All-Chimney Weekend in the Valley    (4/27-4/28/96)

For some time, Tuan (Quang-Tuan Luong) had expressed an interest in this 
theme, and Elmar Stefke and Ken Younge also joined in the fun.

On Saturday the crew was myself, Tuan, and Elmar, and we sampled the 
chimneys of the Reed's Pinnacle area.

1. The Iota 5.4.  After a long scramble up the left side, we confronted 
the "too wide to climb" chimney (6' wide).  Fortunately we are all tall, 
and managed to stem it with one foot on each side (10' vertical, more 
like 5.6).  But we wondered -- how could shorter people do it?  After 
some scrambling, we topped out in the summit trough.  Then we toproped a 
nice 5.4 slanting knees/kneepads chimney (listed at the upper part of 
Chingando in the topo).  Here I was able to provide standard beta, like 
keeping your back on the slabby side, rotating your hips/torso to move 
knees up, palms out w/ fingers down, etc.  Elmar noted that it was much 
easier than his previous visit, when he faced the other way, but of 
course he was also drained then from the lower pitch on Chingando.
   After the weekend, still wondering about how short people could do 
this route, I consulted the 1971 Roper guide, and discovered that the 
slanting chimney is part of the regular Iota route.  It is entered by 
descending the inside ledge perhaps 30' to a narrow slot where the 
connection is made.  This agrees with a faint recollection from the old 
"Solo" movie, too.  I'll have to check this out in more detail someday 
with the kids!

2. The Remnant - Right Side 5.7/5.8.  (Listed as 5.7 in the topo, but 
5.8 in the list of chimneys).  It looked very tough, but at this 
relatively low grade, I figured there had to be some buckets up there, 
and this turned out to be true.  Plus I took the usual attitude that if 
it got too hard, I would be able to downclimb or at least slither down 
safely.  It turns out that a .5" TCU and 1 or 2 #4 Friends can even be 
placed for pro.  A much tighter and more technical kneepad experience, 
and I was touting the frictional advantages of my corduroy pants over 
Tuan and Elmar's nylon versions.  At one point, Tuan called for tension, 
but I gave him slack and beta instead, and he persevered to free it.  
Elmar stayed on top to take pictures of the next route.

3. Reed's Pinnacle - Left Side, p1 5.7/5.8  (Listed as 5.8 in the topo, 
but we didn't do the very last part of the pitch, which involves a wide 
crack).  This chimney varies from near squeeze to wide back-to-feet.  
Fortunately there is quite a bit of protection on this pitch, since 
there is a crack on the north wall, and then a corner on the south wall.  
Additional entertainment was provided by a long session of moans and 
gasps emanating from deep in the chimney, clearly from a person trying 
to do the 5.8 squeeze traverse on the regular route.

We were feeling somewhat "chimneyed out" (i.e. sore knees, in spite of 
our kneepads) by this point, so we relaxed our criteria slightly.

4. Highway Star 5.10a hand.  Elmar led this one, but he hadn't been 
climbing much, so he wasn't quite in shape for it and had to take 2 
hangs.  Steep, with one slightly wide/reachy move.  A fine layer of dirt 
on the upper holds was not appreciated by the pumped lads.

Day 2.  The chimney theme continues, and Ken joins the team for action 
at the Church Bowl.

1. Church Bowl Chimney 5.6.  Elmar led Ken up this, and later Tuan led 
me up it.  A couple of slick sections in this one, with reasonable pro.  
A nice cool wind in the chimney to keep temps friendly.

2. Church Bowl Terrace 5.8.  I led this technical flare, with 
difficulty.  Fortunately it has many hand jams and good pro, because it 
flared so radically that it was difficult to use my knees or other 
stems.  Tuan wasn't able to follow, although not for lack of trying.  We 
left our toprope in place for Elmar and Ken, who were able to do it.

Cascade Falls area.  After a nice breezy lunch, we had hoped to climb 
Pat+Jack Pinnacle, but we were unsure about the approach (later 
consultation of the Roper provide the info missing from Meyers/Reid as 
before).

3. Scurv (attempt).  This promised a " 5.8 flare", but I was not able to 
quite reach it, due to a dirt hummock section with inadequate rock holds 
and pro.

4. Golden Needles 5.8.  Ken led Elmar up this classic hand crack/corner.

5. Jug Monkey (attempt).  I led up to the bolt, but was unwilling to 
commit to the final 5.9 slab moves.  It turns out this is a protectable 
way to approach/clean Scurv, but I left that adventure to some future 
day.

Desperate to redeem myself, I talked the lads into a quick visit to the 
Cookie.

6. Cookie Left chimney 5.9.  I set up a toprope on this, and we all 
found it pretty easy.  We just did a very wide stem at the bottom, and 
then it was mostly a matter of pulling up on jugs.

7. Cookie Left handcrack 5.9.  Elmar led this.  A nice pitch, with a 
good thin hands section off the ground.

Armed with new-found (or at least dusted off) chimney techniques, 
hopefully those few chimneys on Half Dome and other walls will seem 
pretty casual!

Clint