have malls where the mills were. Hurray.
Indeed. A couple of the people we were hanging with were (German) architects, and the projects they told us about, reclaiming old industrial spaces, sounded amazing, and like nothing that would ever happen here.
43: I guess there's the High Line in NYC. Not quite a factory, but the same general idea.
I think maybe the indoor climbing wall/fencing/co-op place would be considered an old industrial space. Or maybe just a warehouse.
re: 28
I had disabled it remotely, so I think the person who picked it up must have fiddled with it a bit, seen there were no books on it, and dumped it for the good samaritan to find.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a Dave and Buster's.
46: Small-scale industrial reuse happens all the time, and we've long been able to turn gorgeous old brick factories into lofts. What I'm talking about are the giant steel mill buildings that almost never get turned to another use. They sit empty, they get torn down, or they find another industrial use.
Granted, Pittsburgh does have movie studios in some buildings of this description, although it's not remotely as interesting as what the Germans have done.
Sigh.
That reminds me. I really should go see Carrie Furnace sometime. It wouldn't even require crossing a river.
Sigh. Some friends and I snuck in back when it was closed to the public. There was snow on the ground, and it was amazingly picturesque. Indeed, I took many pictures, with the digital camera from work. On Monday, the graphic designer (who was in charge of the camera) deleted the photos without asking.
Over Carrie Furnace? I'll never get over Carrie Furnace.
We do have a climbing wall in our yard. The challenge is over once you're about 4 years old though.
I am relieved that they're going to keep the deer head. Part of my sorrow at the lost pics was that I was sure they'd get rid of that (and the other art things) when they opened it for tours, but, to its great credit, Rivers of Steel has recognized that the guerrilla art is part of the story, too.
46: Small-scale industrial reuse happens all the time, and we've long been able to turn gorgeous old brick factories into lofts. What I'm talking about are the giant steel mill buildings that almost never get turned to another use. They sit empty, they get torn down, or they find another industrial use.
One of the best indoor climbing walls in the UK is a repurposed steel mill in Sheffield.
If Germany wants to repurpose Florida for some better use I'm sure we could negotiate something.